HOT SUBJECT: Intermittent fasting is one of the hottest subjects in health and diet these days, and this is a definitive book that is rich in history and science.
GREAT VOICE: In the tradition of Mary Roach and Michael Pollan, Hendricks mixes smart science with personal experience—for example, going to a famous fasting clinic and trying it himself—all told in an engaging voice.
MUCH PRAISED: The Wall Street Journal, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Dan Buettner raved about The Oldest Cure in the World.
CONVINCING CASE: You’ll never look at what (and when) you eat the same way again.

“An illuminating exploration of the rich and varied history—and myriad health benefits—of fasting.” —Wall Street Journal

When should we eat, and when shouldn’t we? The answers to these simple questions are not what you might expect. As Steve Hendricks shows in The Oldest Cure in the World, stop eating long enough, and you’ll set in motion cellular repairs that can slow aging and prevent and reverse diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Fasting has improved the lives of people with epilepsy, asthma, and arthritis, and has even protected patients from the worst of chemotherapy’s side effects.

But for such an elegant and effective treatment, fasting has had a surprisingly long and fraught history. From the earliest days of humanity and the Greek fathers of medicine through Christianity’s “fasting saints” and a 19th-century doctor whose stupendous 40-day fast on a New York City stage inaugurated the modern era of therapeutic fasting, Hendricks takes readers on a rich and comprehensive tour.

Threaded throughout are Hendricks’s own adventures in fasting, including a stay at a luxurious fasting clinic in Germany and in a more spartan one closer to home in Northern California. This is a playful, insightful, and persuasive exploration of our bodies and when we should—and should not—feed them.
 
Contributor Bio(s)
 
Steve Hendricks is a freelance reporter and the author of two previous books, one of which, The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country, made several best-of-the-year lists. He has written for Harper’s, Outside, Slate, and the Washington Post and lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, a professor of family law, and his dog, a border collie cross.