Is it a good idea to “starve” yourself just a little bit each day, or a couple of days a week? Mounting evidence indicates that yes, intermittent fasting (IF) could have a very beneficial impact on your health and longevity.
I believe it’s one of the most powerful interventions out there if you’re struggling with your weight and related health issues. One of the primary reasons for this is because it helps shift your body from burning sugar/carbs to burning fat as its primary fuel.
As discussed in the featured article,1 intermittent fasting is not about binge eating followed by starvation, or any other extreme form of dieting. Rather what we’re talking about here involves timing your meals to allow for regular periods of fasting.
I prefer daily intermittent fasting, but you could also fast a couple of days a week if you prefer, or every other day. There are many different variations.
To be effective, in the case of daily intermittent fasting, the length of your fast must be at least 16 hours. This means eating only between the hours of 11am until 7pm, as an example. Essentially, this equates to simply skipping breakfast, and making lunch your first meal of the day instead.
You can restrict it even further — down to six, four, or even two hours if you want, but you can still reap many of these rewards by limiting your eating to an eight-hour window each day.
This is because it takes about six to eight hours for your body to metabolize your glycogen stores; after that you start to shift to burning fat. However, if you are replenishing your glycogen by eating every eight hours (or sooner), you make it far more difficult for your body to use your fat stores as fuel.
I have been experimenting with different types of scheduled eating for the past two years and currently restrict my eating to a 6- to 7-hour window each day. While you’re not required to restrict the amount of food you eat when on this type of daily scheduled eating plan, I would caution against versions of intermittent fasting that gives you free reign to eat all the junk food you want when not fasting, as this seems awfully counterproductive.
Also, according to research published in 2010, 2 intermittent fasting with compensatory overeating did not improve survival rates nor delay prostate tumor growth in mice. Essentially, by gorging on non-fasting days, the health benefits of fasting can easily be lost. If so, then what’s the point?
I view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle, not a diet, and that includes making healthy food choices whenever you do eat. Also, proper nutrition becomes even more important when fasting, so you really want to address your food choices before you try fasting.
This includes minimizing carbs and replacing them with healthful fats, like coconut oil, olive oil, olives, butter, eggs, avocados, and nuts. It typically takes several weeks to shift to fat burning mode, but once you do, your cravings for unhealthy foods and carbs will automatically disappear. This is because you’re now actually able to burn your stored fat and don’t have to rely on new fast-burning carbs for fuel. Unfortunately, despite mounting evidence, many health practitioners are still reluctant to prescribe fasting to their patients. According to Brad Pilon, author ofEat Stop Eat: 3
“Health care practitioners across the board are so afraid to recommend eating less because of the stigma involved in that recommendation, but we are more than happy to recommend that someone start going to the gym. If all I said was you need to get to the gym and start eating healthier, no one would have a problem with it. When the message is not only should you eat less, you could probably go without eating for 24 hours once or twice a week, suddenly it’s heresy.”
Aside from removing your cravings for sugar and snack foods and turning you into an efficient fat-burning machine, thereby making it far easier to maintain a healthy body weight, modern science has confirmed there are many other good reasons to fast intermittently. For example, research presented at the 2011 annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans 4 showed that fasting triggered a 1,300 percent rise of human growth hormone (HGH) in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men. HGH, human growth hormone, commonly referred to as “the fitness hormone,” plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from the practice (as long as they don’t overtrain and are careful about their nutrition). The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training. Other health benefits of intermittent fasting include:
-Improving biomarkers of disease 
-Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage
-Preserving memory functioning and learning
-Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health
-Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as “the hunger hormone”
-Lowering triglyceride levels
According to Dr. Stephen Freedland, associate professor of urology and pathology at the Duke University Medical Center, “undernutrition without malnutrition” is the only experimental approach that consistently improves survival in animals with cancer, as well as extends lifespan overall by as much as 30 percent. 5 Interestingly enough, intermittent fasting appears to provide nearly identical health benefits without being as difficult to implement and maintain. It’s easier for most people to simply restrict their eating to a narrow window of time each day, opposed to dramatically decreasing their overall daily calorie intake. Mark Mattson, senior investigator for the National Institute on Aging, which is part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has researched the health benefits of intermittent fasting, as well as the benefits of calorie restriction. According to Mattson, 6 there are several theories to explain why fasting works: “The one that we’ve studied a lot, and designed experiments to test, is the hypothesis that during the fasting period, cells are under a mild stress, and they respond to the stress adaptively by enhancing their ability to cope with stress and, maybe, to resist disease… There is considerable similarity between how cells respond to the stress of exercise and how cells respond to intermittent fasting.” In one of his studies, 7 overweight adults with moderate asthma lost eight percent of their body weight by cutting their calorie intake by 80 percent on alternate days for eight weeks. Markers of oxidative stress and inflammation also decreased, and asthma-related symptoms improved, along with several quality-of-life indicators. More recently, Mattson and colleagues compared the effectiveness of intermittent fasting against continuous calorie restriction for weight loss, insulin sensitivity and other metabolic disease risk markers. The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2011, 8 found that intermittent fasting was as effective as continuous calorie restriction for improving all of these issues, and slightly better for reducing insulin resistance. According to the authors: “Both groups experienced comparable reductions in leptin, free androgen index, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, total and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and increases in sex hormone binding globulin, IGF binding proteins 1 and 2. Reductions in fasting insulin and insulin resistance were modest in both groups, but greater with IER [intermittent fasting] than with CER [continuous energy restriction].”
Your brain can also benefit from intermittent fasting. As reported in the featured article: “Mattson has also researched the protective benefits of fasting to neurons. If you don’t eat for 10–16 hours, your body will go to its fat stores for energy, and fatty acids called ketones will be released into the bloodstream. This has been shown to protect memory and learning functionality, says Mattson, as well as slow disease processes in the brain.” Besides releasing ketones as a byproduct of burning fat, intermittent fasting also affects brain function by boosting production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Mattson’s research suggests that fasting every other day (restricting your meal on fasting days to about 600 calories), tends to boost BDNF by anywhere from 50 to 400 percent,9 depending on the brain region. BDNF activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. BDNF also expresses itself in the neuro-muscular system where it protects neuro-motors from degradation. (The neuromotor is the most critical element in your muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle is like an engine without ignition. Neuro-motor degradation is part of the process that explains age-related muscle atrophy.) So BDNF is actively involved in both your musclesand your brain, and this cross-connection, if you will, appears to be a major part of the explanation for why a physical workout can have such a beneficial impact on your brain tissue — and why the combination of intermittent fasting with high intensity exercise appears to be a particularly potent combination.
If you’re ready to give intermittent fasting a try, consider skipping breakfast, make sure you stop eating and drinking anything but water three hours before you go to sleep, and restrict your eating to an 8-hour (or less) time frame every day. In the 6-8 hours that you do eat, have healthy protein, minimize your carbs like pasta, bread, and potatoes and exchange them for healthful fats like butter, eggs, avocado, coconut oil, olive oil and nuts — essentially the very fats the media and “experts” tell you to avoid. This will help shift you from carb burning to fat burning mode. Once your body has made this shift, it is nothing short of magical as your cravings for sweets, and food in general, rapidly normalizes and your desire for sweets and junk food radically decreases if not disappears entirely. Remember it takes a few weeks, and you have to do it gradually, but once you succeed and switch to fat burning mode, you’ll be easily able to fast for 18 hours and not feel hungry. The “hunger” most people feel is actually cravings for sugar, and these will disappear, as if by magic, once you successfully shift over to burning fat instead. Another phenomenal side effect/benefit that occurs is that you will radically improve the beneficial bacteria in your gut. Supporting healthy gut bacteria, which actually outnumber your cells 10 to one, is one of the most important things you can do to improve your immune system so you won’t get sick, or get coughs, colds and flus. You will sleep better, have more energy, have increased mental clarity and concentrate better. Essentially every aspect of your health will improve as your gut flora becomes balanced. Based on my own phenomenal experience with intermittent fasting, I believe it’s one of the most powerful ways to shift your body into fat burning mode and improve a wide variety of biomarkers for disease. The effects can be further magnified by exercising while in a fasted state.
Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 40 minutes Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yield: 4 ServingsPer Serving – Calories: 486 | Fat: 34g | Protein: 57g | Net Carbs: 9.5g
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Food and drug administration (FDA) require food manufacturers to provide labels that spell out the nutritional content of different food products. Only fresh fruit and vegetables or seafood do not have these labels.
“Nutrition Facts” labels are a familiar feature on most packaged foods. If you have diabetes, you should become an expert at reading these labels. Knowing your Nutrition Facts not only allows you to figure out the amount of carbohydrates in foods. It also allows you to figure out the calories per serving of food items, a piece of information that is important for successfully reducing your calorie intake.
Key information that you’ll find on the “Nutrition Facts” label includes1:
Serving size. How much of the product is considered a single serving. The nutrient amounts on the rest of the label are all based on this single serving amount.
Servings per container. This tells you how many servings you get in a container. Some food products will have a single serving, such as single serving yogurts. Others will have multiple servings, such as a bag of potato chips or a frozen pizza.
Amount per serving. Under this section you’ll find information on total calories, calories from the three major calorie groups, fat, carbohydrates, and protein, and sodium content. Fats and carbohydrates are broken down into specific sources, such as saturated fat and cholesterol for fats and sugar and dietary fiber for carbohydrates.
Vitamins and minerals. At the bottom of the label, you’ll find the vitamin and mineral content of a single serving.
Daily values per serving. On the right-hand side of the label across from each of the specific nutrients, you’ll find the daily value for each item. This is the percentage of calories or vitamins/minerals you get in terms of each nutrient in a single serving based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet. You daily target for calories may be different. After your work with your dietitian or nutritionist to determine your daily calorie target, he or she will help you figure out exactly how many calories from each nutrient group you’ll aim to get on a daily basis.
Take a look at the sample labels above and let’s practice reading the label and getting information that will help you with your diet needs.1
1. Serving size and servings per container. This section is important because it allows you to understand how all the numbers and values below relate to the contents of your container of food. All of the numbers and values for the mac and cheese product shown here are based on a single serving (1 cup or 228 grams). However, the package contains 2 cups or 2 servings. If you consume the entire contents of the package, you will need to multiply all the amounts by 2 to figure out how much you’re getting in terms of fat, carbohydrates, protein, and salt. For instance, if the total fat in a single serving of our sample is 12 grams or 18% of the total daily calories in a 2,000 calorie diet, a double serving (the entire package) will contain 24 grams of total fat, which is 2 times 18% or 36% of your total daily calories (for a 2,000 calorie diet).
2. Calories and calories from fat. Calories are a measure of how much energy is contained in food. The totals for calories and calories from fat are based on a single serving, so if you eat the whole package of mac and cheese, you’ll have to get out your calculator and multiply by 2. This section is important, because if you’re trying to lose weight, chances are you will be aiming to reduce how many calories you take in. Additionally, for a heart-healthy diet, you’ll be trying to keep the calories from fat below a certain amount per day. So, you can use both of these numbers to help you with your calorie targets.
You may ask: “How do I figure out if a meal is high in calories?” This will really depend on your target amount of calories per day. If you are aiming to consume 1,500 calories per day and you have 2 servings of mac and cheese, then you have taken in about one-third of your total for the day. A quick rule of thumb for amounts of calories per serving goes like this:
3 and 4. Nutrient amounts. These sections show amounts in grams for different nutrients, including fats, carbohydrates, protein, and vitamins and minerals. (Note that total fat and total carbohydrates are overall amounts that include specific kinds of fats and carbohydrates.) The nutrients, including fat, cholesterol, and sodium, shown in yellow shading, tend to make up too much of our diets. These should be kept to a minimum. On the other hand, the nutrients shown in blue shading, including dietary fiber (you get this from fruit and vegetables and whole grains), as well as essential vitamins and minerals, tend to make up too little of our diets. Generally, you should aim to get more of these types of nutrients.
Learn more about the basics of healthy nutrition and how to eat well.
5. Nutrition Fact footnote information. The footnote tells you that the daily values shown above for a single serving of mac and cheese are based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet. The sample label contains more general information from nutritionists that tells you how many calories of different nutrient groups you should aim to get for both a 2,000 and 2,500 calorie diet. Not all labels will have this extra information. Let’s take a closer look at what this information tells us. A single serving of mac and cheese contains 12 grams of total fat. This is 18% of the amount of total fat that you should take in daily. You should aim to take in less than 65 grams of total fat if you are eating a 2,000 calorie per day diet. If your diet has a higher daily calorie intake, such as 2,500 calories, the target amount of total fat will be slightly higher: 80 grams (you should aim to keep your total fat intake at or below this number). So, for the yellow shaded group of nutrients (fat, cholesterol, and sodium) that we tend to get too much of in our diets, the footnote nutritional information tells us a total daily amount we should stay under. For the blue shaded group of nutrients that we should get more of in our diets (there is no fiber in our sample mac and cheese product!), the footnote nutritional information indicates that we should get “at least” 25 grams per day.
6. Daily values for nutrient groups. The daily values listed on the right side of the label help you figure out (in the context of a 2,000 calorie per day diet) whether the amount of each nutrient in a single serving is high or low.
Note that trans fats, sugar, and protein do not have a daily values. The FDA did not have enough information to establish a daily value for trans fats or sugar and could make no recommendation for precisely how much to eat in a single day. However, since trans fats clearly contribute total fat consumption and sugar to carbohydrate consumption, it is important to keep intake of these nutrients at proper levels according the overall daily calorie target of your diet.
So, how much of the daily value of a nutrient should a single serving of a food provide? As a general rule of thumb for daily values, 5% or below is considered low and 20% or more is considered high. So, if we look at total fat content of our mac and cheese product, a single serving has 18% of the daily target for total fat, given a 2,000 calorie diet. This is a little under the 20% rule of thumb. However, if you eat the whole package of mac and cheese, you will be getting 36% of your daily target for total fat and that would be considered a lot for one meal.
In addition to checking the Nutrition Facts for different packaged foods, you will want to look at the ingredient list, as well. As you gain experience reading food labels, you’ll have some important insights into how different ingredients change the nutritional content of foods. Let’s compare the labels for plain and fruit yogurt. The plain yogurt is made with nonfat milk and its total fat content reflects this. The fruit yogurt is made with reduced fat milk, so it has a slightly higher amount of total fat (3 grams). The fruit yogurt has a higher fiber content, which results from the inclusion of fruit. It also has a much higher carbohydrate content, a total of 15% of the daily value for carbohydrates (given a 2,000 calorie diet). The carbohydrate content of the fruit yogurt comes mostly from added sugars. The ingredient label tells us that these are mostly from the inclusion of high fructose corn syrup.
Here are some great brain healthy foods that really pack the power:
Good for both your heart and your brain, all nuts in general are good sources of healthy fats. Walnuts specifically are high in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a type of the famous Omega-3 fatty acid. In fact, a study completed in 2015 linked increased walnut consumption with improved cognitive testing scores.[1]
Fatty fishes such as salmon have gotten so much great attention related to their healthy fat content. Well here is another benefit to add to the list:
Because salmon is such an abundant source of Omega-3 fatty acids, they are a good source of decreasing blood levels of beta-amyloid. Beta-amyloid is the protein that forms the dangerous clumps in your brain leading to Alzheimer’s disease.[2]
It is now known that the neurons in our brains can continue to form new connections throughout adulthood which was once believed to be impossible. One of the main drivers in the process of building these new pathways is called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
The great news is that it is likely that turmeric can increase BDNF levels leading to improved brain function and decreased risk of degenerative brain processes.[3]
The anti-oxidative properties of berries are powerful! It has been shown that consuming at least two servings of berries each week can improve memory and prevent memory decline.
With the composition of your brain being mostly fat, 60% to be exact, the fat soluble nutrients in tomatoes act as a powerful safeguard. Specifically known as carotenoids, these nutrients are great antioxidants that help to neutralize free radicals. This is an important process to keep your brain functioning at its highest level.[4]
Another great source of healthy fats, the Omega-3 fatty acids found in chia seeds are a powerful brain enhancer.[5]
Here’re the amazing benefits of chia seeds (and some refreshing recipes).
Research suggests that consuming dark green vegetables regularly slows cognitive decline. This is likely due to these veggies being rich in brain healthy nutrients such as Vitamin A, K, folate, lutein, and fiber.
Studies from 2006 showed that a common compound in apples, quercetin, may protect the neurons in our brain against oxidation. It is believed that the quercetin reduces cellular death in the brain related to oxidation and inflammation of the neurons. This process may play an important role in reducing neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s.[6]
Again! Those leafy greens! Leafy greens are a powerhouse of brain protective nutrients and antioxidants.
Onions are a good natural source of folate. Folate has been shown to improve the blood flow to the brain by decreasing homocysteine levels in the body. This also may have beneficial effects for those suffering with depression.[7]
Another rich source of Omega 3 and ALA! Flax seeds can help reduce blood pressure and therefor improve blood flow to the brain. This reduction of blood pressure also helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and strokes. It’s a win, win!
The caffeine in your daily cup of Joe may be doing more than wake you up. A 2014 study showed that those with higher caffeine consumption had improved test scores on mental function and had better memory recall.[8]
The combination of caffeine and the amino acid L-Theanine found in tea, has been shown to have powerful effects on brain function. In a 2017 study, green tea was shown to improve cognition, memory power, and reduce anxiety.[9]
There are many foods that have been shown to benefit the brain! What is most important to keep in mind is to focus on whole, real foods.
In summary and in looking at the above list, you can see that nature has powerful benefits. Eating what nature is providing us is the fastest way to feeding your brain.
Featured photo credit: Lars Blankers via unsplash.com
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