Dr Hana Kahleova
How to tackle intermittent fasting E
"When we pull together all the randomised clinical trials there is a linear relationship between the eating window duration and changes in body weight. The sweet spot seems to be at six hours."
ndocrinologist and researcher, Dr Hana Kaleova, has spent many years examining the value of intermittent fasting. Now, and with a massive number of research hours behind her, she has become one of the world's foremost exponents of short term fasting for health. She says the easiest way to do intermittent fasting is to start with a periodic fast. “You just take a certain day, you can do one day a month or you can decide to do five days in a row or more days in a row,” she says. “You can do it as a onetime thing or you can do it one day a month periodically. That would be a less frequent form of intermittent fasting.” The fast can be a water only, or you can also include vegetable and fruit juices. You can also do a modified fast where you eat raw fruit and vegetables with a super small caloric intake, about 500 calories a day, she says. But, does it have any impact on fatty liver disease if you have it? “One study of almost 700 people looked at the effects of fasting for an average of 8.5 days on liver fat. The study found that after only 8.5 days the liver fat content dropped by 30 per cent which was pretty effective. “As you would expect the reduction in liver fat correlated with the number of fasting days. In other words the longer the fast, the bigger the change in liver fat and also with the change in BMI. The more weight you lose the more liver fat you lose.” But, she says, “if eight days seems like a long time for you to fast, I’m completely with you. I recently finished a three day water fast and it felt long. “You know, the food we eat is such an integral part of our life. We don’t even realise until we go through the withdrawal symptoms and we’re like, oh I feel like eating something, but oh I’m fasting, ok, never mind, let me do something else.
Amazing results possible
“But I also have some good news for you. You don’t have to do eight days. Even a smaller amount will give you some amazing results. It can make a huge difference not only for your liver but also for your immune system. “If you want to fast more frequently, you can. Let’s say you do one day a week. A maximalist approach would be alternate day fasting where you fast every other day, which would be
18 wholefoodliving.life | Summer 2022
In her address to the recent International PlantBased Healthcare Conference held in California in September, Dr Hana Kaleova presented the latest research on the effects of fasting. Dr Kaleova is director of clinical research with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and coauthor of 19 articles in peer-reviewed research journals. This article covers part of her address. To purchase access to all videos and slides from this conference go to: pbnhc.com challenging for many people though. “You would eat normally on the non-fasting days and you would not eat at all or you would do a modified fast and eat only a third of what you eat on the fasting days. It’s fairly challenging because you are changing your habits constantly and studies with alternate day fasting have a large drop-out rate.”
Alternate day fasting However, it works for some people, she said. One study looked at liver and alternate day fasting. Forty three people were randomly assigned to follow alternate day fasting or they stayed on their usual diet for eight weeks. “The alternate day fasting reduced the elasticity of the liver by 15 per cent and liver fat by 20 per cent so it was fairly effective. But again, it’s fairly challenging to stick with this regimen in the long term. That’s why many people seek simpler options. One of them is time restricted eating or time restricted fasting. “We know that our body has completely different needs based on our activity. If we are physically active our bodies needs are much different than when we sleep. When we are physically active we want to maximise the caloric intake and when we sleep we scale down the caloric intake right? “Periodic time restricted eating basically limits the caloric intake into an eating window of a few hours. So, now the question is;
