Eat, Fast, Heal- The nature’s way!
Restoring & optimizing health through Intermittent Fasting
Ever witnessed a sick dog refusing to eat?
No matter how much you tempt him, he won’t eat until truly hungry. Something similar happens to the human body when sick. Trying to meet the demands of a fast paced life, we tend to ignore our body signals. To top it all, the drive to satisfy five senses overpowers everything else!
If you had the opportunity to see or know your great grandparents, do you recall anyone being overweight, diabetic or hypertensive or suffering from a chronic disease before age 70?
21st century:
High blood sugar, cholesterol, BP, heart disease, fatty liver and knee replacement is considered a norm in every household; not to forget the autoimmune disorders and cancer climbing the graph.
What changed over last 100 years?
As much as technology added comfort to our daily life, we moved far away from nature in innumerable ways. Desires, needs, priorities changed. So did lifestyle, food choices and the disease pattern.
Earlier generations led a simpler life, well aligned to nature in terms of lifestyle, food, meal time, sleep, yet challenging in its own ways. Two meals a day was a norm versus the modern day culture of continuous snacking in between 3 meals with doorstep deliveries. Human body was never meant to handle so much of food coming in every few hours - add to it the sedentary behavior.
There is a famous saying in Ayurveda: One who eats once a day is a ‘Yogi’ (sage), one who eats twice is a ‘Bhogi’(enjoys food), and one who eats thrice a day is a ‘Rogi’ (suffers an ailment).
Intermittent fasting: It’s a play of meal timing and meal frequency!
A simple lifestyle change in meal timings was a game changer for me. It had a powerful impact in bringing down inflammation and helped me overcome effects of autoimmunity.
What is intermittent fasting (16:8): Also called ‘Time restricted eating’
Eating window is limited to 8 hours during the day, rest 16 hours overnight is the fasting period. For instance, if the 1st meal of the day is at 10 am, the 2nd meal would be at 6pm, before sunset. In case of intense hunger in between the two meals, one can consume herbal tea, seasonal fruit or home-made salad instead of reaching out for processed food. If you feel hungry after the evening meal- warm water or a herbal tea helps overcoming the hunger pang (ghrelin hormone peak).
Caution: If you are awake till midnight, you won’t be able to survive this as hunger pangs will break your fast.
Why go to bed early when following IF: The body rests & repairs itself during sleep. Process of detoxification, cellular repair and rejuvenation happens naturally during this time. If you consume a heavy meal at 9pm and go to bed at 10pm, the gut is busy digesting it for next 3 to 4 hours. It has no time to rest & repair. To reemphasize- the Gut is called the ‘Second brain’- there is a huge plexus of nervous system in the gut wall, which also needs rest & repair while you sleep!
The intent is to align eating habits and sleep pattern with nature so that all the food is digested by the time you go to bed & repair work starts.
Why to Fast when in good health:
- Gut health: Common gut issues like bloating, dyspepsia, indigestion and constipation improve. Patients with IBS and IBD have shown remarkable outcomes on intermittent fasting.
- Boost gut microbiome: Good gut bacteria multiply while the bad ones thriving on sugar die. It helps repair a leaky gut (the root of most chronic diseases including autoimmunity).
- Boost Energy levels: Remember how you feel lethargic after a heavy afternoon meal. Opposite happens when you fast- you feel lighter and energetic throughout the day.
- Mental clarity: Improves productivity and efficiency at work, removes brain fog.
- Improves sleep quality: If you struggle with a getting a deep sleep, IF works wonders.
- Aches & pains start vanishing: The frequency of taking pain killers goes down.
- Detoxification of all organ systems, heal and prevent diseases
In 2 to 3 months:
7. Weight loss: Stubborn fat stores in your liver & your belly starts melting away. This weight loss is more long lasting unlike the transient ones achieved on specific diet regimes. If you are still counting calories trying to lose weight, the calorie in-calorie out theory doesn’t work.
8. Clear skin and long term anti-aging effects: Fasting lengthens the telomeres (the terminal part of chromosomes which shortens with age). Shorter the telomeres, faster the aging and risk of disease & cancer.
Disease groups with remarkable outcomes on IF:
Intermittent fasting works as a natural therapy to bring down inflammation in all parts of the body.
Aligning your body clock with nature stimulates repair systems in the cells (like autophagy- the clearing of cellular junk and garbage) and promotes new building blocks in the body. For those looking for ‘scientific evidence’, there is ample literature on PubMed!
You may be struggling with facial acne as a 19 yr old, a stubborn belly fat as a 45 yr-old, autoimmune disease at age 50, using anti wrinkling cream, or maybe dementia at 60 yrs- fasting works therapeutically in all.
Fasting not only heals the body at a physical level but also builds mental resilience, teaching you not be a slave to desires of your mind.
PART 2: THE SCIENCE BEHIND FASTING
Let’s first understand how food is metabolized in the body:
1. What happens when you eat?
Step 2: Insulin hormone acts as key to lock. It unlocks the door allowing blood glucose to enter inside the cell, where it is converted to energy.
2. What happens when you eat every 2 hours?
Excess glucose production with high insulin secretion over a long period of time leads to a State of Insulin resistance. The insulin receptors (keys) on the cells get saturated and stop recognizing it anymore. The door closes and the blood glucose cannot enter the cells.
Excess glucose keeps floating in blood. Energy production falls and one feels fatigued which promotes frequent eating.
Excess Insulin puts the body in a storage mode. All the unused blood glucose is converted into fat and stored in the liver and the belly. High insulin level is extremely inflammatory for the body & damages multiple organ systems. It damages the blood vessels (atherogenic) increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
3. State of fasting:
Fasting allows you to drop the insulin levels and burn fat to produce energy. It is the easiest way to tap into your fat stores and shed that stubborn weight.
It brings down inflammation and stimulates natural repair and rejuvenation in all organ systems.
Fasting methods and longer Fasts to reverse chronic diseases in the next blog.