Intermittent Fasting: Is It Effective?
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As summer approaches, Americans are eager to find a diet or remedy to help them lose weight or simply look and feel healthier. Researchers are studying the effects of intermittent fasting, an eating plan that cycles between fasting and eating within a given period of time.
Intermittent fasting does not specify which foods you should eat, but rather when you should eat them. Technically, this is not a diet, but more accurately described as an eating pattern.
Food we eat is broken up into enzymes and are what fuel our body. Carbohydrates are broken down to sugars to fuel our cells. If our body doesn’t use all of the sugar, it is then stored as fat. The only way sugars can enter this way is through the insulin, the hormone made in the pancreas. By fasting, our sugar intake and insulin levels drop causing our bodies to use our fat as energy.
When experimenting with rats, Harvard has found that the fasting rats lose weight and their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar go down. They are shown to have an energy efficient metabolism.
Fasting can also be likened to a cleanse. During fasting, our bodies go through cellular repair, removing the waste material from cells. This process helps fight against diseases and other invaders of the body.
When exploring different diets and health “cleanses”, it’s important to listen to the facts. There are plenty of facts that prove that intermittent fasting is an effective and healthy way of losing weight.
