Happy Wednesday!
A reminder that we are holding a nutrition evening next Wednesday 17th March at the studio from 1800-1900. This will cover the basic principles of what we believe is essential for good health, habits, and more. Please feel free to bring a friend/family member along too.
If you are interested in coming, please send us a quick email to let us know numbers. Thanks 🙂
This brings us on to today’s topic:
Intermittent fasting… Or when a man or woman puts themselves in a position of voluntary poverty with regards to food.
I have spent my whole life intermittently fasting, admittedly for the first 30 plus years I only fasted for about … 3 hours 🙂
Seriously though, over the last couple of years Krystie and I have played with a few forms of fasting. Mostly 16 hours but Krystie pulled a three day fast once. We have both found fasting to be beneficial and thought we would do a deeper dive into the benefits.
Many people fast for fat loss which is great but fasting does so much more.
Fasting is the practise of not eating for a while. For some it’s skipping breakfast for others it may be missing lunch or dinner.
Fasting is something we have done for a while. Our paleolithic brothers and sisters probably didn’t eat three square meals a day. They were often lucky to get one meal a day.
The first recorded fasting protocols were 5th century bce, when Greek physician Hippocrates recommended abstinence from food for patients that exhibited certain health conditions
Here are 5 reasons to consider fasting
1 – It burns fat
It burns fat like a hot knife cuts through butter. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first – is that you’re just not going to eat as many calories if you’re only eating a couple of times a day. The second – is that it balances your hormones (see point 5)
2 – Intermittent fasting makes you live longer
It has long been known that restricting calories is a way of lengthening life. Way back in 1945 researchers discovered that intermittent fasting extended the life of mice. (Here is a link to the study)
But I hear you say, ‘that’s 1945 and mice.’ Here is another more recent study showing fasting benefits for insulin resistance, asthma, infectious disease of viral (maybe they were onto something), bacterial and fungal origin, autoimmune disorders, tourettes, menopause related hot flushes and the list goes on.
3 – It makes you smart
Mark Mattso, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging found fasting helps spur growth of new brain cells, and enhances neurogenesis, a process where new neurons are formed in the brain and wards off premature cognitive decline.
4 – It may help with cancer
Here is a small but interesting study with 10 cancer patients who fasted while undergoing 4 cycles of chemotherapy. All 10 patients reported a reduction in fatigue, weakness and gastrointestinal side effects. Here is another study that concluded that alternate day fasting for cancer patients resulted in fewer deaths and better cure rates
5 – Fasting balances hormones
Fasting is a great way of keeping your blood sugars in check. And we know that high blood sugar is a recipe for diabetes, rapid aging and a whole host of other health alignments. Fasting keeps blood sugars in check stabilising insulin levels. It also up-regulates growth hormone and in-turn builds and repairs tissue in the brain and organs. As an added bonus it also boosts metabolism and burns fat
There you have it. Fasting may not be right for everyone, so please explore carefully for yourself. Happy starving.. I mean fasting 🙂
Paul “when can I eat” and Krystie “getting younger by the day” Miller
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