I've been hearing a lot about Calorie restriction to extend life and help with various diseases, especially autoimmune disease as I'm battling one myself. But I didn't think I could do it. Just don't have that sort of willpower. But I might be able to do Intermittent Fasting (IF) and I keep reading more and more about it.

Here's an interesting article from Dr. Eades blog.

I think I'm going to try this, see if it helps with my AS.

Because of this gluten problem and being in Europe out and about, we can not find food and often find ourselves not eating until dinner. I hate breakfast. He does not talk about hydrating the body with water. I am doing better. Believe it or not, I never am sick. It has been 6 years since the last case of anti biotics.


We have a saying "the least you eat the healthier you are".

We do a soup broth/juice fast when we get glutened.

The first fast we ever did started us on our gf journey. It was 4 days and on the fourth day, I felt super-human!

I don't have the wear-with-all to do it very often (especially now since I'm nursing and almost always ravenous) but I do want to do another one soon because I have come to believe that it gives the body a break and gives it a really good cleanout (like cleaning out your oil/filter in your vehicle ).

My son (6 years old) does two day fasts (broth/juice) frequently (about once every 2/3 months or so) because he gets contaminated very easily. Nothing gets his system back on track as quickly and efficiently as one of these fasts (and we've tried many things over the last 4 years).

I just started IF with yesterday being my first fasting day. It wasn't difficult at all. We'll see how tomorrow goes. My hope is to improve my health and reduce my autoimmune disease symptoms and perhaps even lose a bit of weight! I could stand to lose another 10-20 pounds.

I must diagree with you about it being "slightly off-topic." Fasting does help sometimes when it comes to food allergies or sensitivities. So not off topic at all.

I have severe nutritional deficiencies and sometimes I will have a minor health problem. I have had ulcers in the past from too much stress. When I don't feel well I usually don't feel much like eating. So, sometimes I know that the body may benefit from easing up on digestion by fasting. Feed a cold and starve a fever.

I find that sometimes when I fast for maybe a day or two it does seem to bring everything back to the same level like KimS indicated. In my case though I can have problems with the nutritional supplements I take. So just stopping the supplements for a day or two can basically allow me to start fresh again.

The only medical reason I have seen to do a fast for more than a couple of days is to start the rotation diet. There seems to be a real benefit in this situation where you are getting basically everything (all foods) out of your system.

I have read that if you do need to fast for more than a couple of days glutamine, an amino acid, can provide energy to your brain. This amino acid is also great mixed in water to soothe the GI tract. So glutamine might be good for people with GI problems, like leaky gut, or those who do a fast sometimes. But glutamine would prevent the problems some can feel when their brain is starved of sugar basically.

Dr. Eades recommends glutamine too, especially for gut issues. I keep forgetting to take it.

The thing that got me interested in fasting is that lots of autoimmune arthritis people I talk to get relief from their symptoms with fasting (and a no-starch diet).

There's a good article on Sciencenews.org about this.

Day 3 of trying out IF. I hear it takes 2 weeks of this before the good effects kick in. I wonder if it'll be tough going without food on a Saturday? I really loaded up last night and I'm still feeling pretty stuffed today.