Mock fasting: we try it on ourselves

Mock fasting
We do the self-experiment

Andreas Michalsen smiles at me from the screen. “Today is a day for creativity, the body has now completely changed, all processes run smoothly.” My stomach growls loudly. The man is easy to talk! Michalsen, head physician at Berlin’s Immanuel Hospital and co-founder of “Salufast”, accompanies me through his fasting program in small videos: 15 meals were sent to me in a box – including spelled muesli, lentils with pineapple and pumpkin soup. Controlled starvation purists are now likely to choke on their vegetable broth. Fast? With food?

The same results as with classic fasting?

This is exactly what should be possible, promise Michalsen and his American colleague, the age researcher Valter Longo. With the same positive effects on health as traditional fasting: less harmful cholesterol in the blood, lower blood pressure, lower body fat, anti-aging. But how can you eat and still achieve results similar to those of classic fasting? “There are now some studies that show that you don’t have to be as strict about reducing calories as when fasting according to Buchinger,” explains Michalsen. He refers, for example, to a study from 2017 in which 50 healthy adults followed a mock fasting diet for three months for five days each. Shortly after the end, the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes decreased for all participants. Valter Longo, one of the authors of the study, turned his findings into a business idea early on: ProLon, fasting out of the box. The food rations, which consist of ready-made soups, packaged olives and nut bars, cost almost 200 euros.

At Salufast it is around 120 euros. For this, I get three small freeze-dried meals for five days, which are poured over with hot water, so you only consume 480 to a maximum of 580 calories per day.

Autophagy – the recycling program

When you (sham) fast, the body lacks carbohydrates, which it can easily convert into sugar, it has to get its energy from other sources. This is why the liver begins to convert fats into so-called ketone bodies and deliver them to the brain, muscles and organs. Although the system gets under stress, this type of supply does not harm it, on the contrary: Because the metabolism mobilizes all reserves, damaged cells are cleaned or broken down to a greater extent. “Autophagy” is the name of our body’s recycling program that is fueled by fasting. Among other things, it strengthens the immune system and probably also lowers the risk of cancer and dementia.

Unfortunately, this change in metabolism does not take place without any side effects. After starting the first day in high spirits, the first announced side effects set in in the afternoon: I feel cold, dizzy and have a headache. And unfortunately it will stay that way for the next four days. No fasting euphoria anywhere. Perhaps it is meanly because I had a healthy diet beforehand and am rather slim. As early as 2006, Michalsen showed in a study that people with a BMI over 25 in particular get in a good mood when fasting.

The oxidative stress drops, the blood pressure goes down. But how is all of this supposed to work if you only eat five days less?

Françoise Wilhelmi de Toledo assesses the problem somewhat differently. She sits on the board of the medical association for therapeutic fasting and nutrition and heads the research department at the Buchinger Wilhelmi fasting clinic on Lake Constance. She thinks Longo’s mock fasting or Michalsen’s Salufast program is too short-sighted: “Our studies show that classic fasting has fantastic effects: oxidative stress drops, blood pressure drops. But how is all of this supposed to work if you’re only five days less eat?” So the fasting doctor is not a bit surprised about my sag: “You lack the complete switching of metabolism, digestive tract and consciousness.” For Wilhelmi de Toledo, the new programs are diets, not fasting.

To be fair, it must be said that a visit to the clinic on Lake Constance costs several thousand euros. This is exactly where Andreas Michalsen comes in. “If you have the financial means, you should like to go to a fasting clinic for two weeks. But what about everyone else?” He even admits that classic therapeutic fasting will probably work a little better. “But if I use another method, which is cheaper and more suitable for everyday use, to achieve over 80 percent of the effects and have fewer side effects, doesn’t that still make sense?”

It depends on the long term

In any case, what seems to be more important is how you behave in the long term. “The results of limited fasting are only a snapshot,” explains nutritionist Christina Holzapfel from the Technical University of Munich. It goes without saying that the blood profile improves in the short term – “but what about the long-term values?” Fasting programs would provide a clear structure and could be the entry into a healthier diet. But something else is crucial: How to eat after fasting.

Andreas Michalsen recommends intermittent fasting after the Salufast program – i.e. 14 to 16-hour meal breaks daily. Because as practical as the pseudo fasting out of the box may be: Afterwards there are 360 ​​days of everyday life.

Would you like to read more about the topic and exchange ideas with other women? Then take a look at the “Health Forum” BRIGITTE community past!

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BRIGITTE 09/2021