The Fast and the Gluttonous

I watched an excellent Horizon documentary on the BBC last night: Eat, Fast and Live Longer.

The program tried to discover how eating habits might affect the ageing process, documenting a 101 year-old marathon runner (who has only ever eaten kiddie-size portions); the CRONie approach (calorie restriction on optimal nutrition); three-day fasting, and – more interestingly – alternate day fasting.

Early research shows there are benefits to alternate day fasting. In trials it has been shown to decrease cholesterol and triglyceride levels, factors that increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes and age-related disease. Okay, that’s it for the science bit!

Anyway, I decided to give it a go… starting today! The idea is that you have one meal on your fast day, around lunchtime. And that’s it! On your off day, you can eat what you like. It’s that simple.

Now, I don’t consider myself to be overweight. Yeah, I’ve got some love handles, but who doesn’t?

Clearly not this guy!

 

Just for the record, this is not me!

 

My Meat Free Day

I hadn’t planned it that way, didn’t even realise until it was too late, but yesterday was a meat free day – thanks, in no small part, to my rusty Italian skills.

It started quite normally with a bowl of cereal, progressing to a lunch of cheese sandwiches dipped into cup-a-soup. By the time I got to Pizza Express (other pizza establishments are available, however, in the author’s opinion, not as good), I was foaming like a crazed carnivore, thinking about four corners of meaty pizza goodness. So, I confidently ordered – no need to look at the menu, we all know that quattro formaggi is four corners, right … only it isn’t. What I should have asked for was stagioni, but by the time I realised my mistake it was too late.