Intermittent fasting for Indians: Why it is good for you

We Indians are not new to fasting and it continues to be good news. Intermittent Fasting (IE) was one of the most talked about diet trends of 2019 and many feel that this diet will be big in 2020 as well. For the unversed, intermittent fasting is time restricted eating, wherein a person fasts for anytime between 16-18 hours and eats for the remaining 8 or 6 hours. Another form of intermittent fasting is 5:2 wherein people fast for 2 days every week and have only 500 calories on those days.

The standard IE diet trend is very simple to follow. Like you can eat between 10 am and 6 pm or between 9 am and 5 pm and fast for the remaining period. But one is advised to have smaller meals instead of heavy meals or drinks. Moreover, the biggest advantage is that it reduces your overall calories consumed, thereby reducing the amount of processed foods you have.

Not only weight loss, intermittent fasting is known to have many other benefits. It cuts inflammation, improve symptoms of arthritis, improves blood pressure, balances levels of good and bad cholesterol, helps beat stress and much more.

So how does intermittent fasting work exactly? For starters, our body depends on glucose as its constant source of energy and fuel. However, fasting for a certain period allows our bodies to use up the reserved glucose levels, and helps the body switch from glucose to ketone metabolism. In the absence of glucose, body starts to use fatty acids as well as ketone bodies. They regularise the activity of many proteins and molecules that also tend to impact one’s health and aging.

Intermittent fasting tricks your body into switching to ketone metabolism every now and then. For those wondering if fasting resets your immunity, the answer is that it sort of does. Science claims that fasting helps clear out old immune cells and switch to the production of new ones. And intermittent fasting may provide equal health benefits.

Recently, Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston too revealed that she follows intermittent fasting. “I follow intermittent and have no food in the morning. I noticed a big difference in going without solid food for 16 hours." Lots of people have got great results following intermittent fasting and you can too. But always listen to your body while fasting.