This is a book that I have read and feels that it is one of the books to keep for reference or at least read once, on the topic of maintaining your health. You might be wondering, why fasting has got to do with your health? Read on...
I would be summarizing based on chapters but I will focus on the main chapters as some chapters are not so important but if you are interested to read on them, please borrow the book from the National Library.
INTRODUCTION
- Dr. Jason Fung, a who is a Toronto based Nephrologist (kidney specialist) but he is known for his treatment using fasting method for obesity and type 2 diabetes. In 2012, he established the Intensive Dietary Management Program (IDM), which uniquely focus on diet as a treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
- The underlying cause of obesity turns out to be a hormonal, rather than a caloric, imbalance. Excessively and persistently high insulin levels result inexorably in obesity. Insulin certainly lowers blood sugars in diabetes but it also causes weight gain.
- Insulin is a fat-storage hormone. When we eat, insulin increases, signaling our body to store some of this food energy as fat for later use.
- Both the ketogenic diet (low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diet) and intermittent fasting are excellent methods of reducing high insulin levels. The main idea is to train the human body to burn fats instead of glucose.
- In type 1 diabetes, body's own immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, resulting low insulin level leads to high blood sugar. Therefore, with low insulin levels, it makes sense to treat the problem with supplemental insulin. In type 2 diabetes, insulin levels are high. Blood sugar is elevated because it's become resistant to insulin-it doesn't let insulin do its job. By prescribing more insulin to treat type 2 diabetes, we were not treating the underlying cause of high blood sugar: insulin resistance. So, over time, type 2 diabetes patients get worse and requires higher and higher doses of medications.
- The body responds to excessively high levels of any substance by developing resistance to it. High insulin causes insulin resistance.
- Excessive insulin causes obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
- Jimmy Moore, internationally bestseller author of the Ketogenic Cookbook, Keto Clarity, and Cholesterol Clarity, as well as the host of the longest -running health podcast, The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.
- He gives a brief journal of this experiences during his fasting exercises and gives you ideas what to expect during and after fasting.
- Highlights of his first experiences (4 days, 19 hours) in intermediate fasting in 2006:
- Massive headache on day 1 due to still addicted to caffeine. But subsided on day 2.
- Never over-eat after fasting period ends. He suffered for it big time.
- Eating enough food to fuel my daily workouts really was important.
- Reasons for not completing the first one week fast.
- Still drinking diet sodas during fasting, and that stoked hunger and cravings that I wouldn't have had otherwise.
- Not getting enough salt during fasting, which led to fatigue and energy drain. Better than those diet sodas would have been bone broth with sea salt, which provides much-needed electrolytes and is satiating.
- Didn't have the right mindset. Didn't anticipate just how tough it would be at the beginning, and wasn't prepared to handle the hunger-both real and imagined.
CHAPTER 1: What Is Fasting?
- Fasting, is voluntary abstention from eating for spiritual, health, or other reasons. No matter what your reason for abstaining, the fact that fasting is voluntary is a critical distinction. Fasting is completely different from starvation in one crucial way: control. Starvation is the voluntary abstention from eating. It is neither deliberate nor controlled.
- EAT FOOD ➡️ increase INSULIN ➡️ STORE SUGAR IN LIVER & PRODUCE FAT IN LIVER
- NO FOOD “FASTING” ➡️ decrease INSULIN ➡️ BURN STORED SUGAR & BURN BODY FAT
- Body reaction to fasting:
- Insulin Goes Down
- Electrolytes Remain Stable
- Adrenaline Increases and Metabolism Speeds Up
- Growth Hormone Goes Up
- Insulin resistance has also been linked to a number of diseases, including:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Alzheimer's disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- High cholesterol
- High blood pressure
- Abdominal obesity
- Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (fatty liver disease)
- Polycystic ovary syndrome
- Gout
- Atherosclerosis
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease
- Obstructive sleep apnea
- Cancer
- The basics of good nutrition can be summarized in these simple rules.
- Eat whole, unprocessed foods.
- Avoid sugar.
- Avoid refined grains.
- Eat a diet high in natural fats.
- Balance feeding with fasting.
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Overall Effects of Fasting:
- Unleash the anti-aging properties of growth hormone.
- Helps with weight loss.
- Helps with type 2 diabetes.
- Boosts brainpower and slows aging.
- Improves heart health.
CHAPTER 3: Busting the Myths of Fasting
- Myth #1: Fasting Puts You in “Starvation Mode”
- “Starvation mode” refers to the notion that our metabolism decreases severely and our bodies “shut down” in response to fasting.
- Basal metabolic rate (BMR), measures the amount of energy that our body burns in order to function normally—to keep the lungs breathing, brain functioning, heat pumping, kidneys, liver, and digestive system all working, and so on. BMR is not fixed number but actually increases or decreases up to 40 percent in response to many variables.
- Reduced metabolism makes us generally cold, tired, hungry, and less energetic—our bodies are essentially conserving energy by not burning calories to keep us warm and moving. From a weight standpoint, reduced metabolism is a double curse. First, we feel lousy while dieting. Even worse, because we’re burning fewer calories per day, it’s both harder to lose weight and much easier to gain weight back after we’ve lost it. This is the main problem with most caloric-reduction diets.
- When food intake goes to zero—(fasting), our body cannot take BMR down to zero—we have to burn some calories just to stay alive. Instead, hormones allow the body to switch energy sources from food to body fat. After all, that is precisely why we carry body fat—to be used for food when no food is available.
- Myth #2: Fasting Makes You Burn Muscle
- Human body evolved to survive periods of fasting. We store food energy as body fat and use this as fuel when food is not available. Muscle, on the other hand, is preserved until body fat becomes so low that the body has no choice but to turn to muscle. This will only happen when the body fat is less than 4 percent.
- Fasting is one of the most potent stimuli for growth hormones secretion, and increased growth hormones helps maintain lean body mass.
- Muscle gain or loss is mostly a function of exercise. You can’t eat your way to more muscle. Supplement companies, of course, try to convince you otherwise.
- Myth #3: Fasting Causes Low Blood Sugar
- People worry blood sugar will fall very low during fasting and will become shaky and sweaty. Luckily, this does not actually happen.
- Blood sugar level is tightly monitored by the body, and there are multiple mechanisms to keep it in the proper range. During fasting, our body begins by breaking down glycogen in the liver to provide glucose. This happens every night as you sleep to keep blood sugar normal as you fast overnight.
- If you fast longer than twenty-four to thirty-six hours, glycogen stores become depleted. The liver now manufacture new glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis, using the glycerol that’s a by-product of the breakdown of fat. This means that we do not need to eat glucose for our blood glucose levels to remain normal.
- When glucose is not available, the body begins to burn fat and produce ketone bodies, which are able to cross the blood-brain barrier to feed the brain cells.
- MYTH #4: Fasting Results in Overeating
- Even if you eat slightly more after fasting, the increase should be still lesser than the normal meal intake.
- Over time, appetite tends to decrease as the fasting duration increases.
- Myth #5: Fasting Deprives the Body of Nutrients
- There are two types of nutrients, micronutrients and macronutrients. Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals that are provided by the diet are required for overall health. Macronutrients are proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
- With shorter fasting periods (less than twenty-four hours), there is ample opportunity before and after the fast to eat nutrient-dense foods to make up for missed meals. For longer fasts, it is a good idea to take general multivitamin.
- For macronutrients, there are no essential carbohydrates that the body needs to function, so it is impossible to become carbohydrate deficient. However, certain proteins and fats we have to get in our diet. These are essential amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and essential fatty acids. These cannot be manufactured by the body and must be obtained in the diet.
- MYTH #6: “It’s Crazy”
- The science is clear. Obesity, at its core, involves some form of overeating. This is true whether you believe it is caused by consuming too many calories, carbohydrates, or fats. Fasting helps in all these cases. The only two remaining questions are:
- Is it healthy? The answer to this is yes.
- Can you do it? For you to decide. But many other people has done it, including myself.
CHAPTER 4: Advantages of Fasting
- Fasting:
- Improves mental clarity and concentration
- Induces weight and body fat loss
- Lowers blood sugar levels
- Improve insulin sensitivity
- Increase energy
- Improve fat-burning
- Lowers blood cholesterol
- Prevents Alzheimer’s disease
- Extends life
- Reverse aging process
- Decrease inflammation
- Refined carbohydrates are prime contributor to high insulin levels, the natural place to start with was a low-carbohydrate diet. Protein, especially animal proteins (dairy and meat), also stimulate insulin production, and excessive intake slows down progress. Processed foods also play a key role in disease.
- The best diet emphasize whole, unprocessed foods. It would be low in refined carbohydrates and high in natural fats with a moderate amount of protein.
- Advantage #1: It’s Simple
- It is so simple that it can be explained in two sentences: Eat nothing. Drink water, tea, coffee, or bone broth.
- Most obvious benefit to fasting is that its simplicity makes it effective. When it comes to dietary rules, the simpler, the better.
- Advantage #2: It's Free
- If diet is unaffordable, it does not truly matter if it is effective. The price makes it ineffective for those who cannot afford to follow it.
- Fasting is free and actually saves money because you do not need to buy any food at all!
- Most diets tell you what to do. Fasting tells you not to do anything. It doesn’t get easier than that.
- Advantage #3: It's Convenient
- Fasting restores the ability to occasionally enjoy the desserts by balancing out the feasts. This is how we have always lived.
- Advantage #4: You Can Enjoy Life’s Little Pleasures
- The most important aspect of fasting is fitting it into your life. Fasting is really about balance. Balance time you eat, and time you not eat to remain healthy. When those two fall out of balance, that’s when we get into trouble.
- Advantage #5: It’s Powerful
- Fasting has no ceiling, which offers significant therapeutic flexibility. In other words, you can keep fasting until the desired effects are seen. The dose can go up indefinitely.
- Advantage #6: It’s Flexible
- Fasting can be done at any time. There is no set duration. You can mix and match time periods. You are never locked into a pattern. Life is unpredictable. Fasting fits wherever you need it to.
- Fasting can be done anywhere.
- If you do not feel well for any reason, you simply stop fasting.
- Advantage #7: It Works with Any Diet
- The biggest advantage of all: fasting can be added to any diet.
- You don’t eat meat? You can still fast.
- You don’t eat wheat? You can still fast.
- You have a nut allergy? You can still fast.
- You don’t have time? You can still fast.
- You don’t have money? You can still fast.
- You are traveling all the time? You can still fast.
- You don’t cook? You can still fast.
- You are eighty years old? You can still fast.
- You have problems chewing? You can still fast.
CHAPTER 5: Fasting for Weight Loss
- “Eat Less, Move More” Doesn’t Work
- Insulin’s Crucial Role in Weight Loss and Regain
- If you’re cutting calories and have low insulin levels, it’s easy for your body to compensate for the reduced food energy by getting fat even if your glycogen fridge isn’t completely empty.
- Low insulin levels allow access to fat and trigger fat-burning for energy. If insulin levels are abnormally low, then fat is continually burned.
- High insulin levels prevent the body from accessing fat. Insulin inhibits lipolysis—it stops the body from burning fat.
- Insulin resistance, sometimes called prediabetes or metabolic syndrome, is the most common situation where insulin levels are persistently kept abnormally high. It cause cells to be less sensitive to insulin and unable to move glucose into cells, leading to buildup of glucose in the blood. To compensate, the body produce extra insulin, forcing glucose in. This leads to constant high insulin levels, which blocks fat-burning. Insulin resistance plays such a crucial role in obesity: the high insulin levels tell your body to hang onto body fat and simultaneously trigger the body to lower your metabolism.
- High Insulin + Reduced Calories = Slowing Metabolism
- Insulin is the main driver of obesity and diabetes. A very low carb diet can reduce insulin by more than 50 percent, but you can go another 50 percent by fasting. That’s power.
- The inability of most diets to reduce insulin resistance is exactly why they eventually result in weight regain. Fasting, on the other hand, introduces prolonged periods of low insulin levels, which breaks the cycle of high insulin and insulin resistance.
- Bariatric surgery, commonly called “stomach stapling.”
CHAPTER 6: Fasting for Type 2 Diabetes
- Type 2 diabetes is a dietary and lifestyle disease. In response to frequent high blood sugar, the body produces excessive insulin, which leads to insulin resistance. There is a clear association between type 2 diabetes and obesity, and weight loss often reverses this type of diabetes.
- Consult with your doctor, especially when you are on diabetes medication before you start fasting. It is generally best to reduce medication during fasting.
- Careful monitoring of the blood sugar during fasting is essential.
CHAPTER 7: Fasting for a Younger, Smarter You
- Boosting Brainpower. Humans, like all mammals, have an increase in mental activity when hungry and a decrease when satiated.
- During caloric deprivation is that the brain maintains or even boosts its abilities.
- Insulin levels have an inverse correlation to memory—the lower the insulin level, the more memory improves. On the flip side, a higher body mass index is linked to decline in mental abilities and decrease blood flow to those areas of the brain involving in attention, focus, reasoning, and more complex, abstract thought. So fasting provides neurological benefits two ways: it decreases insulin and leads to consistent, maintained weight loss.
- Slow Aging through the autophagy process (a form of cellular cleansing). Old cells gets destroyed and replaced with new cells.
CHAPTER 8: Fasting for Heart Health
- High Cholesterol Isn't a Dietary Problem. Our liver generates 80 percent of the cholesterol found in the blood, so eating less cholesterol makes little or no difference. It's the lipoproteins carried along with the cholesterol particle that determine whether it's good or bad.
CHAPTER 9: What You Need to Know About Hunger
CHAPTER 10: Who Should Not Fast?
CHAPTER 11: Kinds of Fasts and Best Practices
CHAPTER 12: Intermittent Fasting
CHAPTER 13: Longer Periods of Fasting
CHAPTER 14: Extended Fasting
CHAPTER 15: Fasting Tips and FAQs
Fasting Fluids
24-Hour Fasting Protocol
36-Hour Fasting Protocol
42-Hour Fasting Protocol
7 - to - 14 Day Fasting Protocol
Recipes (Only ones I interested)
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