You may wonder why, when you get a cold or flu, you automatically lose your appetite and desire to eat. This reaction helps to starve the body’s cells and thus stimulate the body to get rid of the genetic material of viruses, which is often present inside living cells in the human body, in a process called “autophagy” of the cell.
When severely deprived of food (that is when the cell is hungry), as Dr Zaaima Al Jabri, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at SQU, says, the cell secretes enzymes that break down the cell’s components and recycle them to be used again for other and more important processes.
This is exactly what happens during fasting in Ramadhan (autophagy), “As cells in the body are renewed, this renewal helps our bodies self-heal from many chronic diseases and infections if we fast and break our fast in the correct way that achieves ‘metabolic balance,’” she confirmed.
The best and quickest way to stimulate “autophagy”, therefore, is fasting in the correct way that achieves “metabolic balance”. She explained, “The human’s body is programmed throughout the year with a specific pattern of fasting and breaking the fast (abstaining from food and eating it between night and day), and therefore excessive or incorrect fasting may constitute a shock to our bodies.”
Therefore, as she added, “We must fast and break our fast in moderation to compensate for the lack of nutrients in the body and at the same time stimulate metabolic pathways that also stimulate burning the fat as a source of energy to build body tissues instead of relying on burning sugar only. In this way, the balance between the processes of construction and cleansing (catabolism) in the body’s cells is achieved, and this is known as “metabolic balance.”
Achieving “metabolic balance” makes our bodies stronger, healthier, and more flexible because the body can balance the use of fat as an energy source in addition to burning sugar. “Our bodies nowadays are accustomed to burning sugar as the main source of energy, and the longer we depend on sugar as an energy source, the fluctuation rate in sugar levels increases and insulin in the blood increases,” she clarified.
As a result of the constant presence of sugar in food, as she added, “autophagy” will stop occurring naturally, so the Keto diet (based on reducing sugars and carbohydrates) has emerged as a diet that helps restore metabolic flexibility in the body and is used to treat some diseases such as epilepsy in children. This diet has also been proven to be very useful for dealing with some medical conditions, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus to maintain balanced levels of blood sugar.”
She confirmed that the Keto diet helps stimulate the burning of fat as a source of energy, in addition to benefiting from the energy resulting from burning sugar available in a balanced manner in the blood, while the high-sugar diets that most people follow, this balance does not exist and the body depends on burning sugar only as a source of energy.
You can maximize the benefits of the fasting in Ramadhan by accelerating the autophagy. “Break your fast with a very light meal preferably low in carbohydrates, with protein and some amount of healthy fat. Try to avoid easily absorbed carbohydrates such as pastries and sweets,” she advised.
As she noted, “Consuming one cup of green tea between meals (Iftar and Suhoor) is good because it contains generous amounts of antioxidants in addition to some substances which have been shown to increase the rate of fat burning.”
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) or bodyweight exercises are the best type of exercise to burn fat and regulate the metabolic rate. “During HITTS workout, the deep muscle fibers are activated which makes it much faster in burning fat compared to aerobic workouts. You can start with lightweight lifting and gradually increase the weights. If weights are not available, you can still do similar workouts depending on your body weight,” she shared.
High-quality apple cider vinegar with the mother has been shown to increase the body’s ability to burn fat. “You can start using that by adding it to the salad seasoning. Also, you can add one tablespoon of vinegar to one glass of water and drink it 15 minutes before the meal twice daily. It must be drunk using a straw to prevent tooth erosion,” she said.
As she mentioned, intermittent exposure to cold and heat, such as showering with cold water for two minutes followed by warm water stimulates what is known as a process of “hormesis” which has also been shown to stimulate the autophagy in the cells.
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