Medicosnext
ntermittent fasting is in the news currently, with many vouching that it is an effective way of dieting to get many health benefits that include improvements in cellular health and blood sugar regulation, resistance to stress, and suppression of inflammation. Intermittent fasting has also been shown to decrease blood pressure, blood lipid levels, and resting heart rates. Likewise, there is also evidence that intermittent fasting can modify obesity- and diabetes-related risk factors, and new studies suggest that intermittent fasting could also benefit brain health.
Indeed, it does seem that intermittent fasting is a good way towards gaining a healthy lifestyle. There are different ways of doing intermittent fasting, and here are some popular ones:
1. When following the 16:8 method of intermittent fasting, you can eat two or three meals only within an 8 to 10 hour period in a day, and fast for the rest of the time (16 hours for men and 14-15 hours for women).
2. If you want to follow the 5:2 method, also known as the ‘fast diet’, you have to restrict yourself to taking in only 500-600 calories for two days of the week, and eat as you normally do for the other five days.
3. A tougher regimen is Eat-Stop-Eat method, where you have to fast for 24 hours straight at least twice a week, and eat as you normally do the other days.
4. Yet another way you can do intermittent fasting is by following the Alternate-day fasting method, in which you have to fast every other day (if not a complete fast, you can eat, but only a few hundred calories worth of food).
5. Then there is the Warrior Diet method, where you get to eat one large meal at night, but only small quantity of vegetables and fruits during the day.
Mark Mattson, Ph.D, a professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has studied the health impact of intermittent fasting for 25 years, and has concluded that “intermittent fasting could be part of a healthy lifestyle”. He has recently published an article on intermittent fasting in The New England Journal of Medicine, stating that his article is intended to help clarify the science and clinical applications of intermittent fasting.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that alternating between times of eating and fasting supports cellular health, perhaps by setting off an age-old adaptation to times when food was scarce, called metabolic switching. This kind of switch happens when cells use up their sugar-based fuel and start to convert fat into energy, which is a slower metabolic process. According to Mattson, some studies have shown that such a switch improves regulation of blood sugar, resistance to stress, and suppression of inflammation. He also notes that some studies found intermittent fasting to decrease blood pressure, lipid levels, and resting heart rates, while other studies suggested that intermittent fasting can modify obesity and diabetes risk factors. Newer studies suggest that brain health, too, may benefit from intermittent fasting.
Sources:
Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease, N Engl J Med 2019; 381:2541-2551.
Healthline, https://urlzs.com/ro8Pf
