In today's world, control is the ultimate luxury—something all of us crave, but few if any of us really have. Being out of control leads to stress, frustration, and eventually, bad choices. We don't do the things we need to do for ourselves because we can't find the time or the will or we become overtaxed by all the demands on us and wind up doing dumb things—like skipping greens and doubling down on comfort foods. Either way, the more we feel out of control, the harder it becomes to look good, feel good, and truly enjoy life.

Something else happened when I began to eat according to the principles of the 8-hour diet. The food I ate tasted better. I was no longer grazing mindlessly; instead, I was eating mindfully. I focused on choosing food I really wanted to eat and enjoying each meal and snack. It was like going from listening to a scratchy transistor radio to having digital surround sound.

Maybe that's why eating the 8-Hour Diet way has been popular with the great minds of the last many millennia. The scientific evidence for this diet is new, but wiser men than me have been following a similar type of eating for eons. The Big Four of religion—Moses, Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad—all practiced and promoted fasting, and chances are they knew a thing or two more than we do. And while I'm not recommending 40 days and nights in the desert, the health benefits of giving your body a longer break between meals are undeniable. Smart people through history from Socrates to Hippocrates to Gandhi, found strength in skipping meals..