I am not an expert on nutrition by any means. I do research on what is best for my health. I need to keep this one body I have going for as long as possible. This winter, that means I’m giving intermittent fasting another try.
Changing tastes
About three years ago, I developed COVID. It was not bad and didn’t really make me sick, but shortly after my taste buds changed. Food that I used to love is disgusting to me now. It’s affected how I eat: I only want fruit!
I decided I need to incorporate some veggies in there, too. I bought a cold press juicer and now I follow the 80/20 rule: 80% vegetables and 20% fruit. This has helped me get the vitamins and minerals I need to supplement my diet. Juicing runs the risk of spiking your blood sugar, but I am not having that problem. I love my juicer.
I also drink protein shakes, and try my best to eat what I cook for my family. But I want to go farther into my health journey.
Learning about intermittent fasting
Years ago, I read Dr. Jason Fung’s books “The Diabetes Code” and “The Obesity Code.” These books suggest intermittent fasting — only eating food during certain times. Dr. Fung is a Canadian nephrologist and a leading advocate for the use of intermittent fasting and low-carb diets.
I gave the intermittent fasting a chance, but it was tough. I loved food. All food. The intermittent fasting was too hard for me to do so I gave up, even though I knew the health benefits were proven.
But now food is not high on my list of priorities anymore. (Other than a nice slice of prime rib and lobster, which I still crave all the time.) I’m giving fasting another attempt. I plan to give it my all this time!
Recently I picked up the book “The Complete Guide to Fasting,” also by Dr. Jason Fung with Jimmy Moore. It describes so many benefits of fasting: mental clarity, weight loss, lower blood sugar levels, increases energy and improved fat burning. According to the authors, extended fasting (which I have never been able to do) can even reverse the aging process and decrease inflammation.
The advantages of fasting are that it is free. No food to buy. It is simple once you understand when and how long you will fast. Fasting is flexible and it works with any diet.
The book outlines many benefits: you can fast for losing weight, controlling diabetes, and for anti-aging benefits, neurological benefits and autophagy, a cellular cleansing process. Like I said previously, I have never made it to the autophagy phase of a fast. But I feel that this is something I can do now.
Common fasting schedules include 16 hours daily or a 24-hour fast a couple of times per week. The cellular process of autophagy begins with 12–16 hour fasts to start cellular cleaning; then for deeper cellular renewal, the book recommends you aim for 24–48 hour fasts. Peak activity is often seen around 36–72 hours. During the fast you can consume water, black coffee and unsweetened tea. The recommendation for breaking the fast is bone broth.
This does not mean that once you break your fast you need to eat everything you can find in the kitchen. When you are not fasting, you will need to eat healthily.
Hoping for better health
The book notes that all of this should always be done under the supervision of your doctor. That is important to remember. Especially if you are diabetic, like me.
I take so many meds and feel like I need to do everything possible to treat my diabetes. Once my A1C was around 12. Now it is a 6.7, which is fantastic. I am off insulin, which caused me to gain so much weight. Thank goodness the weight dropped when the insulin pump was thrown in the trash! Now I am hoping that I can decrease my oral medications even more following the advice of Dr. Fung on autophagy and cellular renewal.
I have indolent systemic mastocytosis (SM) and who knows if this will help with that? But any meds that I can get off in the future by fasting, dieting and exercise will only make treating my SM easier.
If you are interested in fasting there are many wonderful books on the subject. Some are easy to understand. Then there are the ones that are so scientific you will need to read them repeatedly to understand them, but they are filled with powerful knowledge of how all this works. I have several fasting apps that are also filled with info and help with eating times. I use Intermittent Fasting Tracker the most
Wish me luck, and if you give it a try good luck to you too! And remember, before any diet it is always recommended you consult your doctor.
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