Hello, I’ve been doing 16:8 intermittent fasting since the start of December last year and so far it really helps me to lose weight more, though recently one of relatives suggest me that fasting diet is not suitable for me because it’s in our blood of having pancreatic cancer which is true, one of my relatives died of pancreatic cancer and recently my cousin diagnosed of failing pancreas where doctor told him not to eat anything for 1 week and only drink salt water.
And I do a little research what I find is “ intermittent fasting diets may actually damage the pancreas and affect insulin function in normal healthy individuals, which could lead to diabetes and serious health issues”. I don’t know If this true but I just want a second opinion about this, Thanks.
P.S. Sorry for my english.
Ok, found an excerpt of the source:
https://jornal.usp.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Bonassa_fastingdiabetes_PR_final.pdf
It was a rat study. Rats have a completely different metabolism than humans and are the preferred target of studies not because they resemble us but because they are one of the cheapest test subjects. The effect of fasting on insulin resistance in humans has been widely studied and as far as I know these same results have not been found.
Nor is this gem: “Although the rats’ body weight and food intake decreased as expected over the study period, the amount of fat tissue in their abdomen actually increased.”. Has anybody here ever heard of getting a pot belly form fasting?
Evolution by natural selection would not be kind to a species where “normal healthy individuals” were adversely affected by regular bouts of fasting. The human body evolved over tens of millions of years when daily food intake for any species was far from a given. Humans survived and thrived for 250,000 years in this environment. Domestic agriculture itself has only been around for 10,000 years. I don’t buy any argument that fasting is bad for “normal healthy individuals”.
Could you quote the source? Breathing plain air and drinking plain water can lead to all sorts of cancers. The question is whether what they see indeed leads to the suggested outcome.
Years ago when scientists tested the blood pressure of power lifters they were horrified at the ungodly levels they registered and proclaimed that it would lead to all sorts of heart conditions. Well that never happened; they didn’t take into account that the human body is smarter than that, and that it had a protective mechanism against effort induced high blood pressure. The scientists were just too myopic to see beyond their single data point.
I sure as hell hope it affects insulin functions, that’s a huge reason of why I’m fasting.
16:8 barely qualifies as fasting: one can have breakfast at 10 am and finish dinner by 6 pm. Excessive consumption of saturated fats which often combined with fasting, could damage pancreas, but its more about what food do you eat. Fasting is one of the healthiest things one can do to their body
For a second opinion on actual medical questions, please, please, please talk to an actual medical doctor with specific knowledge of fasting, even if only via email.
DO NOT RELY ON REDDIT ADVICE! I can not stress that enough.
Sounds like propaganda, similar to what I sometimes hear about keto, nothing new. In fact, it’s worse than ever. You hear it from all sides. Vegans think consuming animal fat causes diabetes. Does that make sense to anybody? If so provide scientific proof.