"Self eat"

A controlled self destruction at the cellular level? I'm sure there's many ways to express the concept simply and clearly enough for people to get an idea.

What irks me is the usage of vague but positive terms to indicate what is a neutral, mechanical process. It might have positive impacts in certain circumstances, but if the body were so concerned about "cleansing" and "restoring", it would do it, fasting or not fasting.

Projecting on nature our own intentionality, sense of purpose and good/ bad categories is a pre-scientific attitude.

/rant :)

Autophagy translates to self-eating. Cleansing and restoring are incorrect terms because they don't describe the process, but our hopes about its outcome.

I think if there's any problem with the term "cleansing," it's that too many people have used it in a totally meaningless way, and almost caused the term to drift. This is unfortunate, since it clearly does fit a (more sane) colloquial definition of "cleansing and repairing."