Our Longevity Diet

Jeez, here we are in the last month of 2011, and I noticed I have not posted to this site all year. Not because we stopped our fasting diet, or have been having any problems, on the contrary — everything continues along so well I hardly think of the diet any more. It has now been three years and nine months that we have followed this lifestyle, and I can say without hesitation that we are pleased with the results.

We are not skinny — but the creeping weight gain we were struggling with before starting the diet has been held in check. I fluctuate from 90 to 92 kilos, and Isabel is still a little over 60 kilos. Our health has been excellent. So there is really nothing to add to this blog. Maybe next year I’ll post again. Intermittent fasting works for us.

Isabel went to Guadalajara for a couple weeks to visit her family. Under her mother’s administration, fasting is not allowed, so she was off her usual regime while there. Mexican mothers are a lot like the stereotype of Jewish mothers — they make no allowances for their children ever growing up, but think they need to keep them on the straight and narrow, and will resort to emotional blackmail, shaming, nagging or whatever works to get their appointed job done.

Isabel wisely concedes to her mother’s insistence on changing her eating habits while there, we have no fear that short-term behavior will change the long-term outcome from following this diet. Some people even think you will do better to stop fasting occasionally, but we have not made a regular habit of that. Still, when circumstances dictate — such as a party during our fasting hours — we temporarily ignore the diet regime and eat or drink as circumstances dictate.

While Isabel was gone, I was left to my own cooking, which tends toward simplicity more out of laziness than lack of ability. Isabel typically spends an hour preparing our main meal each day — I just don’t want to spend that long on preparation. Cooking — and eating — usually takes less than half an hour for me. That’s the American vs Mexican way of cooking and eating. Mexican is better both in terms of health and taste — but a short-term lapse couldn’t make much difference long-term.

So, over the two weeks Isabel was out of town she gained a kilo (2.2 pounds). I lost almost a kilo (2 pounds). Guess since my cooking doesn’t taste as good I must have eaten less.

The good news is two weeks after she returned, we have pretty much returned to normal. It seems the length of time it takes to gain or lose weight from your natural base level is about the same as the time it takes to get back to that normal level. I gained one of the two pounds back, and she lost the full kilo, so our weights are now 60.2 kilos for her, and 90.5 kilos for me.

A recent study supports the idea that intermittent fasting can be a useful technique for weight loss, even among obese subjects. Long-term results, of course, would require a commitment to lifestyle that incorporates a fasting regime, but this short-term study is suggestive of the potential.

The Study

Doctoral students Surabhi Bhutani and Monica Klempel, and clinical coordinator in physical therapy Emily Church, conducted a 10 week study on 16 clinically obese people. The subjects all weighed in excess of 210 pounds and had body mass indexes (BMI) between 30 and 39.9. There were 12 women and 4 men in the study, aged 35 to 65. None was diabetic, and none were taking weight-loss medication, nor lipid or glucose lowering medicines.

The weights of the study subjects had been stable for the three months preceding the study. For the first two weeks of the trial they ate normally and maintained their normal activity levels, during which time their weight, blood pressure, heart rate and blood chemistry were measured.

For four weeks the subjects were allowed to eat normally one day, then on the fasting days they were fed a single meal at lunch time with about 20 to 25 percent of their normal daily energy needs. For the last four weeks of the study subjects were allowed to set their own meal size and composition, as well as schedule.

Subjects lost from 10 to 30 pounds each, and their blood pressure and heart rate were lowered. Total cholesterol and circulating fat levels were also reduced.

Source

University of Illinois at Chicago; reported at www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169885.php on 5 Nov 2009

Comments

It is surprising that the results were so good for such a poorly designed study. There appears to have been no control group, and it is not exactly clear how much weight loss came during the semi-supervised ‘fast’ days, and how much from the self-monitored weeks that followed. The researchers took the ‘alternate day’ part of alternate day fasting too literally, and designed a diet that effectively had two short fasts interrupted by a meal on ‘fasting’ days, alternating with normal eating days. If they had used 24 hour fasting periods alternating with 24 hour eating periods, it would have been much more comfortable (and sustainable) for the subjects. This study does suggest that intermittent fasting is an effective weight-loss technique, however, and deserves closer attention from researchers and nutritionists.

With intermittent fasting, we often emphasize that when you eat is more important than how much you eat, when it comes to losing weight and maintaining good health. This is no excuse to pig-out of course, but eating to satiety is fine within an alternate day fasting regime. But is that enough for a healthy diet?

Of course not. What you eat is very important to your overall health, regardless of the schedule or quantity of food you consume. Eat nothing but junk food, and no amount of fasting or calorie restriction will counteract the ill effects of unhealthy eating.

A Nutty Example

A recent study examined the effect of daily consumption of pistachios on gamma-tocopherol serum levels. Gamma-tocopherol is a form of vitamin E which has been shown to reduce the risk of lung and prostate cancers, and perhaps other forms of cancer. Other studies have shown pistachios to have a beneficial effect on heart health by lowering LDL cholesterol, as well.

In this study, half the participants added about two ounces of pistachios to their daily diet, for a period of four weeks, while the other half continued their normal diets. Cholesterol-adjusted serum gamma-tocopherol was significantly higher at the end of the period for those eating pistachios, compared to their own pre-diet baseline, while the control group showed no significant change.

Good Food

That is just one of the hundreds of studies we see each year that show how good foods have beneficial affects on our bodies. It’s not just pistachios — most nuts are healthful eating. Fresh vegetables are great for you too.

Meat has a bad reputation among many health-conscious folk today, but really, there is no other food that has as great a variety of beneficial nutrients. All meat has fat in it, and too much fat — especially the saturated fats common in meat — can cause problems. But those problems can be avoided.

If called upon to do so, your body will turn those fats into energy. The amount of meat in your diet should be in direct correlation with the amount of vigorous exercise you get. A healthy diet for one person is not always a healthy diet for someone with a different lifestyle.

Likewise, fruit can be packed with good minerals and vitamins, but eating too much fruit will be unhealthy for someone whose lifestyle if very sedentary, because most fruits also contain high sugar levels.

Balance

Intermittent fasting can help you lose weight, and also produces beneficial health effects that promote longevity. But a healthy diet must be part of your lifestyle, or all those beneficial effects will be countered by more powerful ill effects.

You need a diet balanced with good healthful fat, fiber, sugar/carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals in the right approximate proportions for your lifestyle. A ‘fat free’ diet would kill you if you could achieve it. Each of these things are a necessary part of a healthy diet — the quantities and proportions varying depending on how much energy you expend in your daily life.

Variety is not just the spice of life — it is the easiest path to a healthy diet. Eat as many different fresh and healthful foods as you can, with plenty of clean water. Your body will then be able to sort out what is best for you, and dispose of the rest. You can usually trust your appetite to lead you to the foods your body needs most — being aware that sugar and fats tend to be craved far in excess of their actual merit.

Strike the balance that is right for you — you will know by how it makes you feel when you are doing the right thing. There is no need for exact measurements of portions and strict rationing of certain foods. Just reduce the fat and sugars if you are sedentary, and eat a great variety of healthful foods. Drink plenty of clean water. Voila — you have a healthy diet.

It has been several months since my last post here, but I’ve just been putting it off. Every time I look at my last post, about Isabel quitting the fast due to pregnancy, I just don’t feel much like talking about it. The sad facts are that she lost that pregnancy after only three months. Needless to say, we have been devastated by the loss. I won’t go into the cause of the problem, other than to say it is unrelated to diet.

The good news, for those of you interested in intermittent fasting, is that when she got back into the fasting - feasting schedule, she effortlessly lost the weight she had gained during the interim. In fact, she is now steadily weighing in around 60 kilos, while I’m down to 93.

This pattern of daily eating-fasting-eating-fasting has become so second nature to us that we rarely think about it. It has no effect on our activity intensity or scheduling. Rainy season has just ended here, and we have been spending an hour each evening, after the heat of day wanes, pulling weeds from the back yard. The ground is so hard when dry that it is impossible to get the weeds out, so we have to water a section before we can weed it. Pulling those long roots out is still hard work, but we need the exercise. It makes no difference to us if it a fasting evening or had been a fasting morning.

Likewise, the cool hours of morning are devoted to cleaning, raking and other physical activity that we do not want to do during the heat of day. But it makes no difference if we are working on full stomachs or empty — our energy level is constant, and higher than it was before starting on this fasting schedule.

So for those of you have been wondering, yes we are alive and well, and continue to follow our fasting lifestyle with wonderful results. We are approaching 20 months on this intermittent fasting schedule now, and see no reason to change anything. It is easy. We feel healthier. We lost weight, and more importantly, are no longer creeping upward on the scale, as we had in earlier years.

I’ll try to post more frequently now that we’ve gotten through all that.

Monday we took the old jalopy (it really is old — old enough to drink in most states) to town (Tecoman) for our weekly shopping trip. Isabel also had a doctor’s appointment.

Halfway there the red battery light came on, though the car kept running OK. Clearly, the battery was no longer charging however, so I pulled it over to the shoulder (the Cerro to Tecoman road is one of the few Mexican roads that actually has a shoulder) and looked under the hood. The belt to the alternator was broken. So we also stopped at a mechanic’s — he could sell us a used belt from a car he had there, or we could wait an hour or two while he sent someone to pick up a new belt at the auto supply — either way it would cost the same, about $10 US. We took the used one.

Our tasks all complete, we headed home. About 3/4 the way home a front tire blew. I pulled over and tried to change it. I had a spare, two 4-way tire wrenches and a jack, so it seemed simple. The car, however, would not cooperate. There were little metal caps on the wheel nuts. They were metric sized, and all the tire wrenches were not. None fit quite right — either it would almost fit, but slip when heavy pressure was applied, or it wouldn’t go over the cap. One cap came off, getting stuck inside the wrench.

I ended up putting Isabel on a bus back home, with instructions to send the local mechanic out to help change the tire. I sat on the curb for an hour, very grateful that our shopping included cold beer. A police truck drove past, but didn’t even stop to help.

Anyhow, it seemed a fairly terrible day — except for that Doctor’s visit part — the doctor confirmed our suspicions, Isabel is pregnant. So, to be fair the title of this post should really say Isabel suspends her participation in the Intermittent Fasting, for the duration of her pregnancy. We don’t recommend this diet for pregnant women or growing children.

Well, it has been almost a year since we began intermittent fasting. Looking over the weight records for the past few months, it looks like we have stabilized in that regard. I’m still about 5% above my ideal weight, and Isabel is closer to her ideal weight (according to the charts) but still slightly above. I guess that is testimony to how well we eat, regardless of the schedule. My weight has been fluctuating between 94 and 95 kilos, while Isabel is consistently between 60 and 62. We have been within that range for the past five months. Isabel’s chart-weight is 60 kilos, mine 90.

So, I see little reason to continue posting our weights here — if we go outside that range for some reason, I’ll mention it — otherwise just assume we are in that area. Of course that means I won’t have a reason for these monthly postings, and need to find some better motivation to keep this blog active. If I can find relevant new research information I’ll post that, otherwise perhaps I’ll stray into other general health and longevity matters.

One recent study claimed that the hundreds (or thousands?) of calorie restriction studies that preceded it were wrong, and calorie restriction does not really lead to longer lifespans. Instead, they claim, the mice used in the studies were fat, because they were allowed to eat all they wanted.

Well either way, the under-fed mice live longer, and we need to under-feed ourselves if we want optimal health and longevity. The study I mentioned was referring to calorie restriction, not intermittent fasting. Other studies have shown intermittent fasting to be equally effective as caloric restriction. So we can indulge in eating as much as we want, so long as we restrict that indulgence to 24 out of every 48 hours (more or less, we eat 25 and fast 23).

If I recall correctly (and I’ll have to go back and make sure, but for now take it as given) the intermittent fasting studies resulted in animals that had higher body weight than the calorie restricted animals, yet they lived just a long. So clearly, there is more at work here than mere body weight.

I’ll have to look into that further, and post a more detailed analysis here in the coming days…