Diabetes Diet

People often fast for cosmetic, religious, or medical reasons. About 14 percent of American adults have reported that they have fasted to help control their weight. But I have begun to fast intermittently because it’s the natural way to eat — or not eat.

That fasting may appear at first glance to be unnatural just shows how far we have departed from our heritage. Eating three squares a day is certainly not what our paleolithic ancestors did. And if our paleolithic ancestors seem light years away from modern humans, just remember that the paleolithic period extended until the agricultural revolution, which was only about 300 generations ago. Genetically, we have hardly changed at all since them.

Articles by Dr. Michael Eades on his “Protein Power” blog first attracted my attention to intermittent fasting. The more I explored intermittent fasting, particularly in the work of Dr. Loren Cordain, like his book, The Paleo Diet, the more I knew that I had to check out that experience for myself.

In the past couple of weeks I made two intermittent fasts. The first was for 12 hours from sunrise to sunset and the second was 24 hours from dinner one night to dinner the next.

I drank only water, lemonade, and tea (both black and herbal). None with any calories. And plenty of it.

My 12-hour fast was similar to that of Muslims during the month of Ramadan. But hardly the same and not as challenging.

Since Muslims are the experts on fasting, I consulted with an imam, Ibrahim Kazerooni, before setting forth on my latest dietary experiment. He is both a friend and a member of my diabetes support group.

Ibrahim explained that Muslims can’t even drink water while fasting during the month of Ramadan. Their fasts last from 1 and 1/2 hours before sunrise until dusk. (As a Shiite Islamic priest, or imam, he was an Iraqi dissident who Saddam Hussein repeatedly imprisoned until Ibrahim was able to escape from Iraq in 1974; I understand that followers of Sunni Islam fast from dawn to sunset.)

“Take it easy at first,” Ibrahim explained. “Just do one day to start.”

He told me that the fast was beneficial for his blood glucose level, even it it was sometimes a bit too low. “It was no problem when I took my diabetes medication at night.”

People who have type 2 diabetes, as Ibrahim does, need to be careful of what they eat late at night when they break their fasts. They can lose weight, “if they don’t overload on sugar and starch.” He said that he lost seven pounds this time.

Now, after two fasts I am even more positive than I was from reading Drs. Eades and Cordain and from talking with Imam Kazerooni.

I did have brief headaches near the beginning of each fast. And a bit of a sore throat for a short while as I hiked during my first fast. At one point on the trail I felt hunger pains in my stomach for a few minutes. But I was amazed that otherwise I never got hungry.

My mood remained at a high level throughout. Physically, I may have even gained energy. For example, on my walk to the post office during the second fast I even did some intermittent jogging, something that I hadn’t done for several months.

I don’t take any diabetes drugs or other prescription medication. My blood glucose level once went down to 68 mg/dl, about as far as anyone with diabetes would want. The first thing on the morning after my second fast it was at 80 mg/dl, just below the 83 mark that Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, the leading exponent of a very low-carb diet, says that is the appropriate average for anyone. I lost 0.8 pounds, and now my weight is the lowest in eight months.

Later I thought to investigate the peer-reviewed articles on Medline and found this:

“Persons with Type 1 diabetes can participate safely in prolonged fasts [more than 25 hours] provided they reduce their usual insulin dose significantly and adhere to guidelines regarding glucose monitoring and indications for terminating fasting.”

People with type 1, unlike me, absolutely have to take insulin. And of course my intermittent fasts have not been “prolonged.”

I also found other studies indicating other benefits of intermittent fasting, including one that concludes:

“Reducing energy intake by controlled caloric restriction or intermittent fasting increases lifespan and protects various tissues against disease…”

Another study reported:

“It has previously been shown that fasting for the biblical period of 40 days and 40 nights is well within the overall physiological capabilities of a healthy adult.”

The experience freed me from the self-imposed tyranny of assuming that I just had to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Skipping those meals even saved me lots of time in food preparation and eating.

In conclusion, the experience was so rewarding that I will continue intermittent fasts of various lengths. But not more than the biblical 40 days and 40 nights.

This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.

We are more interested in water than we are in Obesity. Yet they are connected.

A year ago the professional journal Obesity published the results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial that compares weight loss among dieters who drink water before meals with those who do not. When the people in the trial drank just two 8-ounces of that simple stuff right before each of their three daily meals, they lost about 5 pounds more than those in the trial who didn’t increase how much water they drank. The trial lasted just 12 weeks.

But almost nobody noticed that study. As much as I am personally and professionally interested in weight loss, I sure didn’t.

The senior author of the study, Brenda Davy, is associate professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She tried again to get the word out last week, and this time she succeeded.

This time she presented her research at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston. That’s how I and just about everyone else learned about it.

At first, I decided not to write about this study, figured that it was old news. But when I read about it in the current issue of The Economist yesterday, I knew that this was a hot topic.

Few of the more than 300 articles in the press that covered Professor Davy’s talk mentioned that this was old news. The American Chemical Society’s press release didn’t bother to tell us that.

But when I asked Dr. Davy when a professional journal would publish her research, she told me that Obesity already had published it. This is important, because publication in a peer-reviewed journal like Obesity gets a lot more credit from the scientific community than something that some professor says at a meeting.

My guess is that you too didn’t notice the report in Obesity or even one of the many articles in the press reporting on Dr. Davy’s talk. Even if you did, a gentle reminder here might be enough for some of us to take a little action.

Personally, I’m more than interested in drinking water before meals to lose weight. I took action. While I am no longer obese, my current body mass index crept up a little from all of my travels this year. At 20.1 it is higher than where I feel the best.

So I have been drinking a lot more water ever since reading about this study. And in a week my weight is down to 161 from 163. It works for me.

Professionally, I know that almost everyone else who has diabetes also struggles with his or her weight. That’s why I’m recommending that you add this simple and inexpensive appetite control to your current strategy.

All I’m asking is that you drink two 8-ounces of water before every meal and keep track of your weight. One more thing — please let this community know if it works for you too.

This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.