A lesson from my dog

by Gwyn Whittaker, Owner of GreenFare

When Dillon, my Shetland Sheepdog, stopped eating, it was very worrisome. For him, eating meant things were good; when he stopped, it usually signaled that something was wrong. The natural reaction of veterinarians is often to address the symptom by prescribing an appetite stimulant. While that might have made him eat, it wouldn’t have addressed the root cause of why he suddenly lost interest in food. Animals, it turns out, instinctively understand something we are only beginning to appreciate about autophagy—the body’s accelerated healing process that occurs under certain types of stress. In this case, the stress is the absence of food. Because digestion uses a large share of the body’s energy, giving the system a rest can allow it to focus on repair. This is part of the growing interest in intermittent fasting: fewer meals mean more time for the body to “clean house.”

Autophagy is essentially the body’s housekeeping, activated by things like fasting, exercise, and exposure to hot and cold temperatures. In the Netflix series “You Are What You Eat,” the topic is discussed by Christopher Gardner, M.D., of Stanford University in the context of promoting longevity. Periods of famine can have dramatic benefits; for example, a 30-day water fast is routinely used at the TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California, where some chronic conditions have been shown to improve. In that medical setting, stopping food intake is used to stimulate autophagy—the breakdown of aging or damaged cellular components and the generation of new, healthy ones. After a weeklong water fast, my own long-term knee pain disappeared and has not returned.

The benefits of exercise are widely known; even a daily half-hour walk has been linked to increased lifespan. Autophagy plays a role here, too, in everything from improving metabolic health and reducing inflammation to slowing aspects of aging. Many cultures also embrace the health effects of temperature extremes. In Scandinavian countries, people routinely move between ice baths and hot springs or saunas as part of their wellness habits.

I was in Africa last month for several weeks, and midway through the trip, about six of us developed food poisoning, likely from contaminated water used to wash uncooked produce. One woman ended up in the hospital, and another had a severe reaction to an antibiotic. I chose to fast, drink water, and rest. After two solid days of sleep, I emerged feeling fine. The absence of food had given my body time to heal itself. It remains striking that animals know to stop eating when they are sick. Today, we have science that helps explain why that instinct is often a wise one.