Fasting Evidence

Evidence map

Autophagy: what the evidence base looks like

9 publications, 5 of them trials and 1 syntheses. This page describes the shape of that literature rather than summarising its conclusions.

Updated 3 min read 9 citations

What the evidence on autophagy is made of Of 9 publications on this topic, the breakdown by study type: 1 meta-analysis, 5 randomised trial, 1 review, 2 other. 1512meta-analysis (1)randomised trial (5)review (1)other (2)
9 publications, by study type. Volume is not strength — the same count can be a settled question or a pile of commentary, and which one it is depends almost entirely on this breakdown. Harvested from PubMed and Crossref; publication type as recorded by the source.

What this literature is made of

There is a real trial literature here, but comparatively little synthesis. Individual trials can disagree, and without meta-analysis it is easy to find one that supports almost any position.

The distinction that matters most is between synthesis and primary research. A meta-analysis pools trials and is the closest thing to a settled answer a field produces. A narrative review is one group's reading of the same material and can be selective without being dishonest. Counting them together, which most citation counts do, obscures exactly the thing you want to know.

When the autophagy literature was published Publication years for the 9 papers on this topic, grouped into bands from before 2015 through to 2023 onwards. 2023 onwards7 papers2015-20192 papers
Still active. The most recent paper here is from 2026, so this is a field where an answer written today may not hold for long. Publication years as recorded by PubMed and Crossref.

How this page is built

Everything above is computed from the citations this site harvested from PubMed and Crossref, not written by hand. When the weekly harvest finds a new paper on this topic, these counts change and the characterisation changes with them. That is the point: a hand-written claim about how strong an evidence base is starts decaying the day it is written.

Publication type is taken as the source records it. That is imperfect — journals label inconsistently, and a paper indexed as a "review" may be a systematic one — so treat the bands as approximate. They are accurate enough to distinguish a trial literature from a commentary literature, which is the distinction that matters.

The strongest work on this topic

Ordered by study design first, then recency. The full set is listed in the references below.

  1. Fasting-mimicking diets as a strategy to reprogram tumor metabolism: a systematic review — Pereira IC, Martins JA, de Sousa DJM et al., 2026, systematic review
  2. Intermittent fasting and a no-sugar diet for Long COVID symptoms: a randomized crossover trial — Bunker T, Horne BD, Baldwin MD et al., 2025, randomised controlled trial
  3. Effects of fasting-mimicking diets with low and high protein content on cardiometabolic health and autophagy: A randomized, parallel group study — Burns L, Cooper S, Sarmad S et al., 2025, randomised controlled trial
  4. Sustained alternate-day fasting potentiates doxorubicin cardiotoxicity — Ozcan M, Guo Z, Valenzuela Ripoll C et al., 2023, randomised controlled trial
  5. The metabolic effects of intermittent versus continuous feeding in critically ill patients — Wilkinson D, Gallagher IJ, McNelly A et al., 2023, randomised controlled trial
  6. Early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves 24-Hour Glucose Levels and Affects Markers of the Circadian Clock, Aging, and Autophagy in Humans — Jamshed H, Beyl RA, Della Manna DL et al., 2019, randomised controlled trial
  7. Impact of intermittent fasting on health and disease processes — Mattson MP, Longo VD, Harvie M, 2017, review
  8. Spermidine is essential for fasting-mediated autophagy and longevity — Hofer SJ, Daskalaki I, Bergmann M et al., 2024, journal article
  9. The anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has no upper limit in magnitude and duration in vivo in humans — Trommelen J, van Lieshout GAA, Nyakayiru J et al., 2023, journal article
How much research is there on autophagy?
9 publications are indexed here, of which 5 are trials and 1 are syntheses.
Does more research mean a stronger conclusion?
No. Composition matters more than volume — five randomised trials support a claim far better than fifty commentaries, and citation counts do not distinguish between them.
How current is this?
The most recent paper indexed here is from 2026. The set is refreshed weekly from PubMed and Crossref.
Why does this page not tell me the answer?
Because summarising a literature into a conclusion requires reading it, and doing that automatically is how confident nonsense gets published. This page tells you how much weight a conclusion could bear; the articles on this site do the interpreting.

References

Every citation below links to the original peer-reviewed record on PubMed or via DOI. Nothing here is a substitute for medical advice.

  1. Fasting-mimicking diets as a strategy to reprogram tumor metabolism: a systematic review Pereira IC, Martins JA, de Sousa DJM, et al. · European journal of nutrition · 2026 · Systematic review DOIPubMed 41677881Full text
  2. Effects of fasting-mimicking diets with low and high protein content on cardiometabolic health and autophagy: A randomized, parallel group study Burns L, Cooper S, Sarmad S, et al. · Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2025 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 40816210
  3. Intermittent fasting and a no-sugar diet for Long COVID symptoms: a randomized crossover trial Bunker T, Horne BD, Baldwin MD, et al. · Scientific reports · 2025 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 40730806Full text
  4. Sustained alternate-day fasting potentiates doxorubicin cardiotoxicity Ozcan M, Guo Z, Valenzuela Ripoll C, et al. · Cell metabolism · 2023 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 36868222Full text
  5. The metabolic effects of intermittent versus continuous feeding in critically ill patients Wilkinson D, Gallagher IJ, McNelly A, et al. · Scientific reports · 2023 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 37945671Full text
  6. Early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves 24-Hour Glucose Levels and Affects Markers of the Circadian Clock, Aging, and Autophagy in Humans Jamshed H, Beyl RA, Della Manna DL, et al. · Nutrients · 2019 · Randomised controlled trial DOIPubMed 31151228Full text
  7. Impact of intermittent fasting on health and disease processes Mattson MP, Longo VD, Harvie M · Ageing research reviews · 2017 · Review DOIPubMed 27810402Full text
  8. Spermidine is essential for fasting-mediated autophagy and longevity Hofer SJ, Daskalaki I, Bergmann M, et al. · Nature cell biology · 2024 · Journal article DOIPubMed 39117797Full text
  9. The anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has no upper limit in magnitude and duration in vivo in humans Trommelen J, van Lieshout GAA, Nyakayiru J, et al. · Cell reports. Medicine · 2023 · Journal article DOIPubMed 38118410Full text