Research showed that there was little or no benefit for obese people using ’Intermittent Fasting’, where you extend your overnight fast for a few more hours before and after sleep - however, this is not Intermittent Fasting, but 'Time Restricted Fasting'. The researchers got their terminology wrong!!!
Obese people gain little from restricting feeding hours
In a recent study(1), researchers from the Dept. of Nutrition University of Illinois, the Salk Institute at La Jolla, and the School of Public Health, Indiana University monitored a group of obese adults who had 8 hours of free feeding each day between 10.00 and 18.00, but then a water-only fast from 18.00 until 10.00 the following morning. This programme lasted for 12 weeks.
Results were compared with those of a matched control group who were not restricted.
On the positive side, the use of a 16 hour water fast each day did reduce these people’s calorie intake but only by about 53 k cals per day – less than in a small glass of white wine. Weight decreased by approximately 2.6% as a result. Systolic blood pressure decreased by about 7 points.
Wrong terminology used in Research Study
But people have joined this Intermittent Fasting bandwagon because health ‘experts’ in the USA have been telling them it’s good for their overall health on a number of levels. Several of them call restricting the hours you can eat during the day 'Intermittent fasting' when in fact it should be called Time Restricted fasting.
In this study, Time Restricted fasting did not seem to be of much benefit. There was absolutely no change for the research group in terms of fat mass, lean mass, visceral fat mass, diastolic blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, and homocysteine during or at the end of the 12 weeks.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and a founder of CANCERactive said, “Why am I not surprised at these findings? At CANCERactive, we have never recommended Time Restricted Fasting. There have been studies during Ramadan and several others in America, but people abuse the feeding hours and try to cram their normal diet into a restricted number of hours - it makes Time Restricted Fasting little more than a weight loss fad at best.
When we started covering research on both calorie restriction and fasting, we stressed the point that the benefits started coming when the body produced hormones called ‘sirtuins’ – this starts happening after about 24 hours without food. And eating for 5 days then fasting for at least 2 days will achieve this. We talked about Ayurvedic Medicine which has used fasting for thousands of years – three to five day fasts. We talked of Dr. Valter Longo, Professor of the USC School of Gerontology and his work with both animals and humans at UCLA. He researched and used 3-5 days fasts in both.
In fact, over the years we have covered a good number of research studies. For example, 3-5 day fasts stop cancer progression, reduce blood sugar, triglyceride and insulin levels to near zero, blood growth hormone (IGF-1) levels reduce significantly, and they bring about immune system regeneration. Fasting also improves the performance of chemotherapy while reducing side-effects greatly.
Go to: Fasting boosts immune system; improves cancer treatment
Longo is often quoted by health ‘experts’ in the USA (or perhaps I should say mis-quoted). He has just launched a book on Longevity and with it the ‘ProLon 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet’ that uses a calorie restricted basically plant diet to achieve the same goals as a water fast. It increases autophagy and weakens cancer cells, while strengthening stem cell and immune system regeneration. This Rainbow Diet style programme controls sugar and animal protein, both proven to drive cancer. Indeed he like me, hates the term ’Intermittent Fasting’. When, Dr. Haseem Malhotra brought out his Pioppi Diet, I said then that there is good research showing that his suggestion of skipping breakfast is actually damaging to the body. You can read the research benefits of the real Mediterranean diet here.
You can also find our in depth article on using three to five day fasts to improve your health, fight cancer and get you through chemotherapy using the link below.’
Go to: Fasting to cure cancer