My green fiber fast

Today I am ending a 21-day green fiber fast. For the last three weeks, I have been consuming almost no carbohydrates and almost no proteins. I say almost, because even leafy greens have a little carb and protein. Instead, I have been eating mostly fiber and a little fat. Why would I do something so crazy? Well, that is what today’s newsletter is all about.

 

Seriously, what have I been eating for the last three weeks? Primarily, I have indulged in cabbage soup, green salads, and resistant starch/fiber bread. On the bread, I have been using some of that wonderful Moroccan Olive oil/grass-fed butter blend I wrote about three weeks ago, as well as some low-protein labneh (strained Greek yogurt). The goal each day is to fill up on leafy green and cruciferous vegetables. Surprisingly, all these veggies don’t really have all that much fiber in them. A cup of cabbage only has about 2 grams of fiber in it, while lettuce has half that amount. By comparison, the resistant starch bread I was using, Carbonaut gluten-free, has 15 grams per slice. I was aiming for 40 to 50 grams of fiber per day. Most folks are lucky if they get 5 to 10 grams a day.

Why does this matter? Well, one of the goals of this fast was to rebuild the strength of my gut lining. The number one thing that rebuilds the gut wall is the nutrient butyrate, produced but healthy gut bacteria when they break down fiber and resistant starch. 80 to 90% of that butyrate is then absorbed by the gut cells and used to make energy to support their function and repair. Polyphenols and antioxidants from the olive oil and green veggies also get converted into all sorts of super helpful metabolic compounds by these gut bacteria. These “post-biotics” heal not only the gut, but also enter the system to heal and support tissues everywhere in the body.

I was also using this break from carbs and protein to introduce additional strains of good-guy bacteria into my system. Normally, the stomach acid and digestive juices from a normally working GI tract will destroy these good bacteria when you try to take them orally as probiotic capsules. However, when you don’t eat any carbs or protein for a few days, all that acid and digestive enzyme production takes a nap since it is not needed or helpful in digesting green veggies. Now those probiotic capsules actually work to get lots of good-guy bacteria into the gut, supporting a happy family of healthy bacteria in our insides.

So that is one reason for doing a green fiber fast – what else was I up to? Probably my biggest goal was to induce an extended period of autophagy in my body. Research almost 12 years ago demonstrated that fast mimicking, which this green fiber fast qualifies as, promotes autophagy. Autophagy is the process our bodies use to take out the trash. More than just a cleanup, it attacks the old, broken cells in the body and gets rid of them. These senescent cells are one of the main sources of inflammation in the body. They are broken, and they just sit around and leak poison into our system. Getting rid of them requires a lot of our immune resources, and those resources are usually too busy with other things to get around to taking out these bad players. Autophagy ramps up this cleanup process to the max. Basically, I am making myself younger by tossing out the old, grumpy cells from my body.

Another purpose motivating my adherence to this fast is to improve my insulin sensitivity. My insulin levels are too high. This is so common that the lab says that my value of 24 is normal. Normal is not healthy. Healthy is an insulin level of 3 to 5. Gradually, over the last couple of years, this has resulted in my fasting blood sugar levels creeping up to around 100. When I was wearing a blood sugar monitor a couple of years ago, my sugar level was a solid 80 most of the time. So, avoiding all carbohydrates and sugars for three weeks should improve that whole scenario. Avoiding proteins just takes it to the next level, because when you don’t eat carbs, the liver starts turning the protein you eat into blood sugar. I have been eating keto most of my life, and my blood sugar has never dropped, even though I was eating no sugars or carbs. My liver is good at converting protein to blood sugar. I am trying to break that cycle.

Update, I ran a fasting insulin blood test on myself Tuesday, and my level was down to 12.7!

The third reason for doing this green fiber fast is to try to decrease any fat accumulating around my organs. When I had a heart calcium score done last year to check on any calcium in my arteries around my heart, I did pretty well. Not perfect, but not bad. However, they also mentioned that they saw some visceral fat in my liver. Visceral fat, and particularly fatty liver, is a bad thing. Visceral fat is very inflammatory, and basically, most of the diseases of modern society start with inflammation. The giggly fat outside the abdominal walls, like the outer belly or down in the thighs, is annoying, but it is not particularly problematic metabolically. It is the fat that packs around the organs that is really dangerous. So I want to get rid of as much of that stuff as possible. Eating veggies and just a little anti-inflammatory fat reduces my calorie load enough that the body will want to burn up some of the fat to feed itself. Hopefully, it will go after some of this visceral fat, particularly with the added boost of some of the herbs I am taking to support this process. The major driver of visceral fat formation is insulin resistance, and I am addressing that angle as well.

A fourth reason for doing fast mimicking is to really pump up the levels of ketones in my blood. Ketones are what the body turns fat into to be used as fuel in the cells, the same way sugar is a fuel. But ketones are also signaling molecules that tell the body to do different things. In particular, my interest is in how these ketones will tell the microglia immune cells in my brain to activate and start eating up any misfolded proteins (like amyloid plaque) that are clogging up my brain pathways. It is the buildup of these misfolded proteins that produces most dementias, like Alzheimer’s. Ketones also trigger reduced inflammation in the brain and promote the release of something called BDNF, which stimulates the growth of new brain cells. So this is a little preventive medicine for my brain health.

Along these same lines, this green fiber fast is serving me by reducing inflammation and scar tissue/fibrotic adhesions throughout my body. My specific personal interest is because a few months back, I injured my left knee when I side-kicked a bamboo shoot that was popping up in my lawn. The little one foot tall shoots knocked over easily, but this one was about four feet tall, and it did not budge. Instead, my knee tore on the inner side. It has been refusing to heal fully for several months, and I am hoping that the problem has been scar tissue that fasting will help remove.

The list of benefits from fasting goes on and on. It is the oldest medicine the human race has used. Personally, I have been fasting to keep my health in line for the last 55 years. I used to do water fasting most of the time, but recently have discovered that green fiber fasting is better because of the benefit it has on the gut. Since New Years I have been green fasting on Mondays and Tuesdays, and decided I wanted to boost that protocol here with a three week blast to get my system really moving ahead. Fighting aging takes a little more work each year just to keep up. But really, this type of green fast is pretty easy to do. Breakfast of a soup made with stock, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, onion, and konjak noodles, snack of a slice of Carbonaut bread or flax/psyllium flat bread with labneh, and a dinner of a big green salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing. I throw in a handful of blackberries or blueberries a couple of times a day for interest and the polyphenols. It seems to be working for me.

If you have been stuck in a health decline, this is a simple way to help your body to turn the clock back a few years and feel better. Next week I will describe how you might start slowly with this amazing inner body cleanout process.

Take care,

David

 

The office will be closed this coming tuesday so I can take Ellen in for an MRI.

 

Ellen

Here we are catching Ellen on the phone with Sutter Imaging, trying to schedule an MRI scan of her painful hip. Their Carmichael branch had nothing until May 27th. But if we were willing to go to south Sac, we could get in next Tuesday. Consequently the office will be closed next Tuesday so that I can take Ellen in for an MRI scan.