Authors: David Zinczenko
The 8-Hour Diet (7 page)
Two other researchers we spoke to for this book—Krista Varaday, PhD, and Marc Hellerstein, MD—published a review of human and animal studies related to fasting in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
and made the following statement in the introduction: “In terms of cardiovascular disease risk, animal alternate-day fasting data show lower total cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations, a lower heart rate, improved cardiac response to myocardial infarction, and lower blood pressure.” Further down in the study, they reported on men and women who were put on an alternate-day fast for 3 weeks: The women saw their HDL (good) cholesterol rise, and the men saw their triglycerides (the really bad stuff) fall.
Dr. Varaday was quoted in Britain’s
Daily Mail
on all of the above: “After 8 weeks of alternate-day fasting, we saw that bad cholesterol was down, along with reductions in triglycerides, blood pressure, and heart rates. And since these are all key risk indicators of heart disease, it may not only help people lose weight but also help them decrease their risk of coronary events.”
Cancer. Even typing the word causes a chill. There are few of us indeed who haven’t had loved ones touched by the disease. Cancer happens when cells in the body, which form and divide constantly, begin to grow out of control, impeding normal bodily functions. Each moment of cell division, something that happens tens of thousands of times a day, is an opportunity for something to go haywire. But what if you could slow down that cell growth?
There are many reasons why cancer strikes, and many of them aren’t fully understood. But one contributing factor to our cancer risk is our diet—specifically, the tremendous amount of food we’re regularly exposing our bodies to.
The process of cell reproduction in the body is sort of like an oven—the more fuel you toss onto it, the hotter it will burn. So when we eat morning, noon, and night, we’re constantly feeding that fire. But if we simply enjoy all our favorite foods in whatever quantity we want—but allow the fire to dampen for a few more hours during the day—we’ll dramatically decrease our risk of cells growing out of control.
“The body is an incredibly efficient piece of equipment,” says Dr. Hellerstein. “Over millions of years it’s been honed to expend less energy when the fuel supply drops off.” In a fasting state, cells, including cancer cells, will multiply at a greatly reduced rate.
“It prevents cancer, we think, by slowing the rate at which all cells in the body divide,” he says. “It turns the gear down—instead of your liver cells, your breast cells, your prostate cells dividing every 3 days, they divide every 6 days. The consequence is that cells don’t have such a chance of becoming carcinogenic.”
So let’s review: By eating whatever foods you want, in whatever quantity you want, but simply limiting your food intake to an 8-hour period each day (or even every other day!), you can drop pounds rapidly and permanently, while reducing your risk of the three biggest killers in America.
It sounds like following the 8-Hour Diet is a pretty smart move. But wait, there’s more. In the next chapter, I’ll explain how the 8-Hour Diet really is a smart move … one that will actually make you smarter!
The magic of midnight mitochondria management
Y
ou may not know your exact cholesterol levels right now, and unless you’re hooked up to a monitor, you don’t know your blood pressure or your heart rate either. You can’t measure your blood sugar levels without a test or your body mass index without a sophisticated scale or your hormone levels without the help of a doctor. But there is one vital sign that gives a great indication of how healthy you are, and you and you alone can measure it.
How much sleep did you get last night?
In the previous chapter, I wrote about the role of mitochondria, the battery packs in your cells that power every aspect of your life—in fact, I’ll go so far as to say that mitochondrial function
is
life. Protect these cellular organelles and you live longer, leaner, and healthier. Eating right, exercising, and avoiding toxins such as cigarette smoke are three critical ways to protect mitochondria, but the fourth pillar of staying young and lean is the one that ought to be the easiest but is often the hardest: sleeping enough.
Here’s why: When night falls and darkness creeps up on us, our bodies produce the hormone melatonin, a powerful sleep inducer that also acts as an antioxidant, protecting the mitochondria and helping them to function better. Melatonin has been shown to reduce the oxidative stress that’s linked to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases, among others. A 2007 University of Texas study review concluded that not only does melatonin detoxify harmful cancer-causing free radicals, but in doing so it may also boost the effectiveness of vitamin C, another antioxidant. Melatonin also improves the mitochondria’s production of ATP, the energy chemical
that fuels our lives. All that repair work that goes on when you sleep. Much of it is linked to melatonin.
Now, what happens when your body senses it’s time for bed, but you respond to a yawn by turning on the lights, cranking up the tube, and maybe having a cup of joe to keep you powering through the night? Hormones go haywire. Melatonin is stifled, while your body makes more of the appetite-revving chemical ghrelin and lowers its output of leptin, the hormone that tells you you’re full. A study in the
Annals of Internal Medicine
found that sleep-deprived people on lowcal diets lost 55 percent less body fat than those who were well rested—and when they did lose weight, it tended to be lean muscle mass, not fat. And in a 2007 Canadian study, people who slept only 5 or 6 hours a night increased their likelihood of being overweight by 69 percent, compared with those who habitually got 7 or 8 hours. Sleep is also critical to supporting immune function (people who sleep less than 7 hours a night are three times more likely to catch cold, according to one study) and critical thinking—as anyone who’s ever flunked a test after an all-nighter can attest.
So what’s it going to be: Go through life Sleepy, Dopey, Grouchy, and Sneezy (not to mention Chubby)? Or more like a live wire—lean, strong, pulsing with energy? If the latter appeals to you, here are seven ways to master your mitochondria through sleep:
BE A REGULAR.
Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends. A regular routine keeps your biological clock steady so you rest better.
EXERCISE, BUT NOT TOO LATE.
One thing I really like about the
8-Minute Workouts
is that you can do them so
quickly that they won’t interfere with your day. Exercise improves both the length and the quality of your sleep. That said, 30 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise keeps your body temperature elevated for 4 hours, which can inhibit sleep if you do it too late.
CUT CAFFEINE AFTER 2 PM
Caffeine stays in your system for up to 8 hours, so a cappuccino, even after an early dinner, can still be messing with your mighty mitochondria at midnight.
WRITE DOWN TOMORROW’S PLAN.
Before you begin your bedtime ritual, check tomorrow’s schedule. Make a list of the things you need to get done that day using some fancy new app on your smartphone. Your goal is to short-circuit those worries that pop up just as you’re dozing off.
GO TO BED 20 MINUTES BEFORE YOUR BEDTIME.
Unless you can pull some sort of Houdini voodoo on yourself, falling asleep instantly isn’t really an option. If you want to be asleep by 11, be in bed by 10:40 with a good book.
COOL IT DOWN.
Experts generally recommend setting your bedroom thermostat between 65 and 75 degrees, but it’s really about what makes you most comfortable. The bedroom should be just a touch cooler than elsewhere in your house because the process of your body cooling induces sleep, which is why you might want to …
TAKE A HOT BATH BEFORE BED.
A warm bath or shower will raise your body temperature. Then, when you get out, your body will begin to cool, making you more likely to fall asleep.