21 Benefits of Intermittent Fasting: Learn Now
Samrat Sabharwal
Transforming Corporate Food Culture: Elevating Health @ Work | Founder at Smartgrub
Intermittent fasting is a diet consisting of a period of time-consuming no food, followed by a period of eating. The benefits of intermittent fasting have been shown to have a positive effect on lifespan and quality of life.
Lifestyle choices are one of the best ways to extend your lifespan without supplements or drugs. One of these lifestyle choices is intermittent fasting. It has been proved that it is beneficial for the heart, brain, and immune system.
My experience with intermittent fasting?started last year post my Covid-19 recovery. I have never looked back since.
It has helped me to reverse my diabetes naturally without the aid of medication.
My mental cognition, focus, and alertness have improved dramatically. I have had no need for stimulants like coffee or tea since. Digestion has improved. My acid reflux is now history and my over health and energy has improved.
A simple lifestyle change caused a?paradigm shift in my health?and without further ado, I would like to share these 21 benefits of intermittent fasting with you.
Benefits of Intermittent fasting
1. Lose Weight and Belly Fat
This is the no 1 reason people start on this lifestyle. The?main attraction to this diet?is the fact that there is no restriction on the food. There is a fixed time in which it has to be eaten. Due to fewer insulin spikes caused by eating food frequently it turns off insulin’s fat storage capacity thus making the body use fat as a fuel source. This leads to fat and weight loss.
2. Autophagy or Cell Repair
Autophagy is a natural process that helps the body to maintain its health. It is a catabolic process that breaks down and recycles cellular components. during this process, the body instead of absorbing energy from food consumes and repairs broken or damaged cells and repurposes them for new cell generation.
Autophagy is important for maintaining the health of cells, especially in the brain and muscles.?It also helps to fight against cancerous cells and infections.
Autophagy can be induced by fasting, exercise, or certain medications.
3. Cognitive Function
Intermittent fasting is a technique that has been shown to have many benefits for the brain
Intermittent fasting is a hot topic in the world of nutrition and mental wellness. This diet is really popular for improving brain health and protecting against neurodegenerative diseases. There are many?benefits to this diet, such as improving memory function, lowering inflammation in the brain, and reducing your?risk of getting diseases like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease.
4. Digestion
One of the biggest benefits of intermittent fasting is improved digestion. When you fast, your digestive system will rest and can heal from any issues it may have been experiencing for a while. Fasting will also help to improve nutrient absorption and?reduce the risk of developing gastrointestinal issues?such as irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, or Crohn’s disease.
5. Immunity
The immune system is the body’s way of fighting off disease. It is important for the immune system to be strong to fight off harmful bacteria.
Fasting has also been shown to increase the production of cells that fight disease (i.e., neutrophils).
Intermittent fasting has been?shown to improve immune function, which can help protect people against diseases.
6.Cancer Treatment
Intermittent fasting is a type of diet that has many health benefits. This type of diet helps with different types of cancers. The theory is that when the body goes through a fasting period,?it increases cellular stress response?and allows cells to repair themselves. Fasting also suppresses the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing cancer cells.
Fasting could be a viable and successful cancer treatment strategy for reducing chemotherapy side effects, slowing tumor development, and improving prognosis as?shown in this study.
7. Heart Health
One of the most well-known benefits of intermittent fasting is that it can help your heart health.
Fasting has been clinically proven to help the body regenerate cells, regulate hormone levels, and prevent chronic diseases. The most well-known benefit of intermittent fasting is that it can help your heart health.
Studies have shown that intermittent fasting?can lower cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and triglycerides. It also reduces inflammation in the body which can lead to a healthier heart.
8. Alzheimers
Fasting for short periods of time is a wonderful method to maintain your brain healthy and sharp as you become older.
Intermittent fasting has been shown in?studies to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease?and dementia.
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common causes of dementia. Experts have discovered that fasting, also known as “intermittent fasting,” can reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. This is accomplished by reducing calorie consumption to no more than two days each week.
9. Oxidative Stress
One of the variables that contribute to aging and many chronic diseases is oxidative stress.
It involves free radicals, which are unstable chemicals. Other vital components, including protein and DNA, are also harmed by free radicals. Intermittent fasting has been shown in?studies to boost the body’s tolerance to oxidative stress and reduce it by 14%.
In addition, research shows that intermittent fasting can aid in the battle against inflammation, which is a major cause of many diseases.
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10. Anti Aging
Intermittent fasting has been found to extend one’s life expectancy.?According to one study, mice fed a high-fat diet and then fasted intermittently lived substantially longer than mice that did not fast.
It’s easy to understand how intermittent fasting could help you live a longer and better life, given the benefits it has for metabolism and a range of health markers.
11. Skin Health
Intermittent fasting impacts the majority of the skin’s structure and function and has been?shown to reverse both age-related and photo-induced alterations. Its?anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, stem cell maintenance and metabolic actions all contribute to its skin benefits.
Also as we age our production of collagen decreases and sugar is especially damaging to the collagen. High sugar intake increases?advanced Glycation?Endproducts?(AGE)which are harmful compounds for the skin.
Intermittent fasting reduces the skin protein glycation end by reducing the sugar levels in the blood and increasing insulin sensitivity. The autophagy caused by intermittent fasting removes the AGE from the body.
12. Sports Performance
It can boost HGH levels by up to fivefold?(Human Growth Hormone). This has fat-burning as well as?muscle & bone-building effects. The human growth hormone is secreted by the pituitary gland in response to growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH). GHRH is secreted by the hypothalamus in response to various stimuli, including hypoglycemia and exercise. The HGH helps promote protein production and fat metabolism.
Maintaining muscle mass with low fat is of the utmost importance to an athlete.?In a?study, two groups of individuals were kept on a Restrictive IF diet and another on a calories restriction diet. Both groups had roughly the same fat loss, the intermittent fasting group had higher Lean muscle mass compared to the other group. This is of key importance to an athlete especially in sports where weight classes are involved. An athlete may have to lose weight to meet a class without compromising on lean muscle mass for performance.
13. Improves Sleep
Intermittent fasting promotes better sleep and helps improve our circadian rhythms. It is also affected by what and when we eat our food.
In the study, it was shown that as early as one week there was a significant effect on the quality and time of sleep of the participants.
So together intermittent fasting with eating times reinforced to improve circadian rhythms helps in
14. Auto-Immune Diseases.
Autoimmune disease is typically an inflammatory condition relating to your gut health. Fasting helps the digestive tract to relax and gives it time to heal and repair.
In Autoimmune diseases, one of the protocols apart from the medicines and supplements is to treat leaky gut from which the toxins or microbial infections can leak into the gut. fasting helps by giving time to the gut to repair the break in the lining of the gut and reducing the autoimmune flare-up.
In this study, it is evident that fasting helps to reduce inflammation in the gut and reduce or even reverse autoimmune disorders by replacing damaged cells with young and functional cells.
15. Improves Memory And Learning.
Intermittent fasting improves brain function in multiple ways.?One study found?that intermittent fasting can improve memory and learning skills by increasing neurogenesis. It is the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus. It can also reduce inflammation of the brain and improve mood.
Also, fasting increases the?hormone orexin-A which is responsible for higher focus and alertness?in individuals.
16. Lowers Cholesterol.
A study published by the Frontiers in Nutrition?showed that intermittent fasting can help with weight loss and cholesterol levels.
It Improves the lipid profile and raises the sub-optimal HDL to safeguard cardiovascular health. Intermittent fasting can be used as lifestyle intervention for cardiovascular disease prevention, management, and treatment.
17. Lowers Blood Pressure
It has been proven to reduce the risk of hypertension, improve cardiovascular health, and reduce the risk of diabetes among many other benefits.
This diet has been shown in human trials to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by improving weight control,?hypertension,?dyslipidemia, and diabetes. Intermittent fasting may have impacts through a variety of mechanisms, including oxidative stress reduction, circadian rhythm optimization, and ketogenesis.
18 . Improves Insulin Sensitivity.
Intermittent fasting increases insulin sensitivity. Due to the lack of continuous insulin spikes by having frequent meals, the body becomes more sensitive to insulin thus controlling blood sugar levels.
Studies have shown that intermittent fasting?has helped improve insulin sensitivity and improve other cardio biomarkers thus improving overall cardiometabolic factors.
19. Mood alleviation
Many neurological pathways have been hypothesized to explain the effects of fasting on mood, including changes in neurotransmitters, sleep quality, and neurotrophic factor production. Patients’ evaluations of improved mood, attention, and tranquility have been connected to fasting’s early influence on depression symptoms.
Fasting has shown an improved degree of vigilance and mood enhancement. A subjective experience of well-being, and even euphoria,?according to clinicians in this study.
20. Inflammation.
Reduces oxidative stress-induced inflammation in the body, which has anti-aging and anti-disease characteristics. Intermittent fasting has a major impact on the body’s inflammatory levels in?scientific studies. This is because it decreases or completely eliminates glucose spikes in the body.
21. Liver Function.
Intermittent fasting has a major effect on the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease revealed in a study in July?2021. It helped in lowering the ALT and AST levels, in the Liver function test, which are biomarkers respectively for healthy liver function.