A new study says intermittent fasting can help people live longer and healthier lives.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also reports that people who fast for 18 hours or more a day are better able to fight diseases.

Intermittent fasting has been a trend for the past few years. But there have been few studies about its health consequence or benefits. The new review article by professor Mark Mattson suggests that the tactic could “could be part of a healthy lifestyle.”

“[Intermittent fasting can provide] increased stress resistance, increased longevity and a decreased incidence of diseases, including cancer and obesity,” according to the paper, “Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease.”

Mattson, a neuroscientist with Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, goes on to say that “We are at a transition point where we could soon consider adding information about intermittent fasting to medical school curricula alongside standard advice about healthy diets and exercise.”

“Patients should be advised that feeling hungry and irritable is common initially and usually passes after two weeks to a month as the body and brain become accustomed to the new habit.”

According to Mattson, there are two main ways to fast intermittently. In the first method, you have daily time restrictions for eating. This gives you a narrow window when you can eat. It’s usually 6 to 8 hours a day.

In the second method, people are allowed to eat one moderate-sized meal two days each week. How does it work? Mattson says that when people are fasting they slowly burn through the glucose stored in their liver.

“It takes 10 to 12 hours to use the liver’s energy stores,” Mattson said. “Then what happens is, fats are used for energy.”

That does not happen efficiently if people eat three meals a day like in most American diets.

Intermittent fasting helps reduce stress

Studies suggest that intermittent fasting can also stabilize blood sugar levels and increase our resistance to stress. What’s more they can decrease blood pressure and cholesterol levels, helping to improve resting heart rate. There are other benefits as well including to your brain and memory health.

“If you’re thinking of intermittent fasting as a fad diet, I think it’s actually a pretty legitimate option,” said Hannah Kittrell at the Mount Sinai PhysioLab in New York City.

“The reason for that is it’s not completely cutting out any food groups … It’s not telling you don’t eat carbs, don’t eat fat. It’s just modulating when you’re eating food.

She also says, there may be a reason behind the reported success of intermittent fasting.

“There’s an evolutionary basis in the sense that hunter-gatherers essentially followed an intermittent fasting diet because food was scarce. They wouldn’t necessarily know the next time they’d eat,“ according to Kittrell.