Is “Intermittent Fasting” for You?

What does it mean to be “connected” to nature? How does doing so improve our health? Like everything in nature, our bodies have circadian rhythms, they have very different functions in the daytime vs the night. Both are equally important yet we live our modern lives as if we can override these rhythms, eating not only what we want, but whenever we want…and our health is paying the price.

Research continues to uncover more evidence that the more we eat in line with the natural day/night cycles the easier it is to control our weight, our blood sugars and our hormones, all while boosting our immune system, decreasing inflammation and avoiding disease.

One study showed a 36% decrease in breast cancer just by implementing this simple step! It seems that if we give our bodies a chance, they will eliminate many toxins and diseased cells themselves…they just don’t a chance to when they spend so much time digesting and assimilating food, not to mention the medications and toxins. They need time to “switch functions” and are designed to clean up and detoxify our bodies at night.

When should we eat?

Start to eat when the sun comes up and start to fast when the sun goes down.

Studies point to 13 hours as being the ideal time to avoid food and drinks (except water), but any amount of time has a positive impact, perhaps start with 9 hours and go from there. Amazingly enough, you will reap all the benefits of eating this way by following these guidelines 5 days per week…so you don’t have to feel overly restricted at all!

This type of eating has been referred to as “Time-Restricted Eating” or “Intermittent Fasting”. We could go on and on about the benefits of giving your body time to “de-clutter” itself at night, and how good you will feel when you try it but we’ll let you be the judge.

Dr. Shulman and Dr. Neely are fans of a free app called Zero that helps keep track of this type of eating.

Here is a link to it in itunes: