The Power of Fasting

As a health coach, of course, I would say that what you eat really matters. However, as research into this area expands, we are becoming increasingly aware that not eating can sometimes be almost as important. Through not eating for a period of time, also known as intermittent fasting, you create a magical process in the body called autophagy. It’s the genius clean-up function mother nature has given us.

The benefits of intermittent fasting

A lot of research has been done on intermittent fasting, and the results are encouraging. Not only does it promote weight loss, it has also been found to normalise blood sugar levels, reduce blood pressure and total cholesterol. At the same time, those who were well to begin with remained so. Their blood pressure, cholesterol and weight stayed the same.

As cells break down, autophagy mops up waste material before it can do too much harm. So scientists now think that autophagy created by intermittent fasting may offer some protection against brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Even cancerous cells find it harder to multiply and spread during autophagy.

How to start

The easiest way to make it work is to eat less or stop eating altogether – to fast or to trick your body into thinking that you are fasting.

Don't worry, that doesn’t mean that you need to stop eating for a week. Just hours. This is enough to trigger autophagy.

The best-known method of intermittent fasting is probably the “5:2 Diet”, made popular by the late TV doctor Michael Mosley a few years ago. It involves eating just 600 calories on two days a week while eating normally on the other five days (although, in later books, he upped the calorie allowance to 800).

Another way of intermittent fasting is time-restricted eating, in which you stop eating for a varying number of hours within a 24-hour period, aka 16:8 (eating only within an 8-hour window each day) or 14:10 (10-hour window). In a 16:8 scenario, for example, you would have a late breakfast at 11am and stop eating after an early dinner, thus not eating anything from 7 pm to 11 am the next morning. In practice, this will feel like simply skipping breakfast.

Or, if for you, breakfast is the most important meal, you start and stop early. You would have a good breakfast and stop eating earlier in the afternoon. Studies found that not eating in the evening led to better weight loss results.

The science

Small as they may be, our body’s cells are tiny hubs of activity, and just like in our own world, all that industry creates waste. Things wear out: mitochondria – the cells’ “batteries” – get old and malfunction, parts of the cell break down. All that rubbish cannot be left floating around, so there are organelles for waste collection: phagophores. These are the bin men of the cell world, collecting all the bits and pieces that no longer work, even mopping up invading microbes, such as bacteria and viruses as they go. They then take the junk to the 'the dump', a little bubble inside the cell, where enzymes break down the waste, recycling what they can.

When an old protein is broken down into its components, those components – amino acids – can be recycled to make new proteins or be used as extra fuel for the mitochondria. In times of famine, this process can even provide nutrients missing from the diet. It is called autophagy, or “self-eating” and it is an excellent thing.

Is your clean-up switch on or off?

Many processes in the body oppose each other, and there are feedback mechanisms that make them work. Think of this as a bit like a light switch. When one process is happening, the other cannot. The magical state of autophagy is opposed by the activity of mTor, an enzyme required for growth that monitors the body’s fuel supplies closely.

When you eat, and food is plentiful, mTor is switched on and works in growth and repair mode. If you’ve not eaten for a while and nutrients seem in short supply, it is switched off, and autophagy kicks in to clean up and extract fuels from the waste as described earlier.

As humans, we need both these systems. And in fact they evolved to get us through lean times … only there are hardly any lean times anymore.

When there is always plenty of fuel (the food you eat), mTor is working overtime and autophagy hardly gets a chance to kick in. No surprise then, that waste builds up, and you become vulnerable to disease. Autophagy only works when you are not eating (and have not eaten for a little while), and this is the reason why fasting is so good for you.

Factors that affect autophagy

Fasting is not the only thing you can do to promote autophagy. Certain foods and nutrients can also trigger it. Good news for coffee drinkers - coffee is one of them. Another is C8 oil. This is an “MCT” oil “medium-chain triglycerides”, a type of fat that occurs naturally in coconut oil, for example.

Other foods that contain nutrients to promote autophagy are seeds, fish and shellfish, olives and olive oil, brassica (plants from the cabbage family, such as cauliflower, Brussels sprouts,

kale and broccoli), mushrooms, blackcurrants, berries, turmeric, ginger, green tea, hibiscus, mint and bergamot (in Earl Grey tea).

On the other hand, there are foods that block autophagy, such as excess carbohydrates and excess protein, the latter especially from meat and dairy.

It is important, if you are going to promote autophagy, not to forget to exercise. Remember, when you scale down your carbohydrate intake or restrict calories, mTor, the protein for growth – including muscle growth - is switched off. When the body’s fuel supply is cut off, this is perceived as famine and – with the help of autophagy – proteins from muscle can be broken down to serve as fuel. Regular resistance exercise briefly switches autophagy off and mTor back on and that way helps to protect your muscles.

So, for better health, give your body a break from eating now and then. Try out intermittent fasting and see which version works best for you.

When you do eat, stick with real food as that gives you the best chance of stocking up on those vital nutrients that help autophagy work better.

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