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Melissa McEwen
This blog is about the intersection between evolutionary biology and food. But also about practical applications, sustainable agriculture, and general tasty things.
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Quick Note: is Fasting really Paleo?
I keep seeing things about how fasting isn't paleo because the paleolithic was an environment of abundance. So? So is Brooklyn, that doesn't mean we eat all the time.
Ever just not feel like cooking? Ever plan your day badly and end up skipping breakfast? I wouldn't be surprised if hunter-gatherers did the same. After all, butchering animals IS tough work.
So I'll just reference one of my old posts on Daniel Everett's book Don't Sleep There Are Snakes, which is about the Pirahã tribe: "They have no food preservation methods and simply eat when they have made a kill. Apparently being hungry is no obstacle to exerting themselves: "I have seen people dance for three days with only brief breaks, not hunting, not fishing, or gathering -- and without stockpiled foods."
So fast if you want to, but the idea that fasting is inhuman and damages your metabolism seems bunk to me. Lean Gains has a good post about it. That said, I think fasting is for HEALTHY people. If you are trying to repair your body, eat well and then fast when things are normalized a little better. I also think that fasting should never feel bad. If you are healthy and fasting properly you should be perfectly functional, not obsessed with food, and in a good mood. If you aren't those things...maybe you need to take a step back and nourish yourself first.
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Other people may have
Other people may have different experiences, but I always feel much better and more energetic during a fast lasting 3-5 days. And there's no hunger after the second or third day.
I'm coming from a very sick
I'm coming from a very sick perspective having experienced a severe (and nearly fatal) state of metabolic derangement earlier this year. After only three weeks on Paleo, I found myself, purely by accident, fasting. To begin with it was only once a week by missing breakfast due to being busy on Saturday mornings. During my sixth week I caught myself on a 20 hour fast by missing dinner (I didn't even realize it until I was getting in bed!) and then missing breakfast the next morning. Despite the fact that I am still recovering from metabolic syndrome I still feel that fasting occasionally is not only ok, it's normal and necessary. I really think that if my body actually needed something it would tell me, but after going Paleo and having that solid nutrional base I'm just not hungry.
It also seems logical to me that since digestion itself requires a tremendous amount of energy that maybe in order to repair the systemic damage I've suffered, my body simply needs to utilize that energy elsewhere.
Not a scientific explanation by any means, but honest observation from my own experience.
After I haven't eaten for 18
After I haven't eaten for 18 hours I consider myself to be on a hunger strike.
Fasting is pretty good but be
Fasting is pretty good but be careful, last year before I discovered paleo (well knew about it but that was about it) I had a pretty hectic work schedule and a not so great diet (cereal when I had time, subway on way home, lots of take out) and ended up in the hospital twice with seizures from forgetting to eat for long periods of time at work/class.
A huge hospital bill later I learned my lesson, now I can pull off 28 hour fasts with a workout to finish, but only because my nutrition is optimal. I guess I'm just trying to say fasting is good, but only if you already have a healthy base.
Just another instance of a
Just another instance of a ridiculous attempt at paleo re-enactment. I think it's really idiotic to reject fasting, or anything for that matter, on the grounds that it doesn't fit in with how we presently believe people lived in the paleolithic. We are not living in the paleolithic, and we don't, at least I don't, eat paleo style because I'm trying to be a cave person or something. The anthropology helps us understand the nutritional choices which we now can make more responsibly based on the understanding we have via scientific inquiry. I feel sorry for people who are stuck in the paleo/not paleo mindset. Paleolithic peoples didn't eat grains because they hadn't developed the means to eat them...I don't eat grains, but not not because my ancestors didn't. I don't eat them because my contemporaries have discovered that they are shit food, and it doesn't matter if they someday discover that cavemen were chowing down on primitive baguettes. If you don't want to fast, don't fast. If you want to, do it. There's a lot more to fasting than whether or not it fits what we imagine our ancestors to have done. And speaking from a religious background, intermittent fasting is not really the same thing as fasting in a religious context. Eating paleo, I find it completely natural and effortless to do an intermittent fast for 16-18 hours. What I've found most fascinating is that it is indeed so effortless and simplifies life...I don't have to constantly think about food and if I don't eat breakfast it doesn't matter, my stomach isn't roaring for four hours before lunch. I see that as an advantage that I have over most people who are still dependent on carbs and sugar for constant refueling.
There is a reason why fasting
There is a reason why fasting is considered one of the most spiritually significant things a person can do.
Fasting will increase insulin
Fasting will increase insulin and leptin sensitivity. So fasting may make the sick well.
Plus it gives you cell autophagy. Much to my surprise, autophagy is a big field of study that has little communication with the medical community. They even have their own scientific journal.
Yeah. This makes me wonder
Yeah. This makes me wonder whether force feeding the sick is actually counterproductive. Perhaps appetite is subconsciously reduced because the body's trying to heal?
At the University of Illinois
At the University of Illinois I took a vetrinary seminar where the professor argued just that. He'd worked with thousands of animals and seen the starve to heal phenomenon so many times that we recommended everyone practice it! A bold thing to say for a rather conventional professor.
Interesting, and pretty cool
Interesting, and pretty cool of him. It definitely jibes with my experience.
When my dog isn't feeling well, a two-day fast seemingly does the trick.
Huh- cool connection with
Huh- cool connection with autophagy! I'd always thought the in vitro amino acid deprivation that people use to produce autophagy was a little extreme to be relevant in vivo, but a quick search brought up some interesting papers. Definitely something interesting to think about!
I agree with you that fasting can perhaps make (some) sick, well (Type 2 diabetics in particular could probably get some real advantages from fasting).
Love it. The fasting AND the
Love it. The fasting AND the dancing for three days.