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MOSCOW, March 15, Tatyana Pichugina. It has been studied for a long time, but whether it is good for health is still unclear. Just like what happens in the body at the molecular level. Researchers conducted a new experiment with volunteers fasting. The result was very surprising.
Why do people starve
In the distant past, our ancestors had to go for long periods without food. The ability to store and save nutrients is our evolutionary advantage. Now no one is in danger of hunger. But people refuse food voluntarily.
There are many types of fasting — from short one-day religious fasts to long periods of strict abstinence from food. In the middle of the last century, intermittent fasting was invented, when a person does not eat anything for 12-18 hours in a row.
Refusal of food for health purposes is very popular. There is no expense or doctor involved. According to Benjamin Horne of Stanford University School of Medicine, short fasts are usually harmless. Even with some chronic diseases.
As a rule, they do this to lose weight. When undernourished, the body uses up internal energy sources. First — glucose, then takes on lipids stored in various organs and tissues, as well as muscle fibers. Weight decreases.
It is believed that this has a beneficial effect on the heart and metabolism, in particular, insulin resistance, blood glucose and cholesterol levels, and blood pressure are reduced. There is evidence that fasting improves mental performance, mood, reduces inflammation, and chronic pain. However, all this requires verification.
Hunger biomarkers
Nowadays it is possible to comprehensively examine blood using thousands of indicators at once in order to understand how the body reacts to a particular influence. Researchers from the EU took advantage of this by conducting an experiment on 12 healthy volunteers. For a whole week they did not eat anything — they only drank water.
They took their blood for analysis and monitored the content of three thousand proteins. Changes were noticed in 1044 molecules. Even three days after the hunger strike, 66 indicators did not return to normal.
Scientists have isolated proteins associated with weight loss. The turning point is switching the energy source from glucose to fats. This happens on the third or fourth day of the hunger strike. On average, volunteers lost 5.7 kilograms. The decrease in muscle mass stopped three days after the end of the experiment.
“We have for the first time seen what happens at the molecular level in the body during fasting,” comments the study’s leader, Claudia Langenberg from Queen Mary University in London.
Scientists hope their work will help provide evidence-based research into fasting. But they also acknowledge the shortcomings of the experiment. In particular, the small number of participants and the lack of a control group for comparison. These and some other factors may influence the results and their interpretation.
It's better to eat healthy than to starve
«They assessed primarily protein metabolism and concluded that not eating changed the protein profile to some extent. Presumably this is beneficial for cardiovascular health. system and joints (for rheumatoid arthritis),” notes doctor-expert of the Hemotest laboratory, Candidate of Medical Sciences Ekaterina Kashukh.
Previously, it was believed that the main effect of fasting was weight loss, she clarifies. It turned out that the balance of proteins also changes.
“What benefit this will have is still unclear. It is believed that it is possible to develop drugs that can affect certain proteins. That is, get the same conditionally beneficial effect without fasting,” says the specialist .
Fasting is not included in medical recommendations in any country in the world. Even with severe diseases of the digestive system, they prefer to introduce nutrition as early as possible.
«Nevertheless, there are many methods of alternative medicine. There are even clinics that offer “therapeutic” fasting. This is not supported by anything other than personal opinion and isolated results of low-quality studies,” the doctor emphasizes.
Proponents of long-term food abstinence like to refer to the discovery of Nobel laureate Yoshinori Ohsumi, who discovered autophagy — the ability of cells to eat themselves. However, he experimented with baker's yeast — this has nothing to do with the human body.
The usefulness of intermittent fasting has also not been confirmed, adds Kashuh. In addition, there are many contraindications, in particular pregnancy, breastfeeding, infectious and oncological diseases. Another disadvantage is a possible breakdown and overeating after a period without food.
Nutritionist from the Teledoctor 24 service Maria Menshikova believes that a healthy person does not need to improve their condition, especially by fasting.
«We have become a civilization of lazy people who are looking for a magic cure for all diseases. Having realized that obesity is a pathogenic factor in many cases, we resort to various kinds of restrictive diets,” she explains.
In her opinion, one should not get carried away with food restrictions. An overnight break is quite enough. General advice: if you get up in the middle of the night, the road to the refrigerator is closed.
“Professional communities of nutritionists from different countries are unanimous: there is no point in fasting,” concludes Ekaterina Kashukh.
The world is experiencing an era of epidemic of eating disorders. In such conditions, a healthy approach to nutrition should be comprehensive and without extremes, which include fasting.
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