Intermittent Fasting

homer-asleepThinking about intermittent fasting? It might help Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, but let’s discuss how and why.

Intermittent fasting (IF) has been gaining popularity in the last few years. Based on this study, it seems to help folks with diabetes (DMII) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The question is, does it help with DMII and CVD because of the weight loss, or because of improved hormonal response and reduced inflammation? The answer is it probably doesn’t matter. Most of the time, when people start an IF protocol, they reduce calories and eat healthier. By eating healthier, we reduce the empty calories, reduce the sugar, and reduce unhealthy oils, thereby reducing inflammation and increasing nutrients. You could do all these same things by just eating healthier, and then you don’t have to go hungry.

Is there a place for IF? Absolutely. Once you’ve got your healthy diet squared away, your exercise regimented, and your sleep dialed in, introducing IF may improve performance and get you to that next level. And it can be done in as little as 18 hrs, which really just means skipping breakfast. Dinner at 6pm, and lunch the next day at 12pm will give the hormetic stress your body needs to initiate the benefits of fasting. Would I recommend treating Type 2 Diabetes (DMII) with IF. Not until long after the big 3 have been dealt with (diet, exercise, and sleep).

You might ask why this looks like it’s helping. I’d venture to say that on average, the carbohydrate intake with people IF is lowered. And as part of a study, people would be recommended to eat more healthfully. More veggies, nuts, seeds, along with fruits and increased fiber are going to improve most people’s diets which will help DMII. The correlation between IF and improved DMII and CVD could be a result from reducing calories and therefore losing weight, or just improving the calories that are consumed. Don’t get caught in the hype. Someone who’s metabolically deranged will see improvements, but it’s adding another stress and may be detrimental if done for a long time without dealing with the other stressors.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130426115456.htm

http://dvd.sagepub.com/content/13/2/68.full