One History Girl's Diet

black coffee is allowed

by Caroline Lawrence

One of the few drawbacks of being a writer is that you lead a sedentary life only a few feet from the refrigerator. This can produce a vicious cycle of procrastination, comfort-eating, weight-gain and self-recrimination. What’s a History Girl to do?

I think I might have found the answer: fasting. 

(Disclaimer: I am a kidslit author, not a doctor. Don’t try anything I suggest below without speaking to a doctor first!)

When I was younger, I used to fast once or twice a month but stopped when doctors said it would ‘slow down your metabolism’. Now the pendulum seems to be swinging the other way, as pendula do!

A few months ago I read an article in Harper’s Magazine called Starving Your Way to Vigor. Steve Hendricks went on a twenty day fast and found that after a few days he lost the desire to eat and could even cook for his family. Two years on, he has kept his weight down and his health good, through short fasts and gentle exercise. 

Starving Your Way to Vigor

Then last month I caught the BBC Horizon documentary called Eat, Fast & Live Longer. In this fascinating documentary, Michael Mosley went in search of a regime which would not only extend his life, but enhance its quality. After trying various methods of cutting calorie intake, he discovered that by fasting for two days out of the week - a method called the 5:2 diet - he could eat what he liked, lose weight and improve his insulin levels. 

This diet appealed to me at once, because I find it easier to totally abstain from something than to do it in moderation. (The ancient Greek maxim Μηδὲν ἄγαν  – nothing to excess – means nothing to me. I do everything to excess.) So I decided to revive my practice of fasting. Essentially, you choose two non-consecutive days to fast or eat very little. 

Throughout history, man has fasted either through necessity (i.e. paucity of food), religious practice or an awareness that fasting is good for health. 

Romans occasionally fasted

For example, in Roman times Celsus advised a fast of one or two days for almost every ailment, especially for those in good health who felt they might be coming down with something. Many people deceive themselves, he writes, by trying to get rid of the symptoms by exercise or a bath or an enema or by drinking wine (!), but abstinence by itself is a remedy without any risk. De Medicina book 3

In the Wild West, piligrims, pioneers and prisoners of the Civil War were often thin to the point of being skeletal. So it must have seemed foolishness to fast. But in 1880 a certain Dr. Henry Tanner amazed the world by hiring a lecture hall in New York and embarking upon a forty day fast to prove it could be done. By the end of his stint he had received thousands of spectators, hundreds of gifts of food, and several offers of marriage. I think that the Dr. Tanners and those others who go forty days without eating do it by resolutely keeping out the desire to eat, in the beginning, and that after a few hours the desire is discouraged and comes no more, wrote Mark Twain. 

The UK in 2012 is one of the few places and times where most of us have none of these factors influencing us. Food is abundant. Only a small percent of us fast for religious reasons, and even then it is rarely for over 24 hours. Until recently, doctors have been telling us not to fast. Meanwhile, obesity and the accompanying health problems are on the rise. In poor countries people die of starvation, in rich countries people die of overeating. 

For my biweekly fast I have a few cups of black coffee or tea and lots of fizzy water and don't eat anything from about 10.00pm until breakfast 36 hours later. I’ve only been doing it for a few weeks, but I’m loving my 5:2 regime. During that time I have noticed at least ten benefits: 

treats allowed on non-fast-days

1. There is gradual weight loss.

2. Fasting discourages absent-minded browsing on eating days.

3. Fasting cultivates self-discipline.

4. It increases my gratitude for food I usually take for granted.

5. Fasting heightens my spiritual awareness.

6. It replicates the primitive hunter-gatherer feast & fast mode of living.

7. It means treats are allowed on non-fast days!

8. More sociable as I no longer give the "I don't eat such-and-such" excuse at dinner parties

9. For me it's easier to have nothing at all rather than just a little. 

10. Not thinking about food allows me to focus completely on the task in hand, i.e. writing!

That is in addition to all the health benefits I should be reaping. When cells are not in growth mode they are in repair mode. Fasting lowers bad cholesterol and IGF1. Fasting can reverse the effects of certain ailments. Recent studies have even shown that fasting one or two days a week might also help protect against brain diseases such as Alzheimer's & Parkinson's. 

If I weren’t just a kidslit author with no authority or expertise, I’d encourage you all to try it, too. As Michael Mosley says, "Fasting is the first thing I have come across that ... could radically transform the nation's health."

Caroline Lawrence has written over 25 history-mystery books for children and is trying to stay fit and healthy so she can write lots more.