Intermittent Fasting: Is It Good For You or Just a Fad?
What is Fasting?
Fasting is eliminating food for a specific amount of time, whether it’s for a day or multiple days, and limiting yourself usually to liquids and lack of sustenance and many people have reasons for doing this. What does it do for your body? Some people say doing a quick day fast works for a good reset of your stomach, lengthy fasts could be detrimental to one's body from lack of food and nutrients which could hinder your body if you are deficient in any areas especially if you aren’t aware of those deficiencies.
Intermittent fasting is usually not as lengthy and consists of skipping meals for certain hours or eating an early dinner and not eating again until the next day at the same time. It can be good for you if you are in the right headspace and your body feels healthy enough to do a fast. There are a few things to acknowledge when doing a fast like not eating in a cold climate could be harmful to you because your body needs more nourishment and fats in the colder seasons. Opposite for the warmer seasons you can go with fewer meals because your body usually doesn’t need as many filling foods. Make sure you aren't fasting on just water or juice because the sugars in them could lead to storage in your body if it thinks it is going into starvation mode.
Fasting is so interesting to me because it became such a fad for so many people wanting to do this intermittent fasting, usually your body can last without eating for 16-18 hours but always be careful. If you haven’t heard of this, some people feel like fasting is a good weight regulator but is it more helpful or harmful is the question, because a few clients had asked me previously. It can be good for your body if done properly and for a short amount of time, if your healthy, and in the right season.
If you have deficits in areas of your body already and then stop feeding yourself it can become a larger deficit and might make you feel worse. You should also do it for only a day or so to see how your body reacts and if you feel well enough, that can help you do a quick reset to your digestive tract. When you have the stomach flu or food poisoning you tend to not eat and give your body a break, that is exactly what a fast does for you. The idea of cutting out food when you aren’t feeling well and reintroducing food again slowly the next day so your stomach can digest properly. Again know what works best for you and your body, and when you need nourishment instead of starving it.
If you aren’t doing a fast in the proper conditions it can make you very blood deficient and work against you. Just like anything, it's good to know why you are doing this and make the effort to do some research, and have a goal to what you’ll gain from doing this. Fasting can be useful to some people and should be done ever so often to balance out your body and give yourself a good reset but be aware of what your body feels like. If you have a condition such as diabetes then it’s not the best idea to do a fast because someone with blood sugar issues needs a full 3 meals a day with a good balance of food because without it can make them feel very worn down. On the upside, it can give you more energy if that’s what you are lacking by clearing your body from toxins, and to some people that is why they want to try this fasting fad.
Overall if you have a healthy lifestyle and eating whole foods and your liver & kidneys are strong then you don't need to fast, that should be enough for your body. If you feel bloated and rundown from eating unhealthy then eat cleansing foods for your body such as seaweed and that should make your body feel back to normal. In Chinese medicine, they don't like going from one extreme to the other it's always focused on the balance of yin and yang. Eating a healthy lifestyle should always be part of your diet and fasting shouldn’t be done so frequently.