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The only alternative is to activate metabolism, like the GIFT diet suggests. There is ever more data confirming the fact that low-calorie diets and fasting can only lead to colossal failures. After an initial loss of muscle mass, you pay the price by regaining the fat that was stimulated by the NPY molecule over a long period of time. Even after you have begun eating again, this molecule continues insidiously to act so that you don’t die of hunger…
A very recent Canadian study (Van Vugt DA et al, Neuroendocrinology 2006;84(2):83-93. Epub 2006 Nov 23) offered a detailed and precise representation of what really happens when a body undergoes two days of fasting. In simple terms the work re-confirmed that the delicate balance between neurological and intestinal substances that induce the search for food (Ghrelin, NPY, Insulin) and those that instead reduce the appetite (leptin, CART, Leptin receptor, Cholecystokinin or CPK) is considerably altered by the suspension of food.
Just as we might expect from an evolutionary standpoint, a man (or woman) who fasts relives deep within himself the fear of dying of hunger that reaches far back to the Paleolithic era. This causes the activation of substances like NPY that remain active even after one has started eating again.
It's a strange phenomenon and it's been proven on animal models in a very precise way by other studies as well (McAlister AD et al, Can J Physiol Pharmacol 2004 Dec;82(12):1128-34). Even though the re-introduction of food promptly normalizes the secretion of other appetite-stimulating hormones, the NPY (which in active metabolism conditions is immediately regulated by the assumption of food) remains high. It's as if the attempt to compensate for the effects of a deprivation re-evoked "... fears reaching back to the Stone Age"
But the Stone Age is still alive today, because the chromosomes of the Homo sapiens are exactly the same ones that each one of us possesses.
So be careful about skipping breakfast and transforming that important moment into "coffee and a cookie". By doing this you run the risk of going around with high NPY levels and then bingeing on pizza or snacks that you see in shop windows, just because your body is afraid of dying of hunger, with your home refrigerator full of food.
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