I was disappointed to read this, I have read nothing but positive things about IF. I ended up forwarding this article to the Facebook Fast 5 group and Dr Bert Herring replied with this post. Just passing it along...
It's important to keep an open mind, but when it comes to lab animals, men are much more similar to women than rats or mice. They are different, of course, and one can see from reports here that not only are men different from women, but wo...men are different from women -- two women do the same thing and have vastly different results. Why? Different genes, different epigenetics, different environments, different food choices, different activities, different bodies, different brains. That's why I encourage "the study of one" -- experimenting to find one's best options -- for your body in your environment. Glucose is easily tested at home, and I would balance that with periodic HbA1Cs, because decreased muscle uptake of glucose because they're burning fat instead may make glucose have higher transient swings than one sees on a usual diet while the average level may be higher or lower over time. Like most things, fasting obviously shows the phenomenon of hormesis -- a little is good, but the extreme is starvation, obviously bad. In the same way, a little water is good, but too much can be lethal. What the ideal interval is remains to be seen, but people have to be doing different things for a long time for researchers to be able to sort out what does what. I also keep in mind that lab animals are not normal animals (they're inbred in almost all studies) and they are not in normal environments -- rats and mice are kept in little cages, usually without room to roam, and fed food that is unlike the diet of their wild kin, but exactly the same with every feeding.
So, while studies may make us think, I maintain that the best source of info is what's going on in our own bodies, in our own environment, with our own food choices. We have the technology to know that know, so I think we should collect this information (glucose, HbA1c, blood pressure, etc.) and use it to find our personal best approach. When a change makes one value get better and another worse, such as when glucose goes up and bp goes down -- it's a very tough call as to which is better in the long run, and the preferable route may be guided by personal and family history. Maybe when lots of people have done different things for decades, we'll be able to sift through it all and get better guidelines for what's best. The only thing that's clear now is that the current way of eating in the current environment with the current food choices results in an unhealthy outcome for the majority of people.
So, while studies may make us think, I maintain that the best source of info is what's going on in our own bodies, in our own environment, with our own food choices. We have the technology to know that know, so I think we should collect this information (glucose, HbA1c, blood pressure, etc.) and use it to find our personal best approach. When a change makes one value get better and another worse, such as when glucose goes up and bp goes down -- it's a very tough call as to which is better in the long run, and the preferable route may be guided by personal and family history. Maybe when lots of people have done different things for decades, we'll be able to sift through it all and get better guidelines for what's best. The only thing that's clear now is that the current way of eating in the current environment with the current food choices results in an unhealthy outcome for the majority of people.
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