Fasting Is Good, When Done Under Medical Supervision, Say Experts | Bhopal News - Times of India

Nidhi Pandey, a

dietician

based at Bhopal, referring to the study, said that intermittent fasting is a diet fad being promoted by several celebrities like Eric Berg and people taking to it may feel that it helped them shed weight but the question is whether it can be done 7 days a week and 12 months a year or should be restricted to 1 or 2 days a week like fasting done by Indians. If you look at it, the KETO diet is also helping a lot of people in that sense, but can it be continued throughout life. If someone has a sedentary lifestyle, where you are eating 3-4 times a day and doing little physical work, intermittent fasting may work but again if you have ailments like thyroid, blood pressure, can intermittent fasting be taken to without guidance.

If you are without food for 12 to 16 hours, the glucose level in the body will drop and the heart beat also drops. As it is, the heart beat is different when you are working, it's different when you are in a resting position and when you are sleeping. If you are not eating for 12 hours and only having water, vital vitamins in the body will also decline in the body and in the long term, it would affect the heart. For example, you can't eat early in the evening and remain awake till late night.

She further said that intermittent fasting without medical supervision could be more dangerous for women because there is profound interplay of hormones in their body and during periods or PMS, when hormone levels get up & down in their body, intermittent fasting should be strictly avoided. If you are observing intermittent fasting, you have a window of 8 hours for eating and it's recommended that you eat 3 to 4 times during this period but what if you eat only one or twice during this period as Indians usually do. Therefore, it's best advised to take to intermittent fasting only on sound medical advice, eat good food and not treat food as a burden but enjoy it, she said.

Dietician Amita Singh said that healthy food is key to healthy life, you can't observe intermittent fasting and eat junk food, it would only aggravate the problem you are targeting to resolve through intermittent fasting. Jains traditionally eat before the sunset, but they don't eat burgers and such stuff, they have normal healthy food. If you are having food early in the evening and awake till late night, it may be harmful. If you work during the day and don't have breakfast as part of intermittent fasting, it would be harmful. What people do, they talk amongst themselves and if intermittent fasting has apparently helped someone to reduce weight, his friends also take it without proper guidance, which is wrong. But, as far as the study, which has drawn a lot of attention throughout the world, is concerned I think it requires more data and observation before intermittent fasting could be proved scientifically wrong. But it should definitely be done under proper supervision.

Dr Swapnil Garde, a cardiologist, when asked about the study and its outcome, said intermittent fasting is a scientific concept and it has definitely helped people reduce weight and also control blood pressure and if a healthy person starts intermittent fasting, it's not that he would develop

cardiac problems

or any other ailments just because of intermittent fasting. But, if someone has a cardiac problem or has cholesterol in excess or high BP, it may precipitate heart attack. The best thing would be to keep a watch on inflammation markers like HSCRB or ESR while doing it, otherwise intermittent fasting is helpful for a healthy life.

Head of department, cardiology, Gandhi medical college, Dr Rajeev Gupta, said that there are several studies to prove positive aspects of intermittent fasting and one study, which has not yet been published, won't change the scientific position vis-a-vis intermittent fasting. Besides, there are lacunas in the way the study in question has been carried out. We normally study in prospective terms and not in retrospective terms as in this study. They have studied people who observed intermittent fasting from the year 2003 to 2018 and came to a conclusion, it's more of an observation but not a study. In a study, we take two groups, one doing a certain thing and another not doing it and then compare their data.

Besides, in intermittent fasting you eat for 8 hours and don't take food for 16 hours a day. The study doesn't show the total calorie count, fat count and most importantly trans fat count during the period. It's the trans fat which causes a cardiac event, it's responsible for clotting of blood.

What is more important than intermittent fasting or its absence is the quality of food you eat. There should also have been reference to lean muscle mass in the study. If you are feeling burnt out, there will be less activities and physical exercise, which must be avoided.

What is happening is that people are feeling burnt out because of free radicals in the body. What you need in food is scavengers for free radicals.

These free radicals get into inner layers of artillery and cause cardiac arrest. People should eat things which have antioxidants like fruit or vegetables so that the free radicals and platelets in their blood are reduced and their heart remains healthy.