Having trouble understanding Autophagy?

Autophagy is counterintuitive

Many people don’t get it

Autophagy is something that many people don’t understand. If you tell a lot of people that you are fasting they think:

• You are in starvation mode
• You are wasting away your muscle
• You are doing something that is stupid
• Fasting is unhealthy

None of these thoughts are correct.

What really happens during fasting?

• You are giving your body a chance to rest. The digestion of food is something that puts great stress on your body.
• Your body still satisfies its protein needs through autophagy
• You are doing something that is smart, including greatly reducing the risk of many diseases, including cancer.
• Fasting is proving to be one of the most healthy things you can do for your body.

Striving for Autophagy to kick in

Autophagy starts to activate in your body when your body senses that it is not being fed, and needs to obtain the things that it needs through another method.

Autophagy is still in the phase of study and doctors and scientists still don’t know everything about it, New discoveries are still being made. It is still relatively uncertain how long you need to fast before autophagy starts working.

This video that I found yesterday, though, seems to be saying that autophagy can start working much quicker than earlier though. Previously, many said that you needed to fast for about 3 days before autophagy starts working. In the video below, though, they suggest that autophagy starts working even during relatively short periods of intermittent fasting!

Take a look at the video.

What did you think? Were you as impressed with this information as I was?

My thoughts about the information in the video

Starvation Mystery

Firstly, at the beginning of the video, they say that it is a “One Day Starvation Mystery”. I totally disagree with the “starvation” part of it.  One day of not eating, or even more, is not starvation. This is particularly true if you are obese, or have a significant amount of fat on your body. You are not going to starve in that case. The fat that has been stored on your body has been put there over the years in order to store energy you will need in the case of a lack of food.

Our bodies are designed to consume that fat that we stored away in the event that food is not available. That is not starvation.

Recycling

Throughout the video, they talk about the “recycling of cells”. In the past, most people talked about your body “eating” cells within itself. The term “recycling is more inviting and less controversial, I think. I like it. Talking about your body consuming itself sounds dangerous, and unappealing.

In these days of “green” and “eco-friendly”, the word “recycling” itself sounds better. I feel that both terms are accurate, but recycling is a better description of autophagy.

Protein

In the video, they say that the “average person eats 2.5 ounces of protein per day”. I wonder where this statistic came from? That sounds way too low to me. There are countries where most people are vegetarian, I believe, and those were probably included in coming up with the “average”.  I would say that it would be more accurate to give an average of people who do eat protein.

Pathogenic Bacteria

The video says that fasting can eliminate “pathogenic bacteria”. Wow, that is a great description.  I have always known that fasting and autophagy eliminate cells that are unhealthy and no longer needed, but “pathogenic bacteria” is a very good explanation.

Here is what Wikipedia says “pathogenic bacteria” is:

Pathogenic bacteria are bacteria that can cause disease. Although most bacteria are harmless or often beneficial, some are pathogenic, with the number of species estimated as fewer than a hundred that are seen to cause infectious diseases in humans.

Perfect use of words in the video!

Metabolism

The common belief that I hear from people is that fasting will mess up and slow down your metabolism. I have never believed that. In fact, I always felt, from experience, that fasting increased my metabolic rate.

The video clearly says that fasting will “speed up your metabolism”. Nice.

500 Calories per day

The video says that it is OK to consume 500 calories per day while fasting. I disagree.

I have, however, always felt that as adults, we all get to decide what is best for us. If we want to consume things while fasting, that is a personal choice. But, for me, consuming 500 calories per day is not fasting.

Animal Protein

The video suggests that having “animal protein-free days” is beneficial. I have never had an interest in becoming a vegetarian. However, I think this is a good idea.

Cells in our body are protein, and taking a day of not ingesting protein would seemingly force the body to recycle unhealthy proteins from our body (autophagy) and that would be a beneficial thing. I am 100% behind this idea and intend to implement it myself.

What did you feel about the video?

Let me know what you think. Leave a comment below this article and share your thoughts. Personally, I felt that this is a very valuable video!

I hope you enjoyed the video and found it informative, as I did.