Is Intermittent Fasting a Key to Longevity?

Hi and welcome to this week’s look at headlines in natural health on iHealthTube.com…

If you think artificial sweeteners are a healthier option to sugar, more research is showing that that opposite might be true.

A new study out of Singapore looked at six artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, saccharine and others.  Also included were 10 sport supplements containing these sweeteners.  The study showed that bacteria in the digestive system became toxic when exposed to as little as one milligram per milliliter of the artificial sweetener.  One expert said the result shows how these sweeteners can affects gut microbial activity, which can lead to a range of health issues.

Some soda’s contain more than one hundred milligrams of artificial sweeteners… and many food and drink products have these sweeteners without consumers being fully aware.  

One of the most popular topics in health recently is fasting… or intermittent fasting to be more exact.

Most of the intermittent fasting plans call for a days worth of food to be consumed in a small window, usually around a five hour span, then nothing else for the rest of the day.  A recent study done on mice showed that the ones who ate all their calories once per day were healthier and lived longer than mice who had a constant access to food.

Another study looked something called a fasting mimicking diet… it found those who did that, which was consuming between 800 and 11 hundred calories a day for five days out of the month.  Those on that plan who were at risk for disease, saw improved levels of fasting glucose and cholesterol, triglycerides and markers for heart disease all return to normal.

Finally… it looks like there are more benefits being learned about vitamin D!  A study done in Europe shows vitamin D supplements may help in weight loss and reduce risk factors for future heart and metabolic disease in overweight and obese children.

The study looked at over 200 obese children over a 12 month period… about half received vitamin D supplements, the others did not.  The results showed those that received the supplements had significantly lower body mass index, body fat and improved cholesterol at the end of the study.  The research team now plans on studying the affect of vitamin D on other risk factors like high blood pressure and high blood glucose.

That’s a look at what’s making headlines in natural health this week.  Make sure to go to iHealthTube.com and sign up for our free email newsletter to get the latest in natural health!