Short excerpt from a YouTube conversation (Ben Greenfield and an unidentified speaker) about intermittent fasting and early dinner timing. The speaker notes social/family challenges to eating early and the potential benefits (e.g., autophagy). Ben frames the discussion by introducing a ‘body as a battery’ electrochemical metaphor to explain factors that charge or drain physiological energy related to health and longevity.
Are you doing any type of intermittent fasting? Like, how long is it after you've had your last meal, the night before, that you're jumping into like a feeding protocol, breaking the fast, so to speak? I try to eat dinner like between maybe 3 and 5pm oh, gosh, killing me. All the longevity enthusiasts I talk to. You guys all eat so early. And that's the part about having a family. Man, we have these big glorious family dinners, but I'm still burping up steak when I get into bed at night. I know, I know that, that I would have better autophagy if I didn't. But yeah, I'm definite aware of the fact that eating earlier is better.
I would say, though, that the number one thing to think about, and this relates to you bringing up last night, is the concept that our bodies are a battery, right? Your body actually operates with a very precise electrochemical gradient within the cell membrane. And there are certain things that can charge the body's battery and there are certain things that can drain the body's battery.
The Solution to Aging Might Be Closer Than Anyone Realizes - With Ben Goertzel
