Hello there friends and welcome to my 83^rd blog.

What if I were to tell you that to eat for your maximum health and wellness may not be about what you eat but about when you eat?

This is the basic premise of Intermittent fasting, one of the most popular health trends of the last decade, and a subject I knew very little about until recently.It is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. My interest was piqued when I listened to a talk by an eminent cardiologist, Dr Pradip Jamnadas, and I decided that I needed to pursue this subject further. He maintains that our digestive system has not been able to develop and manage our evolving eating patterns over the last many years. Let me explain.

If we cast out minds back to the start of humankind two and a half million years ago, we find ourselves with Palaeolithic man. These folk ate once a day, if they were lucky, otherwise once every couple of days. They ate lean meats, fish, fruits vegetables, nuts and seeds They ate their slain animal and their “sides” (my word) during the day as in this way they prevented other animals from stealing their feast or them becoming the meal for other animals. They then chilled in their cave until they were hungry again and the men went out to hunt and the women resumed their gathering. They survived and thrived for long periods without eating.

Then twelve thousand years ago, agricultural development happened. The food humans ate changed when the steel mill was developed, and dairy, grains and legumes were established as additional staples in the human diet. This rapid change in diet apparently outpaced our body’s ability to adapt.

In the early 1800’s, the industrial revolution arrived.   With this came the emergence of industrialised processed food. Vegetable oil was put into everything, the quality of food degraded.  and yet again our gut had not a hope in hades of having time to adjust to this.

Having been used to fasting and eating for relatively short periods of time in between, the digestive system of humans now had to make enormous changes to the way in which absorption of our food took place. Our gut could not manage to do this.

The normal response to this type of eating is often – there is no way I can got for a morning without eating!! In order to think about this, let us take a quick look at the physiology of fasting.

 

What actually happens in your body once you start fasting?

So, if we think about it the reasons for eating are to get energy into our bodies for all parts of our body to function optimally and so that we can have materials for the growth and repair of our bodies.

For the first few hours of a fast, our body gets energy from the carbs that we have eaten. Insulin is released from the pancreas as your blood sugar levels rise and it transports the sugar from your bloodstream into your cells. Some of it is available for immediate energy and the rest is stored in the liver as glycogen and in the muscle tissue as fat.

In the next few hours of early fasting your blood sugar and insulin levels start to drop, causing your body to use glycogen from the liver for the energy it requires.

From about eighteen hours to three days your body has used up the glycogen stores and starts breaking down fat and protein stores for energy. This is called ketosis and now fats become the main source of fuel for the body and the brain.

 What are the different types of intermittent fasting?

1. A 12 hour fast.

The easiest way to do this is to include the period of sleep in the fasting window, which is actually what most of us do. This is a good option for folk who want to get into intermittent fasting.

2. A 16 hour fast.

This is commonly referred to as the 16:8 method or the Leangains diet. On this fast people usually eat supper and then skip breakfast the next day and eat lunch 18 hours after their last meal.

3. Fasting for 2 days a week.

This involves eating as you normally do 5 days of the week and restricting your calorie intake to 500-600 calories on the remaining days. There should be at least 1 non-fasting day between fasting days.

4. A weekly 24-hour fast.

Fasting completely for 1 to 2 days a week known as the eat-stop-eat diet involves eating no food for 24 hours at a time. One can have water, tea and other calorie-free drinks during the fasting period. This involves a 24 hour fast once or twice a week.

5. Alternate day fasting.

There are several variations of this plan which involves fasting every other day. For some folk, this means a complete avoidance of solid foods on fasting days, while others allow up to 500 calories. On feeding days people choose to eat as much as they want.

6. Meal skipping

This flexible approach is also good for beginners to fasting and involves occasionally skipping meals. Essentially people will eat when they are hungry and skip meals when they are not.

7. The warrior diet.

This is a relatively extreme form of IF. This involves eating small amounts of raw fruit and vegetables during the day and eating one large meal at night.

 

Why would we decide to give this intermittent fasting a bash?

1. Changes the function of hormones.

As mentioned above, when you don’t eat several things happen. Hormone levels change to make stored body fat more accessible. This initiates important cellular repair processes.

Insulin levels in our blood drop which facilitates fat burning.

Human growth hormones (HGH) levels in our blood may increase dramatically. This hormone stimulates the growth of most of the tissues in our body. This helps with fat burning and muscle gain as well as other benefits.

2. Gene expression.

Gene expression which is the changes in several genes and molecules to longevity and protection against disease.

 

3. Supports weight loss.

Fasting or abstaining from food can create a calorie deficit, so your body has fewer calories than it needs to maintain its current weight.  The 16/8 method, alternate day fasting, and the 5-2-day diet may help this. Your appetite may also be regulated, increase your feelings of fulness while suppressing feelings of hunger. You may lose visceral body fat.

4. Improve your metabolic health.

Your metabolic health is defined as having ideal levels of blood sugar, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure and waist circumference without using medications. This is a marker as to how well the body processes energy. This may reduce your risk of heart disease.

5. May reduce your insulin resistance.

Type 2 diabetes has become very common in recent decades. Its main feature is high blood sugar levels in the context of insulin resistance. Intermittent fasting has been shown to have major benefits for insulin resistance and may lead to a big reduction in blood sugar levels.

6. May reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in the body.

Oxidative stress occurs when there is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body. Too many free radicals cause this oxidative stress which can lead to tissue damage and subsequent diseases. Several studies have shown that intermittent fasting may enhance the body’s resistance to this oxidative stress.

Inflammation is a normal and natural part of our body’s immune response. However long term or chronic inflammation can lead to damaging effects in the body, which can also lead to disease. IF may help fight this.

7. Repairing damaged cells.

When we fast, the cells in our body initiate a cellular “waste removal” process called autophagy. The body cleans out damaged cells in order to regenerate newer healthier cells. Auto means self and phagy means eat and although it does not sound like it, it is actually hugely beneficial for your health. This may provide protection against several disease like cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and may slow ageing.

8. Protecting brain health.

As well as helping with some metabolic features mentioned above, IF may increase the growth of new nerve cells, which may help brain function. Fasting may increase the level of a brain hormone (BDNF) which may decrease depression.

9. It may extend your life span.

Studies on rodents have shown dramatic results, increasing their lifespans markedly.

Also, the improvement of so many things mentioned above may assist in extending your life span.

 

Are all people able to fast?

Fasting does have some downsides as set out below. Accordingly, there are some people who should not fast. This would include:

• children and teens;
• pregnant or breastfeeding women;
• people with eating disorders;
• people with type 1 diabetes or advanced diabetes;
• people who are underweight, frail or elderly;
• folk taking specific meds; and
• uncontrolled migraine sufferers.

There are some downsides.

You may feel hungry (stating the obvious), tired, moody, constipated, have low blood sugar and you may not sleep well. Most of these subside in time

How to prepare for a fast

1. Start with skipping a meal if you have not done this before. Then try an eighteen hour fast and progress from there.
2. Check with your GP before embarking on the more hectic IF.
3. Try to eat a lower carb diet for a few days before you start fasting, as well as eating whole nutrient dense food.
4. Choose a time that will allow for rest in case you get hungry or moody.
5. Do not fast if you are unwell or tired or recovering from an illness.
6. Consider eating smaller portions before embarking on a fast.

Once you break your fast, try to eat nutrient dense whole food again.

I am going to take baby stepswith intermittent fasting , and if you decide to try this to, best of luck!

I would love to hear how it goes.

With thanks to Kris Gunnars, Cecilia Snyder, Claire Sisson and Dr Pradip Jamnadas.