Hi,
Skimming books and articles can often be misleading. The first thing you can do is read the Obesity Code from cover to cover.
IF is discussed in detail towards the end of the book with numerous references to research studies which prove that it decreases insulin sensitivity.

Jason Fung is excellent on fasting. Read the book and visit his website where fasting is discussed section by section.

https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/

It’s basic that eating carbohydrates rapidly puts glucose into your blood and therefore generates an insulin response. Fat doesn’t generate insulin, or only a tiny amount, which is why low-carb, higher fat eaters find it much easier to control their appetite. Constant production of insulin leads to insulin resistance and diabetes; and a range of other diseases that come under the title of metabolic syndrome. Dr Mosley’s book advocates reducing insulin and he’s spot on. Fasting is one strategy, but not eating the thing that stimulates insulin (carbs) is even better.

On the precautionary principle, all cancer cells feed exclusively on glucose, so reducing it makes sense. A ketogenic diet (very low carb) is being increasingly used to starve cancer. This diet has been used for a century for those suffering epileptic fits. For reasons no one quite understands our brains like ketones. Naturally, the NHS default position is to look for a drug solution, but many people might prefer look at a dietary solution too.

As for a snack, if the carb content of your meals is reduced and the natural fat content increased, you’ll feel less need. However, I’ve just had one cracker broken into four with four pieces of cheese. As a treat, Sainsbury’s sell a Lindt 90% cocoa chocolate that I love and it’s just 7% sugar. Many chocolates by the same maker are 50% sugar, so you’ll need to read the label. There are good things in dark chocolate and I enjoy two or three pieces each day. It’s calorie dense, so I don’t have more than that.

https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/category/patient-testimonials/

Hi Lael,

I agree with everything you say.
I try not to snack as once I start eating I don’t want to stop.

moth,
I enjoyed the Obesity Code and though it was very informative and helpful as far as keeping weight off once lost and reversing type 2 diabetes.
Jason Fung is a nephrologist not a research scientist and his book came from him thinking about how he could help his patients on dialysis to have the best quality life. It isn’t a research tome written by a scientist and shouldn’t be judged as one.
Whether you agree with what he says or not, he (and others) has started a very important discussion about how the way we eat and what we eat has changed, weight gain/loss and the role of insulin.

As for your snacking, if you need to eat something at 4pm then do so, but have you thought about whether you really need it or if it is just a habit?
I used to eat porage at 7am and a banana at 10:30am every day. Nowadays I don’t eat until lunchtime and am less hungry during the morning than when I was eating every couple of hours.

I’m not against eating between meals but for me it has to be an occasional treat because I know that despite having got rid of many of my bad eating habits daily snacking would be the first step on the path to weight gain. If I feel that I want to nibble something between meals it is usually a sign of needing something to do rather than hunger.

Hi moth,

Dr Fung isn’t a medical researcher as such. He is a clinician dealing with day to day patients. With regards to the book, it is clearly aimed at the layperson rather than a fellow doctor or researcher so the language is decidedly different and caters to the book’s intended audience. Publishing for the masses is very different to publishing in a scientific journal.

You are correct, correlation is not the same as cause and effect. Solar flare activity has been going up since the 70s, obesity has been going up since the 70s. Therefor,solar flares cause obesity. A crazy example to highlight the difference.

If you start out (and hold true) with the premise that insulin levels drive weight gain then what Fung is proposing seems reasonable. There seems to be a correlation, high insulin levels = weight gain. However strictly speaking you are correct, correlation is not the same as cause and effect. Does high insulin levels cause weight gain or does weight gain cause high insulin levels?

Unless I can find clear evidence in the scientific literature proving otherwise Im siding on the high insulin levels drives obesity side of the equation. Of course too high a caloric intake will lead to weight gain and it can not be dismissed. However I believe that certain foods tend to exacerbate this problem. These foods are mostly refined/processed foods. I have yet to read one single post, NOT ONE, that has said I binged on broccoli, or any cruciferous vegetable. I do however read lots of posts saying I binged on chocolates or pizza or insert any sugary/simple crab food you’d like to mention. What is it about these foods that induces overconsumption?

Prior to incorporating fasting my blood glucose levels (taken in the morning after an overnight fast) were 5.8-6.1 mmol/L. Right at the top of the normal range. I now water fast one day per week and am in maintenance mode (steady state weight since March). My morning blood glucose levels range from 4.8-5.1 mmol/L and the morning after a water fast it will be 4.0-4.4mmol/L (absolute rock bottom of the normal range).

If you subscribe to insulin driving weight gain then there is an interesting journal article by Susanne Holt et al., An insulin index of foods: the insulin demand generated by 1000-kJ portions of common foods, The American Journal of clinical Nutrition 1997. They tested a wide range of foods and monitored the insulin level response every 15 minutes over several hours. They then measured the area under the curve to integrate the total insulin secretion produced for the same amount of caloric intake but of various foods. Note the importance of delivering the same caloric intake per ingestion, just the type of food was altered.

The insulin area under the curve response for White bread was assigned a value of 100. Various other foods were compared against this reference value. Potatoes = 121. Mars bar (chocolate bar) = 122. Jelly beans (lollies) = 160. Whole meal bread = 96 (people are fooling themselves if they think brown bread is healthier for you than white bread). Cookies = 92. High sugar content yogurt = 115. Some of the lower scoring foods. Peanuts = 20. Eggs = 31. Apples = 59. Cheese = 45.

So I believe weight gain is a function of the foods you eat AND the quantity you eat. Not really a revelation is it? Eat less processed foods AND eat LESS food.

I stand corrected Lael. I have now read one post where someone has binged on salad. 🙂

Bigbooty, thank you for an interesting and informed contribution. I’m with you on insulin and Dr Mosley is pretty clear on its role in ‘The Fast Diet’. Here’s what he says:

“What is less commonly known is that insulin is also a fat controller. It inhibits something called lipolysis, the release of stored body fat. At the same time, it forces fat cells to take up and store fat from your blood. Insulin makes you fat. High levels lead to increased fat storage, low levels to fat depletion.”

“One way to prevent the downward spiral into diabetes is to cut back on the carbohydrates and instead start eating more vegetables and fat, since these foods do not lead to such big spikes in blood glucose. Nor do they have such a dramatic effect on insulin levels. The other way is to try intermittent fasting.” (Pages 61 and 62)

I finished the book last night and it is clearly strong on fasting, but it is surprisingly weak on the benefits of natural fat and eating a low carbohydrate diet. Fat has little or no impact on insulin. In a book that repeatedly discusses the benefit of lower insulin, this should have been expressed much more clearly and emphasised. I regard the book as valuable but flawed. For example, repeatedly advising people who are fasting to eat low-fat foods (in the recipes section) is truly terrible advice. I’ve seen Dr Mosley rightly condemn the low-fat diet and say that low-fat yoghurt should go in the bin, yet his book suggests you eat it in preference to the vastly superior full-fat version. I think most of us know that low-fat equals high sugar and that’s just going to raise your insulin and trigger hunger signals. Just what you need when fasting. Indeed, it could be enough to take you out of fat-burning mode. This terrible advice is given repeatedly in this astonishingly misguided section of the book.

Bigbooty, I fully agree with your hobby-horse and promise not to give it any grains.

So, you water fast on two consecutive days? I’b be interested in your reasoning. I’m new to fasting but realised that my low-carb diet regularly and easily took me into 12 – 14 hour fast territory, so I’ve just added a couple of hours on. If the health benefits (weight is irrelevant for me) kick at around 10 – 12 hours, then 16 hours three or four times a week is useful.

I suppose I was disappointed with the low-fat rubbish because it’s completely at odds with fasting and continues the low-fat nonsense begun by Ancel Keys, who Dr Mosley regards as a ‘villain’. I doubt I could fast if I was eating the sugar and carb-laden rubbish that most people eat and which constantly stimulates appetite. Once you’re low carb, it’s close to easy.

Does Fung write well? Can you give me a little more of your opinion of the book and what it covers? It might be the next book for me on this subject.

Thank you for your helpful reply.

No, not a revelation, except to most of the population who have been encouraged by a stubbornly stupid NHS to eat low-fat, which means high carb. We still tell diabetics to eat this way and that’s unforgivable. 7,000 amputations a year is just part of the result. It’s all needless and totally preventable. My daughter tells me that many people wouldn’t listen anyway. Okay, but many would and nothing encourages people like success.

I’m with you on calorie counting. I’ve never done it and I’m not starting now. Unfortuantely, some people on here still believe that a cut of 3,500 calories will lose them a pound. Not if your insulin’s still raised it won’t. We are very attracted to simple ideas like this, but our bodies are more complicated than a slide rule. Fat clogs your arteries (wrong); exercise loses weight (wrong). It’s very hard for people who’ve been fed such nonsense most of their lives. I’m in the sixteenth hour of my fast and I’m fine. I could eat, and soon will, but I’m not chewing my nails. I couldn’t do this if my blood sugar was up and down, as it is for most people eating carbs. That’s why I thought the recipe section advocating low-fat rubbish was so at odds with the aim of the book. If you think fasting’s a good thing, making it harder is a terrible mistake.

I’ll buy Jason Fung’s book next.

Linda Sue, you’re right because most snacks are full of sugar and carbohydrates that raise your blood sugar and that will send a hunger signal to your brain. Don’t eat between meals was the universal message when i was a child. How things have changed – and for the worse.

As I said earlier, when I eat a snack it’s pretty much a meal replacement because I can no longer eat three meals a day because my appetite is surpressed by a diet high in natural fat and low in carbs, which are essentially glucose. All my snacks are high fat and satiating.