Nutrition science has contributed to developing many knowledge that have made numerous advantages for human health. To decompose food in its elementary parts, the nutrients, for example, allowed to understand the biological function of some foods and their impact on the metabolism of human beings.
This breakdown has shifted attention from food to nutrients, and with the development of the food industry, some scientific knowledge, they were used indiscriminately and speculatively creating myths and legends around some foods.
Hiding behind scientific principles of nutrition, the Diet Industry has launched fashions around some foods, demonizing others. Just think of carbohydrates (bread and pasta) which have become the scapegoat of each slimming diet.
In Chinese medicine, food and the dietary regime are fundamental for the balance of the organism and consequently, for a healthy body.
In our company, however, a single objective deemed healthy: the weight loss. In this way, physical fitness becomes the protagonist: a healthy, performing and successful person is a lean person. But how do the push to the ideal of thinness live on the one hand and on the other to consume more and more food products? This is where thediet industry It offers a multitude of indications and dietary products.
In recent years, media and some nutrition specialists have promoted the flicit mime diet as a healthy practice capable of bringing many advantages to health. In addition to losing weight, it seems to make metabolic and cellular changes that influence oxidative damage and inflammation. This practice seems to reduce the risk of diseases and increase life expectancy.
Some studies available on effects of fasting intermittent, however, indicate a significant increase in the amount of food introduced in 6 or 12 hours following fasting hours. This effect can also be explained from a biological point of view: the acute moderation of the diet (as happens in the fasting phase) lowers the levels of tryptophan, a precursor of serotonin, which by altering the signs of hunger and satiety, increases the probability of incurring one in oneuncontrolled To restore normal levels of tryptophan and serotonin.
The diet therefore, understood as a means of combating a weight gain, seems to be associated with a paradoxical increase in the risk of disordered diet. Our body is scheduled for survival and to naturally seek its “nourishment” based on the physiological stimuli of hunger and satiety. When introducing a check, the risk of the possibility of losing control (from reason, 2007) is presented, thus incurring a disinhibition and greater vulnerability to compulsion towards food and therefore to food access with a consequent weight gain.
The adoption of extreme and rigid dietary rulesin fact, through the mechanism of cognitive disinhibition, it promotes binges: when the dietary rules are too rigid, the effort not to transgress is very high and is often difficult to maintain over time. When a rupture of a rule occurs, the typical “all or nothing” thought promotes disinhibition (“I transgressed to the diet, then you might as well abandon all types of control and mandatory”).
Furthermore, we know that fasting can increase the risk of eating disorders in people who have a certain vulnerability. A 2008 study (Stice et al.), Found that the incidence of fasting in middle school girls was the most powerful predictor for the onset of Food disorders.
A very interesting aspect is linked to how our body image can change following a short -term fasting. We know that many factors can induce changes in the body image, including social comparison and physiological changes that occur after eating.
A study found that in patients with anorexia nervosa, eating food triggers some changes in terms of body image, connecting the feeling of fullness with the dissatisfaction of the body. In these cases, fasting could prevent negative self -assessments that can occur after a normal meal.
A recent research (Schaumberg & Anderson, 2014) conducted on a sample of 196 university students who did not present any kind of eating disorderhas shown that individuals (in particular those who showed greater cognitive disinhibition and the tendency to fast as a habit to prevent weight gain or contrast the effects of excess eating) to which it was asked to observe a fast for 24 hours, received a strong reinforcement from the psychological experience of an improved body image.
In conclusion, it can be said that the people who supported fasting subsequently experienced positive changes in the body image. All this confirms that practices such as the flicit mime diet can promote pathological power models and in vulnerable people, increase the risk of eating disorders.
Given the association between fasting and rigid and extreme dietary rules with the development of pathological food behaviors, it is necessary to convey correct information on the diets and advertisements of extreme dietary practices and encourage a critical attitude towards certain messages in order to promote a healthy lifestyle.
All this especially towards more vulnerable individuals such as teenagers, people who have a negative body image and those who have high levels of cognitive disinhibition.
