By Toby Miller

Picture yourself finally sitting down on your chair after a long day. You pick up the latest magazine that just came in the mail and come across a health advertisement that promises to improve your health and fix what has been ailing you. It captures your attention because it sounds so good! But then, down at the bottom, there it is…the price.

You cringe and think to yourself, is it even worth trying? Maybe–right? While there are some wonderful products out there being advertised at a great cost, there are other things that we can do that cost very little.

In the past few decades, chronic conditions such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, infertility, cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity, mood disorders, and even chronic pain have skyrocketed. On top of this, in 2021 the World Health Organization published that worldwide obesity rates have tripled since 1975, and sadly, a 2022  study found that only 6.8% of Americans are now considered healthy. As dismal as this is, there is a big movement where people are taking their health into their own hands and making changes. Becoming flexible is one of these.

You might be wondering what flexibility has to do with health. Well, what I’m referring to has nothing to do with our personality or the ability to move our body. While those things may be important for other reasons, what we are talking about in this article is how flexible our body is with its fuel source.

To keep it simple, does your body use both its glucose (sugar from the food we eat) burning system and its fat (already stored) burning system to make energy? This is called metabolic flexibility, or metabolic switching. Think of a hybrid car that uses both gas and battery; that is how our bodies are created, and this switching back and forth between glucose and fat for energy is critical if we want to be a healthy individual.

In pre-industrial times, before there were restaurants and grocery stores, our ancestors were metabolically flexible by necessity. Some days there was plenty of food and other days there was not enough to go around. Being flexible allowed people to go without food for a few days and still have energy to go out and hunt for things to eat.

So how do we find out if we are flexible with our food source? One way is to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is my glucose level less than one hundred when I wake up in the morning?

2. Do I have normal blood pressure?

3. Is my waist smaller than my hips?

4. Can I go without food for five hours during the day and not get hangry (hungry plus angry)?

5. Do I have energy all day long?

The above are all markers of metabolic health and the more “no’s” we have to those five questions, the higher the chance that our body is not flexible, and we have work to do.

So, where do we begin?

There is a great tool that we can use to start becoming flexible; it is backed by science and can be done by most people anytime they choose. This tool is called fasting! Fasting is one of the fastest ways to regain our health and become flexible.

While fasting for better health is making a comeback, we have had the concept of fasting with us for a long time. There is a quote from Hippocrates in the fifth century B.C., “To eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness.” Mark Twain said, “A little starvation can really do more for the average sick man than can the best medicines and the best doctors.”

When we fast, our body has an amazing ability to heal itself. Although it is different for everyone, fasting does have some general guidelines that most people can follow. (Just to be clear, we are only talking about fasting for health—fasting for spiritual reasons is outside the scope of this article.)

Let us begin with the more popular way of fasting, called intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting restricts the time you eat in a day. Many people use this strategy to become metabolically flexible, lose extra pounds, and improve their health.

There was a four week study done in 2020 where sixteen elite athletes ate the exact same amount of food per day. Half of these athletes ate all their food in fourteen hours (7am-9pm) and the other half ate all their food in eight hours (10am-6pm). The eight-hour eating group experienced weight loss, fat loss, and saw a decline in insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) which drives the aging process. The fourteen-hour eating group saw none of these benefits.

So, how do we start intermittent fasting?

Number one: we need to get rid of snacking. Eating six times a day will not get you where you want to go. Every time we eat, our blood sugar rises, then insulin goes up so we can store our food. Do this all day long, and at a minimum you are becoming inflexible, if not packing on the pounds as well. The idea that we need to eat often to keep our metabolism up is incorrect. Instead, go down to three meals a day and keep in mind that when you eat, you need to eat enough to get you to the next meal.

Number two: get rid of all the refined carbs like sugars and flours. I know this is a tough one, but you need stable blood sugar and lower insulin levels in order to fast. If you are used to eating lots of sugar, be aware that there is a bad bacteria in your gut that will tell your brain that you need that cookie. When you say no, it will come back and tell you that you need that cookie or you will die. You will need to say no again, because you want this bacteria dead. Do this often enough and your strong cells will get out their weapons and destroy these weak, sugar-craving cells, and you will be free.

Well, maybe not exactly, but you get the picture.

Number three: keep in touch with someone that knows about the changes you are making and can cheer you on. Having a good support system in place is critical in keeping us motivated and on track.

After you do these things, you are ready to begin. Start compressing all your eating into twelve hours. If you eat dinner at 6:00 p.m., do not eat anything until  6:00 a.m. the next morning. This will give your body twelve hours of digestive rest and get you ready to start fasting. Once you are comfortable with the twelve hours, start moving your breakfast back one hour at a time. You should give your body a week to adjust before you push breakfast back another hour. You can also move dinner up an hour if it works better for your schedule.

Keep challenging your body until you get up to fifteen-sixteen hours per day without eating, and you will soon notice that it starts becoming easy to fast. Before you know it, week ten will roll around and you will love the results so much, you will wonder why you ate the way you did before. You will have adopted a new style of eating that is improving your health and wellbeing, plus your body is becoming flexible with its fuel source, using both glucose and fats for energy.

Something you can do to make sure you are flexible is to measure if your body is making ketones eight-twelve hours after your last meal. Ketones are fatty acids that your liver produces naturally once your body uses up its available sugar, and are a sign that your body has switched over to burning fat. Although there are several ways, measuring your ketone levels in the blood is the best long-term strategy. You can get a ketone meter that uses a finger prick test that will tell you if you are producing ketones. These are a little hard to find, but your best bet is to check your local health store.

Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that all carbs are bad and that you should go on a ketogenic diet. The keto diet has its benefits for some conditions, but for most of us, it is not a long term strategy. We need good, healthy carbs, and being in a constant state of making ketones is not sustainable for most people. Remember, it is the switching back and forth between our two energy systems that makes us flexible. And guess what… you don’t have to switch back and forth every day; maybe for you it works better once or twice a week. Find what works best for your body.

One big mistake we can make is fasting daily for the same length of time over and over. We need to vary our fasts to keep them effective and to remain flexible. Some days you should not fast at all, while on other days you could fast for eighteen hours. The point here is that you get to choose, and eating does not rule your life anymore.

You may also want to occasionally do longer fasts. The twenty-four hour fast is great to restore gut function because you get a burst of stem cells released into your gut to repair the inner lining. You might want to try this if you just had a round of antibiotics or have bacterial overgrowth.

The thirty-six hour fast is a great way to burn fat if intermittent fasting is not getting you to your weight goals. This is an effective way to release sugar out of the liver, fat, and muscle tissues, which could be the reason why you are unable to lose weight. This fast can also get the liver to clean up its act and stop overproducing cholesterol and instead produce ketones which you can then use as fuel.

The forty-eight hour fast is great at giving you a mental health boost. It can lower your dopamine baseline so you can feel more joy from the simple things in life. Also, this fast is for lowering anxiety levels to where your brain is much calmer and not squawking at you so much. You might want to try this once a year.

The seventy-two hour fast is great for autoimmune conditions, pain, anti-aging, and also to ease or prevent chronic diseases. Many experts believe that doing this three-day fast once or twice a year can help get rid of any cancer cells that may have been building up in your body.

What should we eat when we end a fast? With intermittent fasting, ending on protein and fat is a good bet, but it also depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you want to build more muscle, try ending your fast with protein rich foods like eggs, beef, chicken, or protein rich vegetables. If you want to keep burning fat, you can end it with foods high in fat like avocados, nuts, and olives. Ending your fast with a high carbohydrate meal can spike your blood sugar and make you feel drowsy. Try eating carbs later in the day or evening.

OK… I can already hear you say it: “There is no way that you will get me fasting because I’m not going to go through all that pain!” That is perfectly normal, because we are wired to run away from scary things. But listen, fasting does not need to be difficult. Before you make up your mind, read these tips：

• Drinking lots of water while you fast is essential. Not only will this help control hunger, but it will also help flush out the toxins your body is getting rid of. It is a good idea to add high quality sugar-free electrolytes to your water. Good quality sea salt can work as well– just add one-fourth teaspoon per quart of water.

• If you feel you are detoxing too fast, you can take charcoal or zeolite while you are fasting. Epsom salt baths, lymph massages, and rebounding can all help in flushing the toxins out.

• Drinking black coffee or tea is a great way to get you through the morning. Researchers have found that caffeine can double your ketone production and make you more sensitive to insulin. And guess what, the more sensitive your insulin is, the less you will crave sugar because you can now use what you already have!

• You can add MCT (Medium Chain Triglyceride) oil to your coffee. MCT oil does not get stored as fat, but rather goes directly to the liver and gets turned into ketones. It is a good idea to start low and slow since a big dose can cause upset stomach. Try the MCT powder if the liquid does not work for you.

• Premenopausal women may need to fast differently than men and postmenopausal women. In her book Fast Like a Girl , Dr. Mindy Pelz does a great job of not only teaching women how to fast with their cycles, but also how to fast to improve their hormones. Many women speak highly about this book.

As amazing and healing as fasting can be, we need to also mention situations where fasting is not recommended. People with eating disorders like anorexia or binge eating should not fast. It is also not recommended for growing children, or expecting and breast-feeding mothers.

If you are stressed and not sleeping, then you should not fast until you get that corrected. Fasting is a healthy stressor, but it may make your problems worse if you are already too stressed out. People that have thyroid or adrenal dysfunction, or are diabetic and on insulin, should work closely with their health practitioner if they want to try fasting.

As with many things, fasting can be overdone—it is called starvation. Don’t do that to yourself.

Sometimes the answer to improving your health can be simple, if we just stop doing the things that are making us sick. But that can also be one of the hardest things we do! Hopefully this article provides an easier path with less pain, and you get the motivation to add fasting to your lifestyle, so your body becomes flexible like it was designed to be.

Do your own research and find what works for you!

Toby Miller is a husband and father of five children, and enjoys studying the wondrous human body. He has a certificate in Traditional Naturopathy and is continuously trying to learn more on how to optimize his own health. In his spare time he loves to read and travel.

This story was originally printed in Ardent Youth, a bi-monthly youth magazine. Subscription rates are $30.00 for one year and $55.00 for two years. Send your address and the correct amount to Ardent Youth 2396 Beech Rd, Nappanee IN 46550 or call 260-383-1303. Ask for a FREE sample copy of the latest issue!