Health News Update: Fasting, Vegetarian Diet and Autoimmunity

Mark Smith • February 10, 2025

Hello everyone:


Here are a bunch of papers that show that those with Rheumatoid Arthritis can significantly benefit from fasting followed by a vegetarian dietary plan. When it comes to the benefits of fasting, autoimmune disorders have a good deal of evidence backing up the efficacy. Other disorders related to lifestyle factors, such as overweight, obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and digestive issues also tend to show benefits, i.e., anyone with excess inflammation will probably benefit a lot.


“There is clear experimental evidence of a significant anti-inflammatory effect of prolonged fasting. Several clinical studies demonstrated a symptomatic benefit of prolonged modified fasting (therapeutic fasting) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). If fasting is followed by a vegan and vegetarian diet, lasting effects of up to 1 year have been documented. Cardiometabolic but not antirheumatic effects have been proven for intermittent fasting. Nutrition and fasting can be classified as a possible useful addition to conventional treatment but are currently only rarely taken into account in practice.”

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7747149/

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1681264/

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7835013/

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11252685/

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39271484/


Bottom Line:

 

The absolute most critical part of this literature is that the positive effects of fasting were only maintained when the post-fasting diet is vegan or vegetarian. This appears to be related in part to different aspects of an omnivorous food plan that alter essential fatty acid imbalances and gut microbiome changes that foster inflammation. There are many different ways to fast, and I always recommend that you start with eTRF (early Time Restricted Feeding) to re-set and normalize your circadian rhythms before moving on to any type of fasting that may be more demanding or rigorous or require medical monitoring. The benefit of eTRF is that you can move into a vegetarian or vegan diet at the same time as you fast daily. Most of the time, consuming your vegetarian/vegan food plan (or even the Flexitarian food plan from Dr. Joel Furhman) in an eTRF pattern is enough to shift your health where you want it to go.


 “Here we show that eTRF was more effective than mTRF (mid-day) at improving insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, eTRF, but not mTRF, improved fasting glucose, reduced total body mass and adiposity, ameliorated inflammation, and increased gut microbial diversity. No serious adverse events were reported during the trial. In conclusion, eTRF showed greater benefits for insulin resistance and related metabolic parameters compared with mTRF.”

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35194047/


Essentially, eTRF is having some type of breakfast before 10:00 am and a lunch before 2 pm, and lunch is essentially the largest meal of the day. The main point is to consume 80% of your total daily calories by 2 pm, and dinner is very light and taken early such that you consume all of your daily calories within 10 hours. Eating this way will correct any abnormal circadian rhythm functions (such as blood sugar control, fat burning, digestive issues, and more) and it can take up to 3 to 4 months to reset your internal clocks. If you have not felt better or lost weight, the next step would be to go Flexitarian or Vegan/Vegetarian with eTRF. These food plans are essentially unprocessed, whole-food, plant-based, lower fat, no sugar, no processed grains or foods. In an earlier blog I addressed resources to assist in this amazing transformation so here they are again!


1.      https://simplyplantbasedkitchen.com/

 

2.     https://thriving.foodrevolution.org/join/?frn_source=blog&frn_medium=link&frn_campaign=ppt&frn_content=menu

 

3.     https://hellonutritarian.com/nutritarian-power-prep-program/

 

4.     https://cookingcourse.forksoverknives.com/

 

5.     https://www.drfuhrman.com/blog/210/beginners-guide


By Mark Smith March 23, 2026
Health News Update: How To Fight Inflammation and Chronic Disease 3.23.26 Hello again everyone: You might wonder why I keep focusing on food…so here are some of the reasons: food choices are the leading cause of death in the U.S. and spreading around the world. Poor food choices lead to inflammation which slowly destroy health. It is that simple, plain, and clear and backed by research. The next question: how do we fight back? Introduction The positive impact of food on health was postulated by the ancient Hippocrates, father of modern medicine with his famous quote: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” [1]. In the 21st century, scientists have focused on the effect of nutritional habits in diseases. Nowadays, it is well documented that food plays a noteworthy role in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases namely cardiovascular diseases (CVD), metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus type II, and cancer [2–5], as it correlates with others with the lipid pattern, the blood pressure, and the endothelial function. The scientists examine the effect of nutritional habits on disease emergence and progression in both individual nutrient intake and dietary patterns models. Worldwide, two dietary patterns are usually compared—the Mediterranean diet (MD) and the Western diet (WD) [3,6]. The Mediterranean diet reflects the food culture of most Mediterranean countries based on olive oil consumption, seasonal fresh vegetables, cereals, and plants in balance with low consumption of meat [7]. The Western diet, on the contrary, is dominated by high-fat dairy products processed and red meat [8]. However, discordance in the different MD patterns and consumed food doses had been recognized. Without any doubt, those discrepancies could confine and restrict our knowledge on the health benefit mechanisms of the MD [9]. Due to the above, the medical community along with nutritionists and dieticians take a keen interest in MD and its traits [7]. https://www.academia.edu/45378994/biomedicines_Mediterranean_Diet_as_a_Tool_to_Combat_Inflammation_and_Chronic_Diseases_An_Overview?email_work_card=view-paper food choices can fight inflammation and chronic disease Bottom Line: This is a 2020 paper and since then literally hundreds of papers on the MD have emerged showing how the food plan lowers inflammation and the risk for developing multiple chronic illnesses. Even still, lots of research needs to be done to elucidate the many mechanisms of how food impacts our system and how to optimally individualize dietary recommendations. At this point, our best strategy to prevent and/or recover from any chronic condition is to eat as clean and natural as possible. It has become rather obvious that the further away from a natural diet we get, the sicker we become. On top of that, I have yet to see a full recovery from any health issue without the foundation of a predominantly plant-based, unprocessed, whole foods approach…which is why I keep posting about this subject. All the best to you and yours!
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