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I have always been fascinated by the religious practices of fasting. I’ve always wondered why do people do it and how they are able to go without eating for days when I cannot go even a few hours without eating before I start to feel depleted of my energy. I started to think about the health benefits of fasting, if there are any. It turns out fasting could solve lots of health issues and increase your life span.
First, why do religious groups fast? Perhaps the most famous religious fasting practice is the Muslim holiday of . Ramadan lasts for one month (the ninth month in the twelve month Islamic calendar) where Muslims do not eat or drink for every day in the month from sunrise to sunset. The fasting is supposed to remind worshipers of people who are hungry and are suffering in the world. It is also supposed to maintain empathy for those suffering. There are clear psychological and moral benefits to fasting in this sense, but what about the health benefits?
Intermittent fasting is a broad-range term for diets which follow a plan of cycling between periods of fasting and non-fasting. suggests there are ten potential benefits to intermittent fasting. More can be read by clicking the link above, but I will be explaining a few which I believe to be of most benefit to fasting.
The above chart is a proposed fasting schedule.
The first benefit is that intermittent fasting can reduce weight and help lose body fat. Fasting will enhance hormone function, lower insulin levels and increase amounts of norepinephrine. All of these facilitate the burning of body fat and promote weight loss. In addition, short-term fasting can increase metabolic rate by 3.6-14%. Increased metabolism allows for increased burning of calories.
In addition, fasting can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a condition when your body does not utilize the insulin it produces properly. The pancreas starts to produce extra insulin to compensate, but over time it is not able to produce enough insulin (). Fasting reduces insulin resistance, lowering blood sugar levels by 3-6% and reducing insulin levels by 20-31%. This all contributes to the reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes.
Heart disease is currently the number one killer in the world (). Intermittent fasting has been shown to improve risk factors for heart disease in animals including cholesterol, blood pressure, blood triglycerides, and blood sugar levels. Most of this evidence has come from animal testing and more human testing must be done.
Lastly, and possibly most importantly, intermittent fasting may help prevent cancer. Fasting has been shown to reduce cell proliferation rates, an elemental aspect of cancer development. Cell proliferation reduction has been demonstrated with reduced feeding frequency. Again, lots of these studies have been done on animals; however, fasting has also been shown to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy in humans. Lots of other health benefits from fasting can be explored .
The evidence given shows that intermittent fasting can be quite beneficial to your health. The only negative about it is that most testing has been done on animals rather than humans. Clearly, more testing must be done on humans to truly understand the benefits to humans. Regardless, periodically starving yourself may be the secret to a longer, healthier, and happier life.
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