For generations, the discipline of fasting has been understood primarily as a matter of the body — a negotiation between appetite and weight. Now, science is beginning to suggest that when we eat may shape the mind as much as the waistline. Studies from Rutgers University and published in Clinical Nutrition point to a quiet revolution in how we understand the 16:8 eating window: not merely as a tool for shedding pounds, but as a possible guardian of cognitive function in an aging world increasingly shadowed by dementia.