After moving between multiple diets in search of better health, many are returning to fasting again as a diet that promises many benefits, specifically intermittent fasting, which tops the favorite systems of many today, especially with the demand of a large number of celebrities. This system requires eating at specific and short intervals, you can choose between eating during only eight hours of the day versus fasting 16 hours, or eating only every other day, and sometimes eating only one meal a day.
It is a return to a nature that humanity has known for thousands of years, for unlike the fact that fasting exists in most religions and takes different forms, it was the natural system adopted by man of the past, as food was not available all the time as it is now. Over time, we are gradually discovering the risk of humans eating more than five meals a day, as obesity is widespread. But what do the results of recent studies on the benefits of this system tell us? And how can we apply it for best results? (1)
Effect of fasting
The first observation is that intermittent fasting does not restrict you to eating certain foods, it only determines the time you get food, and according to what studies reveal, it does not depend only on what you eat, as the question of "when to eat" makes an important difference, this seems logical, as the internal processes in our bodies have always been linked to time, we derive signals from the ambient light so that our bodies prepare for sleep, for example, or start the metabolism, and meet our energy needs, and this is the first secret of what intermittent fasting achieves One of the results is that your body works on specific dates. (2)
Intermittent fasting also leads to loss of appetite, as it slows down the metabolism in the body, giving cells a rest by exempting them from processing glucose that enters the body during meals or snacks, and so the cells focus on other tasks such as breaking down toxins and other unnecessary molecules and repairing damage to DNA, so the mechanism of using fat reserves works, activates bowel cleaning mechanisms, and increases their ability to absorb nutrients. (3)
How does fasting affect your mental health?
Despite its small size, estimated at about 2% of body mass, the brain consumes approximately 25% of our energy, and is especially affected by changes in calorie intake, it seems that eating at irregular times, a habit that we do not pay attention to, contributes to the deterioration of mental health, and may make us depressed and anxious, while regular eating times affect the reduction of negative mood. (4)
During the day and night, the small intestine and liver show varying abilities in the processes of digestion, absorption and metabolism, and when eating rhythms differ from the main biological clock in the brain, the brain's abilities are negatively affected by eating meals at the wrong time, causing disruption of normal glucose metabolism in many brain disorders. (5)
In a 2015 study published in the journal PNAS published by the National Academy of Sciences in the United States of America, researchers confirmed that there is increasing evidence about the relationship between the digestive system and the secretion of dopamine (the neurotransmitter responsible for mood and pleasure), and the results confirmed that insulin resistance changes the rate of dopamine secretion and causes anxiety and symptoms of depression, as people with depression and bipolar disorder showed unusual levels of dopamine, caused by changing the timing of eating. (6)
The effect also extends to memory, in a study published in the journal "Molecular Psychiatry" in 2021, the researchers tested the abilities of mice to remember the road in the Maurice water maze, to reach a safe place, the mice that followed the intermittent fasting system performed better than the other group, and were learning swimming methods more quickly, and the researchers noticed an increase in the activity of the hippocampus (which controls learning and memory) in fasting mice, and the results concluded that intermittent fasting enhances cognitive abilities and the formation of neurons in Hippocampus. (7)
In the treatment of some diseases
In a study published in the Journal of Translational Medicine in 2021, researchers at China Medical University pointed to a positive effect of intermittent fasting on women with polycystic ovary syndrome, which is caused by an imbalance in hormones and affects the regularity of the menstrual cycle, causing one in ten adult women to suffer.
The results revealed a 73% improvement in menstrual regularity in women who followed an intermittent fasting regimen, increased globulin (a blood plasma protein), lost weight by 1.7% of their body mass, and decreased some biological markers of inflammation and cirrhosis. (8)
In a 2021 study published in the journal Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers found that metabolism was more organized in the intermittent fasting group, along with improved cardiovascular health. (9) (10)
To prove that the benefits of intermittent fasting are not only related to reducing calories, a study published in 2012 in the journal "Cell Metabolism" conducted an experiment on a group of mice who were assigned hours to eat food with fasting in other hours, and others were allowed to eat the same food without specifying the time, the first group was able to ward off metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, and improved their overall health compared to mice that ate the same calories but without being restricted to specific hours. (11)
How can you follow this system?
Intermittent fasting has multiple ways, there is no one-size-fits-all system, try different ways to reach what suits your lifestyle during fasting days, plan to fill your daily program with many activities that you can integrate into to avoid thinking about food, the month of Ramadan can be an excellent opportunity to follow one of the intermittent fasting systems, which is the 8:16 system (it is already the most famous of them), so you fast with the normal fasting hours, but you eat suhoor a little earlier (at two in the morning, for example. If breakfast is at six in the evening). (12) (13)
If you decide to follow the intermittent fasting system, take care of eating healthy food, this doubles the impact of intermittent fasting as well, and avoids its biggest problems, as people accept food and consume more calories than normal eating days during breakfast, here intermittent fasting can be harmful, and in fact, the month of Ramadan is a vivid example of this problem, although people fast for a large number of hours, many come out of the Ramadan overweight, and this is because the atmosphere of Ramadan Festive in nature, food is at the center of this celebration, especially foods rich in sugars.
The bottom line is to try to combine the benefits of healthy food with punctuality. Eat low-calorie foods that are rich in fiber at the same time such as raw vegetables, fruits and popcorn, they bring you satiety for longer, and provide the body with vitamins, minerals and nutrients necessary to maintain blood sugar levels, you can also add a distinctive flavor to your food through spices, it is calorie-free but it achieves satiety, as well as the pleasure of eating it.
But let's finally explain that the results of research on the benefits of the intermittent fasting system are still in their early stages, many of them were conducted on animals only, and some relied on small numbers of participants, but in general we can say that there is a "research tendency" to support the existence of some potential benefits of this system, but what is reassuring is that it represents a return to human nature in obtaining food at specific times, especially in those who do not suffer from certain diseases that require consulting a doctor. (14)
————————————————————————