Fasting as Detox: Debunked

Day 24, Feast Day #13

One of the most common claims made about the benefits of fasting (whether it be dry fasting, water fasting, juice fasting, etc.) is that the process releases "toxins" stored in your body so your body can dispose of them. This process is usually called "detox" by the marketers of various detox systems including: food, drinks, supplements, herbs, cookbooks, saunas, foot pads (that turn color when exposed to any type of moisture), various spa products, enemas (even ones involving coffee), and more. Most of these detox systems make claims not evaluated by any safety or health regulatory institution.

There is a lot of dubious information about health in the media and on the internet in general, not just about fasting as a form of detox. Most of these unsubstantiated claims are based on pseudoscience and are meant to either get you to spend your money, join something (and then probably spend your money on something), or scare you (and use your fear to get you to spend your money on something, sometimes instead of something else you spent your money on previously). 

Lucky for marketers, humans can be incredibly gullible when it comes to accepting bad or false health science. A well-known example is when there was widespread panic in the US in 2011 about apple juice because TV personality and celebrity Dr. Oz (who apparently does not practice the scientific method) claimed apple juice contained unsafe levels of arsenic. This was based on misleading data he had a lab run for him (total arsenic which includes harmless organic arsenic instead of only harmful inorganic arsenic). The FDA and many other scientists and doctors called him out for his misleading and false claims. Yet, there are still people that cite Dr. Oz in their belief that apple juice could kill them because it is a cocktail of poison containing dangerous levels of pesticides from China. Perhaps some of these people are the same ones doing coffee enemas for health.

These are some claims I have run into about fasting as a form of detox:

"Fasting also allows for the body's enzyme system to focus on detoxifying and breaking down toxins in the body quickly and efficiently without the job of heavy food digestion. During fasts, toxins are being circulated in the body in order for our organs to de-arm them." - Chicago Tribune (Health)

"And this is what the body will do during a fast. It will take advantage of that time and energy to do some housecleaning. The overloaded, overworked system, unable to properly handle all the toxins, has been storing any excesses in the tissues where they can be dealt with later. This is one of the great health benefits of fasting in that it offers this opportunity to play "catch up". - All About Fasting

"Juice fasting provides many of the benefits of water fasting without most of these problems. A gentle, controlled juice fast doesn’t create a healing crisis, releasing toxins into the bloodstream more slowly and at a rate your body can handle more comfortably" - Raw Food Life

What on Earth are these claims based off of? What credible research shows a correlation between fasting and detoxification of the human body? Well the short answer to these questions is that there is currently no scientific basis for these claims. 

The only account I have even seen referenced (on the unreliable WebMD) about anyone measuring a decline in body toxins through fasting turns out to be an incorrect reference about Jack Goldstein used by the psychological researcher Chris Strychacz. I looked at the text of Jack Goldstein's book Triumph Over Disease by Fasting And Natural Diet, and there is no mention of him accurately measuring his toxic output in tongue scrapings (or anything else) and certainly no mention of him reducing DDT in his body (or other toxins) from his body while fasting. Goldstein does mention a foul-smelling coating on his tongue and bad breath during his fast. I am 100% positive this is caused by acetones created during ketosis. Goldstein was scraping his tongue to get the nasty, smelly coating off. He wasn't measuring anything. He chalks everything up to his body leaching out toxins, which there is no proof of.

Your kidneys and liver are your body's 24/7 detox system. Take care of those organs if you want to filter out your body's toxins, Fasting could theoretically help some people with reducing risk factors of liver disease and kidney disease if fasting indeed reduces insulin sensitivity (which has been seen in mice). It can also help people maintain a healthy weight, since being overweight is a risk factor for diabetes. Diabetes can really mess up your kidney and liver. Liver disease and diabetes led to my grandfather being on dialysis when his kidneys gave out,

My opinion is that if fasting makes you feel better and you are able to safely do it, then good for you. However, until proven otherwise, I wouldn't get your hopes up about fasting being the key to "detox." There is nothing wrong with enjoying a fruit and veggie smoothie just because they are yummy and have lots of good nutrients, however.

The Scale & Schedule

Day 10, Feast Day #5

This weekend I bit the bullet and bought a scale. One has to wonder how many scales actually sell at Wal-Mart. I was originally going to measure my weight loss in the very unscientific unit of American women's pant sizes. This is unreliable for many reasons including vanity sizing, brand differences, and the fact that I carry the majority of my weight in my lower half as a "pear" shape. I don't think pant sizes will be as motivating as a hard  pounds number anyway.

So what secrets did the mighty bathroom scale overlord reveal? I have lost 4 lbs or (1.8 kgs) since the last time I weighed myself (March 31, 2013). Obviously due to the lack of a baseline weight at the start of my diet, I cannot completely confirm this is entirely due to ADF. But given that MyFitnessPal predicted that my baseline eating habits would have had me maintaining my initial weight or gaining a little under a pound, I don't see how my previous non-action would have led to a 4 lb loss without some type of magic being involved. I also measured my waist at 33" the other day, so that is another number I can track.

Additionally this weekend I went from a midnight to midnight fast/feast schedule to a 10 pm to 10 pm schedule. I was staying up way past my bedtime in anticipation of breaking my fast with a before bed snack. I am getting much more sleep on the new schedule. I just need to be flexible with the idea of shortening feast days to accommodate life.

Also, no headache today! This is the first feast day without one.

ADF Side Effect - Headache

Day 6, Feast Day #3

Much like on my second feast day, I woke up to a headache this morning. Super fun. On Tuesday, my second feast day, the headache lasted all day, despite taking some ibuprofen in the afternoon. When I do get a headache, it is typically from caffeine withdrawal or eye strain and is cured with caffeine or sleep respectively. I may be fasting every other day, but I am not giving up my daily morning cup of coffee, so it likely isn't caffeine withdrawal. I am thinking it is related to ADF.

Zach did an internet search and found forums where other people starting an ADF diet also experienced headaches. I seemed to draw the short stick, since Zach isn't experiencing this symptom at all. There are some theories floating around about why these headaches are happening, namely: dehydration, not eating, and sugar or carbohydrate withdrawal.

I do not think this is related to dehydration at all. I have been drinking copious amounts of water and herbal tea on fast days to stave off hunger. Yesterday I consumed: a 10 oz cup of mild roast coffee, a 10 oz cup of strawberry pomegranate tea, two 10 oz cups of ginger tea, a 16 oz cup of rooibos tea followed by a 10 oz cup of rooibos tea, two 12 oz cups of mint tea, and four 12 oz cups of water. That is 138 US ounces or the equivalent of over 4 liters and over one US gallon. That is a lot of liquid, and doesn't include the fluids in all the vegetables and the bowl of soup I had for lunch. Clear pee = hydrated.

Now, not eating seems like a much more likely reason for the headaches. The Mayo Clinic lists "skipping meals" as a cause for headaches. Additionally the Physician's Desk Reference cites skipping meals or not eating for an extended period as a trigger for both migraine and tension headaches. 

Previous to starting ADF, I was used to not only eating three meals a day, but lots of small snacks during my day. Moving to one small meal a day has been a big habit shift for me. From what I have read from other people experiencing this problem, the headaches often go away after a couple weeks or can be remedied with splitting the day's calorie allotment between two meals instead of the one. I may need to try two tiny meals in hopes of skipping my fasting hangover if this doesn't stop on its own. However, consuming multiple meals will cut the time I am actually going without food and might not give me all the benefits I am seeking from intermittent fasting.

As for sugar withdrawal, that could certainly be an explanation too. I have been keeping a food diary on MyFitnessPal.com and with their mobile app and it calculated that for my height & weight I should ingest about 34 grams of sugar a day. Now for the harsh reality: my approximate average sugar intake on my last two fast days was 33 grams. In comparison, on my last two feast days I ingested a disgusting 126 grams of sugar on average. Yes, I ate some sweets during my feast, including chocolate chip pancakes and beer for a meal. My two baseline days of calorie counting were at an average of 115 grams of sugar per day too. Holy diabetes, Batman! I knew I had a sweet tooth, but that is just kind of gross.To give you a better picture, 126 grams of sugar is over 30 sugar cubes.

In research done with rats, scientists have also found that rats show signs similar to opioid-dependence when their sugary diet is suddenly limited, suggesting there is such a thing as sugar addiction in rats. However, there is also newer research showing that there is no scientific support that the sugar dependency seen in animal models occurs in human trials. This study clearly hasn't made its way into the wikipedia article on this. 

So the jury is out on whether these headaches are from not eating for awhile, from sugar cravings, or something else. Hopefully it goes away soon. Either way, I should probably make an effort to not eat as much sugar since my insides might just be rivers of cornsyrup from years of not tracking my sugar intake and my apparent mouthlust for sucrose.

Why on Earth Am I Fasting?

It is Day 5 of my alternate day fasting (ADF) diet today, my third "fast day" and also the day I realized, I might want to blog about this experiment.

"Why the hell are you fasting?!?" you ask. Let me explain before you decide I have totally lost my mind.

I first learned about ADF from watching Dr. Michael Mosley's show called "Eat, Fast, and Live Longer" when it aired on PBS last week. It is a fascinating show that starts with a 101 year-old badass running a marathon in London. That man is by all rights impressive for both living to age 101 and running a freaking marathon. This guy restricts his calories all the time and doesn't practice ADF, but it certainly caught my attention. The show explores calorie restriction and different methods of calorie restriction as a key component in reducing one's risk of all kinds of diseases related to aging, including: heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Mosley explores and tries out overall calorie restriction, three-night four-day fasting (every few months), and ADF.

ADF is exactly what it sounds like: you fast every other day. It isn't a hardcore no calorie at all fast, but instead a 75-80% reduction of your daily recommended value calorie intake (a "fast day") followed by a day where you eat whatever you want (a "feast day"). The researcher in Mosley's program notes that even on feast days, people in the study only averaged about 125% of their DRV of calories on feast days, so you are still eating less calories than two days of eating 100% of your DRV or more. For my purposes I am allowing 400-500 calories on my fast days and Zach is doing 500-600 calories.

Now, I am not stupid. I figure most of the benefits from fasting would be due to losing weight. Weight loss in general isn't exactly hard math either. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. If you do this long enough, you become overweight and put yourself at a higher risk for diseases related to being overweight. My progression up the pant sizes over the years and beers tells me this is truth.

So why fast and not just cut calories everyday like a normal person with weight loss goals? Well, Dr. Mosley highlights the work of scientists studying ADF and this pattern of eating has been shown to do more than just help test subjects lose weight through the usual everyday calorie restriction. ADF triggers burning of fat and decreases the amount of IGF-1 (Insulin-like growth factor 1) in your body. Lowering IGF is showing promise as a mechanism to slow down age-related disease, Alzheimer's, and cancer. Zach and I read some of the published research, like this paper, which does a good job of summing up what is going on in terms of the ADF research world.

The Zach and Lauren family histories include pretty much every age-related disease out there. Zach in particular is worried about Alzheimer's disease because he saw multiple grandparents lose their marbles over time and experienced how hard that is for a family. So it was really Zach, not me, that was fired up to try alternate day fasting ourselves. Me, on the other hand, I really like to eat and was more hesitant. However, if ADF does work, extra years down the road with a cognitively functioning Zach sounds great. Even if it doesn't stop me from developing high cholesterol, I could stand to lose some weight in the short-term. So, that is why I am hungry right now and had my one 400 calorie meal for lunch today.

www.HyperSmash.com
hgpromo
Blog Ping Site
hiphone 4