This is an episode of JJ Virgin's podcast titled "Why Has Our Culture Moved Away From Fasting?" featuring guest Dr. Will Cole. The episode opens with multiple sponsor ad reads (Wayfair, Earth Breeze, Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, Monarch, Corona) and an introduction framing the question about the cultural decline of fasting. Dr. Will Cole explains that fasting has millennia-old roots — both ancestral (food scarcity) and religious/spiritual (Ramadan, Yom Kippur, Lent) — and argues that modern convenience and an evolutionary mismatch have led to chronic inflammation and related health issues. He presents fasting, especially flexible intermittent or "intuitive fasting," as a means to realign lifestyle with genetic/epigenetic patterns, reduce neuroinflammation, and cultivate spiritual stillness via practices like journaling, mindfulness, and nature immersion. The episode also contains cross-promos and podcast network messaging.
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Why has Our Culture Moved Away From Fasting? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Alex Ask the Health Expert. Joanne from Instagram asks, Fasting has such a long and rich history. Why has our culture moved away from this model of eating? Hey, it's JJ and today I have my buddy Dr. Will Cole with me to answer this question. He was named one of the top 50 functional medicine and integrative medicine docs in the nation and he sees patients globally through his virtual clinic. He's also the co host of Goop Fellas podcast and the author of best selling books Keto the Inflammation Spectrum and the new one Intuitive Fasting. He's also a big peloton enthusiast and I gotta tell you Will, once I get my output up a little bit, I'm coming for yolk. So stay tuned. We'll be right back with the answer.
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The fasting has such a rich and long history. It's been used throughout the world over millennia for different reasons. Obviously, from an ancestral health perspective, food wasn't always available. So it was something that our genes would have adapted to. Because research estimates that about 99% of our genetics haven't changed in 10,000 years yet our world has changed very dramatically in a very short period of time. When you're looking at the context of the totality of human history, just think of the last 100 years, the last 200 years, let alone 10,000 years, and the amount of change that's. And we've moved away from periods of fasting because of convenience, because of modernity. It comes with many amazing things, but it comes with a massive price tag for many people in the form of chronic inflammation problems, different autoimmune issues, mental health issues, which are physical health issues. That's something that I talk a lot about in intuitive fasting, is that mental health is not separate from physical health. Mental health is physical health. Our brain is part of our body. And you can separate things like anxiety and depression and fatigue and brain fog with physical health. I mean, we have to look at the neuroinflammatory pathways that are a part of this. The research shows very clearly in most cases have these inflammatory components to them. So do we have to look at this? Why is there a rise of chronic inflammation because of this genetic epigenetic mismatch? This world has changed very dramatically in a short period of time. And this evolutionary mismatch is at the heart of what researchers are really exploring is why we have this epidemic rise of autoimmune issues, chronic health problems, and brain health issues. So fasting is a way to decrease the chasm between genetics and epigenetics our environment, the foods we think we do, we eat, the way that we live our life and our DNA. So instead of our genetics, our DNA, living in a brave new world, it can be more in alignment, our lifestyle can be more alignment with what we've evolved with over years, millennia, Millennia. So that is really what I'm exploring in intuitive fasting from an ancestral health perspective, but also from a spiritual and religious standpoint. Fasting has been used too, even when food was available. So if you look at Islam with Ramadan or Judaism with Yom Kippur or Tish B', Av, in Christianity with Lent, all of these are fasting times, or they started out as fasting times, but they are still fasting times for many people, because there is a stillness and there's a time to eat and a time to fast, and we've lost that connection with our body and the inner stillness and the inner recalibration that can happen through times of fasting. It's very, very powerful. And that spiritual side of fasting is something I'm also exploring in intuitive fasting, is that I call them metaphysical meals. In the book is when you are doing these flexible, intermittent fasting windows, what do you do when you normally eat? So many people are eating when they're because they're bored or eating because they're stressed or eating because they want to distract themselves or eating because that's what they always do at this time. So when you start shifting the window and doing these ebbing and flowing, flexible fasting windows, I wanted to give people something to do during that fasting window. So things like journaling, mindfulness meditation, getting out in nature, Shinrin Yoku, the forest bathing with the Japanese and the South Koreans are looking at in the scientific literature of meditating through the forest and using nature as a meditation, reconnecting ourselves to earth of, you know, where we came. So it's, you know, there's such a divorced nature going on in our modern life. We're divorced from the things we're a part of. So it's just reconnecting ourselves to our ancestry in many ways. It's reconnecting ourselves with what our genetics would have adapted to. It's reconnecting with our inner stillness and quieting that noise. So it's a profound thing when you bring in the spiritual mindfulness component to fasting. It is a beautiful thing that is decreasing that chasm again between genetics and epigenetics.
This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.
Foreign. Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website whatshould I read next podcast.com to find out more.
