Recapping Six Months of Fast Well Feast Well Part 1

From autophagy to autoimmune diseases to appetite correction. It's been a wild ride of discovering lies, cover ups, and incredible hope.

Dear Reader,

Exactly six months ago, on Tuesday, January 10th, I launched my very first Substack post ever called The New You 2.0. In order to celebrate this milestone, I thought I’d write a post recapping the highlights of the last six months.

At least, that was my intention when I started writing. But the post got so long, I decided to recap only January, February, and March for this week. I’ll cover the second half next week.

I hope this will be helpful to orient the several thousand new readers that have joined us since then and also as a review for those who have been with us all along. And this will of course serve everyone in between.

Review is so important when trying to learn something contrary to everything you’ve taught (“breakfast is the most important meal of the day”) and to counteract all the false messaging that we are continually bombarded with.

So are you ready for this? I am! Let’s do this.

January: Autophagy Month

My focus for the first four posts was to orient you to this miracle-working concept called fasting. I gave an overview of autophagy, the revolutionary idea that when your body is temporarily deprived of food, it becomes extremely resourceful and begins recycling damaged cell parts. This gives your body a dramatic upgrade.

In 2016, Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his decades of research on the myriad of benefits that autophagy gives the body. These include reducing inflammation, reversing insulin resistance (when your cells resist insulin’s signal to accept glucose), lowering risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and autoimmune diseases. It turns out, a little hunger goes a long way in healing the human body.

My post on Upgrading the Brain focused on the work of renowned fasting researcher Dr. Mark Mattson who writes in the New England Journal of Medicine:

Intermittent fasting enhances cognition in multiple domains, including spatial memory, associative memory, and working memory; alternate-day fasting…reverse[s] the adverse effects of obesity, diabetes, and neuroinflammation on spatial learning and memory.¹

In my post Fast to Boost Your Immune System, we examined a study from the journal Immunology Letters which says:

The beneficial roles of fasting-mediated autophagy promotion have also been reported in functional homeostasis of many organs and tissues [17]. In addition to priming the host immune system, fasting-induced autophagy can improve cellular resistance to stress by increasing the metabolic buffering capacity of cells and thus preparing the human body to deal with various stresses (Fig. 2 ).²

February: Month of Mind-Blowing Health Discoveries

I started February by getting practical, and I made a short post giving tips on how to take your measurements before you begin fasting. The biggest takeaway from this post is that the scale is not always your friend. Because fasting increases human growth hormone, your fat will be replaced with muscle mass, and you will gain bone density. This will mean you will shrink in size in a way that may not always be reflected by your weight.

Funny story about body recomposition. Dear hubby went to Eddie Bauer last week and picked out size small shirts for my birthday. But then he began talking to the sales lady and she asked him how much I weigh. (Yes, hubby and many thousands of people know how much I weigh. 😂) When the sales lady heard that I weigh 135, she made him put all the smalls back and get mediums. She was very adamant that someone that weight most definitely wears a medium.

In stores like Eddie Bauer that are marketed to middle age women and not teenagers, their mediums are gigantic. These shirts are so big on me that I might be able to fit two of me in them.

Here’s the deal: the scale might say 135 but muscle takes up very little space. Someone can be 135 and wear a size 10 or 12 in pants if they have a high percentage of body fat. I wear a size 2 in pants. Body fat weighs very little but has a large volume. So don’t let the scale steal your joy. Measure inches, not pounds.

Another big takeaway: your belly measurement is the most important marker of metabolic health. Aim for the largest part of your abdomen to be less than half your height. If you’re a 5’ 5” woman, that’s 65”, the largest part of your belly (not the smallest part of your waist) should be 32 inches. If you’re a 6’ man, or 72”, the largest part of your belly needs to be 35”. This is many times more accurate than BMI.

Before fasting, my hubby’s BMI was considered normal but his waist was 40” and he’s about 72” tall. With fasting, he lost 20 lbs, all of which was from his stomach, and he lost 5” from his waist. He’s now right as 35”. My own belly went from 40” to 32” (my true waist is 28” which shows how important it is to measure correctly).

In Which I Introduce a Pivot

When I first conceived of what this substack would be, I only thought about fasting. And it will always be about fasting to a certain extent. But discovered a new passion: researching everything about health, not just fasting.

In my post, Autoimmune Disease and Hope, I detailed the stories of people who have completely reversed their autoimmune diseases through a zero-carb diet. Here’s the thing about allopathic (mainstream) medicine: it’s super helpful when you have a broken bone and need surgery. It’s also helpful for the few times in your life when you may have something like bacterial pneumonia or strep which people previously died from. That’s a legit use of antibiotics, and I’ll be the first to take them in that situation.

However, allopathic medicine has no cure for our diseases of civilization, such as autoimmune diseases, heart disease, and diabetes. The only thing allopathic medicine can do is manage the disease—they have no tools to heal them. That’s why I am so fascinated by alternative stories. They give the hopeless new hope.

Exhibit A: Mikhaila Peterson (well-known Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson’s daughter). Her autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis was so severe that she was dying from it. She tried everything medicine had to offer including 14 medications at once. Nothing helped. She went on the carnivore diet and put it into complete remission. She’s off all medication.

A family physician, Dr. Anthony Chaffee, has put every single one of his Crohn’s patients into remission through a zero-carb diet. There is not one patient it didn’t work for. (He explains more here at the 2:50 mark.)

Halfway through writing my post on these anecdotes, I came across a study in the Journal of Immunology Research that gave one explanation for why zero-carb diets heal autoimmune diseases:

The results of a large number of studies support the idea that an enteropathic pathogen, Klebsiella pneumoniae, is the most likely triggering factor involved in the initiation and development of these [autoimmune] diseases. Increased starch consumptions by genetically susceptible individuals such as those possessing HLA-B27 allelotypes could trigger the disease in both AS and CD [Crohn’s Disease] by enhancing the growth and perpetuation of the Klebsiella microbes in the bowel.

The study details that Klebsiella pneumonia is extremely stubborn and can’t be eradicated through antibiotics. However, it can be starved to death.

After citing over 80 studies, the last sentence of the conclusion reads:

Dietary manipulation in the form of low starch diet intake can be included in the management of patients with AS or CD.

This blew my mind! The medical community knows that autoimmune disease can be cured, at least some people know, and no one’s shouting this from the rooftops (until this Substack 😉).

Then I got an idea. I never want to tell someone to do something I’m not willing to do myself. For example, I started writing about fasting after I lost 45 lbs and reversed my prediabetes. So I decided that I was going to do a two-month zero-carb experiment. I did this for both February and March. I was so strict that even stayed with it when we went to Florida for spring break.

Here’s what happened. I’ve had a painful condition for over two decades called interstitial cystitis. I’ve visited all the specialists, had all the tests, tried the drugs, and the elimination diets, and nothing worked. It only grew worse. However, fasting improved it by about 50%. My pain level went from between a 4-6 to a 2-3.

My two-month zero-carb experiment made it completely go away. I detail it in this post. I wonder if the pathogenic bacteria Klebsiella has been my two-decade nemesis, or perhaps some other pathogen. Since I don’t have access to a lab, we’ll never know. All I know is that it worked. And equally amazing is that after my two months experiment was over, I began eating some carbs, and IC hasn’t returned.

Lest you think autoimmune diseases have always been around, the New England Journal of Medicine published this chart documenting the rise of autoimmune diseases³:

The Plot Thickens

I had no idea how many interesting things I would discover when I threw myself wholeheartedly into researching health. Discovering the work of Harvard professor and 27-year psychiatrist Dr. Chris Palmer has been one of the most mind-blowing discoveries. (Detailed in this post.)

Let me explain Dr. Palmer’s unbelievable research this way. Imagine you and everyone on your block stopped feeding your dogs regular dog chow, and you started instead giving them highly processed foods: Coca-Cola in the water bowl, pop tarts for breakfast, French Fries fried in highly oxidized seed oils, frozen pizza for dinner. What would you conclude if after about a month of this, the dogs began displaying odd psychological symptoms: some had extreme anxiety, others became OCD, most of them displayed some signs of depression? Some dogs even appeared to be hallucinating. Could it be the diet?

People! This is us. We are the dogs. I private messaged Dr. Palmer on Twitter and he said to me that he knows of over 100 people that have been cured of their mental illness from going off of all sugar and processed carbs. Our brains are being poisoned.

I have an assignment for you. While you’re driving, folding laundry, taking a walk, weeding, unloading the dishwasher, or anything else, please, please listen to this interview with him. It will bring you to tears. At least just listen to the first 60 seconds. Dr. Palmer says: “It is INHUMANE that the keto diet is not being offered to mental health patients instead of poisonous drugs.” This is a mainstream, allopathic-trained medical doctor who is calling the bluff on his own profession.

Dr. Palmer tells the story of a woman whose schizophrenia was so severe that she sat in a wheelchair wetting her pants all day and was unresponsive [13:00 mark]. She had been on over 30 medications and had even tried electrical shock treatment—had tried everything allopathic medicine has to offer.

After 3 weeks on the keto diet, she was talking to people after being catatonic. After a few months, she was functioning normally. She now travels around with Dr. Palmer and tells her story on stage, and is in graduate school and at the top of her class.

When Dr. Palmer saw the miraculous changes in his patients and how they were able to come off of poisonous pharmaceuticals by removing toxic sugars from their diet, he set out to discover why this worked. This past November, he released his book Brain Energy which is a fascinating delve into how the brain is healed through a change in diet.

My cliff notes version is that the brain cells are fueled by little powerhouses called mitochondria. When they are constantly bathed in glucose, they begin to malfunction. Allowing the brain to run on ketones instead of glucose has incredible healing properties.

I really hope you’ll take the time at some point to read the whole post.

🔥 I also got practical in February and released a Quick Start Fasting Guide for those just getting started with fasting.

My Best Discovery Yet

I have a very hard time accepting no for an answer. As in:

Is there a cure for autoimmune disease?

The allopathic medical community says: No. We can only manage symptoms.

Oh yeah. Watch me find one. And a scientifically supported one at that.

Is there a cure for mental illness? I didn’t say treatment. I said cure. As in, make it go away.

The allopathic medical community says: no cure. Only drugs. Drugs that often make people worse (according to Dr. Palmer’s 27 years of experience).

Oh yeah. Turns out there is a cure. For those who want it bad enough to break their food addiction.

But now here’s a real humdinger.

Is there a cure for cancers that the allopathic community deems incurable (by their standard treatments)?

Maybe. There are no guarantees, no certainties, with cancer. But boy oh boy, do I have some hopeful stories for you to read.

But why is this not plastered on the front page of the New York Times every day?

Follow the money. There is a war on repurposed drugs. If these alternative drugs work even a fraction of the amount that anecdotes indicate, they would cause the billion-dollar cancer industry to fall flat on its face. Fenbedzadole is off-patent and costs about the same price as Tylenol (but is much safer than Tylenol).

Let’s look at where we’ve come so far. There is a non-standard-drug cure for mental illness, autoimmune disease, and now some cancers? Those three things comprise the lion’s share of big pharma’s profits, and we haven’t even started talking about diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure yet. There’s a financial reason you’re not hearing about these cures.

March: Month of What If…

The month of March was devoted to “What If” questions.

What if you’ve been fed a load of big, fat stinking lies your whole life from people shilling for big pharma and big food?

What if the human body mostly needs just meat, eggs, raw dairy, and salt? That’s so interesting since those are the foods that the media constantly demonizes.

I throw a colossal fit in this post How Did Nutrition Advice Get So Terrible? and expose Tuft’s University’s hilarious yet infuriating Food Compass rating system.

This, right here folks, is what you call corporate-profit-friendly nutrition advice:

All the foods that make money for big food corporations are green. All the foods that heal the human body of autoimmune diseases and mental health problems but have narrow profit margins are listed in red.

Reese’s Puff cereal is given a score of 71 while eggs fried in butter is given a score of 29. I want to roll on the floor laughing for about a million hours except I’m so mad that sweet little moms of toddlers will read this and set up their children for lifelong sugar addiction.

But I also take a break from my outrage in March and once again get good and practical about fasting.

This post is about appetite correction: fasting fixes your appetite signals so that you’re no longer able to overeat. I used to be able to eat without stopping. (Don’t miss my bone broth recipe at the end.)

This post explains why it takes time to adapt to fasting and feel the amazing benefits. Give it a month! You’ll thank me later. I tell the story of how my hubby would break his fast every day when he was switching over to being a fat burner until he understood the science behind it.

And this post explains how to push through a tough spot. It explains the science behind what’s happening when you’re in the adjustment phase. Everything good such as brain clarity, more energy, and freedom from food addiction happens after you push through the adjustment phase.

I also wrote a motivational post about how there are two of you. One of you wants to lose weight and get healthy, and one doesn't give a rip and just wants to eat all the things. The person who wants to get healthy better learn how to trick the other one. I learned how to trick her, and I tell you how to do it. You can live out both of these personas when practicing IF.

More March “What Ifs”

Here’s a big one: What if everything you’ve been taught about heart disease risk factors is wrong?

What if the mantra that saturated fat causes heart disease isn’t based on real science?

Yes, big pharma spends hundreds of thousands every year funding studies with holes so wide you could drive your car through. These are epidemiological studies that use food frequency questionnaires with questions such as: “How many times per week did you eat meat in the last 11 years?” You heard that right. One study that wanted to prove that meat causes heart disease gave participants one survey that covered 11 years. Then the “results” (if you can call them that) get published in all the major newspapers proclaiming that red meat causes heart disease, cancer, and probably the common cold too (I made that last one up).

But what if all the independently-funded studies have something different to say?

At the bottom of my post, The Skinny of Saturated Fat, I detail how the saturated fat myth got started in the 1950s and continued to echo down through the decades.

When president Eisenhower had a heart attack in 1955, it epitomized the nation’s growing fear of heart disease, something that appeared out of nowhere in a generation. People demanded a villain, and Ansel Keys swooped in and implicated saturated fat. Big food was all over this story since it gave them an excuse to sell more highly-processed (highly-toxic) “heart healthy” vegetable oils. They’re plant-based. They must be healthy. The lie continues.

In this post on heart disease risk factors, I present copious evidence for another theory of heart disease.

Previous risk factors were thought to be:

• High saturated fat intake

• High cholesterol (LDL)

• High red meat consumption

Risk factors based on newer research:

• High insulin levels

• High blood sugar levels (HbA1C, or average 3-month glucose levels)

• High levels of chronic inflammation (C-reactive protein is one common marker)

• High consumption of sugar and ultra-processed food

Risk factors both paradigms agree on:

• Family history

• Smoking

• Stress

• High waist-to-height ratio

• High blood pressure

And lastly, I end March by blowing the whole LDL cholesterol/statin theory wide open in this post Statins: Detrimental to Health. If you are on statins or know someone who is, please read this post all the way through. Statins are the most widely prescribed medication in the US and among the most profitable. But there is little independent evidence they do any good. There is much evidence they cause incredible harm including muscle weakness, depression, cognitive impairment, and neuropathy. Oh, but did I mention they make a boatload of money for big pharma?

What if you live in a world where the number one most widely prescribed medication is a complete scam? Examine the evidence. There is a society comprised of over one hundred medical and academic doctors that exists for the sole purpose of educating people that statins and the LDL theory of heart disease is completely false from beginning to end.

Here’s just one teaser: The British Medical Journal published a systematic review of 19 cohort studies including 68,094 people over age 60 to determine the correlation between high blood levels of LDL (the supposed “bad” cholesterol) and mortality. The review concludes:

Since elderly people with high LDL-C live as long or longer than those with low LDL-C, our analysis provides reason to question the validity of the cholesterol hypothesis.

Conclusion

This was a long post and thank you for sticking with me. I especially want to thank my paid subscribers who help make this work possible. Between moving, having two grandbabies born in the last two weeks, and traveling to a wedding on the opposite side of the country, my paid posts have been less frequent than I’d like. But nothing worthwhile is truly free, except fasting. I told my husband that my goal with adding a paid option was to break even with the amount I spend on books. We’ll get there.

Keep spreading the word that healing is possible. Fasting is free. Medication is often slavery. The body is fearfully and wonderfully made. Knowledge is motivation. You can go for a few hours without eating. You’ll be just fine if you’re clean fasting (you’ll feel like a crazy person if you’re not).

Can’t wait to share review part 2 with you, dear reader.

(Click here for Recap Part 2).

Leslie Taylor

[This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not designed as a substitute for medical advice. Talk to your doctor before beginning any dietary changes, especially if you are on medications for diabetes. Fasting while taking certain medications such as Metformin and especially insulin can lead to dangerously low blood sugars. If your doctor does not support fasting, search for a physician who will support your fasting journey. Fasting is not recommended for those pregnant, breastfeeding, or for children and teens still growing and developing. For those with diabetes, personal fasting coaches are available through TheFastingMethod.com. I receive no compensation or ad revenue for anything in this newsletter including links to books, videos, websites, coaching services, podcasts, or supplements.]

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