Should we intermittent fast or not?
Does fasting work and, if so, how does it work?.
Multiple studies have now suggested that regular fasting can positively impact health and longevity by reducing inflammation as well as helping people regulate their weight.
And a recent study from researchers at Cambridge University and the National Institute for Health in the US helps explain why it may have an anti-inflammatory effect.
For this study the participants fasted for 24 hours between eating meals, with researchers concluding they believed the fast period raised levels of a chemical in the blood known as arachidonic acid, which inhibits inflammation.
Scientists have long thought that by having a longer gap between meals we give our bodies time to focus on repair and cell maintenance.
Conflicting evidence
But the frustration for those of us looking for science-based lifestyle approaches is there is conflicting evidence.
That includes a more recent study involving 20,000 American adults comparing their self-reported eating habits to their rates of illness and death over an average of eight years.
It found those who didn’t eat for 16 hours a day were 91% more likely to die of cardiovascular disease during than those who ate over longer periods.
But the study analyzed participants’ diets based on just two days worth of surveys on their eating habits and didn’t factor in their health status, diet or lifestyle.
That is a crucial because if you’re not getting a strong nutritional intake, including a sufficient amount of protein and strength-building exercises as you age, your health is likely to suffer.
The study data showed those who limited their eating times in that more recent study had lower lean muscle mass on average which typically relates to nutrition and exercise.
All this means very little can be concluded without a study that factors in lifestyle, health and diet.
A sensible approach
If you’re like me and tend to avoid extremes, I find that just following my natural cycle of not eating after dinner and then eating breakfast when my stomach wakes up in the morning gives me a break of between 12 to 14 hours.
Nutritionist Fiona Tuck, who I recently interviewed on the channel, is a strong believer in the benefits of intermittent fasting – but in a more limited way along the lines of my own routine.
Simply put, she believes you shouldn’t eat after your dinner in the evening to give the body a sufficient opportunity to rest and repair overnight without having to focus efforts on digestion.
When fasting is unlikely to work
She said: “Intermittent fasting has become trendy you know it’s another thing to sell a book or it’s another thing to people get obsessed with.
“I do believe that naturally our body is designed to fast. That is what breakfast is; it’s breaking the fast. So if we have dinner ideally around six o’clock at night and then you’re not eating breakfast until 9 o’clock the next morning your body has gone through a fast.
“We need to go through that period for rest and repair within the body and that’s really what fasting is is. That’s why we’re meant to have a period where we don’t eat. 12 to 14 hours is a good period of time to go without food.”
And if you aren’t eating a nutrient-dense diet in the period you eat, fasting in itself is unlikely to be beneficial.
Fiona adds: “If somebody is looking at the clock and thinking, ‘I can’t go out for breakfast until 12pm because I’ve got to fast,’ and they’re not getting enough nutrients in or they’re just eating anything but only in a certain window, they’re not necessarily going to get the benefits of the fast.”