How Fasting Affects Your Physiology and Hormones

How does fasting affect your body? Is it a dangerous thing to do? Don’t I need to eat five meals a day? Or, perhaps there are many health benefits from fasting.

This article authored by Dr. Jason Fung, MD, a leading expert on diabetes and fasting explains the benefits of fasting. If you are already following a ketogenic diet, you know that it is not unusual to wake in the morning WITHOUT hunger, and simply having a cup of coffee will hold you over until lunch time.  So if your last meal for the day is 8:00 PM, and your first meal the following day is 12:00 PM, you have already fasted for 16 hours. It really can be this simple.

If you are like the average American, who has a breakfast of cereal (carbs and sugar), maybe a piece of toast as well (carbs), or perhaps a muffin (carbs and sugar), and a glass of juice (more carbs and sugar), you will become hypoglycemic in a few hours and will need more carbs and sugar. It’s called the insulin roller coaster ride. By the way, in case you didn’t know elevated insulin triggers fat storage especially when you have a never ending stream of carbs and sugar in the diet.

Is it any wonder why everyone is overweight and either pre-diabetic or diabetic? Since we have been on the low fat diet, the nation is sicker than ever. I have insulin dependent diabetic patients who are told to make sure they eat plenty of carbs to keep their blood sugar up. What kind of sick world are we living in? We want these patients to continue to eat the very foods which have made them ill to begin with.

Maybe it’s time to look more closely at dietary recommendations before everyone is diabetic?

For more information about healthy eating and lifestyle choices please contact the acupuncture and integrative medicine practice of Dr. Scott Denny with practice locations in Davie, Pompano Beach and Boca Raton, Florida. Please also visit www.drscottdenny.com to complete your complimentary health analysis and receive a copy of Dr. Denny’s free eBook.

Click here to see Dr. Fung’s entire article.