Nutrition Program: Reversing Unhealthy Eating Plan With Fasting

With the increasing number of nutrition-related diseases affecting people across race and culture, most of us are now very aware of the significance of good nutrition program. In our issue on November 15, we covered about nutrition relating to organic foods. Now, before Christmas comes, we are going to discuss about Nutrition Program, which will come in three series. Since nutrition program is a broad topic to talk about, we will begin with the simplest and the most basic step in redesigning a nutrition program. If you are eating unhealthily, feeling sick, or want to prevent getting sick due to unhealthy diet, changing your nutrition program to introduce fasting will be very beneficial.

Why fasting is a key strategy to the optimum nutrition program

Our ancestors lived in the world of scarcity and stress. As food was not available on a daily basis, fasting was part of their eating habits and routine.Thousand of years of food scarcity have left a genetic blueprint with fundamental information pertaining to our well-being and health.  Our body have adapted and developed a protective mechanism to manage alternate phases of scarcity and abundance as part of our natural nutrition program.

Understanding your nutrition program: The interaction of Insulin and growth hormone

When the food is scarce, our cell membrane becomes more sensitive to insulin, which ensures that we make the most of the food ingested.

During times of abundance, our cells become less insulin sensitive in order to avoid the stress of heavy calory intake.  This results in increased insulin levels, stored fat and inflammation in the body. These two opposite mechanisms  thus compensate for alternate periods between abundance and scarcity and balance our physiology accordingly.

Switching on Genetic Repair mechanism

Intermittent fasting, part of a nutrition program, switches on genetic mechanism that triggers cells renewal and rejuvenation. This mechanism allows certain cells to have a longer life span through the release of HGH.

HGH stimulates growth and cell production and regeneration. HGH creates metabolic changes to help with fat burning and protein sparing; Amino acids and proteins are used to repair collagen, which enhances strength and functionality of bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles.

As HGH repairs tissues, it improves skin functions like healing cuts and burns or reducing wrinkles.

HGH and IGF-1 are opposites in function.

Insulin-Like Growth Factor (IGF-1) is produced in the liver and regulated according to Human Growth Hormone (HGH) produced by the pituitary gland.

Insulin is designed to store energy, create new cells and dividing them. Insulin promotes inflammatory immune activity. High levels of insulin stimulate the body to producing new cells rather than repairing new ones. So as DNA and cellular damage go on, it encourages ageing and diseases. Cancerous cells usually mutate to strive on both insulin and IGF-1.

When a condition calls for high levels of insulin to be released, high carbohydrate intake for example, HGH are inhibited.

Effect of fasting in a nutrition program

Intermittent fasting, part of your nutrition program, decreases oxidative stress, promotes cellular repair and appears to be the best strategy for longevity and anti aging.

Fasting as part of a nutrition program:

• Helps having a youthful appearance and body. As already mentioned fasting promotes bio-chemical mechanisms that give cells a greater life span, boost fat burning, repair tissues and reduce wrinkles. Yes Fasting is more efficient than any cosmetic creams and certainly less expensive !!
• Shuts down cancer cell formation and proliferation. Among the few hundred people in the world with low level of IGF-, diabetes and cancer are virtually non-existent.
•  Promotes brain health. The medical community has been studying the neuro protective effect of calorie restriction on brain health.  According to recent researches, calorie restriction seems to have a boosting effect on the chemicals involved in the growth of brain cells. A good nutrition program including fasting would prevent Alzheimer, dementia and parkinson
• Boost natural immunity
• Reduces triglycerides, boosts HDL (good) cholesterol and stabilizes blood sugar.

How to include fasting as part of nutrition program

Our body uses huge amount of energy just to digest our daily meal. We all know how we feel sleepy and tired after a good meal. Research considers that up to 30% of all energy produced by an individual is used daily on digestion. Of course carbohydrate and meat use considerably more energy to digest than vegetables and fruits.

If you are new to fasting in your nutrition program, you may experience detoxification symptoms. You might feel nauseous or under the weather and even have headaches. These symptoms are actually part of the detoxification process triggered by fasting in your nutrition program. These symptoms are actually positive and show that the body may be getting rid of large amounts of poisons and toxins. These need to pass temporarily in the bloodstream before being eliminated hence the symptoms. Colon and liver cleansing also work wonder in combination with fasting to detoxify the body.

Many diet experts have led people to adopt 5 or 6 meals a day as part of a nutrition program. Such a method requires the body to continually digest and also cause the body to constantly release insulin, which favours fat storage. Hardly a great weight loss method!

The 12-hour a day nutrition program

Best and easiest way to begin fasting as a nutrition program is by allowing your stomach to go empty for 12 hours a day. This allows 4 hours for digestion and 8 hours for the liver to complete its detoxification cycle.

Let’s say that you stop eating at 7 pm and wake up at 7 AM, right there you have completed a 12-hour fast, easier than you thought ?! Then try, one day a week to extend the fasting time to 16-18 hours. Again you might stop eating at 7 pm and have your next meal at 1 pm. Eventually you may want to have a full 24-hour fasting every other week and even once a week.

The 5:2 nutrition program

Michael Mosley went on intermittent fasting taking up what is best known as the 5:2 diet. The idea is to eat whatever you want five days a week and limit your calorie intake to 500 calories twice a week.

This simple formula lowers blood pressure and lipids, HDL cholesterol and blood lipids and supports weight loss no matter what kind of food is consumed. Mosley lost almost 15 pounds after 5 weeks.

Fasting does not mean you have to go with an empty stomach, you could limit your food to the following:

• Fiber rich vegetable
• Juice greens and fruits
• Unsweetened tea (no milk) and water.

Bottom line of fasting in your nutrition program:

Research and animal studies show that eating less increase lifespan and slow the aging process. As you are about to start a new year, I invite you to change your nutrition program to include regular fasting. Try to go an 18-hour period one day a week. You will be amazed at how good you feel?