Thought-tober: Cleansing, Fasting & The Natural World

Are all the health benefits we see from juicing, vegan, low carb, paleo, cleansing, etc. what we would see from simple fasting or caloric restriction? In essence, are all these diets and strategies just versions of under eating that happens by default in the natural world?

Is that what winter and spring would be? Fasting and undereating (particularly carbs) followed by calorie restricted plant based “cleansing” is basically what winter and spring would often be in the natural world.

Summer & Fall: Abundant food and energy.

Winter: Fasting/CR with mostly animal food.

Spring: Calorie sparse, heavy in plant foods, but with increasing availability of food volume and variety over the season.

Today, we are trying/expecting to go from a lifetime of excess (aka endless summer) to a version of winter/spring (fasting/low carb/vegan/etc) literally overnight. We’re trying to replicate two seasons worth of biology in 3-60 days. This is after 5, 10, 20+ years of excessive summertime eating and behavior. The ratio of both time and intensity is way off and there are no transitions. It’s like falling asleep in the summer and waking up in the winter or spring. Is it surprising that this doesn’t usually work or that the body would have a hard time or adverse reaction to this abrupt and unnatural change?

Do we need to consider what season it is when choosing which dietary intervention to implement?

Are these diets that may accidentally/sort of accomplish/mimic/stumble upon symmetry with natural order the best way to approach this or is there a better way that is more harmonious with human nature?

Thanks for thinking, have a great day!