Yes. Fasting your tank helps by reducing the amount of food you put in the aquarium, which in turn helps reduce the risk of algae, and various types of pests.
It helps your fish clean out their systems, which reduces constipation, which in turn helps with their overall health.
I usually feed my fish a de-shelled thawed out pea before fasting them for a day.
I have also heard of aquarists feeding very small amounts throughout the day, each day. Like you mentioned, mimicking how fish in nature feeds.