Traditional guidance has been to eat three square meals a day — but a trending diet plan has some people eating just once.

Dubbed the One Meal a Day (OMAD) diet, it’s a form of intermittent fasting that involves eating all the day’s calories in a single meal, after 23 hours of fasting. 

Dr. Jason Fung, a Canadian nephrologist (kidney specialist), is known to be an expert in intermittent fasting (IF). He spoke with Fox News Digital about the OMAD diet, which he described as a stricter version of IF.

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Both diets involve “time-restricted eating,” Fung noted — but with intermittent fasting, people can eat twice a day.

If you only eat once a day, the natural tendency will be to eat less overall, he said.

The body is either in a state of storing calories or burning them, according to the expert.

When a person fasts for an extended period, the body begins to use fat for energy, which can actually decrease hunger, Fung said.  

Who could benefit?

The two main health conditions that can greatly benefit from OMAD and intermittent fasting are weight loss and type 2 diabetes, according to Fung.

“Fasting really impacts weight and sugars, because that’s the way calories are stored – as sugar and fat,” he said.

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Losing weight can potentially reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and obesity-related cancers, the doctor noted, in addition to alleviating back pain, knee pain and pressure on joints.

“You can actually reverse your type 2 diabetes with intermittent fasting,” Fung said, referencing previously studies published by the National Institutes of Health and Diabetes Care.

When a person fasts for an extended period, the body begins to use fat for energy, which can actually decrease hunger, one expert said.  (iStock)

Fung described how one of his patients who had diabetes for 15 years was able to discontinue his insulin medication after going on the OMAD diet three times a week for a month.

The patient is still not taking insulin and continues to fast regularly, though not as frequently, he added.

“You can actually reverse your type 2 diabetes with intermittent fasting.”

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People with hypoglycemia who are not on blood glucose-lowering type 2 diabetes medications should still be able to follow the OMAD diet if they avoid highly refined carbohydrates, which can cause glucose levels to spike, said Fung.

He recommends eating whole, natural, unprocessed foods.

“Fasting really impacts weight and sugars, because that’s the way calories are stored – as sugar and fat,” one fasting expert told Fox News Digital. (iStock)

Fern Katzman, a Toronto-based clinical nutritionist, told Fox News Digital that she has seen patients with type 2 diabetes go off Metformin, an oral antidiabetic medication, or not have to go on it at all after engaging in intermittent fasting, or OMAD.

Katzman said people should have a reason to go on OMAD, such as to address medical issues or to bring down elevated blood sugar levels after a period of eating or drinking excessively.

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“Insulin drives cravings,” she told Fox News Digital. “After you eat or drink a lot, your insulin spikes, and that makes you hungry.”

Katzman added, “The one thing that everybody tells me when they’ve done OMAD is that the cravings stop — and that is the key to any weight loss program.”

The two main health conditions that can greatly benefit from OMAD and intermittent fasting are weight loss and type 2 diabetes, an expert said. (iStock)

In addition to losing weight, Katzman said her patients have reported better digestion and decreased bloating on the OMAD diet because “sugar makes yeast and yeast bloats you.” 

Patients have also noticed immediate improvements in their mood and energy levels on the diet, she added.

Katzman recommends filling up on vegetables, protein and grains, like quinoa and small amounts of brown rice.

‘Not for everyone’

Katzman cautioned that OMAD is “not for everyone” — it’s likely not a good choice for those who have eating disorders or are hypoglycemic, for example. 

Dr. Lisa Young, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Florida, echoed those same concerns, warning that the OMAD diet can trigger people with eating disorders.

“You’re not focusing on your intuitive internal signals of hunger and fullness,” she told Fox News Digital. “You’re not trusting yourself.”

For those following the diet, experts recommend sticking to “whole, natural, unprocessed foods.” (iStock)

Young also warned that the diet can “make you fatigued.”

“It could even make you hungrier and cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar),” she added.

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Dr. Joel Kahn, a holistic cardiologist in Michigan, is also not a proponent of the OMAD diet.

The doctor noted that studies from the National Institutes of Health and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) substantiate that eating just one meal in the evening can result in declining metabolic health, higher blood sugar levels and greater insulin resistance.

“You’re not focusing on your intuitive internal signals of hunger and fullness.”

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“Theoretically, if you’re going to do a One Meal a Day diet, you might actually do it in the morning hours,” Kahn told Fox News Digital.

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The doctor instead recommends the Daniel Diet, which he described as a “faith-based diet” of plants and legumes inspired by the Book of Daniel.

Khan is also a fan of the Prolon 5-Day Program, a plant-based fasting-mimicking diet, which he said could help people achieve a younger biological age.

In modern dating, the “ick” is primarily experienced by women and feared by men.

The term has gone viral on social media in recent years. 

It describes a feeling of disgust toward the actions, appearances and other characteristics of someone’s partner.

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Some examples of popular icks include people chewing with their mouths open, wearing flip-flops or tripping over their own feet while walking.

The list has narrowed to a more specific set of icks blasted on the internet, including aversions to how men chase after a ping-pong ball, or even use a debit card instead of a credit card on a date.

Primal instinct

National Geographic claims that the “ick” feeling is related to a biological, primal instinct.

In several primate species, including humans, adult females are “more sensitive to grossness than males,” according to a scientific dive by NatGeo.

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“For instance, female gray mouse lemurs and Japanese macaques are more likely than males to turn up their noses at contaminated food, while female western lowland gorillas and olive baboons tend to avoid fellow animals with skin infections,” the report noted.

This cautiousness then leads to a lower incidence of infectious disease in females, according to scientists.

Female Japanese macaques are “more likely than males to turn up their noses at contaminated food,” experts say. (iStock)

Cecile Sarabian, a cognitive ecologist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France, told NatGeo that there’s a “protective power to the ‘yuck.’”

She suggested that females’ pickiness about what they eat and who they expose themselves to “may be one of the reasons female primates live longer than males.”

“Scientists don’t know why lots of female animals — including humans — are more easily grossed out than males.”

Elizabeth Anne Brown, a National Geographic contributing writer based in Denmark, commented on the findings.

“Scientists don’t know why lots of female animals — including humans — are more easily grossed out than males,” she told Fox News Digital.

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“But ‘yuck’ acts like an advanced guard for our immune system, limiting our exposure to things that could make us sick, like parasites and bacteria.”

Disgust “plays an important role” in mate selection for primates, Brown said, as females of some species “will absolutely shut down prospective suitors [who have] symptoms of STDs.”

“Female gorillas take ‘the ick’ so seriously they basically skip town and start a new life,” a NatGeo contributing writer said. (iStock)

“If the resident male in a troop of western lowland gorillas develops pale blotches on his face — a symptom of infection with treponema, the same contagious bacteria that causes syphilis in humans — some females will fully abandon the troop and search for an uninfected male,” she said.

“These female gorillas take ‘the ick’ so seriously that they basically skip town and start a new life.”

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In analyzing Japanese macaques, Sarabian noted that the females would wipe off any leaf litter from their acorns before eating them, while the males were “more likely to gobble the food down having barely looked at it.”

She added, “Unfortunately, the only dating advice we can take from our primate cousins is to be cautious about STDs — always a good policy.”

Those who “get the ick” easily should try shifting their perception of the situation, one expert suggested. (iStock)

Psychology of feeling icky

Dr. Kyra Bobinet, a California behavioral neuroscientist and author of “Unstoppable Brain,” broke down what happens in the brain when someone feels disgusted.

“Anything we are averse to, that we want to avoid, or that we shrink back from — including the ick — is controlled by this area of the brain [called the habenula],” she told Fox News Digital.

The habenula is a central part of the brain that’s involved in various important functions, including motivation and decision-making, according to the expert.

The habenula is a central part of the brain that’s involved in various important functions, including motivation and decision-making. (iStock)

This area, when activated, “kills our motivation to try,” said Bobinet.

“This area of your brain is scouting for anything that’s not going to work out for you,” she said. “It has a negativity bias.”

The expert encouraged those who “get the ick” to try shifting their perception of the situation.

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Bobinet also agreed that women are biologically more prone to having self-awareness of “icky” feelings, as they are “made to make babies.”

She said, “We have to be very sensitive to our environment because we have to protect the baby from fumes, from danger, from all these things.”

Women are biologically more prone to having self-awareness of “icky” feelings, as they are “made to make babies,” an expert noted. (iStock)

Role of social media

The ick gets “taken to an extreme” on social media, according to Bobinet — “and you can get really narrowed down and too picky.”

This can interfere with dating, the expert suggested, as criteria for a partner become “unrealistic.”

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M. David Rudd, PhD, distinguished professor of psychology at The University of Memphis, said there are “undoubtedly evolutionary reasons” for disgust “across genders.”

“But it’s important to always factor into today’s phenomenon the issue of social learning and related reinforcement driven by the broad and unparalleled reach of social media,” he told Fox News Digital.

Modern dating poses struggles for both genders, experts said. (iStock)

Rudd noted that social media creators are also motivated by attention and financial gain, which can move along trends more than “any meaningful evolutionary purpose.”

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“Those most vulnerable to mimicking social media behavior are often those most in need of the central motivators to begin with — attention being the central one, quickly followed by money,” he said.

“Extrapolating and interpreting evolutionary benefits in this context is likely to lead to considerably high error rates.”

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