Fast track to good health

CHENNAI: Intermittent Fasting (IF) is the newest rage on every fitness blog and website on the internet. Be it daily weight-watchers, fitness enthusiasts, muscle builders or extreme body builders, IF is what has caught their attention. Chennai-based naturopathy doctor M A Hussain, who for the past 13 years has been eating only one meal a day, validates the method, “The amount of nutrition required for a person to sustain himself is equivalent to the size of a pea. So 350 grams of food is enough for a person for 24 hours.” To put it simply, IF is a pattern that alternates between fasting and eating. It usually allows consumption of water, tea and juices during the fast. It’s derived from the idea that the paleolithic man didn’t have access to food all the time and would only eat when he had had a successful hunting bout. And yes, it is also exactly what our mothers and grandmothers have been trying to explain to us from time to time — think shivarathri fasts and the like!There are various types of IF that a person can try, depending on what suits each body type. There is the ‘20/4’ fast, 20 hours of fasting followed by four hours of non-fasting, and the alternate day fast among others. But experts say that the best way to go about it is to understand your body, find a suitable feeding window (the eating period of the fast) and tweak it as you go along. IF experts claim that apart from reduced calorie intake, an increased insulin action on glucose uptake was noticed after the IF period. In other words, after, say, a period of two weeks of IF, a person’s insulin is more effective in telling cells to take up glucose from blood. Increased inhibition of lipolysis, the breakdown of fat stored in fat cells, is another result of IF.“Fasting has a different definition for each person. Some people abstain from just one particular food variety such as rice or a protein. But I definitely would not suggest being on a complete fast,” says Dr Bhuvaneshwari Shankar, Group Chief Dietitian, Head - Department of Dietetics, Apollo Hospitals Group. Like many other nutritionists, Dr Shankar suggests the consumption of many small meals per day. This not only helps boost metabolism, but also spreads out the consumption of calories. “If you fast completely, you’ll only end up eating double what you usually eat when you break the fast,” Dr Shankar argues. Dr Hussain’s take is, “What your body knows is what you tell it. Within just 21 days, a person can train his body to consume just one meal a day.” The 60-year-old adds, “A well-balanced South Indian meal is the perfect choice during the feeding window while fasting.” IF has been causing a revolution in not only weight loss, but also in mass gain and increased muscle building. But it might not be for everyone and is definitely not for diabetics. Dr Shankar warns, “Diabetic people and those with other health conditions should definitely not try any sort of fasting without consulting their physicians.”