Food sensitivities have a HUGE impact on motility. One of the ways that the body responds to food sensitivities (which are different from food allergies and food intolerances–you can read more about  >>here<<) is to do something with water.  The intestines will either draw water into them, resulting in very loose stools, or they will push water out of them, resulting in constipation.

But other things affect motility, such as how well-hydrated you are, how well you chew your food, and how well your Migrating Motor Complex (MMC) is working.  It’s obvious that we have a lot of control over how well-hydrated we are and how well we chew our food, but did you know that we can also have some control over how well our MMC works?  Yes, we can!

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a fantastic way to improve how well your MMC is working.  Intermittent Fasting, whether at night, between meals, or both is a great way to improve peristalsis, which is the involuntary wave-like contractions that move our food through our digestive tract.  

There are many forms of IF and it can be adapted to fit each person’s unique lifestyle.  There are also many reasons to do IF (more on the benefits below), but to have the best effect on peristalsis, it is best to have a nightly fast of about 12-14 hours for women and about 14-16 hours for men, combined with a fast of about 4-6 hours between meals (no snacking) during the day.

For instance, if a woman finished her dinner at 7:00 pm and didn’t eat again until 9:00 am, she just did an overnight fast of 14 hours. Then, if she eats breakfast at 9:00 am, lunch at 1:30 pm, and dinner at 6:00 pm, with no snacking in between, she goes 4 hours between all of her meals.

Fasting any longer at night or between meals requires eating two meals a day instead of three, which is fine, and perhaps even better!  The real key to using IF to improve MMC function (peristalsis) is NO SNACKING between meals or after dinner.

One caveat of IF is to not eat a huge dinner and then go to bed.  Whether intermittent fasting or not, it’s best to finish dinner at least 2-3 hours before your bedtime.  This helps to prevent heartburn and allows time for digestion to take place so that your body can perform its very important cleaning functions during your resting hours.

Intermittent Fasting has many benefits other than improving MMC function.  Here’s just a few:

• regulates insulin levels which is a big help in preventing and treating diabetes,
• triggers autophagy, or cleaning up, in the body,
  
• makes your body work more efficiently and cleanly,
  
• improves the ability of stem cells to regenerate,
  
• improves leptin levels so that you’re not getting hunger signals all the time, and
  
• tells your body to quit storing fat and burn it for energy instead.

There are so many more benefits, but I’d have to get all nerdy-geeky to explain them all!  If you want to know more about IF, including the many benefits and the many ways it can be done, look for Dave Asprey’s book “Fast This Way: Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation, and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be .”

I’ve helped many people identify and overcome their food sensitivities with my Better Digestion Blueprint Program.  It is the fastest way I know to decrease inflammation anywhere in your body and get your digestive issues under control.  You can learn more about the program, as well as apply for a spot  >>here<<.