Food Fasting – What’s it all about?

Dr. Ben Coupe
Nutrition

February 12, 2015

Fasting has become increasingly popular in recent times. Some of you may have personally tried fasting or at least know people who have. So what is it all about? Fasting is quite simply a food restriction for a certain period of time. Although popular in recent times, fasting itself has been practiced for thousands of years in many different cultures.

So why is fasting becoming so popular? The primary reason is increasing evidence supporting the positive health effects of fasting. The 5:2 diet (popularised by TV presenter Dr Michael Moore) has also contributed to the current trend in fasting due to consistent results in weight loss for its participants.

Fasting researchers and advocates claim that when the body doesn’t have to digest food it can direct its energy for detoxification and healing of the body and mind. The research is compelling. It has shown positive changes in a wide range of symptoms such as arthritis, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes, epilepsy, gastrointestinal, hypertension and obesity. Essentially people live longer and healthier if fasting is part of their lifestyle.

There are several ways to go about fasting. Here are a few popular ones;

• intermittent fasting – calorie restriction for intermittent periods of time (e.g. only eating between 12pm and 8pm)
• the popular 5:2 method – calorie restriction for two days a week and eating as normal for the rest of the time
• juice fasting – nothing but juice for a set period of time (can be from a single day to weeks)
• water fasting – nothing but water for a set period of time (can be from a single day to weeks) In order to test this out two of our chiropractors (Ben and Viktor) recently tried a water only fast for 3 days. That’s right. No food for 72 hours straight! Although the hunger experienced for the first 2 days was very challenging what surprised them both was that hunger symptoms disappeared on the 3rd day. The positive effects however were amazing. Both experienced a new sense of lightness to the body. One can only speculate if this feeling is from losing weight quickly or that there was actually a release of toxins from the tissues but there was a profound ability to move more freely. Ben also noticed a significant change to his skin. Areas of dried or damaged skin notably cleared up and healed. Improved mental clarity was also significant noted. Both felt a definite a sense of detoxification.

If you’re interested in finding out a more about their experiences talk to either Ben or Viktor. For more information we recommend visiting this site www.allaboutfasting.com. Excellent books about fasting include ‘The Miracle of Fasting’ by Paul Bragg & ‘Fasting and Eating for Health’ by Joel Fuhrma