The Fast Reset: Unlocking the Mysteries of Fasting for Health

By Arslon Humayun

The Fast Reset aims to look at diet from a different perspective: not what we eat, but rather when we eat.

Contrary to popular belief, fasting is not a recent fad. Rather,

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Jan 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781637309308

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THE FAST RESET

THE FAST RESET

UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES OF FASTING FOR HEALTH

ARSLON HUMAYUN

New Degree Press

Copyright © 2021 ARSLON HUMAYUN

All rights reserved.

THE FAST RESET

Unlocking the Mysteries of Fasting for Health

ISBN

978-1-63730-656-7 Paperback

978-1-63730-739-7 Kindle Ebook

978-1-63730-930-8 Ebook

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1.The Religious and Spiritual History of Fasting

The Early Tradition of Fasting

Fasting in the Western World

Fasting as a Pillar of Faith

Part 2.Fasting as a Novel Weight Loss Strategy

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner: As It Should Be?

The Story Behind the Fasting Renaissance

Understanding the Many Types of Fasting

The Metabolic Effects of Breaking Through Hunger

Putting Fat to Work

Part 3.Fasting to Fight Disease

Targeting Chronic Inflammation

Restoring Cellular Health

Part 4.Preparing You for Your Fasting Journey

Safety Considerations

Finding Your Why

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Introduction

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.¹

—Hippocrates (460–375 BC), Greek physician and father of medicine²

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.³

—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian artist and scientist⁴

Since the earliest days of human history, diet has been a central focus of health. The ancient Greeks believed that diet was essential for mental and physical well-being.⁵ The ancient Chinese incorporated herbs into their diet to prevent disease.⁶ The ancient Indians used food as a medicine to treat disease.⁷

The word diet originates from the Greek diaita, which means manner of living.⁸ In this light, diet is about much more than the food we eat. Diet is a symbol of culture and a source of pride, just as it is a way to promote health.

Somewhere along the way, we seem to have forgotten this. Today’s standard Western diet is not only failing to promote health, but it is actively hurting us.⁹ Obesity and type 2 diabetes have become modern twin epidemics that show no signs of abating.¹⁰ In turn, they are contributing to other major diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and kidney disease.¹¹

Worse yet, all of this is happening as we spend more than ever on diet and weight loss. In 2019, the diet and weight loss industry hit a record $78 billion, and that was in the United States alone.¹²

Clearly, our current strategies are not working, especially not if 95 percent of people are said to fail their diets.¹³

Perhaps the problem is the diet, not you. Perhaps, as family medicine professor Yoni Freedhoff, MD, puts it, 95 percent of diets fail people.¹⁴

From this, the question becomes: What is it about traditional diets that causes them to fail?

If you look at most diets, you will likely be told what—and what not—to eat. For forty years, fat was the enemy, so low-fat diets were popular.¹⁵ What we learned from this failed experiment, as Harvard nutrition expert David Ludwig calls it, is that not all fats are bad.¹⁶ In fact, we now know that some fats are good for us and should be included in our diet.¹⁷

Nowadays, it seems we have swung to the other extreme. Carbs have become the enemy, so low-carb diets have become popular.¹⁸ If we already know that not all carbs are bad, aren’t we just falling into the same trap all over again?¹⁹

It certainly seems so. In both cases, we are demonizing an entire macronutrient category, just as we are failing to stop the rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes.²⁰

Perhaps traditional diets are actually contributing to the rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Perhaps, as clinical psychologist Aria Campbell-Danesh puts it, banning [certain foods] actually backfires.²¹

The same thing is true with diets that tell us how much we can eat. An estimated 80–90 percent of traditional calorie-cutting diets result in weight regain in the long term.²²

This does not even mention how common poor compliance is while on traditional diets.²³ As registered and licensed dietician Marisa Moore puts it, People go on a diet knowing that they will eventually abandon it. It’s not if, but when.²⁴

Clearly, traditional diets have strayed from the original spirit of diaita. By setting unrealistic expectations, they fail to offer a sustainable manner of living.²⁵

The reason for this, it seems, is that traditional diets only ask questions of what and how much. They never seem to ask the question of when. Without addressing the question of when, diets are expected to be constant. As Jason Fung, MD, writes in his book The Obesity Code, Diets fail because of their constancy.²⁶

Clearly, we need something different. We need a diet that is intermittent, one that allows for breaks.²⁷ We need a diet that does not demonize entire food groups and ruin our relationship with food.²⁸ We need a diet that does not create feelings of guilt and shame when we cannot follow its unrealistic expectations.²⁹

This is where fasting comes into play. By focusing on when, fasting—also known as intermittent fasting—avoids the common downfalls of traditional diets. There is a time to fast, and there is a time not to fast. It is that simple.

Unlike traditional diets, fasting deserves the name diaita. It is an ancient, tried-and-tested practice, resulting from our prehistoric ability to survive—and thrive—for long periods without eating.³⁰ Since then, fasting has found a home across several religious traditions.³¹ Recently, it has gained popularity in secular society as a simple and sustainable way to combat the unhealthy habit of eating and snacking all the time.³² In this light, as Johns Hopkins dietician Christie Williams puts it, fasting can be a lifestyle change for us.³³

As a true diaita, fasting offers several health benefits beyond just weight loss. These benefits are perhaps best summarized by de Cabo and Mattson in a 2019 paper that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine:

Studies in animals and humans have shown that many of the health benefits of intermittent fasting are not simply the result of reduced free-radical production or weight loss. Instead, intermittent fasting elicits evolutionarily conserved, adaptive cellular responses that are integrated between and within organs in a manner that improves glucose regulation, increases stress resistance, and suppresses inflammation… However, most people consume three meals a day plus snacks, so intermittent fasting does not occur.³⁴

Truly, weight loss is just one of the health benefits of fasting. Generally, there are three different ways to use fasting as a tool for health:

1.Fasting for religious or spiritual benefits

2.Fasting for weight loss

3.Fasting for healthy longevity

To explore these benefits, this book is broken down into the following four parts:

•Part 1: The Religious and Spiritual History of Fasting

•Part 2: Fasting as a Novel Weight Loss Strategy

•Part 3: Fasting to Fight Disease

•Part 4: Preparing You for Your Fasting Journey

As you can see, fasting offers many ways to improve health. While you are more than welcome to read the chapters in order, you are also free to jump to a specific part depending on your health goals. That being said, Part 4 is important for everyone to read, as it will discuss important safety considerations and help you find clarity of purpose as you embark on your journey with fasting.

Ultimately, my responsibility is to give you the most accurate, up-to-date information on how you can safely implement fasting to improve your health. To help achieve this, I try to cite sources as extensively as possible. By doing this, my goal is twofold: (1) to give full credit to the researchers and practitioners for their hard work and essential contributions to our collective knowledge on fasting; and (2) to give you the option to refer back to the referenced content for further guidance and perspective.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. I am excited to share what I have learned with you, and I hope it will be a worthwhile read for you.

—Arslon Humayun

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1 Quote by Hippocrates, Goodreads, accessed October 6, 2021.

2 Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. Hippocrates, accessed October 6, 2021.

3 Quote by Leonardo da Vinci, Goodreads, accessed October 6, 2021.

4 Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. Leonardo da Vinci, accessed October 6, 2021.

5 Panagiotis K. Skiadas and John G. Lascaratos, Dietetics in Ancient Greek Philosophy: Plato’s Concepts of Healthy Diet, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 55, no. 7 (2001): 532–37.

6 Da-Yong Lu and Ting-Ren Lu, Herbal Medicine in New Era, Hospice & Palliative Medicine International Journal 3, no. 4 (2019): 125–30.

7 Preetam Sarkar et al., Traditional and Ayurvedic Foods of Indian Origin, Journal of Ethnic Foods 2, no. 3 (2015): 97–109.

8 Merriam-Webster, s.v. "diet (n.)," accessed January 25, 2021.

9 Varundeep Rakhra, Suguni Loku Galappaththy, Sheetal Bulchandani, and Peminda K. Cabandugama, Obesity and the Western Diet: How We Got Here, Missouri Medicine 117, no. 6 (2020): 536–8.

10 Sanjay Kalra, Diabesity, Journal of Pakistan Medical Association 63, no. 4 (2013): 532–34.

11 Health Risks of Overweight & Obesity, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, accessed October 6, 2021.

12 U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market Report 2021, Business Wire, March 26, 2021.

13 Jacquelyn Ekern, A Whopping 95% of All Diets Fail: Is It Anorexia in the Making? Eating Disorder Hope, accessed October 6, 2021.

14 Yoni Freedhoff, No, 95 Percent of People Don’t Fail Their Diets, US News Health, November 17, 2014.

15 Forty Years of Low-Fat Diets: A ‘Failed Experiment,’ Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, October 6, 2016.

16 Ibid.

17 The Truth about Fats: The Good, the Bad, and the In-Between, Harvard Health Publishing, December 11, 2019.

18 Kris Gunnars, The 8 Most Popular Ways to Do a Low-Carb Diet, Healthline, March 7, 2019.

19 What’s the Difference between Good and Bad Carbs? WebMD, last modified June 22, 2021.

20 Aria Campbell-Danesh, Why Do Most Diets Fail in the Long Run? Psychology Today, August 31, 2020.

21 Ibid.

22 Michael Rosenbaum and Rudolph L. Leibel, Adaptive Thermogenesis in Humans, International Journal of Obesity 34 (2010): S47–55.

23 Densie Webb, Farewell to the 3,500-Calorie Rule, Today’s Dietitian 26, no. 11 (2014): 36.

24 Why Do Diets Fail? Psychology of Weight Loss, Sharecare, accessed September 22, 2021.

25 Merriam-Webster, s.v. "diet (n.)," accessed January 25, 2021.

26 Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2016), 246.

27 Taking a Break from Dieting May Improve Weight Loss, ScienceDaily, September 18, 2017.

28 Aria Campbell-Danesh, Why Do Most Diets Fail in the Long Run? Psychology Today, August 31, 2020.

29 Why Do Diets Fail? Psychology of Weight Loss, Sharecare, accessed September 22, 2021.

30 Intermittent Fasting: What Is It, and How Does It Work? Johns Hopkins Medicine, accessed February 1, 2021.

31 Ferah Armutcu, Fasting May Be an Alternative Treatment Method Recommended by Physicians, Electronic Journal of General Medicine 16, no. 3 (2019): em138.

32 Intermittent Fasting: What Is It, and How Does It Work? Johns Hopkins Medicine, accessed February 1, 2021.

33 Ibid.

34 Rafael de Cabo and Mark P. Mattson, Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease, The New England Journal of Medicine 381, no. 26 (2019): 2541–51.

Part 1

The Religious and Spiritual History of Fasting

Chapter 1

The Early Tradition of Fasting

For restraint in speech, he shall observe silence; for control over the body, he shall fast.³⁵

—Sannyasa Upanishad, Hindu text

A man may conquer a million men in battle, but one who conquers himself is the greatest of conquerors.³⁶

—Dhammapada, Buddhist text

Fasting is perhaps best defined as abstinence from food or drink or both for health, ritualistic, religious, or ethical purposes.³⁷ As a voluntary practice, it has been around for thousands of years.

Here are just a few examples:

•In ancient Egypt, fasting was commonly practiced to aton[e] for faults and sins.³⁸

•In ancient Greece, fasting was popular because of the belief that demons could enter the body through food.³⁹ Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher, was known to fast for several days before taking exams because he felt an increase in lucidity while fasting.⁴⁰ Hippocrates, a classical era Greek physician, was known to use fasting to treat both acute and chronic diseases.⁴¹

•In ancient Rome, the concept of breakfast was considered repellant and was actively frowned upon.⁴²,⁴³

Instead, a single meal was typically eaten at around noon every day.⁴⁴ It was believed eating more than one large meal per day was unhealthy.⁴⁵

Across multiple ancient civilizations, fasting was therefore a voluntary practice, one that became a normal part of everyday life. The same is true of fasting in religion, which has undoubtedly played an essential role in keeping the ancient practice alive.⁴⁶

Although religious and spiritual fasting are not identical, it is possible to study both through the lens of religion. With religious fasting, the general goal is to follow a prescribed fasting protocol to reconnect with divinity.⁴⁷ With spiritual fasting, the emphasis is much more personalized; it could be to reconnect with divinity, just as it could be to help clear the mind before making a major life decision.⁴⁸

As it turns out, two prominent Eastern religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, offer a great opportunity to explore both religious and spiritual fasting. Since Hinduism and Buddhism are often viewed less as religion[s] and more as way[s] of life, they both offer the flexibility to find personal meaning while fasting.⁴⁹,⁵⁰

Fasting in Hinduism

With roots dating back to as early as 2300 BCE, Hinduism is often considered by religious scholars as one of the oldest religions in the world.⁵¹ Today, there are roughly nine hundred million followers of Hinduism, making it the third largest religion in the world after Christianity and Islam.⁵²,⁵³

Compared to most other religions, Hinduism is rather unique in that its traditions are often multileveled and pluralistic.⁵⁴ As a result, there are many variations in Hinduism and how its traditions are practiced.⁵⁵

This is particularly true when it comes to fasting, as there are no universal rules laid down for Hindu fasts.⁵⁶ For example, different days of the week are associated with different deities, so it is common to fast on a given day to honor certain gods or goddesses.⁵⁷

Fasting is also an important part of certain religious occasions such as Navaratri, a nine-day festival that honors Durga, the universal mother goddess.⁵⁸ While Navaratri is celebrated differently depending on the region, it is common to observ[e] a strict vegetarian diet and abstain from alcohol and certain spices.⁵⁹

While the specific types of fasting in Hinduism may vary, the underlying principles remain the same. Essentially, fasting is a form of restraint that helps separate us from worldly indulgences to concentrate on spiritual attainment.⁶⁰ Despite being religiously prescribed, fasting in Hinduism thus carries a great spiritual emphasis, allowing each follower to find personal meaning during his or her fast.⁶¹

As it turns out, this personalized view of fasting appears to have originated from Ayurveda.⁶² Ayurveda, also known as Ayurvedic medicine, is an ancient, holistic healing system that originated in India.⁶³ In Ayurveda, fasting is believed to give our Agni (digestive system) a rest and therefore allow us to burn up any toxins, or Ama, that ha[ve] built up in our body.⁶⁴ As we will learn in Part 3, this idea closely resembles what we know about fasting based on current research.⁶⁵

As a system that emphasizes the individual, Ayurveda makes it clear that fasting is not meant for everyone. Generally, this is determined based on a person’s dosha, or body type.⁶⁶ Ayurveda identifies three major doshas:

•The vata dosha is made up of air and space.⁶⁷ People with this dosha are usually thin and have difficulty putting on weight.⁶⁸

•The pitta dosha is made up of fire and water.⁶⁹ People with this dosha usually have an athletic build.⁷⁰

•The kapha dosha is made up of earth and water.⁷¹ People with this dosha usually have a large build and tend to store fat easily.⁷²

In many ways, the Ayurvedic doshas are similar to the body types outlined by American psychologist and physician William Sheldon in the 1940s.⁷³,⁷⁴ The vata dosha is similar to the ectomorph, the pitta dosha is similar to the mesomorph, and the kapha dosha is similar to the endomorph.⁷⁵,⁷⁶

In Ayurveda, fasting is believed to be most beneficial for those with the kapha dosha because these individuals are said to have a slower digestive system and a harder time losing weight.⁷⁷ On the other hand, fasting is typically not recommended for those with the vata dosha because these individuals already have a tendency to lose weight easily.⁷⁸

At the end of the day, scientific evidence to support Ayurvedic doshas is currently lacking.⁷⁹ However, by taking a personalized approach, Ayurveda emphasizes that you must first understand your body to know if fasting is a good fit for you.⁸⁰ In this light, Ayurvedic doshas are still important to our discussion because they show us fasting is not meant for everybody.⁸¹ As we will learn in Chapter 11, there are important safety considerations that must be discussed with your doctor first to determine if fasting is right for you.⁸²

Fasting in Buddhism

Like Hinduism, Buddhism is often considered as a way of life.⁸³ In fact, Buddhism is often considered as having originated from Hinduism.⁸⁴ This is because its founder, Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, was a Hindu prince.⁸⁵ Although he grew up in a sheltered palace, the Buddha went out one day and experienced old age, sickness, and death.⁸⁶ He also met an ascetic man who said he was pursuing a peaceful life of reflection, compassion, and non-attachment.⁸⁷ This had a profound impact on the Buddha, who decided to leave his royal life behind to realize full enlightenment.⁸⁸

Over the next six years, the Buddha primarily meditated and practiced extreme self-mortification.⁸⁹ This included fasting for long periods of time, to the point that he became extremely emaciated.⁹⁰ This continued until one day when the Buddha fainted while bathing in a river, after which he concluded that mortification was not the path to liberation from suffering.⁹¹

This experience led the Buddha to the Middle Way, which aims to promote enlightenment by avoiding the extremes of both self-gratification and self-mortification.⁹² It was after this journey he truly became the Buddha, or the Awakened One, and he would go on to teach his approach for the next forty-five years.⁹³

Today, there are several different forms of Buddhism because of the different interpretations of the Buddha’s life and teachings.⁹⁴ As a result, there is no single correct way to practice fasting in Buddhism.⁹⁵

Reverend Heng Sure, a Buddhist monk and director of Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, explains how fasting is practiced today in an interview he did with a Jesuit priest.⁹⁶ He says that there are generally two different types: (1)