Chris Martin eats one meal a day – it’s good for your health

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin sparked online debate today when he revealed he only eats one meal a day.

The 46-year-old singer said he started the strict diet after having lunch with 73-year-old Bruce Springsteen, who was “in better shape” than him.

There is a significant body of research going back at least a decade suggesting that intermittent fasting can prolong a person’s life, induce weight loss and lower their risk of diseases like diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

It has been suggested that restricting calories and the time spent digesting food intake lowers levels of inflammation in the body and gives cells time to flush toxic products from the body that could be harmful.

In recent years, however, a small group of researchers has emerged linking the trend to shorter lifespans and a higher risk of heart disease. Experts suspect that this could be due to intermittent fasting eating more at once, which they say could damage cells.

Chris Martin, 46, made the shocking admission that he only ate one meal a day during an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s Needs A Friend podcast

But these are early findings, and experts say intermittent fasting is still better than overeating, as obesity has been shown to cause a variety of health problems.

Martin also didn’t reveal what he’s eating, though he bizarrely joked that it’s usually a flank of buffalo and steroid sauce.

However, he said he was a terrible cook – he said he had to call the fire department when he tried to cook twice in the past decade.

Other celebrities who have joined the diet in the past include Mark Wahlberg, Chris Hemsworth and Hugh Jackman.

Proponents of intermittent fasting have highlighted a number of touted health benefits of the diet plan.

These include a major Canadian meta-analysis published in 2020 that analyzed 27 out of 27 studies that found people using the plan were able to lose up to 13 percent of their weight without serious side effects.

Another meta-analysis published in 2015 by researchers in Salt Lake City, Utah, suggested the plan reduced the likelihood of people developing coronary artery disease or diabetes.

Research has also found that the habit can increase cells’ sensitivity to insulin, which may be because less of the hormone is released on a daily basis, further reducing the risk of diabetes.

Studies in mice have shown that the diet plan can increase longevity and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.

Rodents on the diet appear to be less prone to accumulation of dangerous amyloid beta proteins in the brain.

However, these benefits have yet to be confirmed in humans — some studies are now suggesting the opposite.

A paper published last year that followed 24,000 Americans over the age of 40 warned that those who ate one meal a day were 30 percent more likely to die from any cause in 15 years than those who ate three meals.

This was true even when people exercised, ate a healthy diet, and rarely smoked or drank alcohol, the researchers claimed.

Scientists theorized that this was because fasters ended up consuming a large amount of food at once, which can put extra stress on the body as it tries to digest a lot of calories and nutrients at once.

However, they added that it was too early to say conclusively that intermittent fasting played a role in early deaths.

Another suggested that intermittent fasting for weight loss was no more effective than restricting calorie intake.

And a third study on mice suggested that skipping breakfast could increase your risk of developing heart disease or cancer.

Experts have previously warned DailyMail.com that people should be careful when choosing intermittent fasting.