A month ago, I managed a 40-hour fast. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be because my body was using fat for fuel instead of sugar/glucose. Today I have just finished a 50-hour fast. Again, there were no difficulties in doing it, although I was feeling quite hungry by the end of 50 hours. I kept hydrated and nibbled on Himalayan Pink salt bits. I felt fine.
So, why do I do it? Here’s why. Fasting promotes Autophagy. That’s a new word I learnt recently. Autophagy is a Greek word or ‘Eat Thyself’. In a nutshell, the body is eating up the dead cells to promote growth of new cells. In 2016, Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize for his discoveries into the mechanisms of autophagy. Here is an article you may want to read: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44005092
Fasting also lowers blood sugar and increases blood ketones (BHB: beta hydroxybutyrate). When I ended my fast today, my blood glucose was 4.7 mmol/l and blood ketones was 2.8 mmol/l. The average in the morning is around 5 mmol/l blood glucose and below 1 mmol/l blood ketones.
Here is a video by Dr Sten Ekberg where he explains autophagy in a little more detail and lists some benefits of fasting.
Fasting is good for health.