Fasting: fad or panacea?

February 13, 2013 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Social Brain 

Fancy losing weight, looking younger, living longer, fending off Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and even cancer, whilst eating whatever you want? This is only some of what the 5:2 fasting diet claims to offer, and the only catch is that you have to fast twice a week. The ‘fast’ days do not require complete starvation, but instead involve heavily restricted calories – 500 for a woman and 600 for a man. It’s up to the individual how to make up the calories, but the suggestion is that you eat breakfast and one other meal, either lunch or dinner.

The evidence is strong that it’s a very effective way to lose weight. But there’s more to it than that – much has been made of the link between this pattern of eating and increased longevity. Research conducted by the Baltimore National Institute on Aging indicates that levels of the hormone insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) are lowered by twice-weekly fasting. Controlling levels of IGF-1 can promote longevity as well as offering protection against a range of diseases.

High levels of IGF-1 are thought to increase the cell divisions associated with cancer, hence the possibility that reducing it may offer defence against it. Although this evidence is encouraging, the sceptical scientific community still feel that more extensive research needs to be conducted before conclusions can be drawn. Some critics have suggested that the extremes involved might result in the development of eating disorder, although there is no hard evidence for this either.

Could it be that eating hardly anything twice a week is doable because of the fact that, for the rest of the time, one is at liberty to enjoy whatever one fancies, be it cake, steak, or booze?

Since the BBC broadcast a documentary about it last year, the diet has grown hugely in popularity, with celebrity support coming from the likes of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Is there something different about this approach to reducing the amount we eat, or is it just another boom and bust fad diet like Atkins or Dukan? According to those who champion it, this approach to reducing calorific intake is much easier to sustain because of the fact that five days out of seven are unrestricted.

Could it be that eating hardly anything twice a week is doable because of the fact that, for the rest of the time, one is at liberty to enjoy whatever one fancies, be it cake, steak, or booze? However hungry you might get on the fast day, is the knowledge that you could have a full English breakfast the next day enough to get you through?

It seems to me that this particular approach to eating might not only be easier to stick to than others, but could also encourage deeper consideration of one’s relationship with food. Having not tried this diet myself, I can’t comment from first-hand experience, but I suspect that on fast days, you are more acutely aware of your body’s need for food than on days when you’re eating whatever you want. By deliberately depriving yourself of the ‘usual’ amount of food, you are choosing to make yourself somewhat uncomfortable which much have psychological and maybe spiritual effects as well as physical ones.

The Islamic month of Ramadan uses fasting as a way of teaching Muslims self-discipline, self-restraint and generosity, as well as encouraging reflection on the suffering of the poor, who may be forced to fast through poverty. Being hungry is used as a vehicle for nurturing the skills needed to maintain self-control – acting as a tool for sustaining mindfulness. Perhaps some of these benefits can be gained through regular intermittent fasting as well.

Advocates of the 5:2 diet talk about quite enjoying the feeling of hunger (knowing that it will be short-lived) and of feeling exhilarated on the fast days and liberated on the days when no restrictions are in place. From the various accounts I’ve read of doing the diet, I have not seen explicit mention of spiritual or psychological benefits, but I have a suspicion that impacts on these domains may go some way towards explaining its popularity.

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Meso Soup

February 4, 2009 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Education Matters 

 

Nourishing, healthy, well-balanced - that's meso soup...

Nourishing, healthy, well-balanced - that's meso soup...

Here we are – Connected Communities’ first foray into the blogosphere.  As a virgin blogger, I’ve been getting advice from Matt Cain on content, style and readership development.  ‘You need a mix of news and research comment, and analysis of some of the high level concepts you’re dealing with.  But your project is essentially about understanding and generating change at the neighbourhood level, so you really need to talk about some examples of grassroots action.  But you probably need to set out all of this upfront, and simply, so you can take people with you and so they understand what they might be coming back for.  You also need to make it personal – give something of yourself’ I paraphrase him as saying.  Helpful advice, so…

A couple of weeks ago, I got a flyer from Islington Council.  It was entitled something like: ‘Introduce-yourself-to-a-neighbour day’ , the idea being that on some pre-defined day in the near future residents across the Borough would be calling round to the people next door and organically generating a more cohesive community.  The idea of a direct call to social capital arms is interesting and raises many discussions about how policy and public sector actors can intervene (and whether they should) to build social relationships.  More on this in future blogs.

I like to think of myself as an active citizen, and as a Fellow of the RSA as well as staff member, I want to live the values we espouse as an organisation.  I also like to think of myself as a nice guy and given a new couple have just moved into a flat in our building, I decided to invite them round for a welcome-to-the-area-get-to-know-you drink. 

They came round.  In working our way awkwardly through a few glasses of wine, the inevitable question was put to me: ‘So, what do you do?’.  I have never been particularly good at answering this question – having worked in niche areas of economic development and community regeneration, and with a propensity to adopt and use the jargon of these disciplines, my replies have tended to confuse rather than inform.  But I’d spent most of the week trying to give an answer to this question to RSA colleagues with respect to the percolating Connected Communities project.  I was fired up by the possibilities that were emerging.  I let them have it.

‘It’s about how social networks can be better understood and utilised in addressing social problems’ I gushed.  ‘It’s about reviewing the utility of social capital theory, turning it into practical tools for social change.  It’s about tapping into and building civic capacity, our willingness to do good things collectively, voluntarily’.

I realised I was sounding like John Prescott.  I took a breath and tried to calm down.  ‘OK, look, simply put, social capital theory 101 says that the connections, or networks, between people have value and there is evidence to show that they impact on important issues like economic performance, educational attainment, health, and crime.  But these networks are hard to see, hard to understand, hard to measure, and hard to mobilise strategically in addressing any particular problem.  Social capital can also take different forms: it can bond across homogenous groups; it can bridge across diverse types of people, and it can link people to power and decision-makers.  These different forms are relatively more or less important depending on what issue you’re dealing with and with whom.  So if you were to try and generate social capital, you’d need a kind of multivitamin approach that got the right balance of ingredients according to what mineral deficiencies you were addressing.  Or, if you like, a great recipe for a hearty, nourishing soup.  You’d also need to think about at what level you might act: most consideration is given to social capital at the meso level – the between, community, level – but some people also talk about the importance of and blend with the micro (family, close friends) and macro (national) level.

‘What I’m interested in is the best recipe for meso soup.  What ingredients do you need and how do you measure them out, how do you prepare and cook it, who should cook it, what skills and equipment do you need?  I’m interested in understanding how you might create the conditions that support generating the right social capital, particularly if this is then done in the spirit of a new collectivism that is bottom up, networked, spontaneous, resourceful, and not only driven by public sector actors and the usual third sector suspects.  I’m going to find new ways of mapping and visualising these networks, and of doing it in ways so that local people are encouraged to own, join, strengthen, enjoy and use these networks for social progress.  The ideal communityscape I suppose.’

I looked up.  Our guests had subtly, but certainly, recoiled.  They were leaning back, chins into chests, peering over glasses, brows furrowed.  It’s a reaction I’ve encountered before when I’ve embarked on equally enthusiastic accounts of other favourite topics – logistic regression, spreadsheet functionality, and the like.  Usually, one of two reactions presents itself.  The first is a mixture of fright and bewilderment; the other simple pity.  I waited.

‘You should go the Clock Café‘. 

So, pity had won out.  I accept that I should probably get out more, but the speed and accuracy of the diagnosis was discomforting.

‘Seriously, I think you should go.  Our friend lives at the end of the terrace, his next door neighbour, an elderly man, recently moved in, tripped and fell into his front garden.  My mate came out and took him to the Café for a cup of tea.  Long story short, they now meet for tea each week or so, he helps him with his garden, he’s plugged into the lunchtime social specials they have there, the police safer neighbourhood lot meet there and now know him and look out for him.  They have weekend reading sessions for kids.  And the Café itself buys all its ingredients from the other local traders, and they’re completely into fresh healthy ingredients through a local network.  It’s all probably much more effective than anything the Council could deliver by itself.  You could start to see it and encourage it as the hub of a network for social good.  But isn’t who goes there just opportunistic to an extent?  If you could identify who uses places like this and why; how to make them more inclusive and understand and address local problems effectively; how to identify and use these kinds of resources in the first place, well…It’s kind of social enterprise through reconceived existing networks.  And if you could encourage other positive spin-offs: what good stuff could people who meet their together do?  That’s what you’re talking about isn’t it?’  They waited.

‘That’ I said, ‘is exactly what I’m talking about’.

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