Fasting: The new diet
Fasting brings many health benefits. In this diet you alternate periods of eating and fasting. Normally you will fast 16 hours and have 8 hours to eat.
Fasting is the new diet. It’s trendy and not difficult to follow. It is about fasting without this fact implying a sacrifice for people, since fasting often occurs unconsciously because the person is sleeping during their normal breakfast time. The new diet is: Sleep until noon and skip breakfast.* But if the person is awake and active in the mornings, the only thing they will have to do is go through their meal times. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern in which you alternate between periods of eating and fasting. Typically you will fast for 16 hours and have 8 hours to eat. For example, you have dinner at 8 at night, you spend the next 16 hours without eating, and you consume food again at 12 noon and you will continue eating for the next 8 hours, until 8 at night again. Although it sounds fun, this may be a solution to help some people lose weight. Intermittent fasting is becoming more popular, and there’s a good reason for that. The benefits it brings to health. Some of them are:
1. It can prevent diseases.
Intermittent fasting helps us reduce the appearance of cancer cells.* The fact of not having to digest food at all hours allows us to have more time to regenerate. This helps us prevent neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases.** Fasting also has cardioprotective properties.
2. It can give your immune system a big boost.
This diet, or way of eating, helps in the secretion of growth hormone, which has to do with the regeneration and improvement of the immune system, muscles and joints.
3. May regulate glucose.
With this diet we need to produce less insulin and we are able to manage blood glucose much more efficiently, protecting ourselves from drops or excesses of glucose.
**4. Boosts weight loss. **
*Fasting helps reduce body fat percentage and helps us better use fat as fuel. In addition, it helps us reduce bad cholesterol levels.
5. You can develop better brain health.
Fasting improves brain connections and helps neurons grow.** In some ways, intermittent fasting has the same benefits as challenging the brain like playing a musical instrument or learning a new language.
6. You may be able to eliminate stress.
Fasting induces a cellular stress response and increases the ability to cope with stress.
7. May prevent Alzheimer’s
By strengthening and improving brain connections, fasting would help prevent Alzheimer’s, as the person would reach adulthood much more lucid and healthy.
8. Prevents aging.
*Fasting decreases the accumulation of oxidative radicals in cells and, therefore, prevents oxidative damage to the body related to aging and disease. Eating at all hours deteriorates and ages us. Therefore, intermittent fasting gives our body the time it needs to detoxify and regenerate. Doing this diet doesn’t mean you’ll eat the entire refrigerator in the 8 hours available to eat. You will still need to follow a healthy lifestyle in order to lose weight. If you want more information on nutrition and health topics, or need advice to find the healthiest eating plan to help you lose weight, click here.
