Today we return to Examine.com and yet another review of a totally meaningless study. If you understand anything about physiology and our body’s detoxification and healing processes, you’ll know why. If not, I’ll break it down for you.
What was studied?
“The effect of intermittent fasting or calorie restriction on plasma inflammatory biomarkers in the context of overweight or obesity.”
Inflammation is the result of our body detoxifying and/or healing damaged tissue. It is not something you ever would want to reduce. Instead you should reduce whatever is causing that toxic accumulation and damage. Remove the offender and there will be no need for heavy detoxification and tissue repair, and thus no inflammation. Simple. Logical.
“The following inflammatory biomarkers were studied:
- C-reactive protein (CRP)”
Okay, let me explain what these “biomarkers” actually are and what they do in the body, as that is crucial to understand.
C-reactive protein (CRP) is a pentameric protein that plays a significant role in our body’s natural healing process. It is synthesized by the liver in response to cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6,) and its levels increase dramatically in response to tissue injury as a part of the inflammatory/healing response.
CRP’s detoxification and healing properties are primarily linked to its ability to bind to damaged cells. This binding facilitates the clearance of necrotic and apoptotic cells and bacteria once it has assisted in the breakdown of toxins and other cellular debris, thus aiding in the healing process.
In other words, CRP’s main purpose is to remove damaged and dead cells and debris, working in tandem with bacteria that also aid in the healing process.
- “Interleukin 6 (IL-6)”
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine that plays a significant role in the body’s detoxification and healing processes. IL-6 promotes the production of acute phase proteins in the liver. These proteins help to neutralize toxins, thereby supporting detoxification. In the initial stages of tissue damage from toxicity, IL-6 helps to initiate an inflammatory/healing response.
IL-6 has been shown to have regenerative properties in various tissues. For example, it can support the regeneration of neurons and glial cells in the central nervous system.
IL-6 can influence metabolic processes, which can indirectly support detoxification by ensuring that the body has the necessary energy and resources to manage toxins and repair tissues.
In other words, IL-6 is crucial for initiating both detoxification and repair of affected tissues.
- “Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α)”
Similar to IL-6, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α) is a multifunctional cytokine with both detoxification and healing properties. Similar to CRP, TNF-α plays a role in the detoxification process by promoting the clearance of damaged cells and cellular debris. Additionally, TNF-α can induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) in severely damaged cells, so they can be removed and replaced.
TNF-α is also a potent inducer of inflammation/healing as it binds to TNF-R1 and TNF-R2 receptors on the surface of cells, triggering signaling pathways that lead to the expression of adhesion molecules, chemokines, and other tissue healing mediators.
TNF-α can also promote angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, which is essential for tissue repair and regeneration.
In other words, TNF-α either supports cell functionality during detoxification or initiates cell death if the cell is damaged beyond repair so it can be cleared out, while also promoting formation of new blood vessels to better clear out toxins and debris.
With all this in mind, inflammation tells us that we are taking damage from toxic exposure and that the body tries to detox and repair the affected tissues. In other words, you do not want to focus on reducing inflammation if any of these markers are elevated, as that would hamper or even stop the detoxification and healing process. Instead you want to focus on reducing the toxic load and let the body heal which will lower and eventually eliminate all inflammation once the healing is completed. In simple terms, you do not want to reduce inflammation if you happen to experience it, you want to avoid inflammation in the first place! And the only way to avoid inflammation is to avoid taking damage from toxins, as inflammation is the detoxification and healing of damaged tissue.
Who was studied?
“A total of 811 men and women (average ages of 29–60) with overweight or obesity.”
Just to make one thing clear, being overweight or obese has nothing to do with increased inflammation. Putting on body fat is a symptom of high toxicity and overeating. It is the toxicity from overeating crap that is damaging your tissues, which in turn causes an inflammation/healing response. So, it is the damage from what is making these people obese that is also the cause of the inflammation, not the obesity itself.
How was it studied?
“A meta-analysis of 20 randomized controlled trials was performed. Nine trials were conducted in the United States, 2 trials each were conducted in Iran and Italy, and 1 trial each was conducted in Brazil, China, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Sweden.
The trials assessed calorie restriction (14 trials) or intermittent fasting (6 trials; protocols included alternate-day fasting, time-restricted eating, and the 5:2 diet). The comparator was no dietary intervention. The intervention duration ranged from 8 to 48 weeks.”
The obvious problem here is that they reduced food intake, and considering that the people were obese and unhealthy to begin with, their food choices are obviously very bad resulting in a lacking diet leading to nutrient deficiencies. And simply reducing their food intake will give them even less essential nutrients, hampering the functionality of their bodies even more, putting them into real starvation.
And even if they got help with changing their diets, the results would be the same as these evil charlatans favor a plant-based diet that is totally void of any essential nutrients and full of extremely damaging toxins such as antinutrients, defense chemicals, heavy metals, and pesticides.
You can only successfully adopt a time-restricted/intermittent fasting or “energy restricted” diet by focusing on animal-based foods, the only foods that contain all essential nutrients in full bioavailable format.
What were the results?
“Compared with the control, calorie restriction reduced (improved) CRP (very small effect size, moderate certainty) and IL-6 (small effect size, moderate certainty). Intermittent fasting reduced (improved) TNF-α (small effect size, high certainty).”
A few days ago, we looked at time-restricted eating, as in intermittent fasting, and the effects on reducing visceral fat, which was negligible due to continuing with a toxic diet. We know that by allowing the body to remain longer in a fasted state, we favor detoxification and tissue repair, especially if we go to sleep in a fasted state, as sleep accelerates both detoxification and healing. However, in order to detoxify and heal in the first place, our body needs all the resources that are needed for these processes, as in all the essential vitamins, minerals, animal fats, and amino acids that are only available in animal foods. You can not get these nutrients in the necessary quantities from plant-based edibles or processed food items. And that is why people are so sickly today. They are exposed to unnatural high levels of toxins through their shitty food and the environment while lacking the resources to properly detoxify and heal.
Now, if you actually were to start consuming a lot of animal-based food, nourishing your body, while also allowing it to heal by remaining in a fasted state for a better part of the day, inflammation would eventually start to come down, as detoxification and healing can take place and actually finish. However, depending on how long you have mistreated your body, this detoxification and healing can take years (and not weeks or months as in these studies.) This is logical as you might have mistreated your body for 40 years, thus it will not detoxify and heal in just a few weeks or months. It’s the same as losing a lot of body fat that you’ve accumulated for years. It’s not done in a week.
So, using logic once again, as these poor people followed a crappy diet and actually ate less than before, and if CRP, IL-6, and TNF-α decreased just within weeks without them improving the nutrient density and quality of the diet, that reduction of inflammation, as in a reduction in healing, was due to developing more severe nutrient deficiencies and thus the detoxification and healing processes slowed down even more, something that is extremely bad and dangerous as more toxins will now accumulate and more tissue will take damage.
So, to conclude, changing the approach to eating will not accomplish anything positive unless you also change your diet, as in increasing the amount of animal-based foods while decreasing all the damaging offenders, as in anything plant-based and processed. That again, is simple logic and also common sense. Unfortunately, the dimwits setting up these studies do not even grasp that fundamental logic of biology, physiology and biochemistry. Embarrassing and laughable.
And, as I’ve mentioned many times, the only time you ever would want to reduce inflammation, as in slowing down detoxification and/or healing is if your body is so weak, toxic, and malnourished that it can’t handle the load and processes, as in you might actually die. In such a rare case, you need to detox and heal in short phases while guaranteeing your nutritional status by focusing on animal-based foods. Again, common sense.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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