I ran across an interesting conversation with Dr. Jason Fung the other day.
Fung is one of the better-known advocates of fasting. He’s written books about it, treated patients using it, and spent years explaining why going without food for a while can be beneficial.
But apparently he’s been reconsidering a few things.
Not whether fasting works. He’s actually become more enthusiastic about some of its possibilities.
What caught my attention was something else.
What if you could eat a little something and still get much of the benefit?
Traditionally, fasting meant no food. Water, perhaps black coffee or tea, and that’s about it.
Now Fung is talking about modified fasting. Bone broth. A few olives. Even specially designed five-day eating plans that provide a limited amount of food.
There’s research behind some of these approaches, particularly what’s called a fasting-mimicking diet. Studies have found improvements in certain metabolic health markers.
That doesn’t mean eating a handful of olives produces the same results as going without food for five days. We don’t know that.
But the possibility is interesting.
Because I suspect there are plenty of people who might be curious about fasting but have absolutely no desire to go three or five days without eating.
I’m not particularly interested in convincing them they should.
What interests me is the larger idea.
How often do we make something so difficult that we never get around to doing it?
I’ve seen people hesitate to start exercising because they can’t devote an hour to it.
Or worry about stretching because they can’t get into the positions they see somebody else doing.
Peggy and I have spent years telling people to work with the body they’ve got today. Some days that means doing less. Some days it means discovering they can do more.
And sometimes the version you can actually do turns out to be pretty darn useful.
I don’t know how the research on modified fasting will eventually shake out. And longer fasts certainly aren’t appropriate for everybody.
But I’m glad people are asking whether there might be another way.
It makes me wonder how many other things we’ve made unnecessarily difficult.
What if you don’t have to do something perfectly to get much of the benefit?