My last post was all about ulcer and hunger. I promised that I would talk about how important starving (intermittent fasting) is to our health generally. Should in case you've not gone through the last article then you can use this link to access the article and improve your knowledge about ulcer. So today I decided to put up this wonderful article about starving (intermittent fasting) as promised last time to help our life and health.
During my last days in school, I had this course mate of mine that always did research about good health. One of these days, I was going through her status on WhatsApp, then I came across intermittent fasting and how important it is on our health. Remember you can't learn everything in class but from personal research. I was so interested in anything good so I decided to be viewing her post on a daily basis, there I decided to do good research about intermittent fasting from what I see on her status. Trust me I learnt a lot from her and I started practicing everything I learnt. It was amazing. Let me take you round on intermittent fasting.
What's Intermittent Fasting
Over the years now, intermittent fasting has been one of the most searched for on the internet. Intermittent fasting is simple, free and also seems to provide results that are powerful and good on our health. Intermittent fasting is also known by most people as time restricted-feeding. Intermittent fasting means creating a plan for fasting and eating for a specific period of time in a day or week. It is a cycle whereby you decide between the time for fasting and eating.
Remember intermittent fasting is not all about what you eat and how you prepare your meal, but it focuses more on WHEN you eat. It deals majorly on the time you decide to eat and when you decide to fast.
You should all be aware that fasting for a longer period of time has a lot of benefits to our health instead of eating every hour of the day. Get this fact and know peace.
Approaches to intermittent fasting
There is one thing you should all know about fasting, during fasting hours, you should either eat a small amount of food or do not eat anything at all. There are several different approaches to intermittent fasting of which you can pick anyone you feel is okay for your health, they includes;
Alternate-day fasting
This approach to intermittent fasting involves eating a normal meal in a day and then completely fasting the next day or eating just a very little amount of food that is less than 500 calories.
5:2 fasting
This approach to intermittent fasting involves eating a normal meal for 5 days in a week and fasting for just 2 days in a week. That is, you decide to eat a normal diet for five days in the week and the remaining two days are made specifically for fasting. Say you decide not to eat every Tuesday and Saturday of the week.
Daily time restricted fasting
This approach involves eating appropriately every day but ensuring the meal time is between 8 hours. For example you skip eating breakfast in the morning, and then eat lunch around 12pm and take dinner around 8pm.
Research has shown that fasting for a specific period of time in a day has a great benefit on our health. Research has also shown that the body can stay without food for a longer period of time without causing any harm to the health of a person.
According to Mattson, the body exhausts its stored sugar and starts burning its fat whenever it stays for a long time without food. Mattson called this process metabolic switching.
It is normal for you to feel hungry during these periods of fasting but with time, when the body gets used to it, you hardly feel hungry because the brain and body has mastered the process.
Some research has also shown that intermittent fasting play an important role in reducing inflammation in the body than other diets. Intermittent fasting also improves any conditions that are associated with inflammation. These conditions are: stroke, asthma, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and arthritis etc.
What to eat while practicing intermittent fasting
Water and zero calorie beverages are permitted to take during the period of fasting.
When practicing intermittent fasting, research has shown that during the period when you are eating, you are not allow to eat like a glutton as it wouldn't add anything good to your health.
Remember the major aim of practicing intermittent fasting is to improve the health generally.
Most nutritionist regards the Mediterranean diet as the best diet to be on when trying to practice intermittent fasting.
Benefits of intermittent fasting
There are so many benefits attached to intermittent fasting as research carried out by most researcher has proven that intermittent fasting improves an individual health than just mere fat burning. It is not just for weight loss alone but to improve the health generally. According to Mattson, changes in metabolic switch, affects both the brain and body.
Some of the important benefits of intermittent fasting are;
Intermittent fasting helps in boasting the verbal memory of a person. That is, it helps improves the way a person thinks. Remember that "As a man thinket so is he". That quote is from the holy bible. For you to improve the way you think, then you have to be practicing intermittent fasting 😃😃😃 funny right.
It helps in the proper functioning of the heart as it helps in regulating heart rate and blood pressure.
Fasting helps in improving the physical performance of an individual. I could remember when Mo. Salah was fasting during one of our reign in the Uefa champions League, he gave us the best performance I have ever seen from him. So as a sport personnel, fasting helps in boasting your physical performance.
It helps in preventing people from obesity and it's related diseases.
It also helps in reducing tissue damage during surgery and improve results. If you've ever gone for any surgery, you would notice that doctors always instruct patients not to eat nor take water before the surgery.
Common side effects of intermittent fasting
It Is necessary you know you that the side effects of intermittent fasting can be unpleasant, although they disappear within a month. Some of this side effects includes;
Hunger
Headache
Fatigue
Nausea
Insomnia.
Who should not practice intermittent fasting
It is necessary that you all know that we are different on earth and so are our needs. Most people, after studying about intermittent fasting, would love it with everything they have within themselves while it's the opposite for some people. I would always tell my friends that the earlier you know thyself, the better for you. Know thyself and have peace. It is advisable you see your physician and must have undergone some tests before you start intermittent fasting. As I said earlier, know thyself and have peace ✌️✌️, most women do have hormonal imbalances and need to treat it before entering into the journey of intermittent fasting.
It is not advisable for the following set of people to practice intermittent fasting. These people includes;
People who alway take medication with food everyday in the morning.
Breastfeeding mothers, women are trying to conceive, those women that are pregnant.
Individuals diagnosed of eating disorders both in the past and present.
Diabetic patients and people that have low blood sugar.
Children and adolescents.
Conclusion
Intermittent fasting is a plan made specifically for eating that decides when a person will eat and when not to eat. It is not made for everyone to follow but before you do please ensure you visit your physician for clarification and order on how to go about it.
Thank you once again for stopping by today, if there is anywhere you need clarification please the comment section is free for you to call my attention to.
For further details and knowledge please check the reference
References
Mayoclinic
Myaquamega
Healthwithbec
Intermittent Fasting
Healthline.