Fasting: It's not Just for Breakfast Anymore!

This will ultimately be a long post, with a bunch of links to sources and studies.

The short version is this: fasting has therapeutic benefits, particularly when practiced under medical supervision. I forget the name of the only "fasting farm" in the United States, but it might be True North. I'll get back to you on that.

NOTE: only fast under medical supervision.

One of the things fasting fixes, for reasons that nobody understands, is high blood pressure. I'll post the studies here. Some folks need to fast once a year to get that effect, and as I said, the studies will get posted here. But the effects are so pronounced that some insurance companies will pay for the fasting farm!

Note that a juice fast isn't fasting. It's a juice orgy. Nothing wrong with some juice, except that it'll drive your blood sugar through the roof, ditto your insulin, if it's all you take in for a few days.

I think (my opinion) that a "juice fast" is as dumb as a stump. If you want to drink juice, say you're drinking juice. Don't say you're fasting.

Fasting is pretty simple. You don't eat, you drink water.

My wife fasted for 30 days. Lost about fifty pounds. Under medical supervision. Put her rheumatoid arthritis into remission.

Will it do the same for you? No clue, much less a guarantee.

It appears from a few studies that alternate day fasting may have life-prolonging effects similar to the Roy Walford sort of caloric restriction.

I plan to experiment with alternate-day fasting when I hit 60.

If I live, I'll let you know.

Here's my theory about alternate-day fasting and it's effects on lifespan: if you fast, your body starts dumping out human growth hormone. After a few days of fasting, lots of human growth hormone. That's because your insulin levels and blood sugar levels are in the basement. That increased level of HGH, I suspect, is the primary mechanism behind the life-extension effect of alternate day fasting.

And that's why a "juice fast" doesn't have the same effect as a fast.

When you fast, your blood sugar levels and insulin levels drop; your body can then access it's stores of fat.

When you pig out on juice, your blood sugar and insulin levels guarantee that your body cannot access it's supply of fat.

That means it gets to burn muscle instead.