#which according to an online translator SHOULD mean One That Hungers

[sotarastas]

When Edax got slurped:

When he turned out fine:

[travelingbytastebuds]

JAPAN

WHERE: Shiki's Sushi Babylon, New York *has since closed*

My first experience with Japanese food was when an old friend of mine took me to Shiki Japanese Restaurant in Babylon, Long Island way back around the early 2000s. She loved sushi but back then sushi was not yet a mainstream thing, so I had never had it before. When she took me there, she asked if I knew how to use chopsticks. I had to confess that I did not. So she told me that they didn't have any forks at this restaurant so it was either use the chopsticks or I wasn't going to be able to eat my lunch.

It took me a good hour of looking like a complete fool, trial by hunger and dropping the pieces over and over again before I finally was able to eat anything. By the end of the meal, I was able to use chopsticks at least a little-- enough to finish my lunch at least. Hunger can be such a motivating teacher!

She smiled as we were leaving and told me, "actually, I lied, they do have forks, but I didn't want you to look like an amateur."

My mouth fell open, dropping right down like one of the pieces of sushi that had fallen to my plate dozens of times.

I forgave her for this after sushi became one of my favorite meals though. And she paid me back for her prank by teaching me the difference between sashimi (raw fish/meat and vegetables), sushi (fish, seaweed, vegetables and rice), nigiri (raw fish, seaweed, veggies and rice) and maki (fish, seaweed and rice). And I was able to pick up a new skill that day, which was fun to show off. I can still remember my grandfather watching me with chopsticks and Chinese food (switching ethnic cuisines a bit here), and he laughed and said, "You don't know how to use those. Just grab a fork." and I smiled at him, winked and used my chopsticks just like my friend had shown me. Life is pretty cool when you've got skills you can show off like that when people are laughing at you.

My favorites types of sushi have always been the cooked versions. Firstly because the sushi episode on The Simpsons still scares me and I don't trust any chef to give me the right part of the blowfish, heh. Secondly, because once I actually tasted raw sushi many years later, I found it far too slimy for me to enjoy. And thirdly, the crunchies and the tempura are the best parts!

AND ALSO...

WHERE: Jimmy's Sushi (600 Portion Rd, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779)

Sushi started to pick up steam in the mainstream throughout the early 2000s and eventually more places were offering it. One of my favorite sushi places to go to on Long Island eventually became Jimmy's Sushi. I LOVE this place! I even had sushi at the fancy Japanese restaurant in EPCOT years later, Teppan Edo, but no one does sushi like Jimmy's. They were a favorite amongst my college friends and I have so many memories of groups of us going there, popping open the edamame appetizers, and talking about random stuff while devouring mango topped tempura shrimp and other delicacies.

Jimmy's Sushi was also where my then-fiancé took me and his family when they visited up from Florida, wherein his little nephew looked over his little marinated octopi and lamented, "why do baby octopuses have to be so delicious?" And then proceeded to gobble every last one on his plate like a madman. It became a running joke for us back then.

AND ALSO...

WHERE: Kit Kats sent from Japan

When I moved to Virginia, my Japanese food eating days were far from over. A friend of mine went to vacation in Japan and asked if he could send me some souvenirs. I'm not one to turn down free gifts, so I replied,  "please do!"

He proceeded to send me a huge box of an assortment of Japanese Kit Kat bars.

The Kit Kats for today only had Japanese writing on them with no picture and I had to search for a translator online to help. Found out that they were green tea. They were... very strange. I think if I knew what flavor I was eating it would have made more sense to my taste buds. According to Wikipedia, "Marketing for Kit Kats in Japan is believed to have benefited from the coincidental false cognate with "Kitto Katsu", a phrase meaning "You will surely win" in Japanese. Some market research has shown that the brand is strongly correlated to good luck charms, particularly among students ahead of exams." And back then, having just come out of my relationship with my fiancé and living in a completely foreign new state with no job yet, I could use all the luck anyone would send me! Why are my friends so good to me?

I taste tested all of them as I devoured every single one (partially due to the fact that I didn't have a lot of food around that time to begin with). My findings were that peanut butter Kit Kats are pretty good (not as good as Reese's which I love, but Reese's is like professional at that kind of peanut butter/chocolate combination). And strawberry was my favorite at first, until the cherry cheesecake flavored ones beat those by a nose.

AND ALSO...

WHERE: King's Sushi (9125 W Broad St & 9111 Midlothian Turnpike, Richmond, VA)

Once I was successfully living in Richmond, I found my new sushi joint which really has been the only place to ever tie with Jimmy's Sushi. It's called King Sushi, and as far as Virginia goes, it is the absolute best Sushi joint down here! It's part buffet but also table service-- you pay one price and then just keep pointing at the menu, ordering things until your stomach feels like it might explode with food... but like in a happy way, you know? heh. I'll never get tired of this place. It filled my heart with the power of sushi when I could no longer go to Jimmy's, so it definitely gets a nod.

AND ALSO...

WHERE: Random Pocky snacks and Universal Yum Yums Subscription Box

I have also had my fair share of Pocky chocolate-coated biscuit sticks just being around a lot of people who are into anime at geek conventions and such.

Universal Yum Yums has also been a great place for me to get some Japanese snacks. In May 2017, they send a box of kawaii snacks and treats, my favorite being the little baby gummy hamburgers that made me feel like I was a giant Godzilla here to eat all the human food in one bite. Rawr!! Always fun to chow down on some Japanese treats when playing Sushi Go (such an adorable game, btw!).

AND ALSO...

WHERE: EPCOT Festival of The Arts 2020

Also want to just point out the frozen sake they have in Epcot. Sake might have been first produced in 500 BC with its invention predating recorded history, but freezing the traditional rice wine is a new style of eating it straight out of Florida. A little of the new world and old world, creating something so very tasty. I think all alcohol drink should be slushies! I would drink so many more of them that way. I ran away that weekend, heading out of town because I was annoyed and needed to go someplace other than home for a while and I just somehow ended up at Disney that Valentine's Day.

In my own drunken social media words, "I'm drunk in Japan in EPCOT drinking frozen sake. There are some manic episodes I regret, but this is not one of them."

[scripttorture]

Your National Styles post is very helpful! I was wondering though if you could talk about what kinds of torture were common in pre-modern India? I don't have a specific time period in mind, I'm just after inspiration for a fantasy setting that's loosely inspired by India. Thanks.

This made me smile. Thank you Anon, any excuse to read more Indian history is a gift.

 I don’t have good sources for the entire sub-continent. Most of what I have focuses on the north. I’m also not 100% sure what you mean by pre-modern so I’m going to try to describe as much as I can, adding rough areas and time periods. That way you can pick and choose things that suit what you’re going for in your story. :)

 I’m not going to try with the Harappans. Partly because their writing system still hasn’t been deciphered but mostly because I intend to continue imagining they created an egalitarian utopia. Until such a time as some one finds proof of kingship or other crimes. We all have our stories we like to cling to.

 I actually started out with Keay’s India: A History (imaginative title isn’t it?) because the local library had it. It actually turned out to be a pretty good sign post for other sources.

 India has an incredibly rich history, but much of that history wasn’t written down until hundreds of years after the events took place. Which is something it has in common with most northern European countries, although most European countries have less thorough oral histories.

 India is quite interesting as a case study in the depth and accuracy of oral history. The presence of separate oral records for the same events and separate strands of written records- well it builds up an interesting picture. Apart from pure historical interest it’s also interesting to see what people remember, attempts to change records and how (with the right systems in place) oral history can be remarkably resistant to change.

 I digress.

 The point is Arthashastra is available in full online here. It’s a kind of guide to the organisation of a state. We don’t have exact dates for it (it was probably written by several people complied over quite a long period) but it’s probably mostly from roughly 200 AD. It is focused on the Mauryan empire dated as beginning in roughly 320 BC.

 It was pretty damned big. Conservative estimates have the empire stretching across the north of the Indian peninsula from ocean to ocean, from Pakistan, Punjab and Nepal all the way across into Bangladesh and south into Orissa and Maharashtra. Just looking at a global map, we’re talking conservatively of an area the size of France, Germany, Poland and Italy.

 The translation I’ve linked to has some issues that I can see from a casual read. For instance the references to ‘eunuchs’ were probably rendered in the original as a domination of tritiya-prakriti; literally ‘third kind’. The closest English translation is probably ‘queer’ as the term encompasses homosexual, bisexual, transgender, gender nonconforming and intersex people as well as people who can’t naturally conceive. Some of the subtleties in the original are probably lost in translation and there may well be references I’m missing.

 Now like most historical cultures the Mauryans tortured and tried to impose legal limits on torture. We know from modern analysis that legal restrictions on torture don’t work: torturers will always ignore them.

 So it’s highly unlikely that the tortures the Mauryans allowed by law were the only tortures that happened in the Mauryan empire. But we can be pretty confident that the tortures they listed as legal were used through their empire.

 Arthashastra describes torture as a punishment and torture as an attempt to force a suspect to confess. At the same time the text acknowledges that torture can force false confessions and appears to cite a named legal case where this happened.

 I feel it’s also worth stressing that the vast majority of punishments the text suggests are fines. Apparently in ancient India you could get fined for almost anything.

 Arthashastra’s description of tortures starts with a list of people who can not legally be tortured. Now torturers will generally ignore this but I feel it’s worth including for some cultural context:

 ‘Ignoramuses, youngsters, the aged, the afflicted, persons under intoxication, lunatics, persons suffering from hunger, thirst, or fatigue from journey, persons who have just taken more than enough of meal, persons who have confessed of their own accord (átmakásitam), and persons who are very weak,--none of these shall be subjected to torture.’

 ‘Those whose guilt is believed to be true shall be subjected to torture (áptadosham karma kárayet). But not women who are carrying or who have not passed a month after delivery.

 Torture of women shall be half of the prescribed standard. Or women with no exception may be subjected to the trial of cross-examination (vákyanuyogo vá).

 Those of Bráhman caste and learned in the Vedas as well as asceties shall only be subjected to espionage.

 Those who violate or cause to violate the above rules shall be punished with the first amercement. The same punishment shall be imposed in case of causing death to any one by torture.’

 Now I know this is a little dense so in case that’s not clear the second passage is saying that women should be tortured less then men and pregnant women or women who recently gave birth shouldn’t be tortured at all.

 The last paragraph states that the punishment for a torturer for violating the rules, or for killing someone while torturing them is a fine. And not a particularly steep one. (Based on modern research I’d say it’s unlikely these limits were enforced, consistently or at all).

 The text describes whipping, beating with canes, suspension and ‘water-tube’.

 It particularly talks about beating the thighs, palms of the hands, soles of the feet (I refer to this as falaka) and the knuckles.

 It states there are two kinds of suspension but doesn’t describe them. Most suspension tortures involve hanging a person by their arms in some manner, but not all. I honestly can’t tell from the text what sort of suspensions were used.

 ‘Water tube’ could mean- well a lot of things. It could mean pumping, which is forcing someone to swallow liquid until their internal organs are painfully swollen (often causing vomiting and diarrhoea). It could mean waterboarding. It could mean the ‘Chinese water torture’ (incredibly misleading name), continual dripping of water on to someone’s eyes, which is actually a form of sleep deprivation.

 There’s also this ‘the hands being joined so as to appear like a scorpion’ which sounds like a form of finger milking. That’s bindings around the hands or arms restricting circulation and causing the hands to swell painfully.

 The last three things acknowledged as torture in the text are these ‘burning one of the joints of a finger after the accused has been made to drink rice gruel; heating his body for a day after be has been made to drink oil; causing him to lie on coarse green grass for a night in winter.’

 I honestly haven’t a clue what the significance of the rice gruel might be in this context.

 The combination of drinking oil and heat sounds like a strange combination of tortures. Drinking oils can uh- basically give someone diarrhoea. Oil can also be flammable but I don’t think this is implying immolation. I think it might be indicating a combination of pumping, dehydration, starvation and a temperature torture.

 Because forcing a prisoner to drink something that would make them sick would quickly make them dehydrated. Subjecting them to extremely hot temperatures would then be even more painful and dangerous.

 The final description seems to a straightforward form of exposure. It’s exposing a victim to cold winter temperatures. The implication is that this also involves sleep deprivation. The ‘grass’ may or may not be significant. There are plenty of plants you wouldn’t want to lie down on for a night but I’m unsure whether the ‘coarse’ description indicates something that could cause pain.

 The text also describes beatings, branding the face (of Brahmans specifically) and amputation as punishments. It describes death by ‘torture’ but the particular torture is not specified. It describes capital punishment in general terms ie ‘those who commit this offence shall be put to death’. A few offences called for beheading specifically. It also describes the use of jails.

 The amputations I could find listed were: a finger, a hand, a nose, a leg, ears, male genitalia. There’s also a description of blinding by the application of chemicals.

 As a final note before we move on there’s an interesting passage on sudden death and signs to look for on a corpse that could indicate the cause of death. It’s pretty interesting as an example of how people conducted investigations into murders before we had forensic labs.

 You can probably assume Ashoka is broadly covered by what I’ve described. His ethical pronouncements including prohibits on torture but nothing suggests a complete and enforced ban on the practice so it’s likely to have continued under his rule.

 Now I tried to find some sources on the southern Indian empires, like the Chola but I couldn’t find anything I felt was a clear description of the criminal justice system. Similarly I didn’t find anything clear on the Sangam period.

 I’m honestly not sure if this is because sources don’t exist or because there are less translations from Tamil.

 There is a lot of Tamil poetry from the Sangam period that’s available in translation and touches on Tamil history and wars. These might well serve as a good source of inspiration but I don’t think they’re necessarily a good indication of common practice.

 I am, admittedly, making assumptions based on epic poetry from other countries. My impression though is that these kinds of literary pieces tend to record unusual practices rather than common ones. When they mention common ones they don’t always give the full context of what terms mean. So for instance the Norse Eddas describe several unusual (for the culture) methods of execution and torture, but references to more common ones are usually a word or two without explanation. The Eddas mention blood eagles but don’t actually tell us what they were. This kind of description seems common in the epic poetry I’ve read and as a result I’m assuming the Tamil poetry will be similar.

 The next thing I went to was a couple of Chinese sources recounting travels to India. These were from Buddhist pilgrims so remember that bias while readings their accounts.

 Faxian (Fa Hian) wrote an account that’s available in translation here. I only had a quick flick through but from what I can see it’s more useful for establishing the wider historical context of the countries and the religious climate at the time then it is figuring out ideas about justice and torture.

 The next thing that really stood out is the famous Record of Western Lands, the inspiration for The Journey West by a monk whose name is Romanised in about half a dozen different ways. Hsuan Tsang and Xuanzang seem to be the most popular renderings with the former used predominantly in Indian studies.

 Now the first volume is relatively easy to find but I’ve had difficulty getting access to the other 11.

 Hsuan Tsang periodically recounts stories of Indian history, some involving ideas of punishment, justice and torture. Now a lot of these probably don’t show common practice and some of them seem to have been misinterpreted by Hsuan Tsang (I think the account of voluntary castration is more likely to be describing a queer Indian identity then a punishment) but they’re useful nonetheless.

 Generally Hsuan Tsang seems to be confirming that the practices described in the Arthashastra were still in use while he was travelling. As well as fines he describes imprisonment and social shunning of criminals which may amount to isolation/solitary confinement.

 He describes amputations as punishment, of the nose, ear, hand or foot. He doesn’t describe castration as a punishment per say but it seems likely this continued even if it was rare.

 Hsuan Tsang claims that torture wasn’t used to force confessions but then describes torture being used to force people to plead when they ‘refuse to admit their unlawful activities ashamed of their faults’. Which sounds to me like torture used to force confessions and/or something analogous to the historical English custom of being ‘pressed to plead’ (ie people who refused to plead guilty or innocent were tortured until they pleaded one way or the other).

 The tortures described are a form of near (or likely actual) drowning by putting a person in a weighted sack and throwing them in a river. He also describes a burning torture using hot iron. The other descriptions in this section sound more like ways of divining a person’s alleged guilt and I’m going to ignore them.

 He describes blinding as a punishment. And also a vampire story that I wasn’t expecting.

 As we get into the 700s there’s increasing Arab contact, which at this point is mostly via traders and pirates. My initial notes include some questions about whether this is when falaka was introduced to India but going by the Arthashastra it seems likely falaka was in use long before the Arabs arrived. In fact the spread may have gone the other way.

 It’s also possible that Ancient India and Ancient Egypt both hit upon similar practices separately due to the simple nature of torture. I digress-

 Writings by Arab scholars and travellers about India start becoming more prominent from the 900s onwards. Most of these recount hostile encounters between Muslim forces and Hindu or Buddhist groups. The accounts are a lot less interested in the history and politics of the region then the Chinese travellers three or four hundred years earlier.

 The most easily available one is probably Chach Nama which was written in the 1200s-1300s and claims to be a translation of an earlier work on Arab conquests of Pakistan and north western India during the 800s. However- it’s accuracy on several points is disputed. A lot of people don’t think it’s a translation but an original work combining and re-imagining earlier historical documents. Some of the older accounts, such as those of Al Baladhuri and Al Biruni, contradict it.

 Personally I have slightly more faith in the accuracy of the Chinese accounts then the Chach Nama. I think it’s likely it was constructed to justify conflicts of the 1200s by creating a supposed historical basis for those conflicts. I think it also displays a vested interest in making conquered people appear uncivilised, a pattern that’s common in a lot of historical accounts of foreign countries by the people who conquered them.

 In light of that- I think Al Biruni’s A Critical Study of What India Says, Whether Accepted by Reason or Refused, a better bet. Especially since he seems to have been more interested in Indian society then Indian rulers. (Though take into account my personal biases here; I think Al Biruni is a nice example of how Islamic scholars influenced scientific and historical thought. I think our modern philosophy of science owes a lot to the ideas of truthfulness (al-haqq) Al Biruni and people like him championed. I’m going to own my academic admiration.)

 This looks like your best bet for an easily accessible copy.

 I feel like I should stress, having recommended a bunch of foreign scholars as sources on Indian history, that throughout this period we’re pretty sure Indians were writing their own histories. However not many of them have survived. That’s thought to be because of a combination of the climate and the way things were commonly recorded. The theory I see repeated is that Indians were commonly recording things by carving on wood. This almost invariably rotted away. Similar things have occurred in other countries as well: much of England’s early history literally went up in flames during the Great Fire of London when one of the principal libraries burned and Alexandria’s destruction is generally cited as the reason we don’t have a lot of important classical Greek works, like first hand accounts of Alexander’s conquests or say more Sappho.

 Aaaaand that was the point where my friends staged an intervention and the library demanded financial restitution for my kidnapping of their books.

 Spoil sports. The rest of this is from my general knowledge.

 European forces and settlements in India would probably have introduced more tortures. The Dutch regularly used waterboarding, but I can’t find any indication that this became common practice in India.

 However the British army’s combination of stress positions and exposure did. A punishment the British called ‘crucifixion’ was used throughout India. It involved tying the victim standing with their arms outstretched in a T shape in full sun.

 The stress position itself is incredibly painful, combined with the climate it was likely to cause dehydration and possibly heat stroke as well.

 I couldn’t find any other instances where it seemed like part of a European National Style had been adopted by Indians.

 I found historical references to murgha stress position in India, including an illustration from the early 1800s. I’m not sure how far back the usage goes but that could be because it was generally used against children. Punishments towards children are not generally recorded as torture historically and it can be difficult to trace their usage.

 I couldn’t find any historical references to pepper (putting irritating substances such as pepper or chilli into mucous membranes, eyes, nose, genitals etc). That doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t practiced historically. Again, this is a form of torture that seems to have been associated with abuse of women and children in the home, rather than legislative punishments.

 I think you could use both in a story set in historical India without it appearing out of place. It might not strictly be historically accurate but both would have been possible.

 Judging by the Arthashastra falaka has been in India for a very long time indeed. I couldn’t find enough sources to confidently state it was in continuous from the late BC until today- but virtually every period I could find records of torture in India for included falaka. I think it’s likely that it was used continuously; I can’t prove it.

 Blinding turns up continuously throughout India history as a punishment aimed at people of high social rank or power.

 I’ve read some accounts of burning people alive as a punishment, but these are from later on in Indian history; the 1700s and 1800s. The particular account that springs to mind is Farzana’s ordering a group of arsonists to be burnt alive. The context for this is that they set fire to a group of buildings housing women who lived in purdah and that if the fire hadn’t been put out these women would have burnt alive rather then leave the building. Farzana’s punishment was interpreted as ‘an eye for an eye’.

 I feel like I should probably also briefly mention ritual suicide. There are a lot of historical Indian accounts of people killing themselves rather then renouncing a particular principal. One of the things that shows up repeatedly is women killing themselves when their husbands die. Sometimes this appears to have been voluntary. In other cases it seems as though the women were given no reasonable choice.

 I don’t think this fits the modern legal definition of torture, but it’s certainly an abuse of human rights aimed particularly at women. Starvation, burning on the husband’s funeral pyre and being thrown off tall buildings are the methods I see cited most commonly.

 The position of women in India is- well it’s a couple of books worth of material in itself. And I’d like to stress going in to this that there are very few countries/cultures that treated women well historically. Keep in mind when I describe the position of women and Dalits that the position of women and slaves or ‘barbarians’ in Greece and Rome was not any better.

 There’s a long history in India of confining women and limiting who they can interact with. The Arthashastra describes curfews inflicted on women and recommends barring women from leaving the home without an escort. It also legally limits the people women can invite to their homes.

 In historical Indian society it seems as though- it looks to me as if it would have been very easy for family members to isolate individual women in conditions akin to solitary confinement. This would probably have been unusual but from what I can see of the law and custom it wouldn’t have been seen as illegal or immoral.

 I’ve seen recent pieces claiming that the caste system is a recent invention. But I find this difficult to believe when the caste system is repeatedly cited in historical sources before European colonialism reached India. It’s cited by Al Biruni, Hsuan Tsang and in the Arthashastra.

 Yes there are historical incidences of people taking up occupations that were associated with different castes. Indian farmers and merchants did become Kings. But showing there was some social mobility and that caste was more (or less) flexible at different periods of time isn’t the same as showing that people were in no way limited by their parentage.

 Al Biruni describes the treatment of Dalits as ‘untouchable’ and describes different castes eating and washing separately as well as society relegating Dalits to work that was deemed dirty or unsafe.

 The Arthashastra describes different punishments for different castes (analogous to Old English law ascribing different punishments to different social classes). Unsurprisingly the rulers and ‘pious’ men are usually let off with a fine, while the poorest and the Dalits are supposed to be maimed, tortured or killed for the same transgression.

 It’s more then possible that living conditions and treatment of people at different levels of society was- perhaps not legally torture but certainly inhumane. I can’t find any clear indication that Dalits were made to live separately in the past. But if they were, judging by how the sources say they were treated by law, it seems likely their living conditions would have been worse. They may have had poor access to water, food and adequate shelter.

 I feel it’s also worth noting that Rejali talks about law enforcement targeting these kinds of minority groups for torture as a punishment for social transgressions. Things like- homeless people daring to walk down the streets of a ‘good’ neighbourhood.

 This sort of behaviour is typical of torturers, even when it’s not supported by the law. It occurs today, and I see no reason why it wouldn’t happen in a hierarchical historical society.

 Slavery was present in India. I can’t say for certain that it was present throughout all of Indian history, and it certainly does not seem to be as prevalent as it was in Greece or Rome but it occurred. I’ve seen more accounts of it in the Mughal period then prior to that but this might be due to better record keeping.

 Many of the Black Indian groups around today are descended from freed or escaped slaves brought to India by Arab traders. Beyond that I don’t know much about slavery in historical India. I’m unaware of any one particular industry slaves were funnelled into or of particular punishments (alla the bleeding Romans-).

 If you’re thinking of using slavery in your story I’d suggest sticking to the most common global tortures used against enslaved people: starvation, exposure, lack of medical treatment, beatings, dehydration and over work.

 From what I’ve read I’d say that India generally fits in with my pet theory about changing torture practices over time. I think that it’s only relatively recently that people have thought of torture as primarily a way to ‘get the truth’ (see here for why this idea is bullshit).

 What I’m interpreting from these sources is that in India, like most of the world, torture was used as a punishment, people were sentenced to it. It was also used to force confessions. And although there was an idea that torture could be used to find the truth, this was not seen as it’s primary purpose.

 And I think that’s probably where I’m going to have to leave this. At four thousand words it’s actually shorter/less detailed then I’d hoped. I blame my mates for insisting I have a social life.

 I think it should be enough to get you started though. :)

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Disclaimer

[ellymackay]

Can Intermittent Fasting Help Your Sleep this Holiday Season?

The following article Can Intermittent Fasting Help Your Sleep this Holiday Season? was first published to https://www.ellymackay.com

Always consult your doctor before undertaking a new diet or fasting routine. This is not medical advice, but it is information you can use as a conversation-starter with your physician or nutritionist.

I’m currently conducting a sleep course online and there’s one thing people are asking me about A LOT: intermittent fasting. I’m not surprised. Fasting has become extremely popular as a tool for weight loss, anti-aging and longevity, and for its benefits to mental and physical health.

I’ve talked about intermittent fasting and its relationship to sleep before. Since then, there’s been some new information introduced about the ways fasting may benefit sleep. I’m guessing you might be as intrigued by this form of time-restricted eating as my students.

We’re heading right into the holidays, when healthful dietary choices can be tough, with  all of those constant temptations. Eating routines—the timing of our meals throughout the day and night—also can get turned upside down, with parties, long, festive meals that stretch late into the evening, and the constant supply of snacks and treats that accompany the holiday season.

All this can take its toll on your energy levels, affect your mood, and of course make it more likely you’ll gain weight. Holiday season grazing also can create complications for sleep—even for routinely good sleepers.

You may not choose to try intermittent fasting during the holidays—I get it. But it’s worth a reminder, as we enter the season, that paying attention not only to the WHAT of your diet, but also the WHEN, matters for sleep, as well as for your mood, cognitive performance, and overall health.

What is intermittent fasting?

When you practice intermittent fasting, you designate regular, specific times to eat nothing, or to consume very few calories. When your body goes into a fasting mode, your digestive system quiets. Your body uses this time to repair and restore itself at a cellular level. Fasting also triggers the body to use its stored fat for energy, making it a potentially effective strategy for weight loss.

The period of nightly sleep is a natural fast we undertake every night, most of us without even realizing that’s what we’re doing. Indeed, a waking fasting state and a sleep state share several characteristics, including a body with cells engaged in repair, and a body that is taking a rest from the demanding work of digestion.

How does intermittent fasting work?

Creating a fasting routine isn’t complicated. (But you should always talk with your doctor about making changes to your diet, and before you begin a fasting regimen.) There are a number of routines that are commonly used with intermittent fasting.

People choose to restrict their eating to periods of 6, 8, or 10 hours a day allows for a consistent fast to occur every day in the remaining 14-18 hours.

Some people undertake a full 24-hour fast one or two days a week (they drink water)

A routine known as 5:2 fasting combines single days of calorie restriction (eating around 500 calories) every 2-3 days, with normal eating in between.

It’s worth noting that despite all the attention it’s getting, fasting isn’t a new practice. People have used fasting for thousands of years as a cultural, religious, spiritual and health practice. For example, fasting that aligns with circadian rhythms–restricting eating with sundown and resuming after sunrise—is a practice that Muslims undertake during the holiday Ramadan. (Scientists have used Ramadan as a way to study how fasting affects the body and mind, as well as to study how fasting affects sleep patterns.) People of the Jewish faith fast for 24 hours during the holiday of Yom Kippur.

The health benefits of fasting

A growing body of research shows the potential benefits for health and disease protection from intermittent fasting. Fasting can result in weight loss, according to research. Studies  show fasting can improve insulin sensitivity, lower inflammation, and improve markers for heart disease including lowering levels of unhealthful LDL cholesterol. Intermittent fasting has been shown to have the potential to  treat some cancers, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. There’s also evidence that fasting may help reduce risk for developing cancer.

Time restricted eating can improve immune function and enhance the body’s ability to repair cells and DNA. Fasting induces a cellular process known as autophagy, which is when the cells of the body clears itself of damaged cells, spurring the growth of new, healthy cells. Autophagy is one way the body maintains more youthful, functional cells and protects against disease, by eliminating aged cells that behave dysfunctionally, and clearing the body of toxins that build up in older cells.

Intermittent fasting increases the body’s natural production of human growth hormone. Human growth hormone encourages fat burning and protects lean muscle mass, aids in cellular repair, and may help to slow aging. Fasting can reduce unhealthful inflammation and boost the body’s ability to protect itself against oxidative stress, which is one significant contributor to aging and disease.

Given these benefits, it’s not hard to understand why intermittent fasting would be attractive as an anti-aging strategy. But what about your nightly rest? How does fasting help improve sleep?

The science of fasting and sleep

Eating and sleeping are two fundamental processes that are also deeply entwined. Both are essential for survival. Both are regulated by internal, homeostatic drives and also by circadian rhythms. Many people know circadian rhythms play a big role in regulating sleep. But eating, hunger and digestion have their own circadian rhythmicity.

Eating and sleeping aren’t just influenced by circadian rhythms. They also exert influences back on those rhythms themselves. An irregular sleeping routine can de-synchronize a well-timed circadian clock, and throw daily rhythms off course. The timing of meals also affects our circadian clocks, and the function of circadian rhythms that exert a powerful influence over our sleep.

(If you’re interested in learning more about the WHEN  of eating, including the benefits of establishing daily windows of eating and fasting times, I talk about this in my book, The Power of When.)

A growing body of research indicates fasting has a strengthening effect on circadian rhythms, helping to keep circadian clocks synchronized. Because circadian rhythms exert a strong influence over nearly all the body’s processes (as well as most of our behavior), a more robust, synchronized clock has profound effects on health. Well synchronized clocks support healthy metabolic activity, stronger immunity, and better, more restful and restorative sleep-wake cycles. Disrupted circadian clocks are closely linked to aging and disease. Keeping the body’s master bio clock in sync is one critical way to slow biological aging and potentially extend lifespan. 

Other recent research has demonstrated effects that fasting can have directly on sleep, and also on conditions that affect sleep. For example, one study in mice found that a 24-hour fasting period, followed by a meal, led to deeper levels of non-REM sleep. Research has shown that fasting may help to reduce chronic pain, elevate mood and decrease inflammation—all conditions to which improvements will also benefit sleep.

A lot of people turn to intermittent fasting and to calorie restriction as a means to lose weight. Studies indicate periodic fasting can help with weight loss, including helping to push beyond a weight loss plateau. It’s important to note that research—including this 2018 study—show that even when fasting doesn’t lead to weight loss, it can improve underlying cardiometabolic health, increasing insulin sensitivity, reducing blood pressure and cholesterol, lowering inflammation, bringing appetite under control (including reducing cravings for sugar). Maintaining a healthy weight, protecting cardiometabolic health, and adhering to a healthful diet will all translate into more restful, plentiful, high quality sleep.

A group of recent studies reinforces that the timing of when we fast matters, with restricting eating to earlier in the day showing a range of benefits, from better insulin function and lower blood pressure, greater appetite control, increased fat loss and weight reduction, and better reinforcement of circadian rhythms. This lines up with all we know about the hazards of late-in-the-day eating for weight, health, and sleep. An abundance of research tells us that  eating heavily near bedtime can worsen sleep quality and cause other complications for restful sleep. A 2019 study found that among people with mild and moderate sleep apnea, eating more of total calories later in the day is linked to more disrupted sleep patterns, and to more severe sleep apnea.

Individual chronotype will play a factor in determining the right window of time to schedule fasting periods. It’s not likely that Wolves will be able to sustain a fast that ENDS at 5 p.m., for example. As a Wolf and Intermittent Faster I shifted my feeding time to 5:00 p.m. and it has worked extremely well. To be clear, this is NOT a schedule for everyone, but for some Wolves, it could be a game changer.

Every chronotype is different and every individual is different.  It’s worth keeping in mind the science on the benefits of early time-restricted eating, while also making room to find the intermittent fasting schedule that suits your chronotype and individual needs, in consultation with your doctor.

Don’t know your chronotype? Take this quiz to find out: http://www.chronoquiz.com/

There is a lot of interesting and compelling research coming out about intermittent fasting, and some of it shows that fasting may have real promise as a tool to help optimize sleep. But we’re still at a relative beginning of understanding how different forms of fasting and calorie restriction affect sleep. Both potential benefits and drawbacks need to be more fully examined and understood. For example, there’s evidence that during fasting periods, alertness and the production of neurochemicals that stimulate wakefulness in the brain increase. Alertness and wake-promoting hormone production appear to decrease during the night to levels that support sleep. But this is just one area of study that needs additional attention. We need to see more research that investigates the specific implications of intermittent fasting directly on sleep.

Fasting isn’t for everyone. People with histories of disordered eating are cautioned against fasting. Women who are pregnant or breast feeding shouldn’t’ fast. Anyone with any medical condition—including a sleep disorder, or mood disorders such as anxiety—should consult with a physician before adopting a fasting routine. Healthy folks, too: if you’re going to try intermittent fasting, it’s important to check in with your doctor before you begin.

If you’re interested in learning more about how intermittent fasting works and how people begin a fasting practice, there are a couple of beginner guides that I recommend as a starting point for information gathering before you talk with your physician. MindBodyGreen has a good intermittent fasting discussion here. And here’s another fasting 101 guide with some helpful basic information. Both have been reviewed by medical professionals.

Whether you explore fasting as a practice with the guidance of your doctor, or begin to pay more mindful attention to your daily eating patterns, a greater awareness of the when of your eating will make you feel and sleep better, right through the holidays and beyond.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM

The Sleep Doctor

www.thesleepdoctor.com

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Donating to Food Banks: Here’s What You Should Know

The holiday season is a time to appreciate what we’re thankful for—and one of those things is always having food on the table. Not everyone is fortunate enough to know where their next meal is coming from, which is why now is a great opportunity to give back, and help families who are struggling this time of year.

However, you may not know where to donate, or what the best thing TO donate is. Well worry not—we’ve got you covered with plenty of resources and tips on finding the right food bank, what to donate and what not to donate.

Finding the Right Food Bank

Many of us have donated canned goods to a local school, grocery store or charitable organization (often referred to as food drives), but there are plenty of reputable food banks in your area that you may not know about. Feeding America has a local food bank finder that’s very useful when conducting your search. With over 200 food banks across the country, there’s a variety of locations dedicated to helping end hunger in their specific area.

If you’re looking into other charities focused on feeding the underprivileged, check out this list of hunger fighting charities, including their ratings and insights.

Food Banks vs. Food Pantries

Before we go further, it’s important to understand the distinction between a food bank and a food pantry, and the purposes of each.

A food bank is a storage hub that receives food directly from food drives and the food industry, and distributes it to agencies, local soup kitchens and shelters to those who need it.

A food pantry is a single location that gets food from a food bank and distributes it directly to people in need. These are usually standalone facilities that donate to families on a monthly basis.

Growing up, you may have mostly seen food drives, which are a charitable donation made by members of an organization or business to accumulate and distribute food to those in need. This often happens at schools and businesses who want to accumulate food to make a difference.

Although the names are different, they all carry a similar mission statement: ending hunger. In this article, we’re focusing on food banks for terminology, but the pointers mentioned can apply to food pantries as well! Now here’s what you can donate below:

What to Donate

Canned goods, especially meats such as tuna or chicken

Canned or dried fruit

Pasta

Peanut butter

Rice

Powdered or shelf milk that doesn’t require refrigeration

Nuts

Cooking oil (olive and canola)

Whole grain cereal and granola

Crackers

Canned soup, stew or chili

Make sure before stocking up your cart that you check with your local food bank to see what items they need most. Also, opt for lower sodium options where possible, since there may be people with dietary restrictions needing help (and it’s also healthier for growing minds and bodies).

Consider a Cash Donation

While it might not seem obvious, a cash donation to Feeding America can make a huge difference. According to their website, for every dollar donated, they “secure and distribute 10 meals to people facing hunger.” This translates into at least 12 pounds of food! Rather than paying grocery store prices, organizations like Feeding America have access to large-scale donation programs so the money goes the farthest it possibly can to do the most good.

What NOT to Donate

Nothing in glass containers (things get transferred multiple times before they land in the hands of families, so glass being breakable complicates shipment)

Perishables

Expired food

A homemade dish or meal (unless a local food bank or pantry requests otherwise)

Knowing Where Your Donation Goes

There are plenty of ways you can make a difference in the lives of the hungry—but it’s smart to ensure your donation is going to the right place. Most times, all you need to do is look at a charity’s website, as nonprofits will display all their financial expenditures publicly for you to view. With this in mind, you’ll have full visibility on their budget, and, more importantly, understanding where your money is going. Charity Navigator has some stellar resources on what to consider before donating, as well as extremely thorough insights.

Tip: If an organization is a registered nonprofit 501(c)(3), this means they do not pay federal taxes, but it also allows donors to have a write-off for donations up to a certain amount.

Protect Yourself Against Potential Scams

Unfortunately, there are scams that masquerade as charity organizations in order to take money. Many of these happen over the phone or online—such as sending to an overseas bank, or hearing directly from a victim affected.

Before jumping to give a credit card number over the phone, do your homework and go to an official website that’s trusted. Charity Navigator also has a very informative page on how to prevent these scams from happening to you.

Fighting Hunger Together

Donating to your local food bank makes a huge impact on the lives around you—but together, giving food has the power to change lives and end hunger in the U.S. and beyond. We hope this blog was helpful for accruing the right resources and food items to donate this coming holiday season (or any day of the year).

Feel free to share your facts or insights about food banks in the comments below that we may have missed!

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