Low Carb Down Under
7 HN recommenders · recommended in 10 months, 2017–2022
36:10 · 6.4M views · Mar 10, 2016
Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist, explains therapeutic fasting as a treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes. He frames it around the two-compartment problem of fat storage and insulin resistance.
HN commenters repeatedly recommend it as a free, evidence-citing overview of fasting that counters worries about muscle loss and safety.
16 comments from Hacker News
Scientists/researchers in the past were paid by to say that sugar wasn't bad for you, and that fat was the culprit - we know this now to not be true. There's research that emerging that is it's what you don't eat that - it's people who are eating meat + other bad things that causes problems and then allows the connection to meat as possibly being linked as the cause; there's barely any research of people just consuming meats and animal products. Two videos I recommend everyone watch: Dr. Georgia Ede - 'Our Descent into Madness: Modern Diets and the Global Mental Health Crisis' - [LINK] Dr. Jason Fung - 'Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem' - this video Imaging meat is fine and it's when you hurt the body with other harmful foods that then causes your body to not function as well to process meat and other foods properly - and where other systems to clear/clean the body aren't or can't function optimally (think inflammation, insulin, excess of food/availability of calories, etc) - and not specifically because of the meat? It's hard to know if oneself is ideology or propaganda, we've all been bombarded by things like government sponsored (influenced by food industrial complex) Food Pyramids, etc. our whole lives - or by fad diets looking to make money and marketing their own flavour of diet. The list goes on. Real research will happen that cuts through the confusion, people are waking up.
Most people are omnivores, not carnivores as PG stated - however the trend seems to be moving towards the health benefits of eating as carnivore - a purely meat diet; it's the food you don't eat that improves health, meat is a healthy food for most people. We have the sugar lobby who paid researchers to create propaganda that fat was the culprit. We have companies incentivized to sell fad diets, we have every participant of the food industrial complex trying to push for their product to be consumed - and we have governments who are trying to keep the lobbyists happy and perhaps for the purpose of keeping the economy stable. They all aren't going to be promoting or funding research that will give results against their own interests. Two videos I recommend everyone watch relating to diet: Dr. Georgia Ede - 'Our Descent into Madness: Modern Diets and the Global Mental Health Crisis' - [LINK] Dr. Jason Fung - 'Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem' - this video
An accelerated version of intermittent fasting is longer term fasting - ideal minimum being 3 days, although even only being able to handle 24 hours at first is a great start; the next ideal number of days is 5 days, then 10 days, then 20 days based on different changes that occur at those periods. I always recommend people watch this by Dr. Jason Fung: 'Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem' - this video
Have you ever tried water fasting? The reason I ask/suggest is that when water fasting (which isn't starvation mode, starvation mode happens when you're regularly enough eating calories keeping your digestive system going - but not enough to actually provide your body with what it needs) is that when fasting your body 1) burns more calories so you'll have more energy available (to your body and brain) than if eating food, and 2) your body produces more adrenaline - so you have more mental energy too. I wonder if this relatively simple/quick "hack" could give you an experience that may help you have the mental energy, and get rid of brain fog that some foods you eat may also be causing you, to see if this shakes things up enough where your focus and therefore concentration sharpens? Start out with 24 hours while drinking a ton of water, and based on seeing how you feel - see if you can make it to 3 days (72 hours); starting at 7pm means at 7am you're already at 12 hours, and 7pm next day already 1 of 3 days done; you have to drink a surprising amount of water, I usually stop at 4pm so I'm not having to get up in the night. I recommend weighing yourself each morning and logging it just to have some numbers to passively start developing a more thorough understanding of how your body works in relation to food. Perhaps it sounds too simple, too good to be true, but I have had this experience and others too. Here's a 30 minute video by Dr. Jason Fung explaining by water fasting is
I wouldn't say there's any one good resource. Most people preach intermittent fasting, which I've found is okay for maintenance and health but it's not nearly as beneficial nor will it lose you as much weight as fasting for days on end. But here's some material I went over to educate myself and convinced me that it's perfectly safe: Fasting vs. Eating Less: What's the Difference? (Science of Fasting) [LINK] Dr. Jason Fung - 'Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem' this video Beginners Guide to Prolonged Fasting | 24-72 Hour Fasting Instructions [LINK] ^^ Not exactly a fan of Thomas DeLauer but there's some good information there. If you aren't faint of heart, check out some videos on the "Snake Diet" channel on YouTube. Cole is kind of a lunatic, constantly swears, and holds nothing back. He does this to be motivational. He's wrong about a few things(he thinks fasting cures everything and also thinks vaccines are bad), but when it comes to fasting properly he's pretty spot on. I just took from him what I thought made sense and left the rest behind. The best idea I got from him was the "snake juice", which is really just an electrolyte mixture you can make at home. It really makes all the difference. Overall, I wish there was someone who could preach this stuff without the Cole's level of insanity, but there you have it.