Not everyone is keen on following the latest new diet or cutting on carbs, lowering their fat intake, or giving up entire food groups at a time. Dieting is a challenging process, and it is one that many people find increasingly difficult to keep up with their lifestyle or with the complicated rules involves sin many diets. Eating clean is a simple way of being healthy, which is all about avoiding junk food, ensuring that you have a good portion of fruits and vegetables, and steer clear of refined carbs. But there’s another great eating lifestyle that has incredible benefits worth looking into, and it can be combined with a healthy diet for phenomenal health results – intermittent fasting!
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is primarily an eating cycle. This cycle is one that is composed of two parts – a period of eating and a period of fasting. There are many studies currently being carried out on intermittent fasting. There are thousands of people who eat this way. They are convinced by their results that this is an eating cycle of many benefits. Here we take a look at five of the best advantages found by those who engage in intermittent fasting.
1. Weight Loss
The fact that intermittent fasting acts on insulin levels by lowering them has a great deal to do with the effect of weight loss in individuals who have adopted intermittent fasting in their lifestyles. How this works is that the body is designed to break down carbs into glucose, which is used for either energy for the body to function and perform tasks, or is stored as fat to be utilized later. Insulin is the hormone that enables glucose to be used by the body. When you don’t consume food, insulin levels drop, and so cells begin to release stored glucose to use as energy.
In addition to this mechanism, intermittent fasting will naturally reduce the number of calories consumed overall. It is thus leading to natural weight loss by calorie restriction simply because you have a smaller window of time in which to eat. This means consuming fewer calories even without calorie counting!
2. Lower Risk of Type II Diabetes
Diabetes prevention is an attractive benefit because people living with diabetes are currently on the rise, and it is thought that bad diets are the leading cause of the increase in the disease. Being obese or overweight is one of the main factors that contribute to the risk of developing this life-threatening (albeit controllable) disease. The weight loss and lowering of glucose and insulin levels that result from intermittent fasting lower this risk of becoming diabetic. Further research is necessary to confirm this benefit, though.
Diabetes prevention is an attractive benefit because people living with diabetes are currently on the rise, and it is thought that bad diets are the leading cause of the increase in the disease. Being obese or overweight is one of the main factors that contribute to the risk of developing this life-threatening (albeit controllable) disease. The weight loss and lowering of glucose and insulin levels that result from intermittent fasting lower this risk of becoming diabetic. Further research is necessary to confirm this benefit, though.
3. Improved Heart Health
Heart health can benefit significantly develop from intermittent fasting as well. A recent review in 2016 reporting that the adoption of intermittent fasting leads to individuals having reduced blood pressure, lowered cholesterol, a drop in heart rate, and a reduction in triglycerides in subjects. Triglycerides are a specific kind of fat that is present in the blood, which is linked to developing heart disease.
4. Better Brain Health
A study conducted on mice revealed that the mice on a brief intermittent fasting diet displayed better memory and improved learning than the mice that had access to food at all times. Further studies were done on animals, and the results suggest that an intermittent fasting diet can suppress inflammation of the brain itself, and this alone is a condition that is linked to neurological conditions. The finding also reports the risks of developing neurological disorders reducing significantly by intermittent fasting, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and even stroke. More research is to be done on human studies to learn more about the effect of intermittent fasting on the brain health of human beings.
5. Reduced Risk of Cancer
Yet again, studies on animals have proven benefits in reducing the risk of developing many kinds of cancers through following this restrictive diet. A recent discovery from animal studies shows that there is a delay in the onset of tumors. But there are no studies on humans that show a link between the reduction of the risks of cancer in humans and intermittent fasting. It is likely that humans display similar patterns too, but that is yet to be proven!
While the research is not yet conclusive, and there remains plenty of room for more studies and experiments, it is undeniable that intermittent fasting is useful in reducing weight. It also has many proven benefits to the health and overall well-being of a person.
