Latest News: Late Night Fasting Could Reduce Recurrence of Breast Cancer

I was reading the latest (June, 2016) edition of AARP this afternoon and I saw this small article where JAMA Oncology found that "not eating for 13 hours between dinner and breakfast may help women with early-stage breast cancer  reduce their recurrence by 36 percent." It went on to say that with every two additional hours of fasting, the average blood-sugar level went down and hours of sleeping increased." I needed to investigate this late night fasting a bit more.

When I was younger I tried the fasting bit. Can't do it. I can fast for a day, but longer than that and I am sure I am dying. So what about this. I have heard through the years that I shouldn't eat after 6 p.m. but that is also unrealistic. After 8 p.m. may be plausible, but not 6 p.m. It just won't happen with me. That would mean that I could not have breakfast until 9 a.m. That is doable. Actually, I have breakfast (slim fast) later than that, so if I quit eating and only drank water after 8 p.m. I could actually do a 14 or more fast.

So, what are the benefits of going without food for a good 13 hours?

First off, when I sit for the evening, I sit. Simple as that. I do not get up and clean or take a walk or do any sort of activity. I am done for the day, and the sitting usually starts around 8 p.m., which also was my dinner hour until reading and learning all this. This sitting made my dinner and dessert calories turn to fat because these calories are not burned off from activity. My dinner will be earlier so I have a bit of time to burn off those calories, and maybe my late night snacking will be a nice cup of green tea. Still need to keep myself hydrated, so it will be water and tea for me after 8 p.m.

Here are other benefits:

-- regulates body's hunger hormone
-- resets our body to give our body the time to clear it of toxins
-- puts our body into fat-burning mode, hence, lose weight
-- protects our body against blood sugar problems
-- helps our body reduce inflammation
-- increases antioxidant enzymes

Of course, with the cancer thing, people still need to watch that red meat and refined carbo intakes, and to eat lots of the green stuff.

But, really, all this sounds good. Really good. My question is, do you think that by fasting 13 plus hours a day could also help those who have diabetes? Just a thought with the info about protecting our body against blood sugar problems. There may be a lot to say about this late night fasting thing. And I know I can do this. This is a no-brainer. Done.

Until tomorrow...have a great day