Longer night fasting may drop BC recurrence risk

Momine

This is interesting and adds another dimension to the whole diet/BC discussion: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/861319

bevin

HI Momine

Can you copy and paste out the article. I am unable to read it unless I join Medscape

Also- this week on nighty news, theyre having a series on diet and alternate date fasting and health benefits of it. should be interesting.

Momine

Bevin, it is illegal to reprint the article that way, but here is a different link to the same story: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/study-connects-longer-night-fasting-to-reduced-breast-cancer-recurrence/article29474300/

Warrior_Woman

Thank you for posting the article, Momine. I've always known that fasting at night helps with weight loss. Reduced BC recurrence risk may be one more reason to limit the hours of consumption. If I'm reading this correctly, it is good practice to limit eating to an 8 hour time frame during the day. I forget what the recommendation is for weight loss. I think it is slightly less. I'm certainly going to keep this in mind whenever I'm heading to the kitchen late at night.

Denise-G

That is fascinating! Thanks for posting it!

LisaAlissa

The research is also being discussed on a thread titled "fasting" on the "Clinical Trials, Research Studies, and Study Results" board. The thread started with a different article, but discussing the same study, I think. Several people seem ready to give it a try.

There are 31 posts on that thread so far (on two pages), in case you'd care to discuss there as well.

Enjoy!

LisaAlissa

Anonymous

I knew this helped with insulin regulation but it's nice to read an article about potential benefits of this regarding bc recurrence. For nearly five months now I've been "fasting" daily (dinner around 5, snack at 7, then nothing to eat till usually 12 or 1 pm the next day, sometimes later. I don't find myself needing breakfast and so far I feel great eating (or not eating) this way.

Claire

hopefour

Thank you Momine for this great info!!

Momine

Hopefour, you are welcome. I was intrigued, because as others have pointed out, it is not that difficult and there is no real downside that I can think of. It also occurred to me that in many cultures, people eat their breakfast around 10. They get up, have a cup of tea or coffee, but eat after doing their morning chores. My grandfather did this his whole life, and he maintained the same weight all his life and enjoyed remarkably good health. I am sure his health had to do with many other things as well, but his incredibly staple weight may partly have been due to his eating habits.

AnnE16

Thanks Momine for posting this link. I was just reading an article that talked about a group of people (can't remember the tribe name) but they don't have cancer or any health problems.  They live to be 120.  Crazy!! I don't know if I would want to live that long even if I didn't have this diagnosis?!  But the article talked about how they fast. I think we as Americans (myself included) overeat in general and we are less active which along with stress and other outside factors contribute to disease.

april485

Interesting article and it appears to be an important finding. What was another interesting thing about it was the lone comment. It was someone correcting the grammar of the author! LOL.

I am guilty of being the grammar police often enough (with my family only) so that tickled my funny bone.

Momine

Oh, I missed the grammar cop. I am afraid I have done that on occasion, posted grumpy corrections.

Maggs09

Hi there,

There has been several new research based publications pointing out the value of prolonged (past 13 hours), overnight fasting. However I wasn't able to find one that would say if drinking fluids wasallowed during those fasting hours. And if yes - what kind of liquids? For example each morning I take thyroid pills with a little water, then I like having a glass of warm lemon water.... Would this be breasting my fast? What about black coffee, tea?

Has any of you, ladies, found more details about fasting requirements to be effective?

Maggs

tgtg

Merely fasting for 13 hours is not the only thing this research is about--it is about overnight fasting, during sleep. Since sleep is nature's healing and restoration time, its benefits add to the lowering of blood sugar levels. The study, which I read via Oncology Practice Update, shows a connection between recurrence and blood sugar levels--in both diabetic and non-diabetic breast cancer patients.

As for weight loss, all the guides say to avoid eating after 8 PM--a very simple practice for everyone, not just bc patients. Plain old water is fine if you feel you have to swallow something to fool your body, and if you're going to bed, you most likely don't want the caffeine of black coffee.

Maggs09

tgtg, thanks for clarifying; howeverfasting 13-14 hours overnight is going far beyond "evernight sleep", I'm lucky to get 7 hours lol! I also work variety of hours during the day and often cannot accommodate last meal between 6-8pm, therefore, if my lunch was at 3pm, I do need to have a light supper when I return home around 9pm or / and occasional glass of wine; I have to be up next morning usually between 7-8, drive my daughter to school for 9am, get ready for work again... so not being able to have breakfast before leaving for work it's going to make me very miserable...I like my food...

My question here is: would having black coffee/ tea with lemon juice in the morning (during those 13-14 hours fasting interval), before its time for breakfast , would ruin my fast? I'm concerned more with bc recurrence risk than just a weight loss.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make it work in such a irregular work schedule as mine?

Maggs

glennie19

Maggs: my understanding is that black coffee or tea or lemon water is fine as part of the fast. But no cream or sugar. Would you be able to pack a breakfast to take with you so that you could wait the 13 hour interval to eat? Nom Nom Paleo has some great portable "muffins".

pipers_dream

My thoughts about fasting is that the main goal is not raising your blood sugar so I'd think that if you're having trouble transitioning or need to eat more often, then those meals or snacks should be as low carb as possible. There is a diet book that came out years ago at the top of the Atkins revolution, called The Carbohydrate Addicts Diet by Richard and Rachel Heller, that explains about this. She lost a couple of hundred pounds by eating only 1x/day, but then she realized that she could eat more often if those meals were very low carb. So if you go by that theory, you can have that coffee and with cream--just don't use one of those fake sweet creamer concoctions, which we should all be avoiding, and I avoid cream that has carrageenan in it and most do. I get mine at Whole Foods and read the labels carefully. Keep in mind that fats have zero metabolic influence so you could even swallow a spoonful of coconut oil if you need to take the edge off in the part of the day that you're not eating.

I've said it before here too and I will repeat as often as I can so as to reach a wider audience--there is great value in an extended fast (but drinking water and herbal tea). It gives your body a chance to heal without the energy requirements of digestion and your body will "eat" up parts of your body that have no value to it--think fibroids, tumors, bacteria and viruses, etc. For those who are stuck, you may want to consider it. I did a 21 day fast last summer and lost my fibroids that had been such a part of my life for so long and went straight into menopause, which was barely rearing its head when I started.

new_direction

I have a habit of drinking lemon-ginger-water 1 liter before going to bed. I wonder if its a bad idea.

abigail48

sounds right to me. I'm seriously concidering cabbage leaves, person on the rads thread says helped inflamation and such horrible sensations A LOT in caps

ChiSandy

Drives me crazy when trainers and other so-called “experts” give cookie-cutter advice like “eat breakfast by 9:30 am” or “don’t eat after 7 pm.” Really? How the heck do they know when we get up or how long we stay up? Some people need breakfast to avoid overeating later in the day, some have little desire for anything more than a token amount to break the fast and prime the pump, and some people will overeat later in the day no matter how hearty a breakfast. The best advice is to confine your eating to the hours when you’re likeliest to burn it off, avoid eating when you’re at your most sedentary, and to get between 7-9 hrs of sleep.

Heidihill

piper's, that is a l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g fast! And what a great result. I'm 9 years post menopause but I still have the fibroid souvenirs from earlier days.

Wanted to add here that waiting to have breakfast until after exercising supposedly burns 20% more calories, according to a British study.

ChiSandy

And if that breakfast is higher in fat and protein and very low in carbs, your body will burn the fat (and some of your own stored fat) instead of converting the food into fat and storing it

Chloesmom

Am confused. We eat at 6 PM and no evening snacks. Have breakfast at 7:30. I wouldn't call this a fast. How is this different? Thanks for clarification!

LisaAlissa

Hi Chloesmom!

We all have a fast during the night while we sleep. (That's why the first meal of the day is called breakfast.) They're just suggesting that making sure that it's a "longish" fast (13.5 hour +) is better than a shorter fast.

My question for you would be is 6pm when you start your evening meal--or when you finish it?

LisaAlissa

edwsmom

What does a 21-day fast entail? What did you do/eat/non-eat during that time?