By Al Valente
Homo Sapiens in the 21st Century live in an age of abundance: food, mechanization, leisure, etc. This same abundance leads to chronic diseases later in life. Fasting is rapidly proving to be a means to counterbalance many age related diseases.
Table of Contents:
A Panacea for Optimal Health without Drugs and Costs Nothing
The Nobel Prize that Started the Fasting Craze
Elevated Insulin is the Culprit
Good Things Happen When We Stop Eating
Fasting Methods — Start Slow and Build Up
Feeling Hungry is not Cumulative and it Passes
Make Fasting a Spiritual Experience
As we age in these contemporary times, there are positive and negative factors that will impact the quality of our lives. On the plus side advances in medicine are keeping us alive longer. On the negative side we still face a pandemic of age related diseases: Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Diabetes Mellitus, Osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s just to name a few. It is estimated that by the year 2050, the American 85-years-old and over population will triple.
Unfortunately as of this writing people reaching their mid-eighties have a 50% chance of contracting Alzheimer’s. Experiments with lab rats show that normal aging builds up amyloid in their brain. It also damage dopamine producing neurons; it’s not pretty.
The consequences of accumulating old junky proteins throughout our bodies can be seen in two main conditions – Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Alzheimer’s involves the accumulation of abnormal protein – either amyloid beta or Tau protein which gums up the brain system. Therefore it would make sense that any process that can clear out old proteins could mitigate the development of Alzheimer’s.
A Panacea for Optimal Health without Drugs and Costs Nothing
But, what if there were a way to keep your mind sharp, your spirits high, oh and by the way, drop a couple of pounds in the process. It’s a method that is currently all the rage in Silicon Valley where millionaire executives are looking for ways to gain a mental edge to be an even greater top performer. Jack Dorsey of Twitter fame practices it regularly.
Imagine a health routine where you don’t have to pop pills, subscribe to a meal plan, need a coach, where in fact, when you do less of something you get more.
It’s called “fasting”. As the name suggests, you don’t eat for optimal health. It sounds counter-intuitive. We are so focused on eating and relating that to optimal living, and that notion of “not eating” is counterintuitive.
We’ve also been taught that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and that we should be “grazers” throughout the day and eat a small meal every 2-3 hours. Well, those habits are proving to be wrong.
For optimal health we have to look at what our bodies evolved to about 100,000 years ago when homo sapiens basically hit a plateau and stopped evolving. We were eating for optimal for survival, how did we do it? And, how often? Although today we may be more knowledgeable than our ancestors and have captured the planet, we still have the same bio systems.
That’s why there is some merit to the paleo diet which mimics how our ancestors ate. But there is another condition that those same ancestors lived through and how their bodies evolved to protect the species through rejuvenation processes. Our distant ancestors went through periods of feast, followed by famine, followed by feats again, and so on.
You probably already realize that we humans are cyclical creatures. We follow a circadian rhythm of sleep and awakeness.
Similarly, we recently discovered that, paradoxically, experiencing periods of starvation didn’t weaken us, it was actually an opportunity to fine tune our bodies, rid ourselves of bacteria, recycle cell material, and become more mentally alert and physically stronger to find our next food source.
It turns out that one way to mitigate age related diseases is not to read an esoteric book, or count calories, or spend every spare moment in a gym, it just means just stop eating occasionally — for just a little while.
The Nobel Prize that Started the Fasting Craze
It’s one thing to theorize about how our cave people ancestors went about their lives and what their diets consisted of, but where’s the science? Well, although research into what happens when cells are starved and the positive effects thereof has been around since the 1960’s by various scientific labs, it was the “2016 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine” that brought it to the forefront.
The Nobel Assembly gave this prestigious award to Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discoveries of mechanisms for what’s called “autophagy” and it turned out to be great news for mitigating age related diseases.
Why? Because autophagy is the process by most living things of cleaning cells of harmful waste from broken down cells and then using that raw material to form new healthy cells.
But not only is it good for all of our cells, it is believed to remove high levels of plaques and neurofibrillary tangles which are precursors of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and age related memory loss.
Although autophagy to a small degree is omnipresent in our cells, it is heightened during periods of starvation. And during autophagy cells break down proteins and other damaged cell components and reuse them in fresh parts.
During autophagy, cells also destroy viruses and bacteria and get rid of damaged structures. It’s a process that is critical for cell health, renewal, and survival.
As research into autophagy has expanded, it has become clear that it also contributes to a range of physiological functions, such as inhibiting cancer cells and aging, eliminating pathogens and cleaning the insides of cells.
Elevated Insulin is the Culprit
To achieve that beautiful state of autophagy and all of its wondrous benefits, we need to reduce insulin.
The hormone insulin is needed to get food sources to our cells. But too much insulin and at a constant elevated rate is actually detrimental to our health. With our continuous abundance of food our population is experiencing elevated levels of insulin, which unchecked leads to inflammation and higher incidences of diabetes.
Insulin is also a hormone that instructs the body to store the energy we get from eating and store it into body-fat. It also puts a lock on body-fat and won’t allow you to access it for energy. Why? Because it’s a natural survival mechanism, remember our cave people ancestors, it’s saving up that energy for the next famine cycle.
In modern times that famine cycle never occurs, our insulin levels remain consistently high, so we just keep getting fatter.
Good Things Happen When We Stop Eating
Frist of all, in the era of abundance, not eating seems like an anathema. That’s being masochistic right? No, not if it serves a vital purpose.
During fasting, the body uses up all of its glycogen, i.e. sugar stores that are in the bloodstream. When that happens insulin levels drop.
Without glycogen to fuel the body and, most importantly the brain, the body responds as it has for a hundred millennia, and turns to body-fat for fuel. Now that the guardian at the gate, insulin, is no longer present to stop it, the lock comes off and body-fat becomes readily accessible.
Sensing starvation, the body has shifted to survival mode and now turns to stored fat for fuel. That’s all well and good for most of your body but doesn’t directly feed the brain. The brain may be small as a percentage of total body weight but it’s a real energy hog. Under normal circumstances of continuous eating, the human brain consumes approximately 60% of blood glucose.
Because this hungry brain cannot use fatty acids as a fuel. The body turns to releasing ketone bodies. Think of glycogen as number 2 heating oil and ketones as jet fuel for the brain.
Here’s where it gets interesting, not only can the body sufficiently feed the brain during fasting, one of the most abundant ketones, β-hydroxybutrate, actually blocks part of the immune system responsible for regulating inflammatory disorders like arthritis and even Alzheimer’s.
Further, fasting increase your rate of neurogenesis, the growth and development of new nervous tissue, it also boosts production of an important protein called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). BDNF helps to produce new brain cells, protect your existing brain cells, stimulate new connections and synapses while also boosting memory, improving mood, and learning.
Fasting is actually far more beneficial than just stimulating autophagy. It does two good things. By stimulating autophagy, we are clearing out all our old, junky proteins and cellular parts. At the same time, fasting also stimulates the human growth hormone HGH, which tells our body to start producing some new parts for the body. So fasting may in some ways reverse the aging process, by getting rid of old cellular junk and replacing it with new parts.
Fasting Methods — Start Slow and Build Up
Since you’ve read this far, maybe you’re ready to give fasting a try, what have you got to lose?
There are several methods of fasting, you can Google them.
In our research we believe that an outright no food whatsoever water-only 3-day fast every other month (6 times per year) is achievable by most of us and yields great results.
You’re already fasting without knowing it. If you go to bed and sleep 8 hours, you have effectively fasted from yesterday’s last meal (or late night snack) until this morning’s breakfast. You can build on that momentum.
We absolutely do not recommend fasting for 3 days at the get go. You need to train yourself, and you need to learn what your body can and cannot tolerate. You will ultimately gain the confidence that you can go about your normal day even though you haven’t eaten a thing for 3 days. It’s true, try it.
Start small, build in increments each succeeding session until you reach your goal. Here’s a simple guide for your first year of fasting.
| Progression | No eating period: | Total Hours Fasted |
| Month 1 | Sunday night supper to Monday night supper. | 24 hours |
| Month 3 | Sunday night supper to Tuesday morning breakfast | 36 hours |
| Month 5 | Sunday night supper to Tuesday night supper | 46 hours |
| Month 7 | Sunday night supper to Wednesday morning breakfast | 60 hours |
| Month 9 | Sunday night supper to Wednesday evening supper | 70 hours |
| Month 11 | Sunday night supper to Thursday morning breakfast | 80 hours |
But you may ask, “I’m thin, won’t I run out of stored energy”? Well, you’re not as thin as you think. Even if you’re a “fit” man or woman, you’re carrying about 20% body-fat. Do the math, if you’re a man and weight 165lbs, you have 33lbs of body-fat.
Do the math further, each pound of body fat contains 3,500 calories. You need no more than 2,000 calories a day when you’re sedentary. So, a 3 day fast would require only 6,000 calories which mathematically can be provided by 1.71 pounds of body-fat. That’s why there have been instances of humans going for weeks without eating.
Is there anything that I can eat or drink during fasting you may ask? No, you shouldn’t eat anything that has calories. The whole mission is to deplete your system of blood sugar and allow your insulin level to drop and stay there. We do recommend staying fully hydrated by drinking water at regular intervals. If you need a caffeine fix, drink either black coffee or green tea (obviously no milk or sugar).
Feeling Hungry is not Cumulative and it Passes
Most people feel that because they have experienced hunger pains in the past when they skipped a meal, that the huger feeling will grow and grow until it becomes totally unbearable. Rest assured that will not happen.
Ghrelin is the hunger hormone. Its release is not cumulative but is actually cyclical. It rises during normal meal times, then drops.
What will happen is that you will feel hungry right around your normal meal times, then it will pass until the next meal time, in a cyclical nature. So, when you feel hungry drink a glass of water, just that oral exercise will make you feel somewhat satiated.
Breaking the fast
We do not recommend going gang busters when you end your fast. That is don’t eat a high glycemic meal of heavy pasta and bread. But rather have a gentle meal of vegetables and smart protein like white turkey meat or fish. Don’t forget, you stomach is entirely empty so you don’t want to shock it.
Then the next day go back to your normal meal cycles.
Make Fasting a Spiritual Experience
We’re fortunate to live at a time of great abundance, when food is readily available. During your fast appreciate that your fast will end and that food will be abundant again feel that sense of gratitude. Empathize with the people of sub-Sahara Africa who don’t have it as well of as you do.
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