Category: Food Philosophies

It seems like every day there’s a new theory about the healthiest way to eat carbs. Some food philosophies shun them entirely, while others offer a prescription for the best carbohydrates to consume. The latest craze, carb cycling, takes a slightly different approach to this important macronutrient: Cutting back on carbohydrates some days and indulging in your favorite carb-laden foods at other times.
Carb cycling is an approach that’s a lot more balanced than some diets, but it requires you to pay closer attention to how much you’re eating at certain times throughout the week or month. The payoff might be worth it: Followers of carb cycling say the diet helps them burn fat, lose weight, and hit fitness goals—all without giving up the foods they love.
Wondering if carb cycling is the right eating plan for you? Read on to learn how carb cycling works, why it’s important to balance your carbohydrate intake with other macronutrients, and the best ways to get started.

What is carb cycling?

There are probably as many theories about effective carb intake as there are carbohydrate sources in the world. But when it comes to figuring out exactly what these diet plans entail, there seem to be conflicting definitions. So, let’s level set: What is carb cycling?
“Carb cycling is basically eating higher amounts of carbohydrates on some days and lower carbohydrates other days,” explains Amy Goodson, a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics. “Many people use carb cycling to maximize their fitness, performance, weight loss, and body composition goals.”
The concept of carb cycling is fairly easy to grasp: Days with heavy training should be fueled by higher amounts of carbohydrates, whereas you’re supposed to cut back on carbohydrate intake during periods of low physical activity. But things start to get less clear once you try to nail down the specifics. How many carbs should you be eating? And how do you decide when to alternate between high- and low-carb days?
[pullquote align=”center”]“Carb cycling can work if you do it very carefully, but most people should be working with a registered dietitian to dial in on what they need.”[/pullquote]
Experts agree that the specifics of carb cycling will depend on your lifestyle and the goals you’re striving to achieve. Carb cycling has been traditionally used by professional athletes to help their bodies reach peak performance and appearance ahead of a competition. (So that’s how people drop that last bit of weight before stepping in front of the cameras and commentators!) It’s generally effective at helping people burn fat while maintaining their muscle mass and strength.
How carb cycling fits into your exercise routine and eating habits will vary, but there are some guidelines you can use to start carb cycling. Celebrity fitness and nutrition expert JJ Virgin, author of The Sugar Impact Diet, makes the following recommendations for carbohydrate intake.

On High-Carb Days:

• Eat 80 to 100 grams of clean, lean protein.
• Eat 150 to 175 grams of slow, low carbs.
• Eat 25 grams of healthy fats.

On Low-Carb Days:

• Eat 80 to 100 grams of clean, lean protein.
• Eat around 50 grams of slow, low carbs.
• Eat 40 to 50 grams of healthy fats.

Even if you’re not actively training for a marathon or competing in a bikini in front of hundreds of people, carb cycling can still be a worthwhile approach to managing your weight and feeling well. The overall goal of this eating philosophy is to give your body the right amount of energy you need to power your days—whether you’re doing back-to-back HIIT classes or binge-watching Real Housewives on a Sunday afternoon. (Hey, we don’t judge.)

Does carb cycling actually work?

The theory behind carb cycling makes total sense—you eat fewer energy-inducing foods when you’re at rest and more carbohydrates when you know you’ll be more physically active. But how exactly does carb cycling work?
It has to do with the glycogen, or the storage of sugar from carbs used for energy, in the tissues of your body.
“When you eat fewer carbs, your body turns to stored fat for fuel,” explains Virgin. “Decreasing your carb intake on low-carb days keeps your insulin levels low, which leads to fat burning. High insulin levels send the signal to your body to store fat and lock your fat-burning doors.”
With that being said, scientific research on carb cycling diets is extremely limited, so results may vary. It’s always best to work with a health professional when starting a new diet to increase the chances of success and reduce potential dangers.
“Carb cycling can work if you do it very carefully, but most people should be working with a registered dietitian to dial in on what they need. If you don’t eat enough carbs, you can experience fatigue and likely not get as much out of your workouts,” warns Goodson.

The Pros and Cons of Carb Cycling

No diet can be classified as completely “good” or “bad.” It all goes back to what works given our own individual circumstances. That being said, there are some clear upsides and downsides to carb cycling.

Pros of Carb Cycling

Carb cycling is accessible and convenient for most people. “One advantage of carb cycling is that it can be less restrictive than low-carb diet plans because it allows folks to consume a higher amount of healthy carbs on certain days,” says Virgin.
Carb cycling is flexible, and you can adjust it based on whatever’s going on in your life at a given time. For example, if you have an active social life, you can make your busiest days less restrictive for carb intake. (Go ahead, enjoy those bar snacks at happy hour, sans guilt!)
You don’t have to cut out your favorite foods. Is a big spaghetti dinner a Sunday tradition in your family? That can totally fit into your carb cycling meal plan.

Cons of Carb Cycling

You have to be disciplined when carb cycling. “It requires some planning and tracking of macronutrients [like healthy fats and protein intake], so it may not work for everyone,” says Virgin. This can be tricky for nutrition novices, and you might experience a learning curve.
You might not feel great on low-carb days. “Many people experience fatigue, headaches, and a lack of energy,” says Goodson.
You might not get enough nutrients. “If you take out lots of grains and fruits when carb cycling, you also take out lots of fiber and nutrients in the diet. While it may provoke a weight-loss response, it’s harder to maintain for most people in the long term,” warns Goodson.

Should you try carb cycling?

Carb cycling used to be reserved for bodybuilders and other high-performance athletes, but it’s since made its way into the mainstream. How do you know if carb cycling is right for you?
First, consider your overall health. Carb cycling might not be a viable option for people with certain conditions, says Goodson.
“People who have blood sugar issues, like diabetes or hypoglycemia, should definitely be working with a registered dietitian if pursuing a low-carb or carb cycling diet. If you have other health conditions, you should definitely talk to your doctor before considering,” she says.
Also, combining carb cycling with other eating plans, like the ketogenic diet, might not be effective or healthy, even though it can get you through those low-carb days.
“True keto diets mean you are in ketosis, which comes from eating next to no carbs and moderate protein. So if you are cycling in higher carb days, you really aren’t eating a keto diet and likely are not in ketosis,” explains Goodson.

Who will see the most benefits from carb cycling?

Overall, carb cycling tends to be a more accessible diet with ample opportunities to consume enough nutrients, but it works better for certain types of people.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Focus on slow, low carbs. Slow means they’re absorbed slowly, which helps with digestion and fat burning. Low means they’re low glycemic and don’t cause inflammation-inducing spikes in blood glucose or insulin.”[/pullquote]
“The people who are most likely to have most success when carb cycling are athletes who participate in endurance training, high-intensity interval training, and weightlifting. Your body relies on glucose and glycogen from carbs for the majority of high-intensity exercise and for about 40 percent of light-moderate endurance exercise,” says Virgin, who recommends using carb cycling only as a short-term diet.
A healthcare professional can help you evaluate whether you’re a good candidate for carb cycling.

Carb Cycling Tips for Beginners

So you’ve decided you want to give carb cycling a try. How do you get started?
First, start figuring out what your carbohydrate intake will look like each week. Choose a day to go high-carb, and then set up a pattern of carb intake around that day. Here are some combinations that Virgin suggests trying.

If you’re new to carb cycling:

Low–High–High–Low–High–High

If you’re looking for faster results:

Low–Low–High–Low–Low–High
A carb cycling calculator can help give you more personalized recommendations about balancing macronutrients, but you should strive to eat what makes you feel your best.
Finally, start building your carb cycling meal plan. In general, each meal should include some protein and fat and lots of whole foods. Choose your carbohydrates carefully, says Virgin.
“Not all carbs are created equal,” she says. “Focus on slow, low carbs. Slow means they’re absorbed slowly, which helps with digestion and fat burning. Low means they’re low glycemic and don’t cause inflammation-inducing spikes in blood glucose or insulin.”
Another added benefit of low carbs (such as oatmeal and lentils) is their fiber content, Virgin adds. “Fiber slows down stomach emptying and takes longer to move through our digestive tract, helping you feel full. In addition, fiber has a host of health benefits from helping you maintain healthy cholesterol levels and manage blood sugar levels to strengthening your gut microbiome and sparking weight loss.”
Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t worry—there are tons of recipes and ideas out there you can use for inspiration. Alisha Temples, a licensed nutritionist at Fueled & Fed Nutrition, has put together a carb cycling meal plan to help you get started:

Carb Cycling Meal Plan for a Low-Carb Day

Breakfast:

Eggs with avocado and salsa + a cup of coffee

Lunch:

Tuna salad + a side of green beans with almonds

Dinner:

Chicken breast + cauliflower rice + roasted broccoli

Carb Cycling Meal Plan for a Medium-Carb Day

Breakfast:

Sweet potato frittata

Lunch:

Chicken salad + carrots + apple + hummus

Dinner:

Salmon + quinoa + mixed veggies

Carb Cycling Meal Plan for a High-Carb Day

Breakfast:

Eggs + oatmeal + an orange + a cup of coffee

Lunch:

Tuna salad sandwich + carrots + apples

Dinner:

Chicken breast + a baked potato + asparagus
Everyone has a slightly different approach to carb cycling. Take these guidelines and adjust them based on your body composition, activity level, and food preferences. And when in doubt, make an appointment with a registered dietitian or your doctor to make sure your whatever dietary approach you’re taking is the right one for you.

An elimination diet, broadly speaking, is a specialized eating plan that attempts to identify trigger foods for people with food sensitivities. It’s a short-term diet, not a long-term lifestyle change, and it’s useful when establishing a diagnosis for various autoimmune, neurodevelopmental, or gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
For example, to determine whether a person has a sensitivity to gluten (a common protein), doctors may recommend a restriction diet that doesn’t include gluten, but the person may be allowed to consume dairy and other possibly problematic foods. If a person has a different food sensitivity, the diet plan might eliminate dairy, eggs, gluten, and other potential triggers, then add those foods back gradually to determine the source of the symptoms.

Who should consider an elimination diet?

Before making any significant changes to your diet, you should speak with a physician or dietitian. That’s especially important if you’re contemplating an eating plan with severe restrictions.
“There are steps to take with an elimination diet,” says Deborah Malkoff-Cohen, a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, and the founder of City Kids Nutrition in New York. “First, you have to meet with someone who’s qualified.”
That’s especially crucial if you already have dietary restrictions, if you’re nursing or pregnant, or if you have any health conditions that could affect nutrient absorption. One potential issue: You might not be aware of those nutritional deficiencies.
“For instance, my friend who’s nursing her baby—let’s say that she cuts out dairy,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “If she doesn’t take in enough calcium, the baby will take that from her bones, and she’s going to be at risk for osteoporosis.”

Understanding the Phases of an Elimination Diet

A typical elimination diet consists of several phases. After meeting with a specialist, patients will usually begin with a severely restricted diet consisting of basic, easy-to-digest foods; this is known as the elimination phase.
“You can’t always take everything out,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “We’ll often do a bland diet with protein and vegetables. We’ll take out gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, and eggs. Then we’ll add [food types] in one by one over several weeks and see what comes back. Then, you can figure out the culprit.”

How long does an elimination diet last?

Depending on the goal of your diet, you may have a restricted diet for several months. The most severe phase of the diet typically lasts about three weeks. You should carefully track symptoms and keep a food log, as you won’t be able to reintroduce foods until you’ve eliminated the triggers.
“Some people may see a change in their symptoms in only a few days,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “If you’re addressing gastrointestinal issues, some symptoms might go away as soon as you take the food out [of your diet] … but you also have to heal the gut, which might take a few days to really feel a difference. But you won’t have stomach cramping and things like that.”

“With eczema, skin conditions, and non-GI diseases, the changes could take a few weeks. It’s highly personalized to the patient,” she adds.

What are the benefits and limitations of elimination diets?

To be clear, elimination diets are never intended for weight loss; they’re highly specialized diets that are meant to identify triggers. They’re also limited in terms of their capabilities. To determine whether a person has celiac disease, for instance, doctors may need to perform an endoscopy and blood tests.
“If you take gluten out [of your diet] before those tests, your results might not be accurate,” Malkoff-Cohen explains.
By the same token, you don’t need to attempt an elimination diet if you have obvious evidence of a trigger.
“For instance, my friend’s son reacts to gluten,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “She was asking about elimination diets. I said, ‘Why would you need confirmation that he’s sensitive to gluten?’ If every time he eats it, he throws up, he shouldn’t be eating it. You don’t always need a confirmation. If every time you eat shrimp, you react, don’t eat shrimp.”

Elimination Diets for Children: What to Know

Physicians may recommend elimination diets for children, which can create quite a bit of stress for both kids and parents. Most kids already have fairly restricted diets—even if that means that they refuse to eat broccoli—and many parents are apprehensive about applying severe restrictions.   
“I see a lot of kids [with] autism, and they’ll do gluten- [or] dairy-free diets. That type of diet can sometimes help kids with autism by limiting some of the primary symptoms in terms of concentration, eye contact, and things like that,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. When you have a kid who eats five foods, you have to consider that going free from gluten or dairy could mean eliminating their whole diet.”
Elimination diets aren’t exactly fun for adult patients. But for kids, they can be downright torturous, and they’re not an option when a child already has a severely restricted diet. With that said, if your doctor has recommended an elimination diet, there are ways to make the process easier for your child.
“When you work with children, you want to replace what they’re already eating,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “If a child like waffles, you replace it with a gluten-free waffle. If they like pizza, you try a gluten-free pizza. Find analogs that the child will be more likely to accept.”

On the surface, the phrase “clean eating” evokes our thoughts and feelings about healthy dietary options that are unprocessed and highly beneficial to our overall well-being. An interest in clean eating is in many ways a positive shift in terms of our attitudes toward holistic nutritional health. In fact, recent statistics indicate a gradual movement toward healthier eating choices across the United States.
While eating a so-called clean diet can have many beneficial effects on our health, there is the potential for an interest in healthy eating to become an obsession. In particular, while today’s social media climate has the power to inspire us with imagery, recipes, and how-to’s, it can also showcase a carefully curated world of endless green smoothies, raw food diets, and toned bodies that may fuel obsessive behavior and result in unintended damage.

What is clean eating?

The term “clean eating” has become ubiquitous among health and fitness communities, and the specifics of its definition tend to be dependent on the context in which it’s used. Fundamentally, clean eating is about the inclusion of whole, unprocessed foods in your diet and the exclusion of over-processed, unhealthy foods. For some people, clean eating may simply mean that they attempt to eat whole foods whenever possible. For others, this could mean a paleo-inspired or vegan diet. Some people also opt to remove GMO foods from their diets completely.
In theory, following a clean eating–inspired diet is beneficial for your health, helps you maintain a healthy weight, and can sustain your energy needs—whatever they might be. Problems can arise, however, when clean eating ceases to be about health and begins to be about identifying different types of food as either “good” or “bad,” “pure” or “impure.” Dairy and gluten are two good examples of ingredients that are now on the outs for many people who follow clean eating plans, even if these individuals have no medical condition or ethical perspective that necessitates avoiding them. In these cases, clean eating can become potentially dangerous as it moves away from a healthy eating plan and into the territory of a newly emerging eating disorder called orthorexia.

Orthorexia Nervosa: What You Need to Know

Orthorexia nervosa is a term that was coined by Steven Bratman, MD, in 1996 to describe the health-obsessed behavior, or “fixation on righteous eating,” that he was noticing in some of his patients. Orthorexia nervosa manifests as a need for dietary control and a desire to only consume foods considered pure or good, unlike anorexia, which involves “an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat” and intentional restriction of caloric intake despite being underweight.
Because of the relatively new understanding of orthorexia nervosa, it isn’t included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition—the current go-to for psychiatric diagnoses in the U.S.—despite having a profound effect on those who suffer from it. The damaging effects of orthorexia arise when the pool of acceptable food choices becomes smaller and smaller, to the point where a sufferer may only find themselves able to eat one or two foods. Other symptoms of orthorexia nervosa include intense feelings of guilt if the sufferer doesn’t adhere to a clean-eating diet, isolating themselves from group meals and situations in which food has been prepared by others, depression, anxiety, and obsessive behavior.
Ali Eberhardt, a registered dietitian with a strong focus on eating disorders such as orthorexia, believes that while clean eating doesn’t always lead to orthorexia, it can often signal the beginnings of obsessive behavior. She says, “There are people who are able to eat clean without developing obsessive ideas about food. However, the more rules, rigidity about food in a person’s diet, or if there is any predisposition to develop disordered eating, the more potential for this diet to be a catalyst.”
Although orthorexia often begins with an interest in clean eating, clean eating in and of itself doesn’t indicate that someone will eventually struggle with orthorexia. Clean eating often begins with the elimination of processed foods from your diet, which makes it important to understand just what it is that makes a food processed (hint: it probably isn’t what you think!).

What does the term “processed” mean when referring to food?

The term “processed” brings to mind frozen TV dinners, sugary cereals, and mystery lunch meats—all foods without very much nutritional value that include a surplus of salt, fat, and sugar. In reality, processed foods are any foods that have been changed in some way during preparation. Although this definition absolutely includes the aforementioned unhealthy processed foods, it also includes store-bought and homemade methods of preparing food including canning, freezing, baking, and dehydrating. It isn’t the actual act of processing that diminishes a food’s nutritional benefits but the excess salt, fat, and sugar that are so often added to improve flavor in commercially prepared foods. In fact, there are certain foods that require processing to be edible at all.

Which processed foods fit into a healthy eating plan?

Unless you have unlimited time and financial resources, it is difficult to eat only homemade foods. Luckily, there are still minimally processed foods that have an important place in the average American diet. For example, frozen fruits and vegetables are actually preferable to fresh in many circumstances due to nutrient retention and convenience. Canned tomatoes are another example of a processed food that is preferable to fresh in many cases due to the short growing season many Americans experience in the northern hemisphere (when purchasing canned tomatoes, just be sure to check sodium levels). Canned fish, especially sardines and salmon, makes heart- and brain-healthy omega-3 fatty acids easily accessible, especially compared to the time it would take to prepare fish from scratch.
Generally speaking, processed foods make the leap from healthy to unhealthy when they are ultraprocessed.

What makes a food ultraprocessed?

With few exceptions, frozen meals such as lasagna, pizza, waffles, chicken wings and nuggets, breakfast pastries, and TV dinners are jam-packed with all three processed-food offenders: salt, sugar, and fat. Deli meat, hot dogs, and pepperoni sticks commonly involve the use of sodium nitrite, which has been linked to health problems such as migraine headaches and digestive issues, as a preservative. Soda, juices, iced teas, energy drinks, and protein shakes can all be guilty of packing massive amounts of sugar into fairly small servings.
Everyone knows that candy and chips aren’t ideal foods to be snacking on every day, which is why marketers will describe chips as “whole grain” or candy as “organic” or “without added sugar.” The reality? These products are typically still unhealthy choices that aren’t fit for everyday consumption.

Do certain processed foods have benefits?

There are certain foods that are processed in a way that can actually boost their nutritional value. For example, in the U.S., milk and non-dairy milk products are often fortified with vitamin D during the processing stage, which is highly beneficial to people living in cooler climates with less daylight. Eggs, juice, margarine, milk, and yogurt are often fortified with omega-3 fatty acids, a nutrient that our bodies are unable to create themselves but are necessary for heart and brain health. Fiber is added to many breakfast cereals, crackers, and health shakes to improve digestive health and help prevent certain types of cancer. Regular canned salmon contains small fish bones that become softened and edible during the canning process, resulting in a much higher calcium content than regular salmon.
Of course, while each of these foods is nutritionally superior because of processing, it’s still important to read the labels and make sure they haven’t had an excess of salt, sugar, or fat added to make them tastier.

A Note About GMO Foods

GMO stands for genetically modified organisms, and when it comes to food, it indicates that an ingredient has been genetically modified. Although the term GMO is painted in a negative light by some authorities in the clean eating community, the truth is that there are very few studies on the long-term effects of genetically modified foods. Penn State University hosts a GMO literacy project that aims to shed light on some of the misconceptions surrounding the safety of genetically modified foods. The resource gives the question “Are GMOs safe to eat?” the following answer:

There is no solid answer to this question because no irrefutable evidence has been presented that proves GM food crops are any less safe to consume than non-GM foods. The fact is that GM crops have not been in commercial production for an extensive period of time, therefore the health benefits/risks have not been researched to a point where a conclusive decision on their safety can be determined.

It’s also a fair observation that the people most consumed with worry about the danger of GMO foods are financially privileged and living in wealthy, first world countries when, in fact, GMO foods may very well be the solution to feeding a growing worldwide population.

How to Eat Clean Without Exhausting Yourself

Clean eating doesn’t have to be a stressful endeavor full of deprivation and unhealthy cravings. In fact, clean eating can be a joyful way to nourish your body. Problems arise when the goal is perfection in terms of food, but it can be a rewarding experience to treat your body with kindness and respect by eating foods that are nutritionally robust. Focus on whole foods that you enjoy eating such as fresh produce, grains, legumes, nutritionally dense canned and frozen convenience items, lean dairy, and locally sourced meat and fish.
Also, make room in your diet for the occasional treat. Studies show that people who allow themselves the occasional less-than-healthy option are able to stick to their diets with greater ease than those who don’t.
Make it a habit to double recipes so that you have leftovers for lunch and dinner throughout the week. Grain and legume-based salads will keep in the fridge for several days and can be paired with simple proteins such as meat, fish, and tofu to create satisfying meals.

Shopping for Meat While Eating Clean

When sourcing ethical meat, it’s important to adopt the attitude that smaller amounts of high quality meat are much better than large amounts of low quality meat. Since ethically sourced meat is generally more expensive than supermarket meat, this is an especially important point to make note of. Whenever possible, buy your meat from a trusted butcher who won’t shy away from answering any questions you might have about where the meat comes from and how the animals are slaughtered.

Learning to Trust Your Body

Developing a healthy relationship with food is an important step when trying to eat in a way that is nourishing for your body and your mind. Eberhardt offers the following advice for individuals who may be questioning their relationship with clean eating:

I think if someone is wanting to eat well, the focus should be on eating a balanced diet and incorporating whole foods from a variety of sources without labeling it as good or bad. When we attach a label to food, whether it’s healthy or unhealthy, good or bad, we also attach emotion. If I eat ‘good’ I feel proud, like I have strong willpower, and am disciplined. But if I eat ‘bad’ I can feel shame, guilt, and a need to compensate. Learning to trust our bodies is a key element to developing a healthy relationship with food.

If for any reason you feel like you might be veering into obsessive behavior with food, make an appointment with a registered dietitian, family doctor, or mental health professional to talk about your feelings and concerns when it comes to your current diet.
If you’re looking to eat clean on the go, try the following recipe.

Curried Quinoa Pilaf Salad

This curried quinoa pilaf is simple to make and will leave you with leftovers for workday lunches and easy late-night dinners. Experiment by adding other vegetables and fruits you enjoy. Serve this salad warm or at room temperature with a side of chicken, fish, or tofu.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups of quinoa, uncooked
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 shallots, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 cup of orange juice
• 2 cups of vegetable stock
• 1 tsp. curry powder
• ¼ tsp. dried turmeric
• 1 large sweet red pepper, finely diced
• 1 small zucchini, finely diced
• 2 oz fresh goat cheese or feta cheese, crumbled
• Zest of one orange
• 1 cup of finely minced flat-leaf parsley
• ½ cup of pomegranate seeds
• Salt and freshly cracked pepper

Special Equipment:

• Fine-mesh sieve
• Medium-sized, lidded saucepan
• Large salad bowl

Method:

1. Rinse the uncooked quinoa in a fine-mesh sieve under cold water for two minutes. This will help remove the thin layer of saponin coating the quinoa that can cause it to have a bitter or soapy taste.
2. Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in the saucepan, adding the diced shallots and finely minced cloves of garlic once the oil’s hot. Stir until the shallots begin to soften and become translucent.
3. Add the rinsed quinoa and stir until coated with the olive oil, shallots, and garlic. Stir in the curry powder and dried turmeric. Cook the pilaf for two minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Pour in the orange juice and vegetable stock and increase heat to medium-high. Once the liquid begins to boil, turn the heat down as low as possible, cover with a lid, and allow to steam for 15 minutes.
5. Remove the quinoa from the heat and let sit for another fifteen minutes before removing the lid and fluffing up with a fork. Set aside for an hour to let cool.
6. In a large salad bowl, combine the sweet red pepper, zucchini, crumbled goat cheese or feta, orange zest, flat-leaf parsley, and pomegranate seeds. Fold the cooled quinoa into the mix and stir gently until combined. Sample and add salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste.
7. Serve the salad warm or at room temperature as a leftover with fish, chicken, or baked tofu slices.

In recent years, more and more people have turned to fasting as a weight loss regimen. At first glance, the idea of going without food, even for a short period of time, can seem to fly in the face of everything we were raised to believe about nutrition. And while it’s true that fasting finds its origins in religion, there’s now compelling evidence that the practice of abstaining from food and drink every other day can actually lead to many health benefits, from a longer life to an improved mood.
Fasting as a spiritual practice has been around for thousands of years. According to the Old Testament, people often abstained from food and drink for long periods of time in order to focus their attention and hear from God. In the Islamic faith, Ramadan is an entire month of fasting commemorating the first revelation of the Qur’an to the prophet Muhammad. Some Buddhists live an ascetic lifestyle, often choosing to skip meals in order to improve meditation and overall health.
Yet recently, fasting has become more widely practiced not just as a spiritual exercise but as a means of pursuing physical health. There’s even a chance that fasting can lower the risk for major illnesses like heart disease and cancer, suggesting that the men and women who’ve made fasting part of their lifestyles for millenia were onto something.

Intermittent fasting is not a diet

The practice of intermittent fasting—that is eating every other day, which is also known as alternate-day fasting—is becoming one of the hottest health and weight-loss trends. There’s a ton of research and writing online surrounding the topic, and it can be hard to know where to start. Is intermittent fasting just another fad, or does it have staying power? Even more importantly, is intermittent fasting something you should consider for yourself?
To understand what intermittent fasting is, it’s first important to understand what it’s not. Intermittent fasting is not just another diet or weight-loss regimen. It’s a pattern of eating, a conscious lifestyle choice. But why would you choose to deprive yourself of food? While eating every other day can contribute to weight loss, studies have shown that the practice actually has many other compelling benefits, such as lowering the risk for major diseases, improving mood and focus, and positively impacting insulin levels.

The Science Behind Intermittent Fasting

So how exactly does intermittent fasting work? While there is a large body of research on the health benefits of intermittent fasting, it’s important to point out that so far, much of it has been conducted on animals, not humans. Nevertheless, the results look promising. In a 2013 article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Mark Mattson, chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, says there are significant biological parallels between fasting and exercise:
“There are several theories about why fasting provides physiological benefits, says Mattson. ‘The one that we’ve studied a lot, and designed experiments to test, is the hypothesis that during the fasting period, cells are under a mild stress,’ he says. ‘And they respond to the stress adaptively by enhancing their ability to cope with stress and, maybe, to resist disease.’”
Mattson goes on to compare the stress put on cells during calorie restriction to the stress put on muscles and the heart when we exercise. Not all stress is negative and regular taxation on these systems—provided there is adequate recovery time—can increase their strength. This is similar to how cells respond during periods of intermittent fasting.
The implication is that, while a certain amount of calories can be good for you, Americans are eating too much. Earlier this year, it was reported that Americans on average consume more than 3,600 calories daily, which is way over the recommended amount, no matter who or how old you are.
But there’s also the fact that we might be eating too often. According to the abstract of another study that Mattson co-authored on the link between meal timing and health and disease, most members of modern societies consume an unusual number of meals a day. Mattson says that three meals a day, plus snacks in between, is abnormal when looking at eating from an evolutionary perspective. What’s more, studies on both animal and human subjects show that restricting energy for as little as 16 hours can counteract disease and improve several health indicators.
Stephen Mount, PhD, an associate professor at the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland, corroborates this fact. “Research in molecular genetics has long supported the idea that caloric restriction leads to longevity, and that these effects are mediated through the insulin signaling pathway,” he says. Mount has been fasting every other day since 2004 after coming across a paper touting the benefits of intermittent calorie restriction.
“Although my own research does not directly involve aging, metabolism, or nutrition, I read widely on related topics, and have followed the work of researchers who do work directly on these topics,” he says. “I’ve followed research on autophagy and stem cell maintenance that has implications for the potential benefits of intermittent fasting.”
Even with this intriguing research, most people will be drawn to intermittent fasting because of the basic weight loss benefits it provides. “For many people, intermittent fasting results in significant weight loss, and it certainly allows people to maintain a weight below their ‘set point,’ so that’s a good reason to recommend it,” Mount says.

Getting Started With Intermittent Fasting

If you’re interested in getting started with intermittent fasting, you should know that there are many different types or methods of fasting that have emerged in recent years. You may have heard of the 5:2 diet, which involves eating “normally” five days a week and then eating only 500 calories for the other two. There’s also the 16:8 diet, according to which you fast for 16 hours a day and eat only within a select eight-hour window.
Of course, it’s important to realize that not every fasting strategy will work the same for every person. On his blog detailing his fasting experiences, Mount explains in an early post the unique schedule that he follows, which is entirely different than the 5:2 or 16:8. “I haven’t changed my practice much, except that I no longer drink a latte on fast days,” he tells HealthyWay. “I still take a bit of cod liver oil in the morning and a glass of wine at night, but otherwise nothing with calories between dinner one day and dinner the next, three days each week, usually Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, but sometimes a different three days.”
In a more recent blog post, Mount goes into further detail on his current practice. “My fasts have evolved a little over time, but my basic practice has remained the same: three one-day fasts each week,” Mount writes. “I’m flexible (for example, if I’m meeting friends for lunch on Saturday, I’ll fast on Sunday instead). Fasting means no calories between dinner one night and dinner the next night (with minor exceptions…). The fasting period is typically about 23 hours, but I don’t pay attention to precise timing. I eat dinner at the time I would normally eat based on other considerations. There’s a lot of variation (from 19 to 28 hours).”
If you’re interested in trying intermittent fasting for the first time, it’s important to make sure you do it safely, which means you still need to maintain a healthy caloric intake daily. For specific schedules and tips on how to ease yourself into fasting, the folks at Precision Nutrition have some excellent suggestions.
However, don’t get intermittent fasting confused with simply not eating. “During the 13 years I’ve been at it, intermittent fasting has become much more popular,” Mount says, “first with the 5:2 diet, and more recently with people who seem to think that skipping breakfast counts as intermittent fasting.” Mount highlights the fact that intermittent fasting is an intentional practice, not just deciding not to eat.
He also notes that each person has to find an intermittent fasting routine that works for them. “To be honest, I’m not a proselytizer,” he says. “People have to find what works for them. What I like about fasting is that it’s simple. It is so much easier to simply not eat because it’s Thursday than [to] limit yourself to one cookie and not two.”

The Impact of Intermittent Fasting

Different for Men and Women

Most evidence suggests that intermittent fasting has different effects for women than it does for men. “While some women who try IF say it’s the best thing that’s happened to them since grapefruit, others report serious problems, including binge eating, metabolic disruption, lost menstrual periods, and early-onset menopause,” writes Helen Kollias in a Precision Nutrition post on the practice. “This has happened in women as young as their mid-20s.”
Kollias goes into further detail, explaining that intermittent fasting can drastically affect women’s hormone regulation. “It turns out that the hormones regulating key functions like ovulation are incredibly sensitive to your energy intake,” she writes. “Even short-term fasting (say, three days) alters hormonal pulses in some women…There’s even some evidence that missing a single regular meal (while of course not constituting an emergency by itself) can start to put us on alert, perking up our antennae so our bodies are ready to quickly respond to the change in energy intake if it continues.”
Mount says he’s heard a few concerns from women who try intermittent fasting. “The only reasons I can think that intermittent fasting might be different for women are: A) pregnancy—I think fasting during pregnancy might be a bad idea, B) menstrual disorders (missed periods) due to caloric restriction. I have heard this reported by women who have started intermittent fasting. I’ve also heard of this associated with heavy exercise (e.g. marathon training) or extreme weight loss,” he says.
“It’s also true that more women than men have told me that they tried intermittent fasting but could not keep it up,” Mount adds. “That could be due to a different response to fasting.”
When it comes to weight loss, intermittent fasting has shown to be an effective tactic, especially in obese women and in young overweight women. In a study on young overweight women, intermittent energy restriction (IER) was found to be an equivalent alternative to continuous energy restriction (CER) when it came to weight loss and lowering disease risk. The other study showed that intermittent fasting when combined with calorie restriction was “an effective means of reducing body weight, fat mass, and visceral fat mass in obese women.”
The takeaway here is that intermittent fasting can’t be considered the same for everyone, and that women especially should approach the practice with caution. “Considering how much [to fast] remains unclear, I would suggest a conservative approach,” Kollias writes. “If you want to try IF, begin with a gentle protocol, and pay attention to how things are going.”

Successful Intermittent Fasting

If you’re ready to try intermittent fasting and looking for strategies for success, there are a few that the experts recommend:

Do plenty of research.

The data surrounding the benefits of intermittent fasting is plentiful. Spend time doing your own research, and find a routine that you like and works for you. “I can only suppose that what works for me might work for others,” Mount says. “The key is to find something that is compatible with your lifestyle.”

Don’t binge on non-fasting days.

Intermittent fasting is not about “treat days.” The point is not to overindulge on junk food every other day just because you can. If you do, you will counteract all of the good effects of the practice.

Don’t try intermittent fasting if you’re suffering from other health issues.

Fasting can often be incompatible with other health issues, especially if your body needs to be taking in regular calories to fight an illness rather than experiencing caloric restriction.
Additionally, Mount suggests that if you try fasting and experience adverse effects, you should stop. “I think that if someone has given fasting a fair shot (three weeks) and still suffers from extreme fatigue, inability to concentrate, or irritability on fast days, then intermittent fasting is probably not for them,” he says. “My advice for everyone is to find out what works for them!”