Hamburg. The next candy bar is usually at hand, as is the cookie jar or bag of chips. But this constant snacking is that Nutritionist Dr. Matthieu Riedl horror: “We need four or five hours break between meals. During this pause, insulin levels may drop. Insulin is a hormone that makes fat. And if I eat all the time, I have insulin in my blood all the time and I’m in fat gain mode all the time.
In the new episode of the podcast “Dr. Matthias Riedl – this is how healthy eating works”, explains the medical director of Medicum Hamburg intermittent fasting means what is the difference with fasting, what you can do right and what can go wrong. “There are a lot of misunderstandings”, explains the expert.
Put simply, intermittent fasting is pretty much everything breaks between meals. “They are extremely important for us because there is a lot going on there, we need these breaks to stay healthy”, explains the nutritionist, internist and diabetologist.
Nutrition doctor Matthias Riedl considers snacks a great evil
Currently, many practice the opposite – more than half of the population eats snacks. “Among Americans, it’s even 90% who snack constantly – and that’s the opposite of breaks between meals.” These nibblers are even fuzzy in their daily work as they constantly think about food.
At the same time, meal breaks help the body to cleanse itself, and the immune system then rests. “He doesn’t have to worry about what gets into the intestines.” A large part of our immune system is in the intestines and takes care of what is there: “In the past, a lot of bacteria accompanied the food and we had to do this immediately to react. And when you eat something , the immune system is there, so to speak, everywhere with all the police and is busy.”
Riedl: Fast at night until the following noon
During meal breaks, the immune system is busy with self-healing, autophagy, “that is, eliminating germs, throwing here and there a small degenerated cell that could eventually develop into cancer. “. The immune system does all this during the break, ”explains Riedl, known from Nutrition Docs.
“We need these breaks, they are physiological, so they are natural for us and they keep us healthy. And the next step is to lengthen those breaks. Then you go from the three-meal principle to the two-meal principle. You can fast overnight until the next morning or noon.
It could be a 4 p.m. break, “but it doesn’t matter if it’s 4 or 2 or 3 or 5.” but the main thing is that you do it at all.” You don’t have to do it every day either.
Nutrition doctor gets ‘depressed’ as he looks into shopping cart
In addition to this 16:8 variant, there are also other variants, such as 5:2. The energy is then reduced to about 500 kilocalories two days a week. In Riedl’s experience, however, this method is more difficult to follow than morning fasting.
And an cardinal error we must avoid, says the doctor, uncontrollably stuffing ourselves with unhealthy things during the meal phases: “When I’m standing at the supermarket checkout, I get depressed every time I see what people are buying. Sometimes they have up to 80% bric-a-brac in their carts, the worst finished products, and it makes my hair stand on end. »
Matthias Riedl recommends intermittent fasting
However, the status of the intermittent fasting study is unclear, Riedl says. “Recently at a conference on diabetes, a very good scientist from the German Institute for Nutritional Research in Potsdam summarized it again and said that the studies are so uneven in their statements that one cannot not really say that intermittent fasting really works.”
He would like to contradict this a bit, says the author of more than 30 bestsellers on the topic of healthy eating. “If I combine intermittent fasting with healthy eating, with a species-appropriate diet, then it has an effect – a huge effect in preventing and improving type 2 diabetes.” I can only recommend.”
His advice: “People, eat your fill, stuffed with meals, so you can meet the intervals between breaks – this leads to a really healthy eating rhythm. That’s why I’m also a big fan of intermittent fasting.
Riedl: The morning latte is also a meal
However, it should be borne in mind that, for example, morning or afternoon latte is also a meal. “It breaks intermittent fasting.” In any case, afternoon coffee and cake should remain the exception.
If you don’t want to do without breakfast, you can possibly take it out a bit and prepare dinner a little earlier, advises Riedl. “You should have eaten four hours before bed anyway, because then the intestines are calm again and we can sleep better.”
If you want to fast properly, you must take a course beforehand
Intermittent fasting grew out of fasting, says Riedl. “It’s the younger form of fasting, so to speak, because you’ve noticed that the effects of fasting in a smaller version also happen with intermittent fasting. Fasting is known to reduce inflammation in the body, just like intermittent fasting.
It really starts when you don’t eat anything for seven, 14 or a maximum of 21 days. Many rheumatism patients, for example, can curb their rheumatism with regular fasting. “Then you don’t eat anything for several days, you drink. There are different forms, there is also juice fasting, where you drink vegetable broth or fruit juice. We always supply the body with a small amount of energy. This prevents us from breaking down muscles during fasting.
If you want to fast, it’s best to take a course with the fasting leader, advises Riedl. Fasting is a correct medical measure, so he cautions against self-fasting. The elderly in particular are affected by muscle loss. “You can see it: people have slimmer legs and bigger bellies.
The weight remained the same, but if we quick fake, then dangerous sarcopenia occurs, the breakdown of muscle mass. Many suffer from it in old age. And that increases mortality – enormously. “If we then catch the flu or Corona and are confined to bed for a week, we will lose muscle again and after that we will be difficult to mobilize.”
Lots of small meals a day – that’s outdated
The strategy of many small meals is outdated. “We know that medical knowledge has a half-life of five years, in nutritional medicine it’s two and a half years,” says nutritionist Matthias Riedl. There are only a few exceptions where five meals are appropriate, such as people with heartburn or those with migraines, as irregular nutrient intake can trigger attacks.
Updated: Mon, 11/14/2022 04:01
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