"dramatically interrupt [the] infection" and prevent subsequent gastroenteritis, a common cause of vomiting and diarrhoea.While more research is required, restricting your calorie intake to set windows – like the popular 5:2 diet – may boost gut bacteria that prevent damaging bugs from invading the gastrointestinal tract."Most animals, including humans, lose their appetite when sick," the scientists wrote in the journal PLOS Pathogens.
With fasting becoming "popular in recent years", the team infected the mouths of mice that had either been fasting or eating as normal with the bacteria"Notably, the fasted mice were protected from infection," wrote the scientists.Salmonella When the fasted mice were re-fed for one day after their eating was restricted, there was a "dramatic increase" innumbers and their invasion into the intestinal wall, but to a lesser extent than the rodents who had eaten as normal.The scientists also investigated the potential of fasting in a group of mice that "lacked a microbiome".