Fasting days: harm or benefit?
You do not sleep well, get tired quickly, feel a heaviness in your stomach, and micro-inflammations have appeared on your face... You may have recently been eating unhealthy food or drinking too much alcohol, which means it's time for a day of fasting. But won't it hurt even more?
The practice of fasting days or short mono-diets has been known in medicine for a long time. The principle is simple: for 1-3 days you need to eat only one specific product (rice, cottage cheese, apples, kefir, eggs, etc.). It gives the body the necessary nutrients, but does not overload the digestive system, allowing it to rest. In addition, slags and toxins are removed along the way. To stimulate the process, it is recommended to drink water and green tea.
Apple of discord
Many nutritionists call apples the best product for a mono diet (ideally, organic): they are rich in iron, antioxidants, and fiber, which improves digestion.
Another popular detox to this day is a mono-diet on grapes. In 1928, a book by a South African nurse, Joanna Brandt, "treating cancer with grapes", made a lot of noise. The author was allegedly cured of stomach cancer with the help of a grape diet. Today, most experts doubt the plausibility of this story. Moreover, a large amount of grapes can simply be harmful. By itself, it contains too much sugar and not so many vitamins, and also causes fermentation in the stomach. So even one fasting day on grapes can lead to digestive problems.
Does the intestines need rest?
Nutritionist Jean-Michel Lecerf considers fasting days a bad idea: "it is Absurd to believe that our digestive system needs rest. For example, the pancreas, an organ involved in digestion, uses only 10% of its resources. Of course, the stomach and intestines should not work 24 hours a day, but do not exaggerate their needs for rest. They do it at night while we sleep. The main thing is not to eat too much before going to bed. The theory of fasting days is based on the idea that food poisons us. But this is not the case."
The specialist reminds that you need to eat at least 15 different foods a day to provide the body with the necessary nutrients, vitamins and trace elements.
A few words about the benefits
At the same time, some useful aspects of fasting days are not in doubt. For example, they reduce inflammatory processes in the digestive tract and normalize the balance of intestinal microflora.
"During the fasting day on fruit, we get polyphenols, antioxidants, mineral salts that give energy, as well as prebiotics. These are food components that are not digested or absorbed in the upper gastrointestinal tract, but are fermented by the beneficial microflora of the large intestine, stimulating its growth and vital activity," explains Jean — Michel Lecerf.
However, after a couple of days, if you eat randomly again, everything will return to normal. Do not expect that a miracle will happen to the body in 24 hours.
Stress factor
Even one day of fasting is stressful for the body, so do not sit on a mono diet if you have an emergency at work, you are sick or very tired. In addition, nutrition affects the synthesis of the sleep hormone melatonin. Fasting with a consumption of less than 300 kcal per day lasting from two days to a week reduces the concentration of melatonin in the blood by about 20%, so it can be difficult to fall asleep during fasting days.
Another negative factor of the mono diet is that people with eating disorders often start eating everything after it is completed, sometimes unconsciously rewarding themselves for their patience and suffering, as well as anticipating the next hungry days.
In short, nutritionists do not recommend giving up a balanced diet even for one day, if there are no good reasons for this. If you still decide to try out the mono diet, don't forget about a few rules.
Food on a fasting day should be fun. Choose a product based on your taste preferences. If you don't like rice or cottage cheese, don't choke on them all day.
It is important to exclude heavy physical and psychological loads, avoid stressful situations. It is better to come up with something you like in advance.
In the evening before, do not eat enough for the future, and after completing the mono diet, try not to make up for lost time, otherwise you can not reduce, but increase the weight.
A fasting day is not a complete refusal to eat, but a restriction of the caloric content of the diet. Do not eat the entire daily norm of the product at one time, but divide it into 4-5 meals. This will speed up the exchange processes.
And the main rule: do not get carried away with fasting days. They will not be a substitute for a healthy diet on other days.
The practice of fasting days or short mono-diets has been known in medicine for a long time. The principle is simple: for 1-3 days you need to eat only one specific product (rice, cottage cheese, apples, kefir, eggs, etc.). It gives the body the necessary nutrients, but does not overload the digestive system, allowing it to rest. In addition, slags and toxins are removed along the way. To stimulate the process, it is recommended to drink water and green tea.
Apple of discord
Many nutritionists call apples the best product for a mono diet (ideally, organic): they are rich in iron, antioxidants, and fiber, which improves digestion.
Another popular detox to this day is a mono-diet on grapes. In 1928, a book by a South African nurse, Joanna Brandt, "treating cancer with grapes", made a lot of noise. The author was allegedly cured of stomach cancer with the help of a grape diet. Today, most experts doubt the plausibility of this story. Moreover, a large amount of grapes can simply be harmful. By itself, it contains too much sugar and not so many vitamins, and also causes fermentation in the stomach. So even one fasting day on grapes can lead to digestive problems.
Does the intestines need rest?
Nutritionist Jean-Michel Lecerf considers fasting days a bad idea: "it is Absurd to believe that our digestive system needs rest. For example, the pancreas, an organ involved in digestion, uses only 10% of its resources. Of course, the stomach and intestines should not work 24 hours a day, but do not exaggerate their needs for rest. They do it at night while we sleep. The main thing is not to eat too much before going to bed. The theory of fasting days is based on the idea that food poisons us. But this is not the case."
The specialist reminds that you need to eat at least 15 different foods a day to provide the body with the necessary nutrients, vitamins and trace elements.
A few words about the benefits
At the same time, some useful aspects of fasting days are not in doubt. For example, they reduce inflammatory processes in the digestive tract and normalize the balance of intestinal microflora.
"During the fasting day on fruit, we get polyphenols, antioxidants, mineral salts that give energy, as well as prebiotics. These are food components that are not digested or absorbed in the upper gastrointestinal tract, but are fermented by the beneficial microflora of the large intestine, stimulating its growth and vital activity," explains Jean — Michel Lecerf.
However, after a couple of days, if you eat randomly again, everything will return to normal. Do not expect that a miracle will happen to the body in 24 hours.
Stress factor
Even one day of fasting is stressful for the body, so do not sit on a mono diet if you have an emergency at work, you are sick or very tired. In addition, nutrition affects the synthesis of the sleep hormone melatonin. Fasting with a consumption of less than 300 kcal per day lasting from two days to a week reduces the concentration of melatonin in the blood by about 20%, so it can be difficult to fall asleep during fasting days.
Another negative factor of the mono diet is that people with eating disorders often start eating everything after it is completed, sometimes unconsciously rewarding themselves for their patience and suffering, as well as anticipating the next hungry days.
In short, nutritionists do not recommend giving up a balanced diet even for one day, if there are no good reasons for this. If you still decide to try out the mono diet, don't forget about a few rules.
Food on a fasting day should be fun. Choose a product based on your taste preferences. If you don't like rice or cottage cheese, don't choke on them all day.
It is important to exclude heavy physical and psychological loads, avoid stressful situations. It is better to come up with something you like in advance.
In the evening before, do not eat enough for the future, and after completing the mono diet, try not to make up for lost time, otherwise you can not reduce, but increase the weight.
A fasting day is not a complete refusal to eat, but a restriction of the caloric content of the diet. Do not eat the entire daily norm of the product at one time, but divide it into 4-5 meals. This will speed up the exchange processes.
And the main rule: do not get carried away with fasting days. They will not be a substitute for a healthy diet on other days.