The human body was never designed to consume food around the clock.

In the primitive era, humans had to hunt and gather. Finding food took half the day, and once we ate, there was a significant gap before the next meal. Fast forward thousands of years: our biology remains largely the same, but our consumption habits have changed drastically.

With refrigerators and 24-hour convenience stores, we can put food in our mouths the moment we feel a hint of hunger. We’ve adopted the “three meals a day” dogma—fueled largely by the food industry’s need to sell more products—despite the fact that humans are perfectly capable of thriving on one meal a day or fasting for days at a time.

The Rise of Modern Diseases

This shift in behavior has brought about diseases our ancestors rarely faced: obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and hypertension. Statistics from the last 50–60 years show a steady climb in these metabolic conditions.

Dr. Jason Fung, author of The Obesity Code, argues that Type 2 diabetes is a dietary disease that can be reversed by simply changing when we eat.

Insulin: The Storage Manager

Insulin is the key player here. Its main job is to take nutrients and energy from your bloodstream and store them in your body’s cells. When we stop eating, insulin levels drop, allowing the body to pull that stored energy out and burn it.

In our ancestral cycle, this worked perfectly. There was no excess accumulation because we fasted long enough for insulin to do its job and then leave the stage. Today, however, we eat constantly—out of habit, desire, or social pressure.

Understanding Insulin Resistance

Every time we eat, especially carbohydrates, insulin spikes to store the resulting sugar. When we eat continuously, insulin is over-secreted. Eventually, the cells become “full” and can no longer accept more energy.

When this happens repeatedly, the efficiency of insulin drops. Dr. Jason Fung calls this Insulin Resistance. Instead of being tucked away in cells, sugar stays in the bloodstream. High insulin resistance is the gateway to Type 2 diabetes.

The Power of Intermittent Fasting (IF)

Fasting is one of the most effective ways to heal insulin resistance. It allows insulin levels to drop low enough, for long enough, that the body regains its Insulin Sensitivity—all without the need for medication.

While Dr. Fung sometimes recommends extended fasting under medical supervision, Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a much more accessible starting point for most people. It aligns with our natural biological rhythm.

The Office Analogy: Why Your Body is “Crashing”

I often explain Intermittent Fasting to my colleagues using a workplace analogy:

Imagine you are an employee with a boss who keeps piling files on your desk all day long. If the boss never stops giving you new tasks, when are you supposed to actually clear the old ones?

A healthy workflow should be: Assign Work > Break to Clear the Work > Finish Task > Assign New Work.

Your body is exactly the same. If you eat without a break, you never give your system a chance to clear out the old energy (fat), let the digestive system rest, or allow the body to repair itself. If the “Boss” keeps piling food into the system without a pause, eventually, the whole operation is going to crash.

IF isn’t just about weight loss; it’s about giving your body the “break” it needs to get the job done.

Recommended Resources:

  • Dietdoctor.com
  • The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung