Have I been teaching you all wrong?
There’s a new scary study about intermittent fasting. You may have seen videos about it. It’s sending everyone into a tizzy.
Rumor has it that intermittent fasting has been linked with heart disease. But, there are so many limitations to this study. I know you’re smart enough to spot them too!
Today, we’ll look at 5 big issues experts have with this study—did you catch them too?
1) Hold on. The study looked at how many days of Intermittent Fasting???
Two.
You read that right: two days.
The study made its conclusions based on only two days of intermittent fasting.
2) Wait, that’s not Intermittent Fasting!
Intermittent fasting is a health and weight loss strategy that we learn about and practice.
If your teenager woke up super late and had breakfast at 11:00, you wouldn’t call that intermittent fasting, even if they happened to eat all their meals within an 8-hour window.
But the study did.
It didn’t look at people who practice intermittent fasting regularly or intentionally as part of their lifestyle. These people weren’t claiming to be “intermittent fasters.”
The researchers, instead, asked a ton of people to try to remember what time they ate during two days in the past. Then, the researchers used those times to identify the “time restricted eaters.”
3) But what did they eat? And how did they live?
If you’re scratching your head already, I’m with you. The study had nothing to do with their dietary habits or patterns, their lifestyle, or how much they exercised. The researchers didn’t collect any details on the nutrient quality of their diets, how well they were sleeping, their stress levels, their digestive health, or their hormonal balance.
It only looked at what times they ate during the two random days picked by the researchers.
At the end of the day, it’s absolutely ridiculous to make claims and assumptions like this without looking at the big picture.
Your health and weight aren’t determined by one thing you do. They’re affected by everything—your diet, exercise, sleep quality, your body composition, stress levels, alcohol consumption, hormone balance, digestive health—all these things matter hugely! They matter more than when you start eating and when you stop.
4) Correlation is NOT causation, right?
You’re right! Just because two things correlate does not mean that one causes the other.
Ice cream sales and shark attacks are correlated. So will you be eaten by a shark if you eat more ice cream? Of course not! Another factor is driving this statistic: the hot summer months.
Concluding that eating within a time-window causes heart disease is misusing science and misunderstanding how these studies work.
5) This study hasn’t been peer-reviewed or published!
The findings are considered preliminary until published as a full manuscript in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. You read that right, this study has not even been peer-reviewed yet.
The news came from an abstract presented last Monday at an American Heart Association conference in Chicago. The study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and experts cautioned that it had many limitations.
Experts are cautioning people about these findings, seeing that this research has many limitations.
So Does Intermittent Fasting Increase Your Risk for Heart Disease?
Your health is really important. How you live today has a direct effect on how you feel and how long you’ll live. It’s not something to mess around with.
Words like “heart disease” strike fear in our hearts for good reason. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. When we’re talking life-or-death, we need to think rationally and not let fear take over.
Do you know what’s scarier than thinking about heart disease? Someone telling you that all your efforts to be healthy are actually causing heart disease. Of course you’re scared and want to make sure you’re doing right for your health and future.
Stop falling for the fear-mongering clickbait. Let me redirect you to the solid studies on intermittent fasting. You’ll see what they say, and then you can make an informed, rational decision about whether it’s the right strategy for you.
Where Ancient Tradition and Modern Science Align
People have been experiencing the benefits of intermittent fasting across history and cultures. But while its roots derive from traditions described in early texts by Socrates, Plato, and religious groups, we’re just now looking at intermittent fasting through scientific lenses. Today, we’re starting to scratch the surface of the many health benefits of intermittent fasting. Here’s what the science is saying so far:
- IF increases metabolism and fat burning: Intermittent fasting increases your metabolism, making this strategy highly effective for weight loss. Research has found that people who fast intermittently have a significant reduction in body weight, BMI, and body fat percentage. As a bonus, these participants also experienced reduced levels of depression.
- IF lowers blood insulin and sugar levels: Study after study has shown that fasting results in healthy weight loss, dramatically lowers insulin levels, significantly improves insulin sensitivity, and lowers blood pressure.
- IF reverses type 2 diabetes: Recently, BMJ Case Reports published a small study where three men with type 2 diabetes tried intermittent fasting for 10 months. Within one month of starting intermittent fasting, all three men were able to stop insulin treatment. One was able to stop after only 5 days of intermittent fasting.
- IF reduces inflammation: A new study has concluded that intermittent fasting reduces inflammation, which can lead to a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel syndrome.
- IF increases growth hormone: Human growth hormone plays a key role in our growth, body composition, cell repair, and metabolism. And guess what boosts it? Many studies have found that fasting leads to massive increases in HGH levels.
- IF improves mental concentration and increases energy: In his book, Neurofitness, neurosurgeon Dr. Jandial explains why intermittent fasting is a miracle medicine for the brain. Fasting increases your brain’s natural growth factors and neuron health, promotes neuroplasticity, and increases the brain’s resistance to injury and disease.
- IF stimulates autophagy: Autophagy is our body’s process of breaking down and recycling unneeded and dysfunctional proteins and organelles. If these proteins and organelles accumulate, they can lead to poor organ function and even cancer. Autophagy is critical in helping us fight off disease, our longevity, and general body and brain vitality.
Fasting is the single most effective way to stimulate autophagy in both the body and the brain. Even after just 24 hours of fasting, autophagy stimulation increased by an astounding 300%.
Fasters Aren’t Foolish!
If fasting has been a beneficial part of your nutritional tool belt, keep doing it! If you want to learn more about how to effectively implement fasting into your daily routine safely and effectively, download my free guide to fasting on my website.
