The Golden Mean: Moderation

"Studies suggest that a phalanx of health issues, like Alzheimer's, cancer, polycystic ovary syndrome and the 21st Century's top grim reaper, metabolic syndrome, respond positively to us eating less often. Blood tests indicate that many health markers including LDL and HDL cholesterol, blood sugar levels, inflammation, human growth hormone and a brain performance protein called BDNF can be positively impacted. Less scientific are claims that it will take the human body into a state where it starts to eat its own dead and damaged -- cancerous -- cells after about 16 hours. This state is known as autophagy, and the latest advances in understanding it won Yoshinori Ohsumi the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Yet despite promising animal studies, so far nothing has actually shown when and if it kicks in in humans."
Kate Spicer, The Daily Telegraph

"Within a week of doing OMAD, my brain had woken up, I was less depressed and foggy. I thought I was starting menopause but it turns out I was not, it was how my body was reacting to food."
"I know OMAD [One Meal A Day] is not for everyone. Having said that, it worked so well for me that I now have my 90-year-old father thriving on a two-meal-a-day protocol."
"I firmly believe everyone should fast for at least 12 hours [best often overnight]."
Annie Hart, 49, health coach 

"The metabolic flexibility in the hunger-gatherer lifestyle versus the metabolic inflexibility of the modern sedentary lifestyle is mimicked in the benefits of OMAD [One Meal A Day]."
"When we fast, when we stop eating for extended periods, which was very common for Paleolithic man, the brain is forced into pulling energy rather than storing energy mode, and that's good for us."
Petronella Ravenshear, nutritionist, author The Human Being Diet

"It is unsustainable long-term [extreme fasts], so it is a crash diet, which could potentially lead to gaining any weight lost, and more."
"It is a good idea to stop snacking and focus on meal times for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Priya Tew, spokesperson, British Dietetic Association

"The kind of people attracted to these diets also have poor body image and although they claim that they are restricting their food for health, they're probably over-focused on appearance. People who live most happily are those who practise moderation, not extremes of any form. They do not impose pain on their bodies to achieve their life goals."
"It's well proven food-restricting diets lead to bingeing, and that rigid dieting systems have a negative impact on both self-esteem and the way we view, feel and behave around food."
"I believe they [autophagy claims] are based on pseudo-science because no one has taken into account the negative impact food restriction of any kind has on the neurochemicals in the brain that govern appetite and mood."
Deanne Goddard, National Centre for Eating Disorders, Surrey, U.K.

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One meal a day doesn't sound too wonderful. As for fasting, the human body normally does that in the period when we fall asleep one night and awaken the following morning, a generally-recommended seven-to-eight hour shift when the brain and the body go into rest mode, we awaken (presumably) refreshed, and prepare to eat our first meal of the day, breakfast. Lunch usually follows at mid-day, and in the evening, dinner; ergo, three meals a day, not one, and a 'fast' period accounted for.

But what about cutting out the middle meal, lunch, and have a normal day of two meals a day? That would give us two fasting periods, and if fasting is such a positive initiative as many claim it to be and we sacrifice only one meal to realize two fasting periods and two full meals, isn't that moderation? It happens to be, in point of fact, what my husband and I, both 82 years of age, soon to be 83, have practised for many years. Me, since our three children were born, and he for the past 30 years.

According to the International Food Information Council in its annual survey of dietary habits in the United States, Intermittent Fasting (IF) appeared to take top billing in 2018 as a new trend, topped slightly by the following year's "clean eating" trend, in 2019. People depend on a number of apps to help manage their chosen fasting lifestyles. The app Zero had 2.5 million downloads in the space of two years.

OMAD, its proponents insist, expressed in evolutionary terms makes sense. The diet recommends eating one meal only each day, and for that one meal, anything can be eaten in any amount, of the dieter's choice.

Arguments that are credibly backed by science suggest we are well suited to consuming more healthy fats much less frequently than what obtained in the late 20th Century and what most government sponsored dietary advice urges. Salk Institute scientists found the average individual's window for eating turned out to be around 15 hours in length from morning rising to night-time retiring.

Mice with access to food 24 hours a day carry four times the body fat of mice eating the same amount of food for eight hours daily. In 2018, a study conducted by the Salk Institute reached the conclusion that "eating in a ten-hour window can override disease-causing genetic defects and nurture health".

Dr.Jason Fung, whose Toronto Metabolic Clinic treats metabolic disorder with fasting and ketogenic (high fat) diets, is one of the most high profile of fasting proponents. He recommends high fat, medium protein and low carbohydrate meals, spaced well apart.

As we eat, the production of insulin rises, instructing the body to store food as body fat. When we aren't eating, insulin descends signalling the body to burn the fat that has been stored. Dr. Fung's A Complete Guide to Fasting recommends hunger be warded off with bone broth. Alcohol consumption in excess (over two glasses of wine) can spur hunger. And while some nutritionists and food scientists hale the advent of diet plans revolving around fasting, many of their counterparts definitely do not.

And of course there is the reality that in the age we live in, food is plentiful, it surrounds us everywhere, enticing us to eat, non-stop. And to eat foods that are not known for nutritional content beneficial to human health. It takes discipline, knowledge and regard for personal health to take the sensible route of moderation. Highly processed food, if it really appeals, on occasion, infrequently, but the major focus on whole foods, high in natural vitamins and minerals, a definite requirement for a healthy mind and body.

The side effects of restricting food for nearly an entire day can include:

• Lightheadedness
• Nausea
• Blood pressure destabilization
• Dizziness
• Confusion
• Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
• Dehydration