I have been in the weight loss field for over 25 years and I have done extensive research on the subject of hunger. There is absolutely no disputing the health benefits of prolonged periods with no food (fasting) and letting your body go hungry before eating, and yet you hardly ever hear about it. Why is that? The answer has a lot to do with the fact that no one makes money if you are not eating! Think about it! Most of the information we receive today, directly or indirectly, comes from somebody trying to sell us something. [For example, everywhere you look, there are ads, whether it is on TV, in Magazines, on the radio, on billboards or on the web.] It is estimated that the average person comes across thousands of ads every day. A big percentage of those ads are from food companies trying to persuade you to eat their food by telling you how good it tastes or how good for your health it is. Food companies alone spend billions per year on advertising. Here is my question. Who makes money when you don't eat? No one! Since no one makes money from you when you don't eat, who would be interested in promoting the benefits of fasting or not eating? No one, or at least very few people.
I am not saying that food companies don't care about their customers' health or that there is anything wrong with advertising, but they have a product to sell and if a solution does not involve their product they are not going to promote that solution. At the end of the day, it is not their job to promote a solution that they don't benefit from. They are in the food business, not the weight loss business. The only people interested in promoting this healthy idea are people like me who sell information on books or have paying websites that make money directly from the consumer and do not rely on paying sponsors on our websites to make our income. Our loyalty lies with our clients because our clients pay our salary and we know if we want our clients to keep coming back, whether to buy another of our books or continue paying their memberships, we need to give them the best information possible. Unfortunately, our advertising budget can't compete with the billions of dollars the food industry spends on advertising, so this is one reason why you hardly hear about the benefits of letting your body go hungry before eating.
As far as why most nutritionists don't teach the important role hunger and fasting plays in health is because most college courses on nutrition don't emphasize it. I remember all the nutritional courses I took, and not one talked about the importance of letting your body go hungry. All the courses focused on calories and the type of foods we should be eating or avoiding.
As to why most colleges and universities don't emphasize the benefits of fasting and letting your body go hungry, I can only speculate. The evidence is so overwhelming, the only conclusion I could come up with is that there is something else that is holding them back from teaching about fasting and hunger. My guess is because of special interest groups, like the food industry, who sponsor many of the studies and newsletters universities publish.
Think about it. It is not in the best interest of the food industry for people to eat only when hungry because they will end up eating a lot less food. The food industry, through the millions of dollars they spend on lobbying, has a lot of influence on the government's nutritional recommendations. Also, the food industry spends plenty of money on colleges and university research studies. Do you think is in the best interest of the universities and colleges to teach things that could hurt their biggest sponsors? Of course not.
A great book to read about the food industry and the great influence it has on the way we eat today is the book by Marion Nestle "Food Politics". You will be surprised when you learn the amount of influence the food industry has.
The bottom line is that the food industry has great influence over the government and the educational institutions and any information that would hinder the sales of food gets ignored or greatly suppressed. Since most educational institutions don't emphasize the benefits of fasting and eating less often, most nutritionist, who get their information from those institutions, will not be very aware of the benefits.
Although I am a big believer in the value of education, sometimes structured education, like colleges and universities, can put blinders on people. That is what I think has happened with most nutritionist and that is why so few of them teach the importance of fasting and letting your body go hungry before eating.
Now you know why one of the best things you can do for your health has been kept so quiet!
For information about my company Live Your Way Thin LLC and the services we offer, please visit my website: http://www.liveyourwaythin.com
