In the UK in about 2012-13 the BBC aired an episode of the Horizon series about the effects of fasting entitled 'Eat, Fast and Live Longer'. Since then, the 5-2 Diet has become very popular in the UK. This consists of eating a normal balanced diet for five days per week and fasting for two days. I use alternate day fasting whereby i simply alternate between one day of fasting and eat on the following day .