A rule to live longer, look younger and be healthier

My starting point for this article is this: There are no suitable models, but some models are useful. In other words, nothing is hard and fast in science. Our understanding evolves all the time, and with that the world around us also evolves. And I’m not necessarily saying that developing our understanding means that we understand more. At some point we just get to a point where we realize that we don’t understand anything. And those can be crucial points, as they take us back to basics and start over.

So getting older, extending life, and improving health (and looks!) Into old age … It seems like science has gone back to basics in this case. And there’s a simple principle that pops up over and over with every longevity study: eat less.

Now, there are two main ways to eat less. Suppose you decide to reduce your caloric intake by X calories per day. (NB: I don’t know how much X should be for you, that will depend on body weight, physical effort, etc.) One way to eat those X calories a day would be to distribute them throughout the day in frequent but small amounts. portioned meals. Rather, you can eat the same number of calories over an 8-hour period (that is, eat fewer but larger meals) and fast for 16 hours. This last strategy is called intermittent fasting and the scientific literature at this point says that is the way to go, if you want to live longer, look better, and feel healthier.

Therefore, researchers at the University of Alabama conducted a study with a small group of obese men with prediabetes. They compared a form of intermittent fasting called “time-restricted early feeding,” in which all meals were adjusted to an early eight-hour period of the day (7 AM to 3 PM), or distributed in 12 hours (between 7 a.m. 7 p.m.). After five weeks, the eight-hour group had drastically lower insulin levels and significantly improved insulin sensitivity, as well as significantly lower blood pressure. And the best part: the eight-hour group had significantly decreased appetite as well.

Another study compared the effect of consuming an afternoon meal a day for 8 weeks and reported a 4.1% weight loss compared to an isocaloric diet consumed at three meals a day. One meal a day was also associated with reductions in fasting glucose and improvements in LDL and HDL cholesterol.

I can continue to cite other studies. Many of them are in rats, where intermittent fasting conclusively prolongs life and health by at least 10 percent (which, by the way, in the rat world means many years). But I want to take this discussion back to basics, which was my initial premise. Remember that in all religions some form of fasting is an important practice. Do you think that is for religious purposes per se? And do you think it is a coincidence that all religions recommend incorporating some fasting regiment? I would think not. I guess people have always intuitively known what is best for them. And this intuitive knowledge is reflected in religious texts that act as manuals for healthy living. In fact, if you followed the spiritual teachings (for example, love unconditionally, forgive, be compassionate, let go and surrender, don’t overeat, etc.), you may live longer and be healthier (of course, as long as you get rid of the institutional “religious” garbage that was superimposed to serve the ego purposes of the upper classes). Now science comes along and says the same thing that religions preached for centuries: Intermittent fasting seems to trigger repair processes in the body that, in turn, increase health, improve appearance, and prolong life. It is not interesting?