Fasting is a periodic religious observance for me. The main effect I have noticed is increased irritability, but then I've never done cognitive tests while fasting.
Fasting Affects the Brain
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Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#12I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children. There are obvious differences between the two issues, but nevertheless when I think about how to apply these insights, they seem to conflict, and I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicts. Edit: The biggest difference is age, but conventional wisdom says adults, too, should eat a good breakfast before…
The simple answer is that children's physical and hormonal makeup is different to that of adults. I've always seen it recommended that children should not fast.
Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#13Fasting is a periodic religious observance for me. The main effect I have noticed is increased irritability, but then I've never done cognitive tests while fasting.
That might be from the caffeine withdrawals. I'm trying it wihtout caffeine at all this year, and it's been great.
Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#14> And that’s what we’re finding in lab animals — the brain and body actually perform better during fasting. In the case of the brain, cognitive function, learning, memory, and alertness are all increased by fasting. I find this to be true whenever I fast for 12+ hours. It feels like I'm on a drug. It's strange to realize how not eating can be good for you. Fun trivia: the longest a human went without food is 382 days…
Yeah, it feels like getting a "second wind" when exercising.
Getting there can be brutal though as my mind and body feel weak and it's hard for me to do any highly cognitive tasks. But after my body accepts it I feel "in the zone" and I don't want to eat and disrupt the feeling.
I've never gone longer than 18hrs though.
Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#15Interesting that this is "news" when the medical understanding of fasting and ketosis is pretty far along. Highly recommend the book "The Complete Guide to Fasting" by Dr. Jason Fung. When you think about it, while the "naturalness" argument is always suspect, it's very odd that humans eat as often as we do in the US, and unsurprising that negative health consequences follow (and positive health consequences follow f…
>Highly recommend the book "The Complete Guide to Fasting" by Dr. Jason Fung.
Such books and doctors, promoting this or that diet, heavily cherry-pick from research papers, they don't reflect the scientific consensus on the matter.
Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#16I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children. There are obvious differences between the two issues, but nevertheless when I think about how to apply these insights, they seem to conflict, and I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicts. Edit: The biggest difference is age, but conventional wisdom says adults, too, should eat a good breakfast before…
>I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children.
A lot of that research is bogus anyway.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/28/breakfa...
Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#17I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children. There are obvious differences between the two issues, but nevertheless when I think about how to apply these insights, they seem to conflict, and I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicts. Edit: The biggest difference is age, but conventional wisdom says adults, too, should eat a good breakfast before…
If I had a big test coming up, I wouldn't experiment with fasting on the day. However, if you've been fasting while studying and you find it to be a help, then fasting the day of the test is probably a good idea.
Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#18I wonder how these findings can be reconciled with the research on the importance of breakfast for school children. There are obvious differences between the two issues, but nevertheless when I think about how to apply these insights, they seem to conflict, and I'm not sure how to resolve those conflicts. Edit: The biggest difference is age, but conventional wisdom says adults, too, should eat a good breakfast before…
I'm not sure this research applies to kids. Also, you can totally have breakfast and still be fasting, i.e. by following a 16:8 diet (fasting during 16 hours, eating during a 8 hour window).
Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#19yes fasting can have benefits, but the way most Muslims do it (in summer specifically) actually hurts. your body needs a minimum amount of water and salt to work properly throughout the day.
Re: Fasting Affects the Brain
#20Interesting that this is "news" when the medical understanding of fasting and ketosis is pretty far along. Highly recommend the book "The Complete Guide to Fasting" by Dr. Jason Fung. When you think about it, while the "naturalness" argument is always suspect, it's very odd that humans eat as often as we do in the US, and unsurprising that negative health consequences follow (and positive health consequences follow f…
> Highly recommend the book "The Complete Guide to Fasting" by Dr. Jason Fung. Such books and doctors, promoting this or that diet, heavily cherry-pick from research papers, they don't reflect the scientific consensus on the matter.
I'll be interested to see where the scientific consensus is in 10 years. I think the evidence is very much on the side of the hormonal theory of obesity and fasting, especially given the monumental failure of the "calories in calories out" model.