and from another study he cites:
“observed health benefits starting in as little as two weeks, in insulin resistance, asthma, seasonal allergies, infectious diseases of viral, bacterial and fungal origin (viral URI, recurrent bacterial tonsillitis, chronic sinusitis, periodontal disease), autoimmune disorder (rheumatoid arthritis), osteoarthritis, symptoms due to CNS inflammatory lesions (Tourette’s, Meniere’s) cardiac arrhythmias (PVCs, atrial fibrillation), menopause related hot flashes.”

but then he reports this:
“Papers appeared showing that subjects IFing, or even regularly skipping a couple of meals per day, were developing insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, elevated blood pressure, and decreased thermogenesis. Even Mark Mattson published a couple of human studies, including a randomized crossover designed experiment that showing the above disorders in women who ate the same number of calories in one meal per day as opposed to three meals per day.”

First, it’s already been stated that if you eat one large meal you will get a LARGE insulin response. I have not seen any links to those “papers” but would be very interested to see the control group and how it was fed. As for the Mark Mattson study, you can see the study here. Unless I am missing something the people either ate 3 meals or 1 meal in a window from 4-8pm for 8 weeks all with the same total of calories. Is it no shock the one meal group did not improve their health?
If you eat all carbs you will get an insulin response. Dr Eades “hinted” to the fact that the reason he IF’d was so he could:
“Because I looked at the IF as a strategy that allowed me to eat a lot of high carb foods that I would normally avoid and not pay the health consequences for it. If I’m going to limit myself to low-carb foods, why go on the IF?””

So if one were to assume what he ate, it would appear that is would be foods high in carbs in one setting. Not a good choice especially if you are fasting like that every other day. I would bet the people seeing negative results were ones assuming that IF was a weight loss diet “pass” to eat anything they wanted to (which in turn is usually foods high in sugar and carbs). Remember that study above is based on subjects doing one meal EVERY day, not breaking up fasts or eating smaller meals.

So to answer the question, all the research and real world results point to ANY IF protocol will get improvements in insulin resistance and other health markers if:
– You do not overeat per meal
- You do not consume high carbohydrate meals to promote a giant insulin response
- You try to break down your eating into smaller healthy meals
- You fast…well Intermittently….doing it too long every day is not the way to go
There are always more IF and positive health studies you can see in the resources section.

Not to belabor the point, but I have read EVERY entry on Dr. Eades’ blog trying to find an answer to Troy’s question – assuming that we eat the very best of foods in multiple meals on non-fasting days, WHAT IF program will work WITHOUT negatively impacting insulin resistance or blood pressure???

Fasts can be whatever you want them to be, as long as you are getting the results you are after. I am going to try a 3 day modified fast to see if it helps with increasing the recovery time from an injury I currently have. It will probably be draining, or not…who knows but that is the fun of trying, to see what happens. I do believe that 24hr+ fasts really go into another level of healing (all depending on what state of health you are in). A 3 day fast will be modified with probably some fruit juice (freshly juiced not from the store) and protein powder to keep some energy up, but also keep digestion simple. If it works this may be some sort of routine maintenance that I do every 3-6 months, as it might get a deeper level of cellular cleaning each time (that a daily IF could not).

Personally for me, I like the ‘peripheral’ effects of IF; heightened appreciation of food when you eat it, greater consciousness towards your eating habits. I do think randomised fast-lengths are best – consistent long fasts have left me drained after a few days.

Anyway, awesome blog.

“The one question that remains unanswered is whether or not the intermittent fast followed in a low-carbohydrate way will lead to these same problems. To me, that point is kind of moot. Why? Because I looked at the IF as a strategy that allowed me to eat a lot of high carb foods that I would normally avoid and not pay the health consequences for it. If I’m going to limit myself to low-carb foods, why go on the IF?”
So according to that comment IF only would work if you are allowed to eat anything you want and doesn’t count if you decided to eat healthy? I think the truth there is that IF is not a license to eat whatever you want and still look like a supermodel. Won’t happen. Note that his version of IF was fasting 24hr every other day (eating one day till 6pm, then fasting till next day till 6pm…and then repeating). That is alot of fasting going on. People have found success on the 24hr version with less frequency per week, or with a modified daily fasting window (see the past article on how to start IF)

While it seems that he sells IF in part I and then discards it in Part II, I believe all feedback on IF is important, even the negative. So you can’t eat anything you want to lose tons of weight. Sure that is true. Eating 1 meal a day of alot of calories will drop your metabolism and not get weight loss. Of course it will. So we just take that feedback and make an IF program that works. There is just no one set way to IF, it is a lifestyle model that is flexible to many people with many different needs. You will always hear that quality of food is important in any eating program (whether IF or otherwise). There are just too many people who have had success on IF for years to throw it out the window just because one approach of IF didn’t work. There are many other variables to consider (and modify) and the longevity and health benefits of fasting are just too great to dismiss. I would highly recommend reading more of Dr Eades work on his blog as he has excellent insights into many things (especially the dangers of statins and cholesterol).

Why would anyone give I.F. a try after reading this comment by Dr. Eades? He does NOT seem to imply that eating (1) only healthy food or (2) three meals instead of just one on non-fasting days will eliminate possible problems with insulin resistance and elevated blood pressure. You, however, seem to imply the contrary. Am I wrong?