Intermittent fasting has been thrown into the mainstream health discussion in the past several years, but this idea actual dates back to our ancestors and their healthy survival during times of food scarcity and food surplus. The idea of limiting food intake to certain times of day and having a longer period between meals is a concept that we don’t deal with much in today’s society because we have an abundance of food all times of the day, everywhere we turn. With this surplus and easy access our bodies are in a constant state of surplus food, which can change our bodies healing properties as well as create an inflammatory response and create cell divisions, which is some cases can lead to cancer. There needs to be a balance, which takes our bodies back to healthier times when we had to forage and gather our food.
Currently, we can get food at the push of a button, literally. This instant gratification society that we live in has been slowly destroying the internal function of our bodies. Have you ever wondered why it seems that people are getting sicker and new diseases are manifesting that we never saw 80-100+ years ago? And with every new advance in modern times we see an increase in cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. At a time when medicine and science are advancing, the average person’s health is in decline, which seems the opposite direction we should be going. There are several reasons for this, but one of the newest concepts is the fact that our dietary habits and food intakes are not conducive for how our bodies originally thrived.
Intermittent fasting is a seemingly new concept, but really has been around since our early ancestors; indicated by the way that they would go several days only having 1-2 big meals. This was due to hunting for the food, having a surplus, and then after eating a couple large meals from that hunt. This was then repeated with another time of hunting before getting another meal several days later. At this point in time meals were few and far between and that allowed our ancestor’s bodies to use energy as needed and also store energy when necessary. Periods of Eating followed by long gaps between meals is actually how our bodies functioned for many years and seemed to do very well.
So, how do we move these ancestry tools into our everyday practice, when food is at our finger tips? Enter “Intermittent fasting”! This practice, although not going days between meals, can be utilized on a daily basis shortening the span of time where we consume food and lengthening the amount of time between our last meal of the day and our first meal of the next day. Breakfast is just that, a break from your fast. Therefore, if you eat dinner at 6 pm, but don’t eat Breakfast until 12 pm the next day, you have lengthened the normal time between meals from an average of 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, to 18 hours. And by doing that, you have shortened the amount of time you are consuming food from an average of 12 hours, to a 6 hour time period. By nature of design, you tend to eat less overall because you have fewer hours to grave on snacks and generally have 2 meals and a snack in this time frame. The suggested amount of fast is between 14-20 hours. Longer periods of 24, 36, 48, 72, etc. have not shown any more health benefits than the 14-20 hour fasting periods and are much harder to adhere to.
There are many health benefits that come along with this type of eating regimen and these benefits are often more than just weight control. These fasting changes have shown to help with body and brain health.
Here are some of the benefits found in research according to John Hopkin’s Medical University:
Thinking and memory: Studies discovered that intermittent fasting boosts working memory in animals and verbal memory in adult humans.
Heart health: Intermittent fasting improved blood pressure and resting heart rates as well as other heart-related measurements.
Physical performance: Young men who fasted for 16 hours showed fat loss while maintaining muscle mass. Mice who were fed on alternate days showed better endurance in running.
Type 2 diabetes and obesity: In animal studies, intermittent fasting prevented obesity. And, in six brief studies, obese adult humans lost weight through intermittent fasting. People with type 2 diabetes may benefit: Most of the available research shows that intermittent fasting can help people lose body weight and lower their levels of fasting glucose, fasting insulin and leptin while reducing insulin resistance, decreasing levels of leptin and increasing levels of adiponectin. Certain studies found that some patients practicing intermittent fasting with supervision by their doctors were able to reverse their need for insulin therapy.
Tissue health: In animals, intermittent fasting reduced tissue damage in surgery and improved results.
As always, it is important to discuss with your doctor before making these changes in your eating habits. There are also a few populations that should not attempt intermittent fasting, these being: Pregnant or breastfeeding women, children under age 18, people who have type 1 diabetes, and individuals who have struggled with eating disorders. There is continued research being done in this area and more health benefits being found. For the most part, intermittent fasting has been shown to be a safe and effective way to make some positive health changes with just a few adjustment to your daily routine. The question remains, when is your “break-fast”?
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