Wellness Fasting for Healthy Longevity.
Japanese life expectancy is 86 years for women and 81 years for men. Along with the extension
of life span, discrepancy between lifespan and healthy life causes problem due to huge expansion of medical cost. According to the Japanese government official, healthy life expectancy was 74.2 years for women, and 71.2 years for men, so it is nearly 12 years intervals for women and 10 years for men that needs any type of care to live. Here, healthy life is defined as not having activity limitation due to the health reason. Dietary control and physical activity are main factors to keep wellness and longevity but a combined method is still under developing.
Since ancient times, fasting has been performed for religious reasons or as a cure of diseases. Takahira was at the vanguard of fasting therapy in 1910-1920. He studied precisely the metabolic changes caused by fasting, and reviewed the efficacy of fasting therapy in various disease states. Mitsuo Koda developed fasting dietary therapy for various diseases, and confirmed beneficial effects for many patients with intractable diseases.
However, fasting method for healthy longevity or daily wellness has not been established. Our group had practiced macrobiotics for more than 10 years, and visited various fasting groups from 2005 to 2014. Upon these experiences we developed the teaching and practice system in 4-day “Wellness-fasting”. Daily nutritional intake was about 300 kcal by fermented vegetable juice. Many women had light headache in daily life, which became worse during fasting, but finally it disappeared, and substituted to vivid and active feeling to do something.
Adv Food Technol Nutr Sci Open J. 2016; 2(3): 103-109. doi: 10.17140/AFTNSOJ-2-136
