The importance of when we eat, often gets lost in the conversation of what we should eat. The physiological importance of the timing of the nutrients we take into our bodies are becoming more clear. Fasting and time restricted eating have been the focus of a large amount of research in the last decade and the findings are showing powerful positive health benefits. Health goals are as different as those making them. To know if intermittent fasting is an effective tool for you first you must understand what you are hoping to accomplish with your diet optimization. Intermittent fasting is a kind of diet modification which is structured around going a given amount of time where you do not eat or drink any calories (water is permitted). The positive recent research findings on intermittent fasting have been both dramatic and consistent. If you desire a decrease in body fat, an increase in lean muscle mass, improved physical endurance, improved cardiovascular and blood glucose function, you need to keep reading and consider intermittent fasting as part of your dedication to nutrition. Oh and did I mention, these studies demonstrate an increase in not only longevity but a major increase in the healthy years of life. If you could incorporate even short recurrent periods of fasting into your life this kind of structured eating might be for you.
It has long been know that we are able to improve longevity and health span dramatically with calorically restricted diets, however researchers are finding the same is true with intermittent fasting. Longevity refers to actual life expectancy, and health span refers to the specific amount of life where any given individual is healthy and disease free. Dozens of elegant animal studies on caloric restriction diets have shown dramatic increases in the longevity of primates, dogs, rodents, worms, and flies. These findings show 30-50% increases in life expectancy when compared to control groups. Granted humans are a little more complex than lab controlled animals, however, any study which is able to demonstrate a 50% increase in our time on this earth is worth our attention. Caloric restriction diets involve reducing food intake, but still eating enough to avoid malnutrition. Typically these calorie intakes are around 1,200kcal for women and 1,400kcal for men. These diets were first studied many years ago on the peoples of Okinawa, Japan. These people have the glorious distinction of the longest life expectancy of any region in the world, 1 in 2000 live over 100 years. Their diet is calorically low but high in nutrient density. Most North American diets are the exact opposite, calorically high and low in nutrients due to the prevalence of the highly processed food we unfortunately all too commonly consume. This type of caloric restriction diet modification can have many negative consequences when not done perfectly unfortunately. There is a very fine line between a healthy caloric restriction diet and an eating disorder, also this diet is not possible for athletes, or individuals with physically demanding careers or lifestyles. Obviously most people find great joy in eating, and even overeating, so drastically attempting to limit the amount and type of food an individual eats is can be extremely challenging and unsustainable for most. If the calories eaten aren’t extremely dense in all the correct nutrients undesirable effects such as osteoporosis, muscle wasting, other metabolic diseases ensue. Not exactly what we want to think of as a possible side effects of our diet not being near perfection. So is there an option that may deliver all the benefits of a calorically restricted diet while drastically limiting the possibility of any side effects? Fortunately, new research seems to identify a far more manageable option with nearly all the same benefits without the risks... Enter intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting at its most basic is any period of time where zero calories enter the body. Sleeping is the fast we all do every night. Fasting doesn’t have to be for a week or multiple days to be effective. Simply prolonging the time around sleeping (before bed, and after we wake) where we do not eat, will have a significantly positive affect to nearly every system in the body. The research shows 12-16 hours of fasting causes a whole cascade of healthy benefits. Obesity is still on the rise, and has been for decades, many of us are conscious of this with our eating and would love to shed a few pounds. Shedding weight however needs to be done correctly, as what we really want to do is lose some fat while maintaining, or gaining, muscle. When we talk about muscle gains, we are not talking about extreme body building here, we mean maintaing the strength we need for everyday life. Loss of strength, or muscle, leads to injuries as well as early onset of fatigue. Many studies identify the decrease in lean muscle mass as the primary cause of lost independence with age. With advanced age weak bodies fall, weak bones break and injury recovery leads to a depletion of the body’s resources and the possibility of a far too early exit from this planet ensues. One year mortality rates in individuals suffering hip fractures after the age of 65 are over 50%, basically it’s a coin flip if a 65+ year old will live another year after a hip fracture. Stay strong, stay independent, stay healthy, it’s that simple. All of us would benefit from improved endurance capacity, athletes want it to go stronger longer, and non-athletes would like to be able to have a busy day without excess fatigue. Time to fatigue studies identify intermittent fasting as a way to delay fatigue, thus improving endurance and physical capacity.
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels — that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. These are all the conditions your family doctor is attempting to help you avoid with your yearly blood testing. Intermittent fasting studies have improved the biomarkers for all of these conditions and keep in mind, we are not changing the type of food we intake here, we are simply altering when we eat the same food. Add some easy improved food choices like an increase in vegetable consumption and the improvements in health are synergistic, not just additive.
Any modification of one’s diet generally brings to mind, bland food, constant hunger and low energy, this is not the case with intermittent fasting. Many of the intermittent fasting studies were able to demonstrate all of these healthy benefits with the exact same food intakes, the only thing altered was the timing of the food intake. Caloric redistribution, not caloric restriction.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Start by simply avoiding eating or drinking (anything except water) later into the night. Next, delay the morning coffee and breakfast a few extra hours, a few days each week. Before you know it you will have incorporated a 12-16 hour fast around your sleeping and intermittent fasting will be part of your everyday routine. You will be feeling and looking better than ever. The final step is to make sure you are eating good amounts of fruits and veggies and engaging in regular physical activity. Good planning brings good luck, and I wish you good luck.