Intermittent Fasting

I don't skip breakfast or in any way go hungry for periods of time. But I do "intermittingly" fast from dinner at five or six till I get up the next morning. This 14 or 15 hours of fasting is not at all painful and probably is conducive to good health and higher energy levels. Here are reasons from scientific journals in support of intermittent fasting.

• It helps establish insulin sensitivity and diminish insulin resistance. People with poor insulin sensitivity often have many chronic disorders that plague them throughout their lives.
• Intermittent fasting lowers triglyceride numbers. Low triglyceride numbers are a marker for healthy aging.
• People who are eating all the time have free radical damage; people who know when to stop have less of this biomarker of aging.
• Intermittent fasting might suppress inflammation. Inflammation is a prime condition in many chronic diseases.

Of course there are many programs of drastic fasting - like forty days and forty night in the desert. Gurus claim many physical and psychological benefits for the extreme forms of fasting. I enjoy food too much though. I'll leave drastic fasting to the more disciplined and dedicated.

Back to Feasting

Real Calorie Restriction

Of course there are genuine heroes who fast for a social purpose like Gandhi or some of the Irish prisoners who wanted the British out. I admire their activities but that type of fasting is not health promoting. Periods of extreme privation cause brain damage and physical impairment. I don't even want to look at photos of starving children from all parts of the world. The soft life in America is a wonderful thing. I would miss it.

As a person ages, calorie restriction can actually cause you to lose height. CR is supposed to keep you young-looking and vigorous, but shrinking year by year like George Burns is not good for your image. Tall is always better.