Life in the Fast Lane

No. Life in the Fasting Lane

Some acquaintances of mine have been doing the ‘cleanse’ lately. Part of this, they say with bright eyes and eager gestures, is an occasional day when they only drink water. It’s called fasting. And I will now stop laughing about it.

My email this morning contained a link to FitCommerce.com. Being person easily distracted by shiny things, I scrolled down to this lead:
Periodic Fasting Found to Reduce Heart Disease
"The practice of monthly fasting by Salt Lake City Mormons has been observed to have a marked reduction in heart disease as presented at the at the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology."

Wow. Who could resist this? One afternoon when I was quite bored, I let a couple of those bicycle evangelicals into my kitchen to listen to the ‘pitch.’ After I let them know that I was in the fitness industry and riding bikes would keep them healthy, they mentioned that Mormons don’t have as many heart attacks as non-Mormons.

Not because of the bike riding. But because of fasting.

Now, here is was again. The article makes some good points. Your body is a wonder of adaptation. When it gets nothing from a daily dose of food, it begins to use what’s on hand - fat. This has a benefit, rise in LDL cholesterol levels. It also lets some of the bad stuff loose.

In his book, Eight Weeks to Optimal Health, Dr. Andrew Weil, suggests occasional fasting to foster overall better health, "The digestive organs are the largest and bulkiest in the body, and their routine operations consume large amounts of energy.

Conclusion? I am not converting. If that were the case, I would also have to consider leaning toward Islam (with a month-long daily fast known as Ramadan). And the Lent of Catholicism. Enough of that. One day a month, drinking only water, could be a possibility. For overall health, I stress. NOT for weight loss. Starving your sneaky body of food usually fosters weight gain.

So, back to training some muscles that need to be bulked so they can burn fat while I sleep. And perhaps I’ll try life in the fast lane. With water. Easier to swallow than a religious conversion.

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