Fasting Back To The Basics
What is Fasting?
Fasting is an age old spiritual practice, but today we know it can have significant even transforming health benefits. Robust and ongoing research reveals how fasting can help activate stem cells, reduce and improve chronic disease, and lead to healthy longevity. The benefits of fasting have now entered the mainstream of public interest, which means practitioners like me are being asked about how to do it safely, effectively, and with minimal disruption to daily life. I now have the opportunity to provide guidance and counter the misinformation and myths around fasting, to best help you grasp the complex science behind safe and effective fasting and the specific benefits for healthy ageing and improving health.
During light fasting for more than 24 hours, the human body is under stress that is not a bad thing. In response to the stress of not eating, the body adjusts its metabolism to conserve energy by altering the action of several cellular processes. When you fast, you induce reductions in these transformative processes and stimulate the cells to enter into a protective state and activate important clean up mechanisms. Relieved by not processing digestion, the immune system can focus on disposing of damaged in dysfunctional cells. This process is known as “autophagy” and was introduced by the Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi, who received a Nobel prize for it in 2016.
One of the forerunners of the science of fasting Dr Valter Longo stated that “Fasting leads to awakening the body’s dormant ability to heal, protect, regenerate, and rejuvenate itself”. The concept isn’t new as one of the fathers of medicine, Plato said, “ You can fast for greater physical and mental efficiency”.
What is the problem? Why do we need to fast?
Well, the western world population is unhealthy. If the health pandemic has shown us anything, it is that most people are overweight, and not metabolically healthy, leading to complications and co-morbidities.
The best way to start addressing it is by examining what people put in their mouths and into the body system. Sugar consumption is at an all-time high. The average person consumes 72 kg of sugar a year. Sugar is without question damaging to your overall health. In research studies mice were offered sugar, 94 % of them took this substance over cocaine because sugar works with the reward centres in the brain. It is without question the most overused, over-the-counter drug in the world today.
Wheat gluten is another common food and gluten means ”glue”. The average person consumes 66 kg of gluten a year. We know that gluten damages the human gut, 80% of the immune cells are in the gut and consequently affects the brain, via the renowned gut-brain axis.
No gluten, no dairy and no added sugar, a great way to start your day on the new diet. There has been a rise in ”diabesity”, a term first introduced by Dr Mark Hyman, from the reputed Institute of Functional Medicine to describe the parallel rise between obesity and diabetes in Western Europe.
Which diet is best for you?
There is no best diet. The general rule, based on extensive scientific research is:
Eat a variety of plants, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and fermented foods. The bottom line is “take care of your gut”, and take care of your microbiome. Fasting has been an integral part of the human diet for millennia. We kind of lost it very recently. Food was very scarce years ago, so fasting is part of the human diet for 99% of the evolution on the Earth, fasting was then sustained by all four of the major religions.
Fortunately, fasting was replaced in the last 50 years by patterns of uninterrupted daily food intake. Fasting was considered the number one diet pattern in 2018, once again second in 2019 and guess what in 2020 intermittent fasting and time restricted eating to the top spot. New research shows profound benefits for weight, longevity and fight and reversal of the most common chronic diseases.
Fasting originates in ancient evolution and healing traditions across millennia. It has been shown to support overall metabolic health. It supports cellular clean-up that leads to cellular regeneration and an increase in circulating stem cells. Ultimately it impacts markers associated with an increase in human longevity and health span.
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