Vilma Brunhuber, Holistic Integrative Nutrition and Health Coach
Health news. Long viewed as a way to both physically and spiritually detox from the rigors of daily life, fasting traditions exist in nearly every culture and have been a sacred form of primary food for most world religions.
A lot of religious traditions – Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Islam right through to shamanism and yoga especially, include fasting as a way to maintain health and calm the mind.
I’m also sure that I’ve read of healing practices from ancient times also advocating fasting. Also animals will stop eating when they are sick.
In animals it’s very clear that if you reduce the calorie intake they live much longer and calorie restriction in animals reduces the incidence of many age related diseases; cancers, kidney disease, diabetes in animals.
The purported health benefits of fasting have been controversial, with many arguing that cutting calories slows down metabolism, can cause cravings and binge eating, and – at worst – can damage the brain and vital organs.
Yet researchers have long known that animals on a low-calorie, nutrient-rich diet live longer, and new research suggests the same is true for monkeys. Over 20 years, monkeys who consumed 30% fewer calories were three times more likely to survive and had half the rate of cancer and cardiovascular disease than the monkeys who ate freely. Moreover, they also maintained better brain volume in areas associated with movement and memory.
Researchers aren’t sure why cutting calories delays the aging process, but some speculate that eating less reduces the production of damaging free radicals. Others attribute it to lowering levels of a growth hormone called IGF-1, spurring the body to switch from “growth mode” to “repair mode.”
The animals on the intermittent energy restriction had reduced free radical damage to proteins and lipids and DNA and that there were reduced levels of the bad inflammatory cytokines in the brain. What’s happening in the cell that they’re protecting themselves? One of the main effects fasting has is to increase the production of several proteins that are called neurotrophic factors. These are factors that cause nerves to grow and also the survival of nerve cells.
Photo courtesy vitamin-resource.com
Could the same be true for humans? Our genes and every cell in our body are geared towards intermittent energy intake.
More recently we all eat now, or some of us anyway, three meals a day, but from the standpoint of evolution that’s abnormal.
Though researchers are wary to overgeneralize their conclusions, anecdotal evidence suggests it could be true.
British journalist Michael Mosley documented his own experience with intermittent fasting in the BBC program Eat, Fast, and Live Longer when he followed the so-called 5:2 diet for five weeks, eating normally five days a week and consuming 500 calories or less for the other two. Not only did Mosley find the regimen surprisingly easy; he also lost nearly 14 pounds and his glucose and cholesterol levels improved.
Ayurvedic expert and Integrative Nutrition visiting teacher John Douillard advocates a milder form of restriction and encourages people to fast between meals – in other words, no snacking, and especially no late-night snacking.
Douillard argues that eating an early dinner (or no dinner at all) allows the body to stabilize blood sugar levels and burn fat during the night, and breakfast should be just that – the breaking of a long daily fast.
Just as there’s no one-size-fits-all diet, intermittent fasting certainly isn’t suitable for everyone, and we tend to agree with Mosley’s conclusion that “fasting, like eating, is best when done in moderation.”
Do you ever fast? How does it make you feel?
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