Intermittent Fasting to Improve Energy and Decrease Inflammaton

Intermittent Fasting to Improve Energy Efficiency and Decrease Imflammation

The next step in improving energy efficiency and decreasing inflammation in your body involves some form of intermittent fasting. Now wait a minute, don’t freak out at the word fasting. What we’re talking about here does not call for long periods of going without food, but rather various ways of spacing your meals to be kind to your body.

You may want to review the first 3 articles in this series on increasing your energy to refresh your memory and then start to think about how you might want to start some form of intermittent fasting after reviewing reading the rest of this article.

https://www.drjomd.com/2018/05/digestion-uses-a-lot-of-energy/

https://www.drjomd.com/2018/06/digestion-causes-inflammation/

https://www.drjomd.com/2018/07/eating-to-increase-energy-and-decrease-inflammation/

First let’s talk about healthy ways to space your meals. Then in the next article in this series we will review the many health benefits of intermittent fasting which should motivate you to try it.

When you’ve been eating the Standard American Diet (SAD isn’t it) with all its processed food and sugars, then you need a transition period of 4-8 weeks on a basic healing diet to allow your endocrine gland output (adrenal, liver, pancreas, thyroid) to come into balance, heal and regenerate. The Get Healthy Eating Plan in Dr. Jo’s Natural Healing Cookbook stops the ravages of the blood sugar highs and lows and brings balance to your system. On that plan you eat 5-6 small meals per day which allows glucose to constantly drip into the blood stream instead of coming in as surges that overwhelm your pancreas, liver, adrenals and thyroid. After 4 to 8 weeks of rebalancing your body you can start to space your meals farther apart and work into whatever pattern of intermittent fasting that suits you.

Forms of Intermittent Fasting

Simple Fast
You may already be doing this. It’s so easy. Simply don’t eat for a 12 hour period per each 24 hours. So if you have your last bit of food at 7 pm, wait until 7 am to eat breakfast, giving your body 12 hours of rest from the energy consuming process of digestion.

14 Hour Fast
Ease into the 14 hour fast by waiting a little longer in the morning before you eat breakfast. Stop eating at 7 pm then wait until 9 am for breakfast. As your body adjusts to this schedule, it may be easy for you to go to the next step.

16 Hour Fast
By the time you reach the 16 hour fast, you probably will only eat 2 meals per day in an 8-hour window.  So your meals might come at 10 am and 6 pm or at 7 am and 3 pm. Some doctors say it’s best to stop eating at least 2 hours before you go to bed which decreases the digestive strain on your body and allows it to spend the night detoxifying and rebuilding your tissues.

1 Day 24 Hour Food Fast
As your metabolism becomes more flexible and your body more energy efficient when you’ve stretched the time between meals, you may want to try a 24-hour fast once per week. Some folks are fine on a 24-hour water only fast. Others drink greens, herbal teas and diluted organic broth on this food-fast day. The greens help neutralize tissue damaging  free radicals and toxins that are released with fasting. Green drinks should only contain the juice of low carbohydrate vegetables with no fruit. Fruit contains large amounts  carbs which you want to avoid, except lemons or limes which are low in carbs. Examples of low carb veggies to juice include: celery, cucumber, kale, spinach. lettuce, parsley, turmeric  and ginger root.

So that’s the introduction to intermittent fasting. I would recommend reading more about it and how it links well with the ketogenic diet. The following article provides the best explanation that I’ve seen.

https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/how-to-intermittent-fast/

Also check out Dr. Mercola’s articles:

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/07/02/intermittent-fasting-with-ketogenic-more-effective.aspx

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/04/24/burning-fat-for-fuel.aspx

Blessings for your endeavors in health,

Dr. Jo