Balanced Family, Spring 2020

BALANCEDBODY&MIND

FASTING frenzy Intermittent fasting is trendy, but implementing it safely and effectively has some caveats

By Skylar Dubelko

G

oogle Trends places intermittent fasting first in 2019’s most searched, and potentially most popular, diets.

Benz

But what actually defines the trendy eating pattern may be less clear.

“The truth is, there’s different ways that it’s been implemented, but there’s no official (definition),” says Dr. David Gutman, founder of Cleveland Nutrition in Beachwood. “Any scenario where you’re restricting eating to certain periods of time would technically be intermittent fasting.”

To help clear up misconceptions, Balanced Family discussed the diet with Gutman and dietitian-nutritionists from Lake Health and St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, who describe the ways it works, its risks and tips for implementation.

TYPES OF INTERMITTENT FASTING Cortelezzi

Gutman

Three types of intermittent fasting reign supreme in terms of popularity: whole-day fasting, alternate-day fasting and time-restricted feeding, where dieters set fasting and eating windows. For example, one might fast for 16 hours of the day, only eating during the remaining eight hours.

“The studies seem to indicate that after the other types of intermittent fasting, most of the test subjects went back to their old way, whereas, after the time-restricted type, most of the subjects were interested in continuing,” Gutman says.

Another favored approach is the 5:2 method, where female fasters eat 500 calories and male

24 | BALANCEDFAMILY | SPRING 2020

fasters eat 600 calories two days a week. During the other five days, fasters maintain a normal diet.

However, Melinda Benz, a registered dietitiannutritionist at Lake Health, which has locations across Lake, Cuyahoga and Geauga counties, warns of risks of that specific diet.

“This style is definitely more restrictive and it can promote unhealthy relationships with food or maybe unhealthy eating habits, and that’s where a lot of the drawbacks could fall,” Benz says.

As this method may also promote overeating on non-fasting days, Benz says, in order to be successful, it’s important to know your body.

“If you know that you’re going to be fasting the next day and all you’re going to have is a measly 500 to 600 calories, what are you going to most likely do?” Benz asks, “You’re going to try to fit as much food in your mouth as possible.

“Definitely if you have any kind of health condition or you’re taking medications, you want to talk to your doctor first, especially if your medications correlate with your food.”

- Staci Cortelezzi, registered dietician balancedmag.com