Is everyone talking about fasting, or is it just me? The extent of what works for me, and I can only speak for myself here, is a 5 day fast mimicking cleanse twice per year and intermittent fast 12 hour -14 hours per day. Although it sounds scientific and fancy, there’s no need for intimidation and there’s most definitely no need to overthink it.

There is excellent science which reflects the attractive nature of fasting for blood sugar, cancer mitigation, inflammation, autoimmunity, mental clarity and increased longevity. Fasting can seem like the new fountain of youth but again, it’s actually not complicated.

Before the inception of late night snacking, after dinner TV watching and popcorn eating, before the midnight snack and the 10pm ice cream feast, intermittent fasting simply referred to as “kitchen’s closed after dinner and until the morning”.

For those looking into intermittent fasting, you can simply implement it by adhering to the steadfast rule of not snacking after dinner. After all, the after dinner snack is not hunger driven but it is very much habit driven. It’s something we associate with the pleasure of winding down and “relaxing”. If you’re done eating at 7pm and you don’t have breakfast until after 9, you’ve had a perfect 14 hour fast without having to think about it much at all. During this 12-14 hours period, your digestive system takes a rest, which allows for healing and the handling of any disease or immune system process to effectively take place.

Men can probably regularly go a few more hours (up to a total of 16 hours) without eating but currently the jury seems to be in agreement that women should stick to the 12-14 hours. Any more than this can be hormone disrupting and stressful to the thyroid in women.

I also think that mini fasts throughout the day are important. We’ve gone from the notion that we should eat small amounts every 2 hours to realizing that even throughout the day, it’s good for our digestion to get a break. Staying away from in between meal snacking will also go a long way in helping eliminate foods which are typically packaged and processed.

In addition to this, doing a 5 day cleanse (fast like) 2-4 times per year tends to be a really good reset of habits and proven healing practice. Stay tuned for our guided 5 day fast mimicking cleanses (Spring and Fall) or visit Dr. Longo’s 5 day fast mimicking cleanse website. As far as “To eat or not to eat”, I say do both and feel free to make it look easy 😉