When you contemplate a change in lifestyle, nutrition is usually the prime change. For many people weight loss is the primary goal that many people want the most. But over all health improvement should be the top focus.
Eating foods that provide balanced nutrition, tastes good, and leaves you feeling good has inherent value. Moving your body regularly in ways that you enjoy, getting enough sleep and managing stress are also essential goals.
Positive changes in blood sugar (glucose), and cholesterol levels can be a sign that your healthy nutrition and exercise habits are having an effect. However, genetics also play a role, so some people will see more changes due to diet and lifestyle than others.
Many diet and exercise trends, have origins in legitimate science, even though the facts tend to get distorted by the time they achieve mainstream popularity. Benefits are exaggerated. Risks are downplayed. Science takes a back seat to marketing.
Intermittent fasting for example, is currently an emerging trend. Some plans take periodic breaks from daily eating. Up to 24 hours once or twice a week. Brad Pilon, author of the book titled “Eat Stop Eat” said “It’s becoming extremely popular.”
“So popular, in fact that it is quickly moving into fad territory,” suggests Pilon. “When something becomes a fad, intensely popular but only for a short period — several problems typically ensue”. For one, he says, “many doctors and nutrition experts are prone to taking fads out of hand. So their patients and clients, while shielded from the ridiculous claims of overzealous dieting evangelists, may also lose out on the legitimate benefits of fasting done right.”
Many animal studies suggest caloric restriction can lengthen your life and improve health later in life. How it works isn’t clear, but fasting seems to fight the effects of aging at the cellular level, reducing damage to DNA, boosting stem-cell production and even protecting brain cells. More research is needed to determine the effect of fasting and calorie restrictions on the human lifespan, but studies suggest fasting reduces risks of heart disease in overweight individuals which is the leading cause of death among U.S. men and women mostly due to the complications of obesity.
Fasting has been used for thousands of years to keep people well. It has been a practice for generations in many regions fo the world. The practice has its roots in religion, but the health benefits reach beyond any spiritual origins. In recent years, however, the practice has gained popularity among those looking to lose a few pounds, boost heart health, and live longer.
Intermittent fasting dictates less of what you eat and more of when you eat. Eating a healthy diet, loaded with produce, lean protein and 100 percent whole grains is also important. All of these components are part of a clean eating plan.
There are a variety of intermittent fasting plans that can be done. Some plans involve restricting calories to about 500 a day for a couple of “on” days each week. Other plans restrict all eating for a 24-hour period once or twice a week. Others still limit the eating window to eight hours a day, meaning a person would fast for about 16 hours a day.
The reason beyond the potential succes of intermittent fasting is unclear, and more research is needed to detremine the root of this practice. One theory points to the benefits of stress that fasting puts on the body. As with mild stress caused by vigorous exercise, fasting induced stress may force the body to adapt to changes, thus making it grow stronger. Given time to recover (during the periods of eating between fasts) may help your body resist diseases.
Research from The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry has found that reduced meal frequency and caloric restriction (CR) extend lifespan and increase resistance to age-related diseases in rodents and monkeys and improve the health of overweight humans. Both meal frequency and caloric restriction enhance cardiovascular and brain functions and improve several risk factors for coronary artery disease and stroke including a reduction in blood pressure and increased insulin sensitivity. Cardiovascular stress adaptation is improved and heart rate variability is increased in rodents maintained on a reduced meal frequency and caloric restriction diet. Moreover, rodents maintained on a this regimen exhibit increases resistance of heart and brain cells to ischemic injury in experimetnal models of myocardial infarction and stroke.
The beneficial effects of reduced meal frequency and caloric restriction result from at least two mechanisms and reduced oxidative damage and increased cellular stress resistance.
Recent findings suggest that some of the beneficial effects of reduced meal frequency on both cardiovascular system and the brain are mediated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling in the brain. Interestingly, cellular and molecular effects of reduced meal frequency and caloric restriction on the cardiovascular system and the brain are similar to those of regular physical exercise, suggesting shared mechanisms.
Intermittent fasting can help weight loss. But often times it is hard to stay dedicated to this restricted method of eating. A report from Harvard Health Publishing says that initially human studies that compared fasting every other day to eating less every day showed that both worked about equally for weight loss, though people struggled with the fasting days.
Is it right for you? Type 1 diabetes and woman that are pregnant or breastfeeding are never good candidates for an intermittent fasting. If you have other medical conditions you are encouraged to check with your doctor before any dietary change. More research on humans is needed to evaluate how intermittent fasting affects metabolism.
