Intermittent fasting revealed

Intermittent fasting, in recent years, has become a popular approach to managing health. Those who practice it say it makes them feel clearer and more focused, with better energy. However, there are aspects to this approach that we need to fully understand before being so convinced by its short-term benefits.

One of the reasons why intermittent fasting brings about clarity, mental focus and energy is because when you remove foods for a more than a few hours, the body will start to release adrenaline, a natural amphetamine, which can make us feel clear and high.

Another reason why people start feeling better is because not eating for a prolonged period of time automatically gives your body a break from fat based meals. For example, the breakfast you might have otherwise had with peanut butter on oats, avocado on toast, coconut oil in your smoothie, eggs or other animal proteins.

When you eat fats in the morning, regardless of whether they are animal or plant based, you’re burdening your liver. Fat forces the liver to produce bile, which stops the cleansing process that your body was working on throughout the night. All those poisons need time in the morning to be gathered and let go but if you interrupt this process, those poisons get stuck in the bloodstream and enter the brain.

So, the improvements that people experience with intermittent fasting are the result of the liver finally getting a chance to do its job of detoxification effectively. But what is so misunderstood is that you can achieve the same results simply by cutting out fats altogether in the morning and lowering them throughout the rest of the day, with the benefit of supporting the body, rather than forcing it to operate on adrenaline.

And just to add to the natural load of adrenaline being pumped into the body, one of the things I most commonly observe in people who practice intermittent fasting is that they often run on caffeine all day long. This is a recipe for burn out and totally negates any health benefit one might have been hoping to gain in the first place. Coffee is a stimulant, forcing the adrenals to pump out adrenaline, so, not only are the adrenals over taxed, the liver is also over-worked and singed from the corrosive effects of the adrenaline. These two burdens alone are enough to result in depleted energy and weight gain, perhaps the very aspects of your health you were trying to change when you started out!

So, what’s the answer for those of you still convinced by the benefits of intermittent fasting?
 
The answer is to start your day with fat free mornings. Fill up with lemon, ginger and honey water on waking, followed by celery juice and a breakfast of fruit and greens. This supports the liver in its effort to clear out the waste and provides critical glucose and mineral salts to support the adrenals and blood sugar levels.
 
And if you’re absolutely set on going hours after breakfast with no food, then at least cut the caffeine and instead sip on coconut water, or lemon and raw honey throughout the day, to give your organs the glucose and mineral salts they need to do their job and keep you balanced.
 
And if you want to find an approach that really leads to health benefits in the longer term, then lower your fats throughout the whole day, perhaps replacing those days of intermittent fasting with fat free days instead. Fill up on fruits and greens, salad lunches free from oil dressings or warming broths and soups, if the weather is colder. Filling your body up but lowering your fats (and proteins) is the way to support daily cleansing, which leads to mental clarity and focus, enhanced energy and weight loss.
 
Intermittent fasting is such a fine example of our worlds approach to the quick fix. Fill up on caffeine, run on adrenaline, lose weight quickly, continue with the poor habits and hammer your body while you do it. But it’s all short term. It’s all an illusion without ever truly understanding or respecting how the body works or what it needs.

But now you know. The solutions are in your hand. And the rest is up to you.