The Additional Healthy Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
Autophagy
When you’re fasting, you’re turning on your body’s natural detox cell renewal mechanism.
Yes. Your body is designed not only to survive but to thrive.
The word autophagy means ‘self-consumption’. Your body consumes or absorbs cellular parts that are deteriorating or not functioning properly.
That’s Your Natural Anti-Aging Mechanism
Cell- renewal. Detoxification occurs naturally within you.
You don’t have to take a pill or mix a powder or drink a potion to detox. Your body does it for you, automatically, on its own.
But it only does it when you’re not eating for periods of time.
What autophagy turns on naturally, because your body is making new cell parts, is production of human growth hormone. It is released during fasting.
Think about every night when you’re sleeping. If you get a good 12 hours stretch of time where you’re sleeping and not eating, that’s enough time for autophagy to kick in.
That’s why we sometimes refer to a ‘good night’s sleep’ as beauty sleep. We look refreshed and renewed. Well…we are. Not just rested but renewed by cellular turnover.
How fortunate we are that some of our best health defense takes place when we’re sleeping.
Apoptosis
Within autophagy is the powerful anti-cancer mechanism, apoptosis.
Apoptosis is cell- programmed self suicide. What does that mean?
If a cell is misbehaving it should naturally self-destruct.
Cancer is a former healthy functioning cell that, for some reason, is now operating off plan and is in unchecked growth mode. That’s the simplified, fifth grade explanation of cancer.
Every cell in our body could become a cancer cell, growing out of control and taking over. For some reason it began misbehaving (the Hdac possibility mentioned earlier) and for some reason it’s self-destruct, apoptosis, didn’t happen.
Why Would Apoptosis Not Happen?
One reason is that apoptosis is turned off when we’re eating.
Apoptosis is enabled when the body is not processing food. That’s why I cringe when I hear health and weight loss trainers telling people to eat six meals a day. We’ve been programmed to over-nutrition. Over eat. Eat too often.
We need to create spans of time of not eating so that apoptosis is enabled.
Brain and Nerve Health
We talked about BDNF already. Your body’s self-generated brain and nerve health compound. Your body’s natural ability to regenerate and rejuvenate both brain and nerves.
BDNF is excellent anti-Alzheimer’s and anti-neuropathy action. Brain degeneration and nerve pain hard-wiring can both be avoided.
We ensure BDNF release when we eat less often.
Clean Powerful Energy
Ketones are energy particles naturally created when body fat is metabolized or burning.
How much of a win is this?
You’re dining in’ on your body fat and, at the same time, you’re getting this surge of physical and mental energy that you haven’t felt since you were 12 years old.
Maybe We Should Call It The Fasters High?
That’s what ketones are.
They’re clean burning molecules of energy you get to enjoy when you are burning body fat.
But, when you’re burning sugar, guess what. Your body isn’t generating ketones. Instead it’s generating damaging free-radicals.
Now, to be clear, your body will indeed burn sugar often. It’s simply part of living.
However, It’s Critical That You Reclaim Your Ability To Burn Your Body Fat Too
Once re-adapted to body fat burning you will enjoy more energy, less weight (duh), and less free-radical damage.
Burning sugar is oxidative, rusting.
Recall the apple slice we discussed above.
Internal rusting accelerates when we operate primarily in sugar burning. But body fat is clean, long burning fuel.
Those of us who understand how to nudge our body into ketosis, fat burning, whenever we choose, don’t have to spend money on antioxidant supplements like the sugar-burners do. We’re not in unchecked free-radical production like most folks.
Immunity Boost
Your immune system gets a boost because you give it a break.
Think about that.
You give your body a break when you’re not eating. That’s a powerful mind shift.
Virus and infections and candida and cancer, every other kind of lousy feeds on ……… glucose. Sugar.
When you’re fasting you are putting stress on the very thing that is trying to thrive in you. Not on your watch!
When you shift from primarily sugar burning (sickness feeding) to fat burning and naturally eat less often because of your shift, you discover that you get sick far less often.
I have the pleasure of coaching many, many teachers who no longer get every cold that sweeps through their school. We have nurses who stay healthy despite the exhausting schedule and close contact.
How cool is it to lose weight, not be hungry, AND stay healthy while the rest of the office is crying the flu-season blues? Talk about preventative measures, am I right?
Slowed Aging
AGEs or Advanced Glycated Endproducts happen. But they happen far more and far faster to sugar burners.
Fat Burners Stay Younger, Longer
Sure, we’re all susceptible to AGE formation and we will all age, but we can determine the speed. We can choose to generate far less of them by shifting away from sugar burning and engaging in fat burning more frequently.
Let’s take a look at the timing.
