Fasting has powerful anti-inflammatory and beneficial metabolic effects, and studies suggest it has mood-elevating and antidepressant effects.

“Fasting. You know, almost every religion worth its salt, both indigenous and the sort of world religions, have fasting is a key element. Well, what does fasting do? Fasting has powerful anti-inflammatory effects. It has powerful beneficial metabolic effects. And although to my knowledge, nobody has rigorously studied fasting as a treatment for depression, there’s a lot of that looking at fasting for related things like pain. And the many studies have given mood questionnaires, fasting has powerful mood elevating effects, and it almost certainly has antidepressant effects.”