News from Italy
Does 24-hour fasting make you younger?
Vita gazette – Part of the world dies from emaciated “starvation”, part from “overeating” that turns the human body into shapeless bags of fat. Research in recent years has revealed that we eat “to death”. The truth of these researches becomes apparent when we look at the increasingly amorphous bodies and the increasing diseases of civilization around us. Again, studies show that long-term hunger contributes to both weight loss and rejuvenation.
The purpose of eating has changed
Unlike for our ancestors, today eating is more than just an elementary requirement in order to satisfy hunger: enjoyment is the focus of mealtimes shared with family or friends, but we also (all too) often treat ourselves to a piece of chocolate or dessert as a reward; when we’re stressed and happy instantly consume a bag of chips with a beer; We never think about the effects on our body when we enjoy a small dessert plate, which is not at all innocent, accompanied by espresso. Even when we feel the slightest hunger, we have a quick snack without thinking. Let’s be honest. How many people let their stomach growl?
We’re eating ourselves to death!
As Russian doctor Galina Shatalova wrote in her book of the same name, the recent studies have revealed that we eat to death. Overeating, malnutrition, unhealthy lifestyle has caused or increased the risks of civilizational disease, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and many more. Even a slightly high body mass index can cause one of these diseases. In other words, the way to live young and healthy is to eat less, a kind of constant fasting.
Being able to stay hungry for 16 hours…
The most common form of intermittent fasting is the 16:8 version. This means fasting for 16 hours and eating for the remaining eight hours. But without exaggeration! In practice, according to experts, your daily schedule might look like this: breakfast at 8 am, lunch at 12 noon, the last meal of the day at 4 pm. The most important thing to remember is to eat your last meal at least eight hours before midnight. This is a gentle form of weight loss without having to give up certain foods. Other advantages: only fat is lost, muscle! not mass. This variant is relatively easy to integrate into everyday life and prevents the well-known yo-yo effect and hunger pangs. However, discipline and the right timing are essential to achieve long-term success.
Other possible rhythms are 18:6 and 20:4, which include fasting for 18 or 20 hours, respectively. But you don’t have to eat three meals a day, you can have two or even just one meal. A no-dinner version, also known as “canceling dinner,” is another particularly effective option. Let’s note that experts say that breakfast is the only meal that should not be skipped in these diets…
Benefits of fasting for 24 hours
Researchers most recently found that restricting calorie intake for just 24 hours caused a metabolic transformation that would promote the regeneration of stem cells in the intestines. This age-related loss of stem cell function can be reversed by a 24-hour fast, according to a study from MIT biologists. The researchers found that fasting dramatically improves stem cells’ ability to regenerate, in both aged and young mice. This is really important. Because one of the ways we have healthy tissue and fight diseases is through the intestines. However, with age, these stem cells in the intestines cannot be renewed effectively. That’s why the results of these experiments on mice are very important. Accordingly, fasting for 24 hours causes a metabolic regeneration in stem cells in the gut, from using carbohydrates to burning fat. During this period, the regeneration process against cancer or infections is supported.
Supplemented intestinal organoids in fasting mice, right
Regenerating cells
On the other hand, it was determined that the functions of cells increased as they consumed fat instead of carbohydrates as an energy source. Intestinal stem cells, which the researchers describe as “the workhorses of the gut,” usually renew the intestinal lining in five days, but this regeneration can be accelerated once the metabolic transformation is activated.
The researchers took intestinal stem cells from mice that had fasted for 24 hours. And by growing them in a culture medium, they turned them into clumps of cells, a kind of mini-gut to the organ. And as a result of this process, they saw that the regeneration capacity of stem cells was twice as high in both young and old mice compared to fed mice.
This time, they sequenced the messenger RNA found in the stem cells of starving mice to find out why. And they found that starvation activates recording factors called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (or PPARs), which in turn on genes associated with metabolizing fatty acids. The activation caused the cells to break down fatty acids instead of glucose and also strengthened their ability to regenerate themselves. Support for regeneration also ended when researchers blocked the activation of PPAR.
When mice were administered a molecule called GW501516, which activates the effects of PPARs, some of the beneficial effects of starving mice were reproduced. Activating only one metabolic pathway reversed certain age phenotypes.
“I could have saved that kid”
When we think of the word “hunger”, the unforgettable photograph where the Vulture was waiting for the starving child, taken years ago, is one of the first pictures that come to mind.
A photo is worth a thousand words. 20 years ago, the world discussed a photo of a child. The photo won the world’s most prestigious Pulitzer Prize, but journalist Kevin Carter, who took the photo, committed suicide, saying, “I could have saved that kid.”
“Eat less, live more” campaign
In that case, when we consume as much as we need, we are doing our planet and ourselves a favour. We do not cause environmental and visual pollution. On the other hand, we indirectly contribute to the equal and fair distribution of resources… So, should we join the “Eat less, live more” campaign starting today? We – vita gazette have already started…
