Starvation literally means starvation. It doesn’t mean skipping a meal or not eating for 24 hours. Or not eating for three days even. The belief that meal skipping or short-term fasting causes “starvation mode” is so completely ridiculous and absurd that it makes me want to jump out the window. – Martin Berkhan

Is it a good thing to ‘starve’ yourself each day, or a few days of the week? Well, a tonne of evidence indicates that timed periods of fasting are a good thing.
Fasting has become increasingly popular over the years, especially among the health community. Whilst most health practitioners are afraid to recommend eating less due to the stigma involved, it still doesn’t alleviate the incredible benefits of fasting when used sensibly.

1. Fasting Helps Weight Loss
Fasting can be a safe way to lose weight as many studies have shown that intermittent fasting – fasting that is controlled within a set number of hours – allows the body to burn through fat cells more effectively than just regular dieting.
Intermittent fasting allows the body to use fat as it’s primary source of energy instead of sugar. Many athletesnow use fasting as means to hitting low body fat percentages for competitions.

2. Fasting Improves Insulin Sensitivity
Fasting has shown to have a positive effect on insulin sensitivity, allowing you to tolerate carbohydrates (sugar) better than if you didn’t fast. A study showed that after periods of fasting, insulin becomes more effective in telling cells to take up glucose from blood.

3. Fasting Speeds Up The Metabolism
Intermittent fasting gives your digestive system a rest, and this can energise your metabolism to burn through calories more efficiently. If your digestion is poor, this can effect your ability to metabolise food and burn fat. Intermittent fasts can regulate your digestion and promote healthy bowel function, thus improving your metabolic function.

4. Fasting Promotes Longevity
Believe it or not, the less you eat the longer you will live. Studies have shown how the lifespan of people in certain cultures increased due to their diets. However, we don’t need to live amongst a foreign community to reap the benefits of fasting. One of the primary effects of ageing is a slower metabolism, the younger your body is, the faster and more efficient your metabolism. The less you eat, the less toll it takes on your digestive system.

5. Fasting Improves Hunger
Just think about this, can you actually experience real hunger if you eat a meal every 3-4 hours? Of course you can’t. In fact, to experience the true nature of hunger, this would take anything from 12 to even 24 hours.
Fasting helps to regulate the hormones in your body so that you experience what true hunger is. We know that obese individuals do not receive the correct signals to let them know they are full due excessive eating patterns.
Think of fasting as a reset button: the longer you fast, the more your body can regulate itself to release the correct hormones, so that you can experience what real hunger is. Not to mention, when your hormones are working correctly, you get full quicker.

6. Fasting Improves Your Eating Patterns
Fasting can be a helpful practice for those who suffer with binge eating disorders, and for those who find it difficult to establish a correct eating pattern due to work and other priorities.
With intermittent fasting going all afternoon without a meal is okay and it can allow you to eat at a set time that fits your lifestyle. Also, for anyone who wants to prevent binge eating, you can establish a set time in where you allow yourself to eat your daily amount of calories in one sitting, and then not eat till the following day.

7. Fasting Improves Your Brain Function
Fasting has shown to improve brain function, because it boosts the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF.)
BDNF activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from changes associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

8. Fasting Improves Your Immune System
Intermittent fasting improves the immune system because it reduces free radical damage, regulates inflammatory conditions in the body and starves off cancer cell formation.
In nature, when animals get sick they stop eating and instead focus on resting. This is a primal instinct to reduce stress on their internal system so their body can fight off infection. We humans are the only species who look for food when we are ill, even when we do not need it.

9. Fasting Contributes To Self-Enlightenment
Fasting has helped many people feel more connected to life during the practices reading, meditation, yoga and martial arts etc. With no food in the digestive system, this makes room for more energy in the body – the digestive is one of the most energy absorbing systems in the body.
Fasting for self-enlightenment, allows us to feel better both consciously and physically. With a lighter body and a clearer mind we become more aware and grateful for the things around us.

10. Fasting Helps Clear The Skin And Prevent Acne
Fasting can help clear the skin because with the body temporarily freed from digestion, it’s able to focus its regenerative energies on other systems.
Not eating anything for just one day has shown to help the body clean up the toxins and regulate the functioning of other organs of the body like liver, kidneys and other parts.

No 1 will comment on a good topic such as this!

It because they don't like the truth or want to hear what's real.

Lexlutor:
No 1 will comment on a good topic such as this!

[b][/b]What is Intermittent Fasting and why would you do it?

Intermittent fasting is not a diet, it’s a pattern of eating. It’s a way of scheduling your meals so that you get the most out of them. Intermittent fasting doesn’t change what you eat, it changes when you eat.

Why is it worthwhile to change when you’re eating?

Well, most notably, it’s a great way to get lean without going on a crazy diet or cutting your calories down to nothing. In fact, most of the time you’ll try to keep your calories the same when you start intermittent fasting. (Most people eat bigger meals during a shorter time frame.) Additionally, intermittent fasting is a good way to keep muscle mass on while getting lean.

With all that said, the main reason people try intermittent fasting is to lose fat.

Perhaps most importantly, intermittent fasting is one of the simplest strategies we have for taking bad weight off while keeping good weight on because it requires very little behavior change. This is a very good thing because it means intermittent fasting falls into the category of “simple enough that you’ll actually do it, but meaningful enough that it will actually make a difference.”

How does Intermittent Fasting work?

To understand how intermittent fasting leads to fat loss we first need to understand the difference between the fed state and the fasted state.

Your body is in the fed state when it is digesting and absorbing food. Typically, the fed state starts when you begin eating and lasts for three to five hours as your body digests and absorbs the food you just ate. When you are in the fed state, it’s very hard for your body to burn fat because your insulin levels are high.

After that timespan, your body goes into what is known as the post–absorptive state, which is just a fancy way of saying that your body isn’t processing a meal. The post–absorptive state lasts until 8 to 12 hours after your last meal, which is when you enter the fasted state. It is much easier for you body to burn fat in the fasted state because your insulin levels are low.

When you’re in the fasted state your body can burn fat that has been inaccessible during the fed state.

Because we don’t enter the fasted state until 12 hours after our last meal, it’s rare that our bodies are in this fat burning state. This is one of the reasons why many people who start intermittent fasting will lose fat without changing what they eat, how much they eat, or how often they exercise. Fasting puts your body in a fat burning state that you rarely make it to during a normal eating schedule.

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op, can you highlight the benefits of fruits fast please?

Increased Nutrition:
Fruits and vegetables are packed with fiber, vitamins like A and C and nutrients like potassium and folate. Vitamin A supports your immune system, helps support vision and facilitates your red blood cells in storing and carrying iron, according to researchers at the Linus Pauling Institute. The vitamin C in citrus fruits and apples also supports your immune system as well as liver health. Potassium and folate are important for brain health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you eat different colors of fruits and vegetables to get the widest range of nutrients.

Efficient Elimination:
The fiber in fresh, whole fruits and vegetables helps your digestion and elimination systems do their jobs. As the American Cancer Society points out, many proponents of juicing suggest that you juice your fruits, but this robs them of essential fiber. You can then eat the pulp, but it makes more sense just to eat the whole fruit to begin with, since there is no benefit to extracting the juice first. In the case of starchy, high sugar produce like beets and carrots, the concentrated juice can pose a danger to diabetics.

Possible Disease Reduction:
Mark Mattson, a scientist with the National Institute on Aging, states in a 2007 article on NPR.com that he believes limiting caloric intake improves the way your body regulates glucose, which can help you avoid developing diabetes. Basing his opinions on studies involving rats who were fed every other day, he postulates that partial fasting may also protect against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

mignone:
op, can you highlight the benefits of fruits fast please?

dominique

Sissy3

A 3 day fast will rebuild your entire immune system !

stevecantrell:
A 3 day fast will rebuild your entire immune system !

hey you...

TheFirstLady:
hey you...

Hey Aisha !

stevecantrell:

Hey Aisha !

...Aisha?! hmmmm

Diets are easy in the contemplation, difficult in the execution. Intermittent fasting is just the opposite — it’s difficult in the contemplation but easy in the execution.
Most of us have contemplated going on a diet. When we find a diet that appeals to us, it seems as if it will be a breeze to do. But when we get into the nitty gritty of it, it becomes tough. For example, I stay on a low–carb diet almost all the time. But if I think about going on a low–fat diet, it looks easy. I think about bagels, whole wheat bread and jelly, mashed potatoes, corn, bananas by the dozen, etc. — all of which sound appealing. But were I to embark on such a low–fat diet I would soon tire of it and wish I could have meat and eggs. So a diet is easy in contemplation, but not so easy in the long–term execution.
Intermittent fasting is hard in the contemplation, of that there is no doubt. “You go without food for 24 hours?” people would ask, incredulously when we explained what we were doing. “I could never do that.” But once started, it’s a snap. No worries about what and where to eat for one or two out of the three meals per day. It’s a great liberation. Your food expenditures plummet. And you’re not particularly hungry. … Although it’s tough to overcome the idea of going without food, once you begin the regimen, nothing could be easier.

theEYe21:
Increased Nutrition:
Fruits and vegetables are packed with fiber, vitamins like A and C and nutrients like potassium and folate. Basing his opinions on studies involving rats who were fed every other day, he postulates that partial fasting may also protect against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

thanks so much; well appreciated

HEALTH EFFECTS

MEDICAL APPLICATION:
1.) CANCER TREATMENT
2.) MENTAL HEALTH
3.) IMMUNE SYSTEM

1.) There is some preliminary evidence that fasting may have a role to play in people receiving chemotherapy. The American Cancer Society used to recommend that such people increase their intake of protein and calories, yet, although additional pre-clinical and clinical studies are necessary, current research suggests "fasting for up to 5 days followed by a normal diet...has the potential to be translated into effective clinical interventions for the protection of patients" undergoing cancer treatment, especially as compared to dietary restriction.

2.) fasting can help alleviate some symptoms of depression.

3.) Some scientists have indicated that a fast will cause white blood cells to break down during the fasting, resulting in new ones needing to be built when the fast is broken, resulting in the replacement of old damaged ones.

RELIGION VIEW

BAHAI FAITH

In the Bahá'í Faith, fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset during the Bahá'í month of `Ala' (March 2 – March 20). Bahá'u'lláh established the guidelines in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. It is the complete abstaining from both food and drink during daylight hours (including abstaining from smoking). Consumption of prescribed medications is not restricted. Observing the fast is an individual obligation and is binding on Bahá'ís between 15 years (considered the age of maturity) and 70 years old. Exceptions to fasting include individuals younger than 15 or older than 70; those suffering illness; women who are pregnant, nursing, or menstruating; travellers who meet specific criteria; and individuals whose profession involves heavy labor and those who are very sick where fasting would be considered dangerous. For those involved in heavy labor, they are advised to eat in private and generally to have simpler and/or smaller meals than are normal.

Along with obligatory prayer, it is one of the greatest obligations of a Bahá'í. In the first half of the 20th century, Shoghi Effendi, explains: "It is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character. Fasting is symbolic, and a reminder of abstinence from selfish and carnal desires.

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