On circadian cycles and fasting

Finished reading Steve Hendrick's The Oldest Cure in the world! What a book! It is very long. The author has a lot of good points, albeit a bit long winded. With almost 450 pages, it is not easy reading. Despite the author having some amazing writing, I will not be recommending this to friends. It is most certainly a commitment. The book has its sloughs. This is the book that took me the longest to read in 2022. If I was not already interested in fasting, I may have dropped it (and be content with his interviews and harper's magazine article).

However, with that in mind, this book delivered what it promised. It outlined the history of fasting in South Asia (among other areas). I appreciated this, because I am unfamiliar with this aspect of my ancestry. My maternal grand-father and his father were said to be accomplished yogi. Those lessons seem to have skipped a generation. But it is interesting to see this interest rising again in my generation and the newer ones. Growing up, it seemed that fasting had been mostly relegated to women. And the first few chapters of the book, going over the history of fasting, tries to explain why that is.

Outside of the longer historical look, this book does a good job in narrating the scientific/academic community's response to fasting as well (outlook negative). It is one of those things that seem so taken for granted that to think to do otherwise is heresy. I mean, go multiple days without eating? What in the world. But it is fascinating to read about. A lot of it seems like fanciful things that would not impact my daily life. I mean, I know that I'm not actually going to go to a fasting center and spend thousands on it. Going all the way to Germany to do so is even less likely. But there are some things that he touches on near the end that DO seem compatible with a modern life. My wish is that the book reached to those earlier on.

We all fast, everyday. We just don't acutely identify it as a fast. Folks even take the name of the first meal "breakfast" for granted. But the fast is there. Now I had already tried intermittent fasting in the past. I like it, it's a sustainable way to limit my caloric intake without depriving myself (or feeling like I'm depriving/denying). Eat the things your body needs, that you already do, during a shorter timed window (and thereby extending the fast between eating periods). Simple. I have had a bit of a maladjusted relationship with food, so keeping things simple (and not valorifying diets/ demonizing certain foods etc) went a long way. Later on in the book, Hendricks talks about the research of Satchin Panda. And this floored me. Panda's research showed why the fasting period was important and how our fasting periods have gotten shorter and shorter. And how that could negatively affect us. But more than that, what he found was that when you ate was just as relevant as what you ate.

When I did intermittent fasting, I typically just skipped breakfast. I'm gradually changing that. Because what he found is that, just like how we have a sleep circadian cycle, our organs have a circadian cycle as well. Gobsmacked. I guess in my brain, I had been imagining the digestive system as some sort of furnace that just....was always on.

When you think about it, it makes sense. Of course your organs would need time to rest and repair things. It just never occurred to me. And how my late night dinners and snacking could interrupt and shorten the fast.

What was even more startling was that even insulin production was affected by similar cycles. My family has a history of diabetes, so this had my ears perked. Turns out all those late night bubble teas and deserts? They may have been not so great ideas. Panda has a book out called the Circadian Code that I've placed a hold in the library for. I'm eager to read it and learn more.

As for now, it was a simple enough replacement to just move my eating window earlier in the day. This is as far from scientific as it can be, but I have found that my sleep is a lot better than if I ate dinner later in the day. I feel a bit ridiculous eating dinner at 3pm, but I think it works. The main part of dinner that I thought I would miss, spending time with my family, is still there. I'm able to prepare dinner for her or help around the kitchen because energy levels aren't impacted that much. I drink some herbal tea, or have a light broth with her during the days that I do eTRF (early time restricted feeding). There's still some adjustment to actually eating breakfast at the scale (I'm used to skipping it entirely or eating a very light one). I tell folks to think of all those ads that said "part of a complete breakfast" and imagine that I'm eating the complete breakfast. I will probably start adding more salads or fruits to my breakfast next week. Perhaps boiled/steamed potatoes.

The old adage, Eat breakfast like a king, share lunch with a friend, and give your dinner to a poorer person seems to have been right on the money.