The abstention from food, even for several days, is taking hold in Italy. But there is no scientific evidence that is really good for the body. Indeed, undergoing restrictive diets can be a risk
Fasting came out of the monasteries to land on Instagram. From an ancient practice with deep religious, spiritual and civil protest roots, it has become the new frontier of well -being: transforming itself into a global trend that depopulates between social media, improvised applications and guru that promote fasting as a health and longevity recipe. To lead the people of the new “digital asceties” is Raz Degan, Gandhian antithesis who from the top of its more than 400 thousand followers, decides last August to launch on the social “the first collective fasting of history in Italy”. Forty -eight hours of water alone and 3 thousand people who enroll in a few days at the event, facing this improvised hunger marathon.
But if the promise is that of a lighter body, a regenerated metabolism and a screaming physique – spoiler, it will not work – the reality is much more complex. Design oneself between all types of restrictions, from the intermittent to 5: 2 (5 days of normal nutrition and two diet) up to mima-digiuno (see box on the next page) and many others, can prove to be very risky. “The diet is never a neutral act: it is always a therapeutic act, and as such it must start from a medical diagnosis” explains Professor Emanuele renewal of the clinical nutrition department of the Gemelli IRCCS polyclinic in Rome. «Starting a reckless fasting, without understanding the real causes of overweight or malaise risks masking important pathologies, such as diabetes, liver diseases or cardiovascular diseases. The first mistake is to trivialize overweight and not to read the body’s signals as an alarm bell; If the health needs that are the basis of the extra pounds are not intercepted, you risk wasting precious time in taking care of them ».
Then there is a second aspect, closely related to our bad habit of directing us towards impulsive, fast and not lasting solutions. We want everything immediately, without considering that the “short way” typically ends badly, and often in a dead end. “One of the most important consequences of do-it-yourself fasting, or in any case of ultra-rescue diets is the risk of macro and micronutrient deficits” continues Rinnella. «When the caloric intake is too low, the body consumes the reserves first, but immediately afterwards it begins to attack the muscle, reducing the lean mass instead of the fat one. It is a crucial point: if the “metabolically active mass” is damaged and with it the vital organs, the immune system is weakened by increasing vulnerability to infections “.
Yet, the charm of the fasting fasts. To convince and self-winning the utility of the classic “intermittent”, that is, to eat anything, but only in a time window of 8 hours, and then pass the next 16 without touching any calorie (for example, if you have breakfast at 7 you can eat until 3pm and then fasting until morning after) even the Nobel prizes are uncomfortable: the scientific rational of this type of diet, in fact, is linked to the phenomenon of the autophage. From the Japanese Yoshinori Osteri, Nobel Prize for Medicine 2016. “Autophagy is the process with which cells eliminate the damaged components in order to regenerate”, concludes Rinnella. “In theory, fasting would stimulate this mechanism, and therefore cell rejuvenation and reduction of inflammation. However, it remains an open knot: we do not know clearly after how many hours of fasting is activated in humans. Some speak of 16 hours, others of 24 or even 72, but the tests were conducted above all on animals ».
At the moment, certainties are not there. But if everything is so wrong and negative, then because when we go to bed without dinner – or after eating in a frugal way – maybe we happen to sleep better, to avoid absurd dreams and wake up more rested? Everything is in the fact that the metabolism is beautiful because it is varied. “There is an aspect that is often neglected, and it is the individual variability, that is, the fact that not everyone reacts in the same way to fasting” says Jessica Falcone, nutritionist coordinator of the Operating Unit Food Disorders of the San Raffaele Turro hospital in Milan. «Some people, for genetics or personal history, better tolerate periods without food and manage to exploit their metabolic benefits; Others, on the contrary, more easily suffer the negative effects. This refers to an essential principle of nutrition: building an ad hoc diet means considering not only metabolism and caloric needs, but also factors such as sleep quality, stress levels, type of work and biological rhythms. Without this integrated vision, every practice risks becoming unsustainable ».
Furthermore, the feeling of well-being that some experience by jumping a meal also derives partly from a holistic return to ancient principles of chrono-nutrition, that is, the alignment of food rhythms with the biological ones of light and darkness. “Our grandparents, who dined at 6 pm and went to bed soon, naturally respected these mechanisms,” concludes Falcone. “Today, however, we tend to eat very late in the evening and jumping breakfast, a habit that contrasts with our optimal hormonal and metabolic rhythms that – these – yes – can really bring different benefits, even without extreme diets and imaginative fasts”.
Fantasi as the famous 5: 2, that is, 5 days of free diet and without restrictions and then 2 during which you can take up to 500 or 600 calories: this regime, driven by many improvised well -being influencers that magnify its extraordinary results on Tiktok is actually a scheme without clinical evidence and outside of any scientific logic: a randomized study carried out by the Queen Mary of London has showed that it is not long -term sustainable and has very modest effects if compared to traditional diets. While, like all types of fasting, it has strong side effects, because the days of huge calorie restriction can cause fatigue, dizziness, weakness and metabolic and hormonal stress. And for those who have a psychological predisposition, fasting can even become a trigger, that is, a triggering factor of eating disorders, transforming itself from practice of well -being into an element of clinical risk.
From Gandhi to Raz Degan, the step was short. Not only have we spelled fasting, transforming it from ascetic practice and an instrument of pacifist struggle into a trivial attempt to like us more in front of the mirror, but we also failed: risking obtaining the only result of getting sick even more and even more seriously.
And with the waist still there, equal to itself, to remind us that the senseless shortcuts always end up against a wall.
