Janet Bond Brill

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

With intermittent fasting you are when you eat and what you eat. You may notice that all of the foods on this superfood list are plants. Hot off the presses is a new mega-study published in the British Medical Journal showing that eating mostly plant protein reduces your risk of death. Diets high in plant protein, such as legumes (peas, beans, and lentils), whole grains, and nuts, reduce risks of developing diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. On the other hand, regular consumption of red meat and a high intake of animal proteins have been linked to several health problems and a shorter life. Tap into the power of plants for a longer, healthier, leaner life! All of these foods contain Mother Nature’s medicine chest called phytochemicals. Phytochemicals describes the thousands of nutrients found in edible plants that play a major role in preventing degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and cancer. Phytochemicals (phyto is Greek for plant) are found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other plant foods. Black coffee I can’t say enough about the health and weight loss benefits of drinking black coffee. Coffee beans are seeds, and like all seeds, they’re loaded with protective plant compounds. In fact, coffee is the single greatest source of antioxidants in the Western diet. I call it “plant juice.” Note that decaf coffee contains similar amounts of antioxidants as regular coffee. Purchase organic coffee when possible; it's better for you and the environment. As a bonus, organic coffee beans are richer in healthful antioxidants and chlorogenic acid, which are helpful in preventing type 2 diabetes and lowering blood pressure. Many people can even taste the difference. Your health, and the health of the planet, both get a boost. Drive through your favorite barista bar and order a large dark roast with a shot of espresso (decaf if the caffeine doesn’t agree with you). Make it iced for an antioxidant-packed cold brew. Spinach Spinach is a nutritional powerhouse. This nutrient-dense green superfood is readily available — fresh, frozen, or even canned. One of the healthiest foods on the planet, spinach is super low in calories, yet packed with nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, and essential folate. It’s also loaded with potassium and magnesium — minerals that lower blood pressure. The Environmental Working Groups Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce ranks spinach second on its list of fruits and vegetables with the most pesticides. I prefer to buy plain frozen spinach because one cup of frozen spinach has more than four times the amount of nutrients, such as fiber, folate, iron. and calcium than a cup of fresh spinach. Quinoa Loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber, quinoa (KEEN-wah) is incredibly nutritious. It’s also unique among grains because it’s a complete protein, meaning it contains the right amount of all essential amino acids your body needs to build new proteins. In fact, quinoa has twice the protein of regular cereal grains. Quinoa is a whole grain. For optimal health, you need to eat more whole grains and much less refined grains. Serve quinoa as a substitute for rice, especially refined white rice (it cooks much quicker and comes out light and fluffy) or even in salads. Most grocery stores now carry it in the rice and beans aisle. Extra-virgin olive oil Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is loaded with antioxidants and healthy fats and has been shown to offer numerous health benefits. EVOO is the only vegetable oil that contains a large amount of disease-fighting polyphenols and anti-inflammatory substances. Chronic inflammation is believed to be among the leading drivers of many diseases, including heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and arthritis. Keep a small dark bottle of authentic EVOO with a pour spout near your cooktop. Drizzle, don’t douse your food, because olive oil, like all fat, is calorie dense. Use just a touch of EVOO whenever you sauté foods in your skillet. Black beans Beans were known as peasant food, poor man’s meat but are now known as a healthy person’s staple. Unfortunately, Americans have failed to embrace beans — a tasty, versatile, hearty, and ridiculously inexpensive superfood. Beans contain the most protein of any vegetable; plus, they’re loaded with essential B vitamins (especially the heart-healthy folate), minerals, and fiber to help you feel full longer. Beans are also a rich source of complex carbohydrates that provide long-lasting energy, good slow carbs. The dark varieties of beans, like black beans, top the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s list of foods highest in disease-fighting antioxidants. These little black beauties are packed with nutrients, such as calcium, plant protein, and fiber, and they also taste great! Black beans can fill you up without draining your wallet, and now they’re trendier than ever. A lean plant protein, black beans should be on everyone’s plate a few times a week. Buy low-sodium, canned beans, rinse several times, and then dry the beans and add to salads or make quick tacos or a burrito. Beets Good for the brain and potent at lowering blood pressure, the humble beet is often overlooked as one of the healthiest foods on earth. Beets boast an impressive nutritional profile —low in calories, yet dense with valuable nutrients, such as fiber, folate, manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, and vitamin C. Beets also provide a good dose of nitrates. (Your body changes nitrates into nitric oxide, a chemical that helps lower blood pressure and improve athletic performance.) Choose the red/purple variety to protect your cells from free radical damage by consuming a daily dose of a polyphenol flavonoid called anthocyanins — the blue pigmented polyphenol found in red/purple beets. Beets are naturally low in sodium and are virtually fat and cholesterol free. Beets generally show low pesticide residues, and therefore, are generally okay to buy non-organic. Buy the packaged pre-cooked and peeled version, slice, and throw into your salad. Or peel, douse with EVOO, and roast them. This will retain the good-for-you phytonutrients that leach out of the food and into the water, if boiled extensively. Nuts and seeds Walnuts, almonds, and pistachios (raw and unsalted), as well as chia seeds and ground flaxseeds are all true superfoods. Essential fatty acids are required in the diet for optimal health. Both nuts and seeds are bursting with these essential good fats, called omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Walnuts and flaxseeds are two ancient plant foods that have sustained humans since the birth of civilization — and both are top sources of ALA. In addition, nuts and seeds are antioxidant powerhouses. Keep a supply of nuts in your bag for easy, healthy snacks. Or, packets of single-serving, on-the-go chia and ground flaxseeds are available for purchase in most health food stores, or online (toss them in smoothies or in cereal). Broccoli Broccoli is a nutritional powerhouse full of vitamins (especially vitamin C), minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. Broccoli belongs to the plant species known as Brassica oleracea. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, and cauliflower — all edible plants — collectively, are referred to as cruciferous vegetables. Researchers have shown that this group of vegetables, also known as the anti-cancer vegetables, can effectively treat dysfunction of the arteries and heart vessel damage in diabetics. Cruciferous vegetables are natural cancer-prevention foods that should be consumed most days of the week. Low in calories and rich in fiber, broccoli is the perfect super-healthy addition to your feasting periods. Don’t worry about paying more for organic. Broccoli, generally, doesn’t end up with pesticide residue. Vegetables like broccoli promote healthy gut flora — rich in prebiotics, or food for healthy gut bacteria. Prebiotics also can boost the diversity of your good gut bugs. Steam your broccoli for the most vitamin preservation. Squirt butter spray (25 sprays is a mere 20 calories) for flavor and enjoy as a side dish. Blackberries Berries, in general, are the ultimate anti-aging superfood. In particular, blackberries contain a wide array of important nutrients including potassium, magnesium and calcium, as well as vitamins A, C, E, calcium, iron, and most of the B vitamins. They’re also a rich source of anthocyanins that give blackberries their deep purple color. Just one cup of raw blackberries has 60 calories, 30 milligrams of vitamin C, and a megadose of 8 grams of dietary fiber (one serving of blackberries delivers 31 percent of your daily dietary fiber needs). Fresh or frozen, blackberries are a true superfood that deserves a spot on your weekly menu. I suggest purchasing organic, if available. Sprinkle them on yogurt or eat plain as a sweet and delicious snack. Blackberries also work well in smoothies. Lentils The mighty legume is high in fiber and protein and adds great taste and texture to any meal. Vegans and vegetarians are often fans of using lentils as a meat substitute in traditional recipes; but unlike animal protein, lentils are fat and cholesterol free. Lentils are made up of more than 25 percent protein. They’re also a great source of iron, a mineral that is sometimes lacking in vegetarian diets. Lentils are inexpensive, cook quickly and easily, and are low in calories, rich in iron and folate, and an excellent source of additional nutrients. Lentils require no soaking, and they cook in a reasonable amount of time — anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes, depending on the variety. You can also buy precooked lentils, which taste great and speed prep. Add cooked lentils to your tomato sauce for extra protein, fiber, and taste. Lentils pack enough meaty flavor to make a Bolognese sauce taste like the real thing. Chopped bell peppers add another layer of texture, and a thick tomato paste makes it deliciously saucy.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

Like many other diet trends, intermittent fasting has taken on an identity of its own. The media has exploded with information about the unlimited benefits of intermittent fasting. But are the claims true? Myth: Intermittent fasting puts your body into starvation mode Intermittent fasting isn’t starving but an occasional planned break in food intake for relatively short time periods, done voluntarily for health and wellness purposes. One common myth of intermittent fasting is that it puts your body into starvation mode, thus shutting down your metabolism. People who are starving do so involuntarily, when food is scarce such as during times of famine and war. Prolonged calorie restriction can cause the body to adapt to the lack of intake and go into a starvation mode, which means the body severely reduces metabolic rate as a survival technique. Intermittent fasting is a far cry from starvation. Intermittent fasting prevents the starvation mode adaptation by regularly alternating between consumption and restriction. In fact, limiting the fasting period and alternating between fasting and feasting increases metabolic rate. Studies reveal that fasting for up to 48 hours can boost metabolism by 4 to 14 percent. However, if you fast much longer, the effects can reverse, decreasing your metabolism. Myth: Skipping breakfast makes you fat According to Mom, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Although that may be true for some people, research has shown that breakfast isn’t essential for your health. Controlled studies don’t show any difference in weight loss between those individuals who eat breakfast and those who skip it. You aren’t slowing down your metabolism by skipping breakfast. On the contrary, intermittent fasting has been shown to significantly boost your metabolic rate and promote loss of body fat. Myth: Intermittent fasting slows metabolism, and frequent meals boost it Eating smaller, more frequent meals doesn’t boost your metabolism a significant amount or help you lose weight. In fact, what matters most is the total number of calories you consume — not how many meals you eat. Regarding small, frequent meals, without question, your body does indeed expend some calories digesting meals — the scientific term is the thermic effect of food (TEF). On average, the TEF uses around 10 percent of your total calorie intake, which is a negligible boost in metabolism. New research on intermittent fasting has proven that flipping your metabolic switch, for short time periods, revs up your metabolism by decreasing insulin levels and boosting blood levels of human growth hormone and norepinephrine. These changes can help you burn fat more easily and help you lose weight. One study showed that fasting every other day for 22 days didn’t lead to a reduction in metabolic rate but did result in a 4 percent loss of fat mass. Myth: Eating three meals a day is better for your health Some people believe that the standard pattern of eating three meals a day plus snacks is better for health and weight control, but doing so is just not true. Instead, fasting from time to time has major health benefits. The three-meal-a-day-plus-snacks lifestyle doesn’t induce the physiological changes in the body proven to promote the magical autophagy process (the cellular repair process). Short-term fasting induces autophagy so your cells recycle old and dysfunctional proteins. Autophagy may help protect against aging, cancer, and neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, some studies even suggest that snacking or eating very often harms your health and raises your risk of disease. Hence, intermittent fasting is far from unhealthy — and offers numerous benefits not seen with the traditional eating pattern. Myth: You need to eat protein every three hours to gain muscle Studies show that eating your protein in more frequent doses doesn’t affect muscle mass. The idea that you need to eat protein every couple of hours and eat 20 to 30 grams of protein with each meal and snack for muscle gain is untrue. People can gain muscle and lose body fat when intermittent fasting. The key is to eat before and after your strength-training workouts and get in enough total calories (and protein) for muscle gain. A program of weight training geared to muscle gain during intermittent fasting and consuming enough calories to support muscle growth is the key to gaining muscle. Your body can easily make use of more than 30 grams of protein per meal. You don’t need to consume protein every two to three hours. Myth: Intermittent fasting causes muscle loss Some people believe that when you fast, your body starts cannibalizing its own muscle for energy. Strict low-calorie diets do promote loss of body fat and lean body mass, which is why intermittent fasting programs promote a gradual loss of a maximum of 2 pounds per week — combined with a resistance exercise program — so you lose the fat and retain the muscle. Strategic intermittent fasting preserves and protects muscle mass rather than breaking it down. In fact, some studies show that intermittent fasting is better for maintaining muscle mass compared to conventional dieting. One study showed a modest increase in muscle mass for people who followed the warrior intermittent fasting plan and consumed all their calories during one huge meal in the evening. Notably, intermittent fasting is popular among many bodybuilders, who frequently practice it to maintain muscle mass along with an extremely low percentage of body fat. The proven release of growth hormone during the fasted state is clearly an attractive side effect of intermittent fasting for this group of athletes. Many bodybuilders have started intermittent fasting because they know that adopting periods of intermittent fasting helps them achieve their primary goals: burn excess fat and retain lean muscle. Myth: Intermittent fasting triggers excessive hunger and makes you overeat Study after study proves intermittent fasting to be a highly effective weight loss method. And no evidence suggests intermittent fasting promotes weight gain. That’s not to say that if you gorge and overeat during your feasting periods that you won’t gain weight — you absolutely will. However, intermittent fasting is a powerful tool for weight loss because of the metabolic changes that occur in the body such as a reduction in insulin levels while at the same time a boost in metabolism, norepinephrine levels, and human growth hormone levels, so you lose fat — not gain it. The bottom line, though, is that you lose weight because you successfully create a calorie deficit, where you eat less calories and expend more, over time. (If you upend this equation, you will gain weight.) If you follow the plan as it’s designed, over time, usually two to four weeks, your body adapts to the hunger feelings and you actually become less hungry and are satisfied with less food. Life hurts. Life is suffering, the Buddha said. Lawrence of Arabia said the trick is . . . not minding that it hurts. Put a positive spin on the hunger pangs. Imagine the fat evaporating away. When you lose weight, most of your fat is converted to the gases carbon dioxide and water vapor, and so you get rid of fat by breathing it out of your body. Myth: Intermittent fasting is harmful to the brain The brain does thrive on blood sugar (also known as glucose), its preferred fuel. However, eating carbs every few hours is totally unnecessary for brain health for a couple of reasons: Your body can easily create new glucose from non-carbohydrate sources. During your fasted state, the brain uses ketones as an alternate energy source that precludes the need to provide the brain with a constant dietary glucose intake. By forcing your body to burn its fat reserves and run on ketones intermittently, you’ll not only keep your brain going during those periods of fasting but you’ll also improve cognition, grow the connections between neurons, and stave off neurodegeneration. Myth: Intermittent fasting causes dangerous drops in blood sugar Intermittent fasting actually stabilizes blood sugar levels and helps to prevent and potentially reverse type 2 diabetes. Your body is a glucose-storing and glucose-making machine. Glucose levels typically stabilize, and over time the body goes through tremendous improvements and even reversal of insulin-resistant conditions, like diabetes, with strategic intermittent fasts. Hypoglycemia (abnormally low blood glucose) is only a precaution in people previously diagnosed with this disorder and in diabetics if they’re taking insulin or oral pills that lower glucose. In these situations, you must get permission to follow an intermittent fast from your health care professional. She’ll need to closely supervise you and monitor your glucose levels if you’re incorporating intermittent fasting. Myth: Intermittent fasting is too hard Intermittent fasting can be challenging. Yet, most people agree that it’s much easier than traditional diets. It doesn’t involve any tedious caloric tracking (you’re either eating or not), making it a much more manageable weight loss method for many people. Furthermore, your sacrifice yields countless rewards not seen in old-style dieting: health benefits and weight and fat loss. In addition, you have freedom from food restrictions during your eating windows. Eating less frequently means exerting far less time and energy thinking about food, shopping for food, and cooking food. As a result, you spend more time on the things you enjoy in life.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

The 5:2 intermittent fasting plan, also known as The Fast Diet, is one of the most well-liked forms of intermittent fasting. Perhaps it’s even the most famous of the intermittent fasting regimens. Read on to see if this intermittent fast is best tailored to your personality type and needs. The 5:2 intermittent fasting plan involves eating how you normally would on five days of the week and eating only 500 to 600 calories on the other two days. For one to two nonconsecutive days per week, you consume just water plus 500 calories (if you’re a woman) or 600 calories (if you’re a man), either in one meal or spread out over the day; your calorie intake should be a quarter of your daily needs. The other five or six days a week, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want (you don’t have to even think about restricting calories). You can choose whichever two days of the week you prefer, as long as you have at least one non-fasting day in between them. For some people, this plan may be easier to follow than, say, the alternate day intermittent fast. Only having to restrict food intake one or two days a week and then not having to worry about what to eat the other five to six days is appealing to many people. British broadcaster Michael Mosley popularized the 5:2 intermittent fasting plan. He purportedly came up with the plan because he had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and wanted to reverse it without medication. In 2012, Mosley filmed the wildly popular BBC documentary Michael Mosley Presents Horizon: Eat, Fast, and Live Longer. He later published The Fast Diet in 2013. The science of the 5:2 intermittent fasting plan The 5:2 intermittent fasting plan also has a large amount of scientific backing, and it’s one of my favorites. Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist Mark Mattson, PhD, has studied intermittent fasting and its underlying mechanisms for 25 years. He has published several controlled human studies that investigate the impacts of various intermittent fasting interventions, most often the 5:2 intermittent fasting plan. His research demonstrated the following: One hundred overweight women showed that those on the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet lost the same amount of weight as women who restricted calories, but they did better on measures of insulin sensitivity and reduced belly fat than those in the calorie-reduction group. Two hundred twenty healthy, non-obese adults who practiced 5:2 intermittent fasting for two years showed signs of improved memory in a battery of cognitive tests. These results suggest that intermittent fasting may offer interventions that can stave off neurodegeneration and dementia. It can take time for your body to adjust to intermittent fasting. For some, hunger pangs and irritability are common initial intermittent fasting side effects. The good news is, they tend to dissipate after two weeks to a month, as the body and brain become accustomed to the new eating regime. According to the Johns Hopkins University website, which summarizes an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, here are what doctors believe 5:2 intermittent fasting can improve: Cardiovascular health: Studies support numerous heart health benefits of intermittent fasting including reduced blood pressure and resting heart rate as well as other heart-related measurements. Brain performance: Studies support improved cognitive ability with intermittent fasting. Studies discovered that intermittent fasting boosts verbal memory in adult humans. Athletic performance and body composition: One study shows significant fat loss while maintaining muscle mass in athletic men. Blood sugar level: Numerous studies have shown significant weight loss with intermittent fasting and normalization of blood glucose. Wound healing: Studies show intermittent fasting reduces tissue damage in surgery and improves surgical outcomes. The 5:2 plan is another method of helping your body achieve autophagy, the state of cellular rejuvenation. Exercising during your 5:2 intermittent fast Exercise is a perfect addition to any intermittent fast, including the 5:2 intermittent fast. Doing your cardio during the fasted state is highly beneficial because you get an additive effect of increased insulin sensitivity and fat loss — a golden combination. Make sure to get consent from your personal physician before you engage in an exercise program, especially exercise combined with intermittent fasting. Visualizing a 5:2 intermittent fast — a sample 1-week calendar The 5:2 approach to intermittent fasting is quite simple. If you’re a woman, consume a maximum of 500 calories on your fasting days, 600 calories if you’re a man. The figure shows an example calendar you can follow with the 5:2 intermittent fast. The popular 5:2 intermittent fast may just be the right choice for you. Remember to eat healthfully during your eating days and stick to the calorie level that fits your gender on your fasting days. Also, give the plan time to work, and rest assured, you’ll soon begin to watch the magic happen.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

The alternate day intermittent fasting, also referred to as the 4:3 plan, has the most scientific data supporting its efficacy and safety of all the plans. Read on and see if perhaps the alternate day intermittent fasting plan is right for you. The different versions of alternate day intermittent fasting plans Strict alternate day intermittent fasting is one of the most extreme dietary interventions because you avoid all food for 36-hour periods. One day you eat, the next day you don’t, repeat. In other words, you fast on one day and then eat what you want the next day, then fast the next day, and so on. In other words, you eat four days during the week and fast three nonconsecutive days. Alternate day intermittent fasting schedules aren’t all the same. The following list mentions some of the different ways that Alternate Day intermittent fasting plans can occur: You switch back and forth between days when you eat more and days when you eat less. You eat nothing or next to nothing on your fast days and as much as you want on your feast days. You cut your usual food intake by a third to a half on your fasting days and allow yourself to eat more than your usual food intake on your feasting days. This is sometimes called calorie cycling. You do a complete fast on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so your intermittent fast is a three-day endeavor. This version is popular because you have the weekends to enjoy eating with friends and family. Even though some alternate day fasting schedules only allow calorie-free drinks on fasting days, others allow small amounts of food (typically a maximum of 25 percent of your total daily calories) on fasting days. The science of the alternate day intermittent fasting plan As a scientist, the alternate day intermittent fasting plan is one of my favorites because I like to see the data. Low and behold, there is myriad sound scientific research regarding alternate day fasting and the associated miraculous health benefits. For example, the journal Cell Metabolism published the results of a randomized clinical trial (the gold standard of scientific studies showing cause and effect) that examined the effects on the body of alternate day intermittent fasting. The largest study of its kind to look at the effects of strict alternate day intermittent fasting in healthy people showed a wide range of health benefits. The participants alternated 36 hours of zero-calorie intake with 12 hours of unlimited eating. In this study, Austrian researchers enrolled 60 participants (subjects in both groups were all of normal weight and were healthy, aged 35 to 65 years old) into a four-week study and randomized the subjects into either an alternate day fasting group or a control group. The control group could eat as much as the group wanted. Here are the results detected in the intermittent fasting group: The group had evidence of a continuous amount of ketones in the blood, even on nonfasting days. The ketone overflow has been shown to promote health in various ways. The group had reduced levels of a blood marker linked to age-associated disease and inflammation called soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1. The group had lowered levels of a thyroid hormone called triiodothyronine without impaired thyroid gland function. Low levels of this hormone have been linked to longevity in humans. The group had lowered levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. The group lost weight and body fat (a 9 percent loss of body fat, especially a reduction of harmful belly fat). These intermittent fasters drank only water on their fasting days and continued to participate in their usual activity level. This figure depicts the intermittent fasting schedule used in this study (the circle-backslash symbol indicates complete water-only fasting). The subjects in this study were healthy, young and middle-aged, active adults. If you have any medical issues or conditions, you must get your physician’s consent before embarking on any intermittent fast. Additional research on the alternate day intermittent fasting plan has shown a reduction in the following: Asthma Heart arrhythmias Insulin resistance Menopausal hot flashes Seasonal allergies Benefiting from the alternate day intermittent fasting plan Another study examined the alternate day intermittent fasting plan and highlighted several benefits. Dr. Krista Varady, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois, refers to the alternate day intermittent fasting plan as the Every Other Day Diet; it's also referred to as the Up-Day, Down-Day plan. She has published a book and numerous well-constructed studies. This plan involves a fast day where individuals consume 25 percent of their calorie needs, alternated with a feed day where people eat as much as they want. In a 12-week randomized clinical trial (article published in the Nutrition Journal), Varady recruited both normal weight and overweight subjects. After 12 weeks on the alternate day intermittent fast, the health benefits were compelling. The subjects: Lost weight. Body weight was reduced by 6 percent (11 pounds) by the end of the trial. Lowered body fat. Body fat decreased by 7.7 pounds with no change in muscle mass. Felt full. Dietary satisfaction and feelings of fullness increased from baseline to post-treatment. Showed positive changes in markers of heart disease risk. A significant reduction in triglyceride concentration (20 percent) was noted after 12 weeks. Plus, LDL particle size also increased post-treatment (LDL is bad cholesterol and bigger is healthier). Experienced lower inflammation. Decreases in circulating c-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations were observed. CRP is a protein made by the liver that is a marker of inflammation in the body. Had increased insulin sensitivity. An increase in adiponectin, the protein hormone that exhibits anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-atherogenic effects, and a hormone that functions as an insulin sensitizer. Alternate Day intermittent fasting has had numerous additional scientific research findings as to its benefits. These include the following: Increased weight and fat loss. A 2013 study published in the Nutrition Journal found that following this intermittent fast for 12 weeks caused a loss of nearly 8 pounds of body fat. If middle-aged spread is a problem, another recent study noted that people aged 50 to 59 years achieved greater weight loss with alternate day intermittent fasting compared to people of other age groups. Improved heart health. Heart disease is the leading cause of death, globally. Alternate day intermittent fasting helps reduce the risk of heart disease in many ways that would be more fruitful when combined with a healthy Mediterranean diet, which is proven to promote heart health. Improved insulin sensitivity and blood sugar level. High blood sugar levels occur when the body fails to produce enough insulin or can’t properly use available insulin (referred to as insulin resistance). Persistently high sugar levels can lead to diabetes. Studies have shown that alternate day intermittent fasting can help reduce fasting blood sugar levels by reducing the blood levels of insulin and increasing insulin sensitivity. Promoted autophagy. Autophagy is the body's process of recycling unused, damaged, and potentially harmful cell components. Promoted longevity (in animals). Restricting total calorie intake, which can be achieved from alternate day intermittent fasting, has been shown to significantly prolong the lifespan in animal studies. Exercising during your alternate day intermittent fast You can and should exercise during your alternate day intermittent fasting program. You may want to consider when and how to schedule in your different types of exercise bouts during your fasting calendar. You may wonder why you’d want to add exercise to your alternate day intermittent fasting regimen. The answer is simple — so you can supercharge your weight loss! The journal Obesity published a study that showed participants doubled their weight loss with cardio. Sixty overweight subjects were divided into four groups: Alternate Day fasting alone (diet) Diet plus cardio exercise No diet or exercise Exercise alone The participants who combined the alternate day intermittent fasting plan with cardio exercise burned at least twice as much fat as each individual approach. The researchers also showed that the combination produced superior changes in body composition (a significant loss of body fat and retention of muscle mass) and reduced indicators of heart disease risk compared to individual treatments. Make sure to get consent from your personal physician before you engage in an exercise program, especially exercise combined with intermittent fasting. Eyeing an alternate day intermittent fast — a sample 1-week calendar You may have seen a few different examples of alternate day intermittent fasting floating around the internet. This figure shows you an example of incorporating this plan into your life. Alternate day fasting is another difficult form of intermittent fasting not recommended for beginners. You can choose to make it easier by allowing yourself the 25 percent of your typical calories on your fasting days. You’ll still reap the massive health benefits regardless of which style you choose.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

Intermittent fasting is an increasingly popular dietary approach used for both weight loss and overall health. The most popular form (and easiest) intermittent fast is called the time-restricted plan. I like to think of this form of fasting as the eating-window diet. You decide when and for how long you open your window of eating. Time-restricted intermittent fasting means you limit your eating and fasting periods to a set number of hours every day — hence, the name the eating window. The most common time-restricted pattern is the 16:8 intermittent fast, which is where you eat all your food for the day in an 8-hour period — eat as often as you wish during this window. The remaining 16 hours is your fasting period where no calories are consumed (only calorie-free beverages and lots of water). You repeat this exact pattern daily. Although there are numerous variations to the time-restricted intermittent fasting plan, this article focuses on the intermittent fasting 16:8 plan and provides advice on how to follow it. This article also tells you all you need to know about when to eat and when to fast. What is time-restricted intermittent fasting? Most people eat from the time they wake up until the time they go to bed. When you practice time-restricted eating, you basically limit the number of hours you eat in a day. The popularity of this form of intermittent fasting lies in the fact that when you switch from the traditional style of eating (three meals and snacks) to time-restricted eating, you’ll naturally eat less calories and lose weight — no counting calories, no restricting favorite foods — hence easier than old-fashioned dieting. Those people who are unsuccessful with this type of fasting are those individuals who allow themselves to cram all their typical calories into their eating window. Time-restricted intermittent fasting is a type of plan that limits your food intake to a certain number of hours each day — your eating window. You choose the most sustainable time frame and hours that work best for your lifestyle. This plan isn’t a license to binge eat any and everything you want during your eating window. The goal for weight and fat loss is still to create a daily calorie deficit (you eat less calories on a daily basis than you used to). Although the 16:8 is probably the most common and the easiest plan for you to start with, other intermittent plans, including the 17:7, 18:6, and 20:4 are options you can choose. Here, I specifically discuss the 16:8 intermittent fasting plan, how it works, and see if this is the intermittent fast you want to start following today. Try the 16:8 time-restricted plan The 16:8 intermittent fasting is quite effortless and the simplest plan for you to start with. With the 16:8 plan, you restrict eating to an 8-hour window such as 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and fast 6 p.m. to 10 a.m. the following day. The 16:8 intermittent fast was first popularized by Martin Berkhan with his book The Leangains Method. With the 16:8 time-restricted intermittent fasting plan, you choose the 8 hours when you eat all your calories and continue that pattern daily. The 8-hour eating window is the most lenient of all the intermittent fasts, because the 8-hour time frame gives you a wide eating latitude compared to other time-restricted eating patterns. Plus, you can easily map out the eating window hours in your day that most coincide with your work and social activities. You could start today and simply move breakfast to 10 a.m. and stop eating at 6 p.m. — whatever works for you! If your goal is weight loss, you want to be sure that the number of hours you eat is less than what you typically allow yourself. In other words, if you’re used to eating over a 10-hour period, you want to ensure that you reduce your eating window to much less (the lower, the better). If you have good results with the 16:8 or you’re more ambitious, you can reduce your eating window, which can range from 4 to 12 hours a day, mean 16- to 20-hour fasts. Why the 16:8 plan is easy The 16:8 plan is popular because it’s a more conservative time-restricted feeding protocol than all the other forms of intermittent fasting. In fact, this eating pattern is much more like a normal eating pattern than other intermittent fasting plans. Many people even adhere to this eating pattern unintentionally; it translates into a pattern of skipping breakfast and not eating after dinner each day. The 16:8 method is also popular for beginners because people typically sleep for about half of the 16 fasting hours. To clarify, people lose weight following time-restricted intermittent fasts because by restricting eating windows to less than before, they automatically eat less calories on a daily basis. The concept is, if you restrict the amount of time you can spend eating, you’ll eat less food than you used to. If you make up for the missed meals by overindulging during your eating windows, you will not lose weight. Consider this example of a person following the 16:8 time-restricted intermittent fasting: John’s goals are to stay healthy and fit and lose some body fat. Before John, 45, began intermittent fasting, he normally ate his first meal at 8 a.m. and kept eating (and drinking) until around 10 p.m. He therefore ate all his food in a 14-hour window each day. John decided to begin a time-restricted intermittent fast, so he reduced this eating window number (the number of hours he consumed food each day) to an 8-hour eating window. He found it easiest for him to only eat during a window of 8 hours (repeating the same 8-hour window day in and day out), which essentially removed two of his meals or snacks. John revised his schedule by starting eating at noon and stopping eating at 8 p.m. — a time frame that worked best for his work and family schedules. Plus, he continued with his daily cardio workout first thing in the morning, practiced rhythmic relaxation breathing exercises for 5 minutes just before lunch, and squeezed a strength-training workout in — twice a week — just after work. John followed this plan for six months and lost 5 pounds of body fat plus reduced his fasting blood sugar level to less than 100 mg/dl, lowered his LDL cholesterol, and raised his HDL cholesterol numbers. Lose the fat and keep the muscle The best way to lose the fat and not your muscle mass that you have worked so hard to gain is to continue your regular strength-training workouts during your time-restricted fasting plan. Make sure to get consent from your personal physician before you engage in an exercise program, especially exercise combined with intermittent fasting. If you’re a fit and muscular person and are following a time-restricted intermittent fast to garner the health benefits, maintain your lean body mass, and lose some body fat, then I have some good news — some sound scientific data supports the effectiveness of this strategy. A study out of Italy looked at the effect of putting resistance-trained, lifetime steroid-free athletes on an 8-week program of 16:8 time-restricted fasting. Thirty-four muscular, fit men (average age 30 years old) were divided into two groups: the regular diet and the 16:8 diet. Both groups of men continued their regular weight-training routines. During the 8-week experimental period, the 16:8 subjects consumed 100 percent of their calories (daily calories calculated to maintain current body weight) divided into three meals consumed at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., and 8 p.m., and fasting for the remaining 16 hours per 24-hour period. The control group ingested their caloric intake (calculated to maintain current body weight) as three meals consumed at 8 a.m., 1 p.m., and 8 p.m. The results? Both groups maintained their same level of muscle mass. However, only the 16:8 group showed significant health and body composition gains. The intermittent fasters lost a sizable amount of body fat (2-1/2 pounds) and reduced their bodies’ level of inflammation. Furthermore, only the intermittent fasting group showed a decrease in blood sugar and insulin levels. Importantly, the fasting group also demonstrated a significant increase in adiponectin levels. Adiponectin is a hormone produced and secreted exclusively by adipocytes (fat cells). Adiponectin functions to regulate the metabolism of fats and blood sugar. In humans, blood levels of adiponectin are significantly lower in people with insulin-resistance and type 2 diabetes. The increase in adiponectin and decrease in insulin levels seen in the 16:8 intermittent fasting group is due to the ability of intermittent fasting to increase insulin sensitivity — a well-known effect of increased adiponectin levels. Moreover, adiponectin has an anti-inflammatory effect that led to the reduction of inflammatory markers seen in the fasting group. A key point of the time-restricted fasting approach utilized in the study was that total daily calorie intake remained the same in both groups, with only the time between meals altered for the fasting group. The mere timing of food affected body composition and health markers. Time-restricted intermittent fasting with 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating is a beneficial training strategy for resistance-trained athletes to improve health-related biomarkers, decrease fat mass, and at least maintain muscle mass. Bodybuilders could adopt this kind of regimen during their maintenance phases of training, commonly referred to as cutting, in which the goal is to maintain muscle mass while reducing fat mass. How much is too much After you decide on a specific daily eating period, what and how often should you eat? That depends on your goals. If you’re partaking in intermittent fasting to lose weight, then you must ensure that your eating period doesn’t turn into an eat-everything food fest. For weight loss, the primary reason for its success is that intermittent fasting helps you eat fewer calories overall. If you binge and eat massive amounts during your eating windows, you probably won’t lose any weight at all and may even gain some. A common initial side effect of starting an intermittent fasting program includes feeling hungry and irritable, also known as being hangry. You’re probably familiar with the feeling; you’re hungry and growing hungrier with every passing minute. Your hunger is making you increasingly unpleasant to be around, upset, irritable, angry. You are hangry! Understand that you can control these feelings. The good news is that they usually pass after two weeks to a month as your body and brain become accustomed to this new lifestyle. During your hours of fasting, try to consume plentiful amounts of noncaloric beverages, such as water, black coffee, and tea as well as eating nutritious foods during your eating windows. Doing so will take the edge off your appetite and help prevent you from becoming hangry. Visualizing a time-restricted fasting plan — a sample 1-week calendar Choose the eating window that works best for your lifestyle, make your own calendar, and start now to begin your life-enhancing intermittent fasting journey. This less drastic type of time-restricted intermittent fasting may be a good choice for you as a newbie. It’s fairly easy to follow and many people find it the most doable plan for their lifestyle. I suggest you start with 16:8 for the first few weeks. After you have some success, you may consider increasing your fasting window (go with 18 hours of fasting and 6 hours of eating). Regardless of the amount of time you choose for your eating window and your fasting window, remember to keep your fasting goal and feasting goals in mind.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

Intermittent fasting focuses on when you eat rather than what you eat, so you choose the type of diet to accompany your intermittent fasting plan. Avoid choosing the keto diet as your combo eating plan of choice, which may be confusing for you because a lot of chatter on the Internet touts the purported dream combination of keto and fasting. People who combine keto and intermittent fasting use the regimen to further push their body into ketosis. Here is why you shouldn’t use the Keto Diet as your intermittent fasting diet of choice: Dieters going keto tend to lose weight, but the wrong way. The Keto Diet is low in fiber and high in saturated fat, which is a risk for cardiovascular disease. Many followers eat a meat-centric diet, with excessive intake of red and processed meats — proven to increase the risk for dying from heart disease, according to research published in the journal Nutrients. Furthermore, the Keto Diet can harm the gut microbe, an important part of your metabolic health. Take it from me, a credentialed nutrition scientist, following a keto diet is not healthy! Ketosis for long periods is unsafe. Ignore the hype, and don’t buy into the attraction of eating to promote further ketosis (the process that occurs when your body doesn't have enough carbs to burn for energy). Instead, the body burns fat and makes things called ketones, which it can use for fuel. (Note that ketoacidosis is a higher level of ketones in the body compared to ketosis, occurs in diabetics and is life-threatening.) Safe and effective intermittent fasting puts your body into ketosis for short time periods followed by feeding your body with the nutrients it needs to prevent disease whereas the Keto Diet puts your body into ketosis, but it’s unhealthy because it’s seriously restrictive, cuts out super nutritious foods, and is hard to follow. The fasting phase puts your body into ketosis, not the diet. Granted, the allure of intermittent fasting is that you choose what you eat and when you eat. However, to double up on the health and fitness benefits of your intermittent fasting journey, choose your eating plan wisely. The Keto Diet is missing key nutrients. The Keto Diet is a trendy high-fat, low-carb meal plan that is simply a recycled age-old, super high-fat, high-protein, and ultra-low carb diet packaged into a new, highly attractive, and immensely popular fad eating plan. The foods promoted are especially high in dangerous bad fats and animal protein. In fact, the diet requires roughly 80 percent of your daily calories to come from fat, much of it considered bad fat (see the next section for some examples). The harmful heart-health repercussions of following this diet long term haven’t been revealed. Many of the foods that the diet plan excludes are the main source of disease-preventing and free radical–halting antioxidants. What’s wrong about keto: What you shouldn’t and should be eating The Keto Diet is ridiculously heavy in red meat and other fatty, processed, and salty foods that are notoriously disease-promoting. So many of the recommended foods in this diet simply aren’t what your body needs to maintain and promote good health. Here are the foods often suggested on the Keto Diet that you should not eat and substitutions for healthier living: Coconut oil: It’s high in artery-clogging saturated fatty acids. You should use extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) as your main fat and occasionally canola oil in lieu of coconut oil. Red and processed meats: They’re high in dietary cholesterol and saturated fats. Red and processed meat consumption is associated with increased mortality and colon cancer. Switch to lean seafood and plant proteins as your main sources of lean protein. Full-fat cheeses: These types of cheeses are high in dietary cholesterol and saturated fats. Switch to reduced fat cheeses and small amounts of strong, flavorful full fat cheese as a garnish. Full-fat dairy (milk): Full-fat dairy is high in dietary cholesterol and saturated fats. Switch to fat-free milk or plant milk alternatives. The following foods are forbidden on the Keto Diet, but they’re the exact foods you should be eating: Beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts: Legumes are extremely nutritious; in fact, lentil consumption has been associated with longevity. Many studies have found that increasing consumption of antioxidant-packed beans decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes, and overall mortality while promoting increased energy and a lower weight. Additional benefits of beans include strengthening of bones due to the high magnesium content, a mineral which is involved in bone health metabolism. Beans, especially dark beans, are incredibly heart healthy. The fiber, potassium, folate, vitamin B6, and phytonutrient content of beans, coupled with their lack of cholesterol, all support heart health. This unique fiber also lowers the total amount of cholesterol in the blood, especially bad LDL cholesterol, making “beans, beans, good for your heart!” Beans also feed the mighty microbes — the good healthy microbes in our gut — promoting disease-prevention. Grains, such as rice, pasta, and oatmeal: Yes, the grains should be whole, but excluding these grains — the staff of life — is ludicrous. You need the fiber and significant amount of nutrition that these carbs provide to maintain and promote a long and healthy life. Low-fat dairy products: Dairy products are a nutritious source of calcium and protein for most people. They should be eaten in the fat-free form to extricate artery-clogging saturated fat found in whole dairy foods. Most fruits, except for lemons, limes, tomatoes, and small portions of berries: To exclude any fruit is ridiculous. About 90 percent of people don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables for good health — one possible contributing cause of the obesity epidemic. Most alcohols, including wine: Red wine consumed in moderation is heart-healthy and a cornerstone of the Mediterranean Diet. Starchy vegetables, including corn, potatoes, and peas: Starchy vegetables are super nutritious slow carbs (plant foods rich in fiber and, therefore, take longer to digest and cause a slower rise in blood sugar) that should be part of a healthy diet and especially an intermittent fasting program. Refer to the following table for a list of additional healthful slow carbs to include in your diet. Slow-Digesting Carbs Fruits Vegetables Legumes/Nuts Whole Grains Apples Okra Beans Steel cut oats Oranges Zucchini Peas Quinoa Peaches Asparagus Lentils Brown rice Pears Carrots Walnuts Pumpernickel Plums Kale Almonds Barley Cauliflower Parsnips Yams A plant-based whole foods diet, like the Mediterranean Diet, is the best way to promote health and longevity and is the most effective add-on to your intermittent fasting lifestyle. The intermittent fast and not the diet is what activates metabolic switching and cellular stress resistance — the main triggers for the numerous health benefits that this lifestyle offers. Keep in mind, fasting can be difficult at first.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

The myriad health benefits that come from simply refraining from eating for short periods of time are extensive. Read on to see exactly how and why the act of intermittent fasting has such an extraordinarily salutary effect on the body, a truly fascinating phenomenon. The diseases/disorders affected Fast forward to present day and scientists are truly excited about the data — intermittent fasting is proving to be effective at preventing and improving markers of disease, reducing oxidative stress (an imbalance between the production of damaging free radicals and the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants) and enhancing learning and memory functioning. A century of laboratory research links the practice of intermittent fasting with the prevention of age-related disease, including tumors, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dementia, to name a few. However, much of that research was conducted in animal models, so the evidence that intermittent fasting holds miracle health benefits for humans is still in its infancy. However, intermittent fasting was prominently featured in a recent review article in the New England Journal of Medicine, touting the extraordinary power of intermittent fasting to heal. The following figure depicts many of the remarkable health benefits derived from following an intermittent fasting plan. The following list touches on many of these benefits in greater detail: Promotes weight and fat loss: Intermittent fasting can help you lose weight and belly fat, without having to consciously restrict calories. Intermittent fasting also amplifies enzymatic fat breakdown (lipolysis). Reduces insulin resistance: Intermittent fasting can sensitize cells to insulin, reducing harmful insulin resistance and lowering blood sugar by 3 to 6 percent. Fasting insulin levels have been lowered by 20 to 31 percent with intermittent fasting, all of which protect against type 2 diabetes. Insulin secretion from the pancreas goes up due to an increase and regeneration of the beta cells of the pancreas (the cells that produce and secrete insulin). Regulates blood sugar: When your blood sugar is constantly high, your insulin levels are constantly high. This leads to type 2 diabetes, which is a huge epidemic. Consistently high blood sugar levels (also known as hyperglycemia) cause damage to the insides of the arteries. Hyperglycemia harms the vessels that supply blood to vital organs, which can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, vision problems, and nerve problems. Reduces inflammation: Research shows that a program of intermittent fasting reduces blood markers of inflammation, a key driver of many chronic diseases. Oxidative stress is one of the factors that accelerates aging and predisposes you to developing disease. Several studies show that intermittent fasting boosts the body’s resistance to oxidative stress. Intermittent fasting strengthens immune function and enhances the body’s ability to repair cells and DNA. Promotes cardiovascular health: Intermittent fasting improves multiple indicators of cardiovascular health in both overweight and normal weight individuals. Intermittent fasting reduces resting heart rate, blood pressure, bad LDL cholesterol, blood triglycerides, inflammation, blood sugar, and insulin resistance — all risk factors for heart disease — the leading cause of death in American men and women. In addition, intermittent fasting lowers inflammation and oxidative stress, both causative factors associated with heart disease. Prevents and treats cancer: Some research suggests that intermittent fasting helps fight cancer by lowering insulin resistance and levels of inflammation. Intermittent fasting may also reverse the effects of chronic conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, which are both risk factors for cancer. Researchers believe that intermittent fasting suppresses tumor growth and extends survival in patients with cancer. Intermittent fasting may make cancer cells more responsive to chemotherapy while protecting other cells. Intermittent fasting also boosts the immune system to help fight cancer that is already present. Promotes brain health: Intermittent fasting increases production of brain-derived neurotrophic (BDNF), an anti-aging protein thought to protect against Alzheimer’s disease by helping the brain produce new healthy cells and strengthen existing ones, improving cognition. Intermittent fasting causes the cells in the body to initiate the cellular cleanup process called autophagy. Promotes psychological benefits: Intermittent fasting improves eating behavior and mood. Intermittent fasting increases BDNF, the protein that aids in the growth of new nerve cells. A deficiency of BDNF has been implicated in depression and various other brain problems. BDNF is food for the brain cells, keeping them flourishing, strong and healthy. Treats asthmatics and multiple sclerosis: With weight loss comes improvement in asthma symptoms and a reduction in airway resistance. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by degeneration of the nervous system. Recent studies in people with MS adhering to intermittent fasting programs saw reduced symptoms in as short a period as two months. Fights aging: Intermittent fasting can extend lifespan in rodents. Studies showed that fasted mice lived 36 to 83 percent longer! Although it’s a far cry from mice to men, intermittent fasting has become very popular among the anti-aging crowd. In fact, the health benefits of intermittent fasting on aging, oxidative stress, metabolism, and cardiovascular disease have been demonstrated in both human and animal studies alike. Promotes a healthy gut: The gut microbiome refers to all the microbes in your intestines, which act as another organ, crucial for your health. More than 1,000 species of bacteria are in the human gut microbiome, and each of them plays a different role in your body. Most of them are extremely important for your health, whereas others may cause disease such inflammatory bowel disease, liver cirrhosis, and colorectal cancer. Scientific research has shown that intermittent fasting restores microbe health and diversity in the gut by increasing the good microbes, augmenting tolerance against bad gut microbes, and rebuilding the integrity of the intestinal wall. Regulates sleep: Experts have recommended that adults get about seven to nine hours of sleep per night for good health. Intermittent fasting positively affects your circadian clock, which exerts a powerful influence over your sleep. Intermittent fasting strengthens the 24-hour circadian clock. A stronger, more synchronized circadian clock means an easier time falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking feeling refreshed on a regular basis. A good night’s sleep will help you function at your best, and to protect your health over time, and with age. The mechanics behind the results Each of the body’s systems is positively affected from undergoing repetitive fasted states. The heart, for example, becomes a more efficient machine. Intermittent fasting lowers resting heart rate and blood pressure and promotes a decrease in inflammation and an improvement in resistance to debilitating oxidative stress. The following figure displays just how intermittent fasting affects each body part. Cells can become damaged when they encounter oxidative stress, so preventing or repairing cell damage from oxidative stress is helpful against aging. This stress happens when there is higher-than-normal production of free radicals (unstable molecules that carry highly reactive electrons). When free radicals encounter other molecules, a rapid chain reaction occurs forming more and more damaging free radicals. Oftentimes, this process occurs in faulty mitochondria (the energy production centers of the cells). Excessive free radical chain reactions cause stress and damage to cellular membranes, essential proteins, and DNA, accelerating aging and promoting disease. The onslaught of free radicals is oxidative stress, the detrimental condition arising from the imbalance between harmful oxidants species and antioxidant defenses. Intermittent fasting boosts internal production of natural free radical–stabilizing antioxidants. The metabolic switch causes cells to turn on survival processes to remove the unhealthy mitochondria and replace them with healthy ones, thus reducing the production of free radicals in the long term. The fasting state also programs cells to cope better with more severe stresses that may come in the future. The positive effects on the brain Intermittent fasting heightens the senses, memory, and ability to learn, sharpening cognitive skills. Fasting gets rid of brain fog (a lack of mental clarity) by improving your ability to focus and improving memory. The increase in BDNF observed with intermittent fasting protects your brain from stress and slows brain aging. Intermittent fasting triggers a dramatic switch in the body’s metabolism, flipping the metabolic switch — the state where the body switches fuel from blood sugar to ketones (fat). The use of ketones to feed the hungry brain might help explain several mysteries surrounding brain benefits. From an evolutionary perspective, the brain power that intermittent fasting generates makes sense. Humankind’s ancestors typically went days without food, often hunting on an empty stomach. This period of semi-starvation resulted in a brain adaptation, allowing the brain to live off its less preferred fuel, ketones. The use of ketones for brain fuel enhanced cognitive ability and energy so humans would be more likely to obtain food and live another day. The benefits for longevity In today’s world, the relationship with food is different than at any other time in human history. Humans evolved over many thousands of years with food as a scarce resource. Today, for many people, the problem isn’t food scarcity, but food overabundance — a situation that poses a serious threat to health. High calorie food is everywhere combined with extensive marketing geared toward getting people to eat more. The result? An epidemic of type 2 diabetes and heart disease — chronic illnesses that shorten a person’s life span — and are inextricably linked to a person’s eating habits and automated, sedentary lifestyle. After nearly a century of research investigating the effect of calorie restriction on lifespan in animals, the jury is in. Intermittent fasting robustly increases life span. One of the earlier studies on rats placed on a program of alternate day fasting (ADF) showed the average life span of rats increased by up to 80 percent. Whether intermittent fasting has a similar life-extending effect in humans has yet to be proven. However, many effects of intermittent fasting appear to contribute to a longer life, such as a reduction in unhealthful inflammation and a boost in the body’s ability to protect itself against oxidative stress, a major contributor to aging and disease. Renew your body with autophagy Perhaps you may have heard all the buzz about this term, autophagy, known by some as the cell regenerative diet. In fact, Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cell biologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2016 for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy. Autophagy is Greek for self-eating, which is accurate: Your system ingests the old or damaged proteins and mitochondria and replaces them with brand new ones. So, autophagy is like spring cleaning in your cells. Intermittent fasting causes extreme autophagy in your body’s cells. Autophagy makes your cells younger and more powerful and bolsters antioxidant defenses and DNA repair, which slows aging. The autophagy process not only refers to your body’s ability to recycle damaged cells, but also, in some cases, kills cells that no longer serve a purpose. The igniting of autophagy has been linked with promotion of a longer life span. These pathways are untapped in sedentary, overweight people — believed to be one of the many reasons why obesity shortens life span. With intermittent fasting — during the fasting period — the cells enter autophagy, the stress-resistance mode. Cells are regenerated, damaged molecules are recycled, and all the maintenance and repair work is performed promoting cell survival — all of which support improvements in increased longevity.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

Intermittent fasting involves only short-term periods of fasting — the amount proven to elicit health-promoting physiological responses. Fasting in the historical sense means starving oneself for long periods of time. Long-term fasts are dangerous and elicit different effects on the body compared to intermittent fasting protocols. Within the first ten hours or so of calorie deprivation, the body depletes its blood sugar stored in the muscles and the liver (drains the sugar tanks) and switches to the use of ketones and fat for energy (the metabolic switch). After a few days of fasting, the body begins to break down protein within muscles and fat to produce energy. Meanwhile, hormonal reactions will fluctuate. It’s well established that very long periods without food can cause a sizable drop in metabolism. This starvation mode is a set of adaptive biochemical and physiological changes that reduce metabolism in response to starvation, a phenomenon you definitely want to avoid. Short-term fasting does not put your body into starvation mode. Instead, your metabolism increases significantly. Intermittent fasts should not promote fasting for longer than 36 hours. If you fast much longer, the metabolism boosting effects can reverse. What’s more, long-term fasts that trigger the starvation mode aren’t safe. Fasting intermittently coaxes the body to make changes and operate more efficiently. The different phases your body enters during your fasts is the catalyst for creating the phenomenal health benefits associated with this lifestyle. The process behind the magic is intriguing. Here I take a closer look at what goes on in your body when you begin to fast. 3 metabolic states To fully comprehend intermittent fasting, you need to understand the three metabolic states, which the following sections discuss in greater detail. The following sections discuss these three metabolic states. During any given day, your metabolism typically switches between the fed state and postabsorptive (after food has been digested) states. The fed state Also called the absorptive state, the fed state happens right after you eat — when your body is digesting the food and absorbing its nutrients. As soon as you see or smell food, your mouth may start to water, and digestion has already begun. When the body is fed, glucose (the blood sugar from carbohydrates), fats, and proteins are absorbed across the intestinal membrane and enter the bloodstream to be used immediately for fuel or in the case of protein, used for muscle growth and repair. If you exert energy shortly after eating, your body will process and immediately use the dietary fats and sugars that were just ingested for energy. If not needed, the excess glucose is stored in the liver and muscle cells, or as fat in fat (adipose) tissue. Release of digested nutrients into the bloodstream stimulates the pancreas to release the hormone insulin. Insulin stimulates the uptake of blood sugar by liver cells, muscle cells, and fat cells. The postabsorptive state The postabsorptive state happens when the food has been digested, absorbed, and stored. No more nutrients are entering the bloodstream from the digestive system. Sugar concentration in the blood drops and the pancreas stops releasing insulin and starts releasing a different hormone, called glucagon. Glucagon directs the liver and muscle cells to release stored blood sugar back into the bloodstream for energy. The postabsorptive state is therefore the metabolic state occurring after digestion when food is no longer the body’s source of energy, and it must rely on stored blood sugar for energy. The fasted state This state occurs when the body has depleted all its glucose stores. Shifting into the fat-burning state known as ketosis occurs after your body burns through your glycogen stores (the tanks of sugar stored in your muscles and liver). This is when the metabolic switch occurs. The first priority for survival is to provide enough blood sugar or fuel for the brain (the brain must be supplied with fuel in the form of glucose or ketones, although sugar is the preferred food for the brain). The second priority is the conservation of amino acids for proteins. Therefore, the body uses ketones to satisfy the energy needs of the brain and other blood sugar–dependent organs and to maintain proteins in the cells. In the event that you fast too long, the body goes into starvation mode and begins to break down vital organs and muscle tissue as a fuel source. It's important to understand that these highly orchestrated physiological events triggered during the fasted state carry over into the fed state to heighten mental and physical performance as well as disease resistance. The important role of ketones For the brief period of time your body is in the fasted state, many physiological processes are at work that have healing properties. In addition to autophagy, another process going on is the metabolizing of fat in the liver that releases chemicals called ketones. Ketones circulate throughout the body and have many positive actions apart from serving as an alternative fuel source. Ketones regulate the expression and activity of many proteins and molecules that are known to influence health and aging. Ketones specifically dampen inflammation, the condition associated with promotion of chronic disease. Ketones also interact with muscle cells to improve insulin sensitivity, reducing blood sugar levels. Ketones are probably most recognized for their healthful effect on brain function. Ketones have a neuroprotective effect, shielding the brain against age-related cognitive decline. It has been known for 50 years that ketones can benefit people with epilepsy and reduce seizure frequency. Ketones, most notably a ketone called beta-hydroxybutyrate, has been shown to increase production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), the protein that keeps your brain strong and resistant to neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are the two most common neurodegenerative disorders). Switching back and forth between fasting and healthful feeding is the key to providing the unique benefits of intermittent fasting. Prolonged ketosis, such as occurs when you follow a Keto Diet, is a flawed approach to long-term health because the diet itself has been linked to digestive and gall bladder disorders as well as a reduced ability to exercise. People who follow a high-fat, low-carb fad diet for prolonged periods have been shown to be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and premature death. The facts on fat Like it or not, your fat cells are with you for life — even if you lose weight. When you lose weight, your fats cells (also known as adipocytes) simply shrink in size. Fat cells are very flexible, able to grow or shrink dramatically, and can change in size by up to a factor of 50! Most fat cells are created during childhood, stabilizing in early adulthood. Unfortunately, new research shows that although you can’t get rid of the cells themselves, (unless you resort to liposuction), if you continue to overeat, the number of fat cells in your lower body is capable of increasing throughout life. In adults, fat-cells increase in lower-body depots after only eight weeks of increased food intake. When you fast, you increase the amount of fat in the fat cells burned for energy. Over the long term, and if you’ve succeeded in creating a sustained calorie deficit (you routinely burned more calories than you consumed), you’ll reduce the size of your fat cells. Just make sure that you don’t refill your fat cells by reverting back to old habits. Permanent weight loss requires making healthy changes to your lifestyle and food choices. Here are tips for keeping the weight off: Practice daily exercise. Slow and steady wins the race. Continue to set goals to keep you motivated. Find a cheering section. Get plenty of good quality sleep. Intermittent fasting is here to stay because it’s flexible. You can choose an intermittent fasting practice and nutrient plan that fits your lifestyle. You may first choose a plan to help you lose the flab, but soon, I guarantee, you’ll make it a routine way of life as you tap into the notable physiological effects, such as gaining more energy, inner calm, and mental clarity. Rev up your metabolic rate Your metabolism is the sum total of all the complex biological processes your body performs to turn the calories you eat and drink into energy. People with a higher metabolic rate can eat more calories to sustain their body weight than people with a lower metabolic rate. Intermittent fasting affects your metabolic rate, depending on the length of the fast. So how does intermittent fasting affect metabolism? Intermittent fasts are short-term fasts. Contrary to what many believe, short-term fasts have been proven to boost metabolism by 3.6 percent to as much as 14 percent! This phenomenon is primarily due to the drastic increase in blood levels of norepinephrine, released during fasting periods.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

The study of the effects of different intermittent fasting protocols on the human body is still in its infancy. Although much of the research has been in animals, promising well-designed human trials are emerging. In fact, a growing body of research specifically is investigating some of the more popular versions of intermittent fasting that is shedding light on the inner workings of intermittent fasting in humans. Intermittent fasting is a hot topic in the research world. Here I get you up to speed on what the scientists presently know. How intermittent fasting affects your cells and hormones The shear act of restricting food and calories for an extended period of time sets off a host of bodily processes on the cellular and molecular level. During the fasting state, the following actions occur. Cells Genes are activated that direct cells to preserve resources. Rather than grow and divide, cells in the fasting mode are stalled. In this state, they’re mostly resistant to disease and stress. The changes in the function of these genes promote longevity. Cells enter into autophagy, a kind of cellular housekeeping sparking cellular rejuvenation. Autophagy is that self-cleaning cellular process that boosts brain functioning and maybe even longevity. When cells are in fasting mode and don’t have to work to break down food, they pause their usual tasks and stop dividing. Instead, they work on repairing and recycling damaged components and digest dead or toxic cell matter. Cells activate pathways that enhance their defenses against oxidative and metabolic stress. Oxidative stress is one of the major contributing factors for aging and the development of many chronic diseases. Oxidative stress involves unstable molecules called free radicals, which react with other important molecules (like protein and DNA) and injure them. Fighting off free radicals also leads to reduced inflammation — a major cause of many diseases. Your entire body minimizes the building processes (such as making new cells), instead, favoring cellular repair systems. This transition is what improves health and disease resistance. After you begin to eat again, your cells have adapted to make better use of the fat, carbs, and proteins you ingest. Hormones Intermittent fasting decreases some hormones and increases others. Intermittent fasting decreases the production of the following: Insulin: Intermittent fasting keeps insulin levels low for most of the day, because insulin is released when you eat. Many prediabetics have a condition known as insulin resistance, meaning their insulin isn’t effective in facilitating blood sugar entering the cells. Intermittent fasting improves the actions of insulin, making cells more sensitive to the hormone. An increase in insulin sensitivity causes insulin and blood sugar levels to drop dramatically. Lower insulin levels make stored body fat more accessible. Lower insulin levels help drive weight loss. IGF-1: This hormone is key to cellular growth. IGF-1 increases cancer risk and accelerates aging when not suppressed. High levels of IGF-1, which is a protein produced by the liver, specifically raise the risks of colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer. Low levels of IGF-1 reduce those risks. Meanwhile, here are a couple of hormones that intermittent fasting boosts: Glucagon: Glucagon is a hormone produced by the pancreas with opposite effects to its pancreatic twin, insulin. Glucagon raises metabolic rate, decreases appetite, and increases the breakdown of body fat for use as energy. Human growth hormone (HGH): HGH, produced by your pituitary gland, plays a key role in growth, body composition, cell repair, and metabolism, boosting muscle growth, strength, and exercise performance, while helping you recover from injury and disease. Insulin spikes (with regular eating patterns) can disrupt your natural human growth hormone production. Norepinephrine: Also called noradrenaline, your adrenal glands and nerves release this hormone that functions both as a hormone and neurotransmitter (a substance that sends signals between nerve cells). The general role of norepinephrine is to mobilize the brain and body for action. Intermittent fasting not only boosts the production but also the release of this fat-burning hormone. Norepinephrine is the main driver of the increased metabolic rate observed with intermittent fasting. Weight loss occurs when you create a calorie deficit. The alteration in hormones will increase your metabolic rate. In other words, intermittent fasting works on both sides of the calorie equation. It boosts your metabolic rate (increases calories out) and reduces the amount of food you eat (reduces calories in) — a double weight-loss whammy! Reduced insulin levels, higher HGH levels, and an increased amount of circulating norepinephrine all increase the breakdown of body fat and facilitate its use for energy. Flipping your metabolic switch Metabolic switching is the term used to describe the point during fasting when cells have used up their stores of rapidly accessible, sugar-based fuel, and begin converting fat into energy in a slower metabolic process. Metabolic switching triggers the age-old adaptation to periods of food scarcity during the days of the hunter-gatherers. No food for days on end meant the body had to adapt to utilizing fat stores for energy in lieu of carbohydrates. Furthermore, the fasted state led to improved brain function, enabling humans to devise creative ways to overcome the physical and mental challenges of stalking prey. The beauty of intermittent fasting is its ability to prompt your body to metabolically switch it up, meaning burn up fat stores for energy. This is a time-limited period of ketosis, meaning when your body goes from using glucose (blood sugar) as a fuel source to tapping into fat stores and creating ketones from the fat (a chemical derived from fat) for energy. You may recognize the word ketones from the popular Keto Diet. During a period of fasting, the decreasing insulin levels cause cells to release their glucose stores as energy. After about ten hours of no food, your stores of glucose are depleted. With its tanks of glucose empty, the body resorts to dipping into the endless amount of stored fat (in fat cells) as an energy source. Fat cells break down the fat and release it into the bloodstream where it travels to the liver to be converted into more usable energy in the form of ketones. Ketones then circulate throughout the body and are the major source of energy for your cells during the fasted state. To ensure that you’re flipping your metabolic switch during your intermittent fast, do not eat or drink any calorie containing food during your fasting windows.

Article / Updated 03-23-2021

Intermittent fasting differs from traditional fasting. Fasting is refraining from consuming food or drinks, except for water, for a set period. Traditional fasting diets, for lengthy periods of time, aren't a healthy means of weight loss and can be extremely dangerous. In fact, long-term fasting starves the body of essential nutrients, causes the body to shut down (metabolism slows dramatically), and can be life threatening. As the name suggests, intermittent fasting refers to alternating periods of fasting with periods of eating. It’s a broad term, encompassing several specific types of short-term fasting protocols. The common theme among intermittent fasting regimens is that people periodically abstain from eating for periods longer than the typical overnight fast. Individuals either fast during a certain window every day or block out certain days of the week. These short eating rest periods allow the body’s numerous systems to rest and reset without triggering the risk of malnutrition and metabolic slowdown that accompanies severely restrictive long-term fasting regimens. The basics of intermittent fasting Here are the key principles of intermittent fasting lifestyle methods: All intermittent fasts restrict eating and drinking for set, short periods of time. Every method of intermittent fasting has eating and fasting periods that vary, depending on the regimen. The intermittent fasting approach involves alternating periods of eating and fasting. These time periods differ depending on the variation of intermittent fasting, so you choose the method that works best for your lifestyle. All intermittent fasting protocols are safe and effective for healthy individuals. Each recognized method is safe and has been shown to improve a person’s health and well-being, if practiced correctly. All intermittent fasting protocols have certain rules you must follow during your fasting window. These steps include drinking plentiful amounts of water, black coffee, tea, and any other non-caloric beverage during your fasting window; just no solid foods allowed. Make sure to stay hydrated during your intermittent fasting periods. All intermittent fasting protocols prohibit you from eating excessive amounts of junk food during your eating windows. This habit will negate the many benefits of intermittent fasting. The biggest mistake people make is eating too much and eating unhealthy foods during their eating periods. Intermittent fasting can be practiced for health and fitness and not necessarily for weight loss. Although weight loss is one of the most common reasons for trying intermittent fasting, many people choose to get leaner and fitter and tap into the numerous health benefits intermittent fasting provides without the goal of losing weight. In fact, some follow an intermittent fasting program with the primary goal of gaining muscle weight and losing body fat. Although intermittent fasting is a healthy choice for some, for others, it can be dangerous. Several groups of people who absolutely should not fast include the following: Pregnant or lactating women Individuals who have eating disorders Individuals with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, unless working with their health care professional (physicians must be consulted if you have any underlying chronic disease) Individuals using medications that they must take with food, unless working with their physician High level endurance athletes Elderly individuals with balance issues Children How intermittent fasting works Intermittent fasts cycle between periods of fasting with periods of eating. Whether or not you’re fasting, the body still requires energy to run efficiently. The body’s main source of energy is a sugar called glucose, which typically comes from carbohydrates such as grains, fruits, vegetables, and even sweets. Both your liver and muscles store the sugar and release it into the bloodstream whenever the body needs it. Look closer at the physiology To understand how intermittent fasting works, you need a quick adaptive physiology refresher. Because food wasn’t always abundant, and sometimes wasn’t available at all, the human body was forced to adapt to fasting involuntarily — and then, when Stone Age humans found food, they would feast. Because of those evolutionary conditions, human bodies evolved to permit their bodies to thrive by adapting to those cycles of feasting and fasting. In order to survive in such environments where food was scarce, humans had to possess the ability to quickly shift their metabolism from fat storage to fat breakdown for energy. This metabolic flexibility became built into human’s genetic code, producing a system where energy was stored in the form of body fat when food was available and then easily accessed for energy to enable humans to perform at a high level, physically, during extended periods when food wasn’t available. This pattern enabled human brains and bodies to function optimally in a food deprived/fasted state, giving the human race a survival advantage. Scientists have hypothesized that the human body’s adaptive benefits of intermittent fasting led to the superior cognitive capabilities (brain power) of humans compared to other mammals. These brain adaptations facilitated human’s ability to invent tools, novel hunting methods, animal domestication, agriculture and food storage, and processing. Because intermittent fasting patterns can replicate the feast-or-famine diet of human ancestors, many researchers have now recognized the advantages of periodically fasting (such as increased brain power, physical enhancements, and disease prevention) for the multitude of health benefits this lifestyle gives rise to. Examine the timeline of events What is the physiology of fasting? Although everybody responds to fasting a little differently (genetics, health, and age all play a role), there is a general timeline of events — a predictable set of metabolic responses as your fast stretches from hours into a day or longer. After fasting for a mere eight hours, here is the timeline of what happens in your body: You have no food coming in, so you exhaust your supplies. Your body has tapped into your liver reserves of blood sugar to continue to keep your blood sugar level in the normal range. You’re now in what’s termed a catabolic or breakdown state. You enter the fasted state; your liver has run out of its sugar reserves. This triggers the liver to manufacture new sugar from noncarbohydrate sources (scientifically termed gluconeogenesis) to continue to supply energy to the cells. With no carbohydrates consumed, the body creates its own sugar by using mainly fat. This marks the body’s transition into the fasting mode. Studies have shown that gluconeogenesis increases the number of calories the body burns, meaning when your metabolism starts to increase. You flip your metabolic switch. One key mechanism responsible for many of the beneficial health effects of short-term, intermittent fasting is flipping the metabolic switch. The metabolic switch is the body’s preferential shift from utilization of blood sugar to fat and fat-derived ketones for energy. In this step, your body breaks down fat, shuttling it to the liver, which creates ketones from fat to use for energy. The metabolic switch typically occurs between 12 and 36 hours after cessation of eating. Extended fasts (longer than 36 hours) begin to slow metabolism down. That’s why you shouldn’t practice extended fasting with intermittent plans. After about 36 hours, the body stops using these energy sources (sugar and fat). The fasting mode then transitions to the more serious starvation mode. You enter starvation mode. At this point, your metabolism has slowed dramatically, and your body begins to burn your own muscle protein for energy. The lack of essential nutrient intake plus using muscle for energy sets off an alarming cascade of dangerous complications. During your recommended intermittent fasting periods, your fasting periods shouldn’t extend beyond 36 hours. Although some people choose to fast for up to 48 hours, I recommend your intermittent fasting periods don’t extend 36 hours because of the physiological reasons.