Fasting for Longevity!
Today is Friday. My last meal was Sunday evening. On Monday morning I had two teaspoons of tasteless MCT oil (medium chain triglycerides derived from coconut) to help my body get a head start on ketone production. Ketones, made famous by the ketogenic diet, are produced in the liver and are a form of energy for the body using fat instead of glucose. I am not sure if that small amount of oil made a difference for my body as it used up my stores of glucose, but I thought, hey, why not? Besides that, I had a small amount of coffee each morning: one tiny cup of stovetop espresso and another half the size poured over ice and fresh lemon verbena from the garden and topped up with more water. That was my only treat each day. Some may call that cheating, but I had to have something to look forward to! In addition, I supplemented with magnesium each morning and evening, drank mineral water some of the time, and regular water the rest of the time with a small amount of good salt stirred in (I currently have Himalayan pink salt in the house and used that. I also like Guérande grey salt from France). For me, magnesium supplementation has been key during fasting. I tried it with only salt water, and even some pickle juice, but I have found that extra minerals really help me feel good. The brand of mineral water that I use for fasting is high in magnesium and contains potassium and other trace minerals. As for a food plan, that was it! I should also mention that I stayed with my regular work routine. No one, except for my immediate family, even knew what I was up to.
Do I fast to lose weight? Nope. When I first started fasting a few years ago, I thought that it would help me lose weight, but it really does not seem to make that big of a difference, especially in just four or five days. I am sure that I lose mostly water, some fat, and a small amount of muscle. I have read that a person can lose about .5 pound or about 225 grams of fat per day on a fast. For a man like Gandhi, his shorter fasts were dangerous to his health because he was already so frail, but for someone with my build and level of health, there is no danger. Please be advised that fasting is not for everyone: children, people who are underweight, individuals with eating disorders, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and others who are unwell and taking medications should not fast. Please consult with your doctor.
The real benefit of fasting is protection against disease and this is what interests me. By fasting, we tap into our body’s natural defenses. When the body goes without food, it turns on all sorts of protective processes through the expression of genes, known as epigenetics. The body also goes through a process of autophagy, which means, quite literally, self-eating and while it sounds scary, it is beneficial. You can think of it, if you like, as taking out the garbage. In this case, the junk we are clearing out are the senescent cells, sometimes referred to as zombie cells, that have become dormant and can be co-opted in the formation of cancer. In ridding ourselves of these cells we lower our risk of developing cancer. It takes about four days to get into this state of clearing out these old cells. And, once we begin refeeding and break the fast, the body also responds positively by producing stem cells. This has been studied in detail by many, including Dr. Valter Longo who has developed the Fasting Mimicking Diet, which allows certain and limited foods over five days, but where the body still behaves as if fasting. Dr. Longo also works on the benefits of fasting during chemotherapy, which tends to decrease the related ill effects as well as increase the efficacy of the treatment.
On the fun side is the feasting where there have also been adaptations that help us store energy as fat when food is plentiful to last us during times of scarcity. These adaptations are very well studied and outlined in the work of Dr. Richard J. Johnson. Coined the survival switch, these processes guarantee that we have enough fat storage to survive a food shortage. His work studies the principle role of uric acid and its connection with the triggers of fructose intake, fructose production (yes, our bodies can make sugar!) and salt intake/dehydration. Even foods containing glutamate (the source of the umami taste) can trigger the switch. Our bodies, however, have not adapted to staying in this survival mode of storing fat for, well, our entire lives! There is a time for saving and a time for using up those stores. Fasting brings balance to these adaptations. Without that balance, we essentially eat ourselves sick and invite chronic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes and the like. While starving to death is quicker, feasting without end leads to the chronic diseases that now plague our society.
And so, fasting is part of my toolkit to a longer healthspan, beating disease and slowing the aging process! For me, it is not just about living more years but extending the healthy years as long as possible, ideally right up until death. That is, I want a long healthy life free of the chronic diseases that are now commonplace, and to die at a ripe old age, the older the better! I have heard friends or family say that they never want to get old! I would argue that what they really mean is that they do not want to age like their loved ones who suffered from chronic conditions for years, sometimes decades, before death.
According to Dr. Longo, one fast of five days has lasting benefits. He recommends two such fasts per year for someone who is already healthy, and perhaps one fast per month for someone who “has high fasting glucose, high blood pressure, abdominal adiposity (so they’re overweight or obese, etc.), or they have a high risk of cancer in the family, they probably need to do it once a month.” This, of course, should done under supervision of a health practitioner.
For a quick anecdote, I should mention that I used to be bothered by a ganglion cyst in my left wrist, a sort of hernia that caused a lump about the size of half a golf ball. It was painful and got in the way of my piano playing. It would sometimes drain, usually accidentally–like after the time I slipped on some ice and fell on my left side–but then would always return shortly after. One time, right before a four-day fast the swelling went down and after the fast, well, it just never came back. It has now been years. I attribute it to the healing properties of the increased number of stem cells after the fast. Another, much more compelling anecdote, comes from the French martial artist, Guy Tenenbaum who healed from colon cancer with fasting as the key component of the reversal of his condition.
Is fasting fun? Not really. It would be much more satisfying to do culturally within a community like many of the religions who undergo rituals of fasting. Even though I tend to put off fasting–I was planning to fast back in August when the kids were in camp, but something else came up and it took me until October to finally do it–I do feel quite fine, especially since I added the magnesium. In fact, this time around Day 4 felt great! It was probably because my body adjusted to using ketones for energy. And, I was able to do a decent leg workout even if not at my maximum strength.
Many people have told me that they could never fast! I do not blame them for thinking that, but we adapted thousands of years ago to be able to survive times of scarcity. The survival switch triggered by fructose intake was an adaptation in our ancestor apes, long before humans existed. One thing that I would mention is that it takes some getting used to using fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. Even before doing a 24-hour fast, I would recommend reducing high glycemic carbohydrates and slightly increasing good fats like avocado and olive oil. This will help your body adapt to using fat as energy. A person who relies on eating lots of carbs, even healthy things like bananas and such, might have difficulty or feel very hungry when trying a fast for the first time.
What did I eat today to break the fast? Well, two days ago I started a low simmering grassfed beef bone broth. This morning I had a large mug of this restorative broth. About an hour later, I had my usual small cup of stovetop espresso accompanied, this time, by a generous portion of unsalted nuts. An hour after that, I had a small glass of coconut kefir, then started making my brunch which was a grassfed burger with fresh oregano some cumin and minced red onion, topped with caramelized red onions with fresh rosemary, shitake mushrooms and fresh thyme sauteed in grassfed ghee, some keto mayonnaise made with avocado oil, grainy mustard, warmed up sliced cherry tomatoes from the garden, all served on a bed of romaine lettuce. It was a healthy feast that I happily shared with my wife! I have to say that my belly felt great! I have made the mistake of overdoing it right after a fast. In fact, after my first long fast I made a giant feast that included slow roasted lamb neck and tons of vegetables and it turned out to be a disaster! (My stomach, not the meal.) I have also learned that I do not do well with eggs after a fast.
If you would like to read more about how to fast and the benefits of fasting, I suggest checking out what Dr. Valter Longo and Dr. Jason Fung have to say.
How about you? Have you had any experience with fasting? Leave a comment below!