Fasting is crazy. Why do we do it?

Journal excerpts from my first 65-hour fast:

Day 1
Morning — Coffee for breakfast. Black, of course.
4pm — I’m feeling good. I get little waves of stomach grumbles and little highs — maybe due to caffeine? (I drank green tea after the coffee.)
Night — Some stomach grumbles but energy levels are fine. I miss the taste and enjoyment of food more than its sustenance.

Day 2
Morning — Had trouble falling asleep last night. Not hungry at the moment.
Noon — 40 hours without calories yet my body excretes solids.
5pm — Not particularly hungry, no rumblings… but energy levels are down.
8pm — Very low energy. Tired. Need to sleep soon. I’m going to watch Mr. Robot before bed.
8:15pm — Didn’t last long. I’m in bed. Leg muscles dull ache when moving. Need sleep.

(Continued later)

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From a survival perspective, to willingly go hungry seems crazy. So why do people do it? What compels someone to voluntarily forgo food for extended periods of time?

Some fast for religious reasons; following the practices and guidance of spiritual leaders. In the Quran for instance, the Prophet Mohammad reminds Muslims that during the holy month of Ramadan:

“O ye who believe! seek help with patient perseverance and prayer; for Allah is with those who patiently persevere.” (2:153)

Moses fasted before God revealed to him the ten commandments:

“And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.” (Exodus 34:28)

Jesus also did a forty day fast, right after his baptism by John:

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”(Matthew 4: 1–4)

Each preaches discipline through hardship and promises a reward for perseverance.

Others fast for philosophical reasons; following the practices and guidance of philosophical leaders, both ancient and modern.

Leo Tolstoy, a Russian author from the 19th century, in an essay on the Morals of Diet, reminds us the true reason for the spiritual fasts:

In olden times, when there was no Christian teaching, all the teachers of life, beginning with Socrates, regarded as the first virtue of life, self-control; and it was understood that every virtue must begin with and pass through this one. It was clear that a person who had no self-control, who had developed an immense number of desires and had yielded himself up to them, could not lead a good life. […] according to all moral teachings, the effort towards self-control commences with a struggle against the lust of gluttony — commences with fasting. […] Fasting is an indispensable condition of a good life.”

Epictetus, a Greek stoic from Tolstoy’s “olden times”, indeed advised the truth-seekers to:

Study how to give as one that is sick: that thou mayest hereafter give as one that is whole. Fast; drink water only; abstain altogether from desire, that thou mayest hereafter conform thy desire to Reason.

The agnostic philosophical rewards of virtue and “the good life” are as ephemeral but no less appealing than the religious ones.

Evidently, fasting was and continues to be an invaluable practice for cultures around the world. In modern industrialized Western societies however— mostly secular, profit-driven, virtue-fluid? — the practice was abandoned. But that’s fast changing…

In 2016, the Karolinska Institut awarded the Nobel prize for medicine and physiology to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his work on autophagy — key to understanding what happens to animal cells when the body is starving.

Autophagy is derived from the Greek; “auto” meaning “self”, and “phagy” meaning “to eat”. This biological process, whereby the body eats itself, is essential for cellular recycling, which seems to:

• Eliminate invading intracellular bacteria and viruses;
• Contribute to embryo development and cell differentiation;
• Eliminate damaged proteins and organelles, counteracting the negative consequences of aging, and;
• Fight Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancers.

Ohsumi and his team identified the specific genes responsible for the autophagy process. As you’d expect, a race is on to “develop drugs that can target autophagy in various diseases.”

But you need not wait for miracle pills to unlock this powerful healing. It is already within you, says Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist Mark Mattson, Ph.D.:

“In prehistoric times, before humans learned to farm, they were hunters and gatherers who evolved to survive — and thrive — for long periods without eating.”

Mattson has been researching a specific fasting protocol called intermittent fasting (a catchy label for the 21st century). Maybe you’ve heard of this as it’s entered the mainstream these past few years. Basically, you fast for about 14 to 18 hours several times a week.

Similarly to Ohsumi, Mattson says the benefits of these relatively short fasts extend to: thinking and memory, heart health, physical performance, diabetes and obesity, and tissue health.

Health, virtue and reason, spiritual healing... Maybe this fasting thing isn’t so crazy.

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Continuation of my journal excerpts:

Day 3
7:30am — I didn’t sleep much, but I didn’t want to stay in bed.
In the past 60 hours, I’ve only consumed liquids (water, tea, coffee, three teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, even less lemon juice) and a few minerals (mostly salt).
The physical discomfort is minimal. My stomach isn’t growling, not screaming for food. My urine is fairly dark. I do have some soreness in my lower back, but that could be yesterday’s 8 km bike ride. (maybe skip that next time)
Mentally, I think I’m fine. I could keep going if I wanted to. But I’ve decided to break fast at lunch.
11am — First course is a vegetable soup: bouillon, spinach, green onions, parsley, a few spices, soy sauce, butter, finished with olive oil. Tremendous. With the first spoonful I started giggling. The warmth, the saltiness, the flavours… the sustenance! I followed that up with a hearty omelette and a grilled cheese. Soooo good. The fast is broke!
65 hours.

***

Additional resources:

• Delayed alzheimer’s in mice that were starved intermittently (we can’t convince mice to fast). 3 mins:

• Ketosis —It’s when your body uses your fat reserves for energy. When you fast, your body eventually gets into ketosis. “Fasting, or going without food, can help a person achieve a state of ketosis. Many people can actually go into ketosis between meals. In some controlled cases, a doctor may recommend a longer fasting period of between 24 and 48 hours.” So if you want to get onto a keto-diet, fasting for a day or two is a great way to kick start the metabolic change.
• I have to plug the wonderful novel Siddharta by Herman Hess. In it, the hero who has spent much time living as an ascetic, needs a job and meets a prospective employer who asks him:
  “What is it that you’ve learned, what you’re able to do?”
  “I can think. I can wait. I can fast.”
  “That’s everything?”
  “I believe, that’s everything!”
• Some more quotes from some of our wise ancestors:

“Instead of using medicine, rather, fast a day.” — Plutarch, ancient Greek philosopher.

“The best of all medicines are resting and fasting.” — Benjamin Franklin, polymath and statesman.

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Cover image by me using Ouroboros logo by Grégory Montigny.