Unconscious eating before you know it
I was fasting a month or so ago and I was surprised to discover that I was standing in front of our kitchen cupboard, chewing a cracker. I put the incident down to my unconscious mind steering me toward food without my deliberate decision to eat. I have read some of Bargh's "Before You Know It" and, just as the title says, my habits and my drives can move me into actions without my thinking openly about them.
Habitual times to eat
When I am fasting, I can go for a couple of hours without even thinking about food. However, at my usual breakfast time or lunch or dinner time, I suddenly become conscious of the hour. I suddenly ask myself if I am hungry and, of course, I am somewhat. The clock prompts me to eat.
Stay out of the kitchen
It helps a lot to stay out of the kitchen and away from food. It is not that I am starving but the kitchen has food in several places. If I see it or I think of it, which is likely in the kitchen, I can scoop some nuts or bread or fruit into my mouth, again, before I know it.
Dr. Jason Fung MD - internet, books, YouTube videos
A friend recommended Dr. Fung's books and videos. The man is actually a nephrologist (a kidney specialist). He treats people who have to have dialysis, the procedure where one's blood is circulated outside one's body, filtered and returned. The kidneys are part of my picture of the really important organs: heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. Dr. Fung finds that the majority of dialysis patients suffer from the results of diabetes. In his books and videos, he explains how contradictory advice couples with the basic lure of sweets and simple carbs like bread and pasta to keep adding to the burden of a body trying to deal with too many calories. He mentions that patients he sees have been suffering with diabetes for 10 to 30 years. He is clear on the value of fasting, way before letting diabetes damage the kidneys. Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson ("Bright Line Eating") simplifies eating down to "no added sugar or flour". I guess flour is treated by the body almost as a sugar.
Fasting can be a good tool against diabetes and insulin resistance
There are two types of diabetes, which is a type of malfunction of the body in dealing with essential sugars. Type I is the type where a child is born with an inability to create insulin, an essential chemical for the body to obtain the energy it needs. Type II is the type where the adult body develops resistance to insulin, which no longer operates efficiently to shepherd energy into the cells of the body. Thirty million Americans have type II but only 1¼ million have type I.
Good for body and brain
There are many reasons to fast. It is not just for weight loss but can be helpful for the whole body. People sometimes expect to be immediately listless but the body is better designed than that. It can be scary since it seems like the body is being asked to die. From the little bit of deeper hunger I have experienced, starving to death would be difficult and miserable. I have read of saints or very strong-willed people who forsook food for religious or political reasons but I imagine most of us have bodies that would persuade us to eat dirt before allowing us to expire from starvation. Fasting can take many forms from the 5:2 approach (five days of typical eating and two a week with restricted eating) to several days or longer, often with supervision.
