Topic:The Health Benefits of Fasting The Health Benefits of Fasting Will Carroll There has been much contention in the scientific field about whether or not fasting is beneficial to one's health. Fasting is an integral part of many of the major religions including Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Many are dubious as to whether the physiological effects are as beneficial as the spiritual promoted by these religions. There is a significant community of alternative healers who believe that fasting can do wonders for the human body. This paper will look at the arguments presented by these healers in an attempt to raise awareness of the possible physiological benefits that may result from fasting. Fasting technically commences within the first twelve to twenty-four hours of the fast. A fast does not chemically begin until the carbohydrate stores in the body begin to be used as an energy source. The fast will continue as long as fat and carbohydrate stores are used for energy, as opposed to protein stores. Once protein stores begin to be depleted for energy (resulting in loss of muscle mass) a person is technically starving. (1) The benefits of fasting must be preceded by a look at the body's progression when deprived of food. Due to the lack of incoming energy, the body must turn to its own resources, a function called autolysis. (2) Autolysis is the breaking down of fat stores in the body in order to produce energy. The liver is in charge of converting the fats into a chemical called a ketone body, "the metabolic substances acetoacetic acid and beta-hydroxybutyric acid" (3), and then distributing these bodies throughout the body via the blood stream. "When this fat utilization occurs, free fatty acids are released into the blood stream and are used by the liver for energy." (3) The less one eats, the more the body turns to these stored fats and creates these ketone bodies, the accumulation of which is referred to as ketosis. (4) Detoxification is the foremost argument presented by advocates of fasting. "Detoxification is a normal body process of eliminating or neutralizing toxins through the colon, liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph glands, and skin." (5). This process is precipitated by fasting because when food is no longer entering the body, the body turns to fat reserves for energy. "Human fat is valued at 3,500 calories per... ... middle of paper ... ...g. The isolated worm outlasted its relatives by 19 generations, while still maintaining its youthful physiological traits. The worm was able to survive on its own tissue for months. Once the size of the worm began to decrease, the scientists would resume feeding it at which point it showed great vigor and energy. "The life-span extension of these worms was the equivalent of keeping a man alive for 600 to 700 years." (8) In conclusion, it seems that there are many reasons to consider fasting as a benefit to one's health. The body rids itself of the toxins that have built up in our fat stores throughout the years. The body heals itself, repairs all the damaged organs during a fast. And finally there is good evidence to show that regulated fasting contributes to longer life. However, many doctors warn against fasting for extended periods of time without supervision. There are still many doctors today who deny all of these points and claim that fasting is detrimental to one's health and have evidence to back their statements. The idea of depriving a body of what society has come to view as so essential to our survival in order to heal continues to be a topic of controversy.
Bone broth fasts do have their benefits. Bone broth is rich in amino acids that tighten the skin, cleanse the liver, support the colon, hormone detoxification, and help repair intestinal permeability ("leaky gut"). It is also high in minerals and nutrients that support overall general
In summary, after having a clearer grasp and an overview of the different effective protocols and variations of intermittent fasting, you will only have to select from which among these aforementioned methods suits you best with your lifestyle
For centuries, many variations of fasting have been used in an attempt to improve health. Recently however, the practicality of long-term fasting has been questioned, therefore causing intermittent fasting to emerge with debatable weight loss results. According to Adrianna Taylor Abbott, in her book Intermittent Fasting, this method of fasting is much more than simply dieting. Rather, it has evolved into a revolutionary way of living life and of improving overall fitness. This review will examine the overall reliability of the book’s claims as well as whether intermittent fasting should indeed be trusted as a viable method for weight loss.
The brain and body prefer to use glucose, a product of the digestion of carbohydrates, as an energy source. Therefore, the severe reduction of carbohydrates has many negative effects on the body. By eating only protein and fats the body will go into starvation mode. In the absence of a sufficient amount of carbohydrates the body is forced to use stored blood sugar from the liver and muscles. This process results in an initial protein tissue loss and urinary loss of electrolytes. Protein tissues, muscles, are mostly composed of water; consequently, the elimination of carbohydrates in the body causes the body to start to undergo a process known as ketosis. With this large amount of water loss, it appears that the body is rapidly losing an abundant amount of weight. Although appealing to the dieter, this rapid weight loss from decreased carbohydrates can pose a variety of health risks. Because of the decreased amount of carbohydrate...
Most of these claims are false to some degree. Juice fasting can be dangerous for some people because it can cause liver, kidney, and gastrointestinal tract damage and also brain deprivation. The high sugar consumption in a juice fast can skyrocket blood sugar levels in diabetics or lead to liver damage. High levels of minerals and potassium from excessive juice consumption can build up in the blood and lead to kidney damage (Zamon,huffpost). This can become a concern as a body ages. There is actually no reason to do a juice fast for a detox since “The function of the liver and kidneys is to detoxify the body. The liver regulates the blood’s chemical levels while the kidneys help remove waste from the body to be excreted in the urine.” (Stoddard, Eatthis) The fast is wearing on the digestive tract because when a person stops using digestive enzymes, their body thinks they are not needed and stops producing them. This will lead to complications when reintroducing foods into the diet. In addition “Limiting important nutrients like protein can lead to decreased brain function and disruptions in neurotransmitters, which rely on protein to do their job”(Stoddard). These are only a few of the side effects that may occur on a 60 day juice
I’m not getting what I used to, so I’m going to slow down to conserve energy.” BOOM! Your metabolism drops and your body begins using less energy and requiring less energy. But then you start to eat like a normal person and your body doesn’t realize that it should metabolize those calories faster. It’s too worried that the food will stop like it did when you were dieting.
Trepanowski, J., Canale, R., Marshall, K., Kabir, M., & Bloomer, R. (2011). Impact of caloric and dietary restriction regimens on markers of health and longevity in humans and animals: a summary of available findings. Nutr J, 10: 107. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-10-107.
The absorptive state is the time during and right after eating a meal. The absorptive state lasts for four hours, during and after each meal. During this state glucose is the most important energy fuel. Amino acids and fats are used to form degraded protein, and small amounts are used to provide ATP. Metabolites are transformed to fat if they are not used for anabolism. Glucose is formed by the conversion of fructose and galactose, which are stored in the liver from the entrance of monosaccharides. Glucose is released into the blood, or converted to glycogen and fat. Some glucose enters the liver and is used for energy, and any that is not used will be stored in skeletal muscle as glycogen or in adipose cells as fat. Liver, skeletal muscle, and adipose cells use triglycerides as their primary energy source. Amino acid are also used by the liver to synthesize plasma proteins. Essentially all of the events that occur in the absorptive state are directed by insulin.
Many people believe that fasting is not recommended. That is a false notion to many because they believe that fasting will affect the concentration of a person when one is hungry. This might be true at the beginning but in long run it does not. It has been proven that those people who adopt a serious program of fasting improve their attention, concentration span, focusness and alertness.
Food needs to be broken down further for the body to use the nutrients food carries. The stomach secretes pepsin and hydrochloric acid that help kill pathogens found within ingested food. Food will stay in the stomach for a few hours before it moves into the small intestine.
...gy especially if you are constantly travelling for long periods of time. Intermitting fasting has been proved to slow down ageing, increase the body’s capacity to resist stress and reduce triglyceride levels in the body due to improved cellular stress response that is built as you are in a fasted state.
Scientists claim that the consumption of fast food leads to rapid weight gain, heart attacks, diabetes, reduced immunity, irreversible changes in the liver, raising the level of cholesterol in the blood. The fat contained in fast food, mainly consists of saturated fatty acids, which are deposited on the walls of blood vessels.
When a person exercises the body uses either sugar or fatty acids as fuel to create energy. During the beginning of an exercise most of the sugar that is used as fuel comes from the bloodstream or the muscles. After about 15 minutes the fuel starts to come from the liver. When one exercises after 30 minutes the body receives energy from free fatty acids and glycogen gets stored resulting in a decrease in blood sugar levels. Glycogen is the sugar stored in the liver and muscles.
When fasting your body eats fatty acids, and ketone bodies, which then release energy in the process.
The benefits of fasting can also produce toxins that accumulate in the body or detoxify. During fasting, you can detoxify or remove the toxins in the digestive system in a month. When the body takes up fat reserves for energy, fat reserves to burn any harmful toxins in the body.