May 4, 2013

5 Great Reasons To Try Intermittent Fasting

I often find myself having conversations about diet and nutrition with others on a semi-regular basis. Eventually, the conversation turns to questions about my own dietary habits and the inevitable question, "Well...what do you eat for breakfast?"


When I politely respond that I don't eat breakfast I am rewarded with looks of incredulity and exclamations related to conventional wisdom about how breakfast is the healthiest/most important meal of the day. This also is when people will start to become close minded about my dietary habits and stop listening which is sad. It isn't that I don't eat breakfast, I just intermittently fast and restrict my eating to an 8 hour window. Eventually, I eat and therefore "break-fast" for the day.

Today's post will highlight some of the benefits and reasons to support this dietary practice. Many of these benefits I learned about in the book, The Perfect Health Diet, by Paul Jaminet, Ph.D., and Shou-Ching Shih Jaminet, Ph.D.

First, What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent Fasting (IF) might mean a lot of things to a lot of different fasting. The context in which I refer to IF is when a person restricts their feeding to an 8 hour window while fasting the other 16 hours of the day. Meanwhile only allowing the consumption of certain things(discussed later) to hydrate, maintain electrolytes and assuage hunger.

IF is most commonly achieved by eliminating either supper or breakfast but not both. It is also important for people wishing to maintain or gain weight to consume enough calories during the feeding window to achieve their goal. The benefits of IF are not from starving yourself of normal calories, it's more about strategic consumption of them.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting



1. Improves Immune Function


Human White Blood Cells(WBCs) are an effective defense against extracellular pathogens in the body. While WBCs can enter cells and attack intercellular pathogens, they are not the primary or preferred line of defense against such pathogens. Cells prefer to protect and clean up on their own through a process known as autophagy which literally means "self-eating".

Autophagy occurs in the organelles of cells known as lysosomes. Lysosomes are like the garbage disposal of a cell. Cell garbage such as damaged proteins and organelles, bacteria, viruses and other pathogens are destroyed here. The lysosomes work to regulate the amount of nutrients available in the cell for use by organelles and indirectly, pathogens. Lysosomal activity is dependent on how long it has been since you have eaten last. If you just ate there is plenty of nutrients available and the lysosomes are quiet and autophagy is suppressed. If it is been awhile since your last meal then autophagy kicks in and the cell begins recycle stuff that is just "laying" around. This includes the aforementioned damaged areas and pathogens.

Utilizing autophagy works to destroy intercellular pathogens and deprive them of nutrition. This is such a threat to them that some pathogens such as Cytomegalovirus work to cause dysfunction in autophagy. Dysfunctional issues with autophagy can lead to certain cancers, neurological issues/diseases, infections and even early aging.

2. Improves Health


Not a lot of information is needed to explain this. A more robust and efficient immune system is going to protect your body against pathogens with more efficacy. You don't stay healthy by avoiding germs, that is impossible to achieve. You stay healthy by developing a strong and advanced immune system.

Limiting your feeding window to within 8 hours and fasting for 16 hours has the benefit of helping to control glycemic load and insulin response systems in the body. The constant blood sugar regulation by insulin response is linked to and thought to be connected with a host of problems including metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes.


3. Extends Lifespan


Improved health and a robust immune system obviously should help with increasing your lifespan but there are other reasons for this benefit as well. There is much research on calorie restriction (and thus autophagy activation) in lab studies. There is no doubt that over feeding shortens lifespan and calorie restriction improves it. However, everything is or should always be done in moderation. Excessive calorie restriction, think starvation, leads to developmental issues such as stunted growth. Look to historic populations that suffered from famine or forced starvation as an example.

4. Great Way to Utilize Fat for Exercise


If you are into aerobic endurance training and haven't noticed the current trend or popularity of fat-adapted training then you might live under a rock. People are looking to burn fat in a couple ways. One of them is by exercising at an intensity that promotes the body to rely on metabolic pathways that utilize fat storage instead of glycogen. Some people do this for a performance-focused reason and some are doing it for weight loss reasons.

Another way to do this is to exercise in a ketogenic state. Some achieve this through a High Fat, Low Carbohydrate(HFLC) diet which utilizes a sustain state of ketosis known as nutritional ketosis. Another way of promoting ketosis is by exercising in a fasted or glycogen depleted state which is what you would be in during a period of Intermittent Fasting.



5. Cost Effective and Time Saving


I'm a poor graduate student with a heavy work load. You might be a businessman with a mortgage and a long commute. What do we have in common? We both have reasons to save money and save time. Eliminating the need to stop and prepare a proper breakfast is very time saving. Some people do this with an habitual pattern of fast food breakfast, gas station donuts or coffee shop pastries. This might save time but it adds to your waistline while reducing the bulk of your wallet.


Stick to the coffee, perhaps?

What Foods and Drinks are Fasting Friendly?

Coffee, Tea and Water are all appropriate beverages during a fast. Tasteless calories such as MCT & coconut oils, butter(if you like Bullet Proof Coffee) or a spoonful of cream may be added to coffee or tea to provide calories, assuage hunger and promote ketone production.

Some people will even consume a spoonful of coconut oil without coffee during their fast. If that isn't your thing and you want something to hold you over then you can have something like a bowl of vegetable soup by adding veggies and some salt to soup stock.

Another fast-friendly item would be the ingestion of resistant starch via unmodified potato starch. I will let you read the specific how and why of this strategy here. I will add that this may not benefit your fast but it may help benefit the health and makeup of your gut biota.

Last Words:

IF shouldn't be struggle for somebody to achieve. It should be done with ease and without irrestible hunger. If you don't have a healthy diet that is well nourishing then you will probably have a hard time doing this. This is because hunger is your body screaming at you for vital nutrients that it can't make on its own. This could definitely be why obese people on a poor diet continue to struggle with overeating despite consuming enough calories.

Symptoms of nutrient deficiency include irritability, dry eyes, dry mouth, anxiety and obviously a strong sensation of hunger. If you experience these while fasting then you should break your fast and eat! In closing, I love starting the day with coffee and cream and IF works easily for me. Have any of you had experience with fasting? Good or bad?

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