At first glance, nutritional therapy and fasting can seem like opposite approaches. Nutritional therapy is about eating. Fasting is about not eating. In actual practice, however, the two can complement and strengthen each other as part of an individualised approach to health and nutrition.
Nutritional therapy and fasting: two entirely different approaches
Much of the philosophy behind nutritional therapy can be summed up by the familiar saying: ‘Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.’ In other words, appropriate nutrition possesses an inherent ability to heal.
First, by eliminating foods which burden our metabolism, the body is able to operate more smoothly. This extends beyond simply removing processed ‘junk foods’ and addressing any dietary sensitivities. It also takes into consideration the individual constitution and dietary needs of the individual person. Second, many foods, herbs and supplements exert a medicinal value in their own right. This means that the specific imbalances and symptoms caused by a given health issue can often be counterbalanced or ‘rebalanced’ through a carefully chosen, individualised nutritional protocol.
If nutritional therapy focuses primarily on unburdening and rebalancing the body, then fasting works in an entirely different and, in a way, much more fundamental level. Biologically, we have two basic modes of operation: an anabolic metabolism (for building up) and a catabolic metabolism (for breaking down). In everyday life, nutrition sustains our anabolic metabolism, building new cells for life. Equally important, however, is the fact that we also have to efficiently break down old, damaged cells and eliminate toxins, in order to optimise long-term health.
When anabolic and catabolic metabolisms fall too far out of balance with one another, illness can develop, causing anything from inflammation to cancer. This is where fasting comes in. Fasting both triggers and strengthens our catabolic ‘detox’ metabolism – also known as autophagy. This has been documented in numerous scientific studies. Even a simple intermittent fasting / time-restricted eating window can set this process in motion,[i] while extended fasts can more powerfully access deeper levels of autophagy and immune-system upregulation.[ii]
Benefits of combining nutritional therapy with fasting
The simple fact of the matter is that in today’s consumer society of ‘plenty’ (if not outright excess), most people’s anabolic metabolism is stimulated far beyond the ability of their catabolic metabolism to maintain a healthy balance. This is reflected in the dramatic shift in the causes of mortality over the past century. Whereas, in the early 20th century, acute diseases (such as influenza, diarrhoea and TB) accounted for up to 50% of worldwide deaths, chronic diseases of excess (such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer) now constitute the primary cause of death in 70-90% of all cases.[iii] [iv]
By combining nutritional therapy with a suitable fasting protocol, you can unlock the best of both worlds: supporting both anabolic as well as catabolic metabolisms, and promoting a healthy balance between the two.
If you already have a complex health history, nutritional therapy alone isn’t always enough. ‘I’ve tried every diet and none of it helps…’ Sometimes, if health has already fallen too far out of balance, the more drastic solution of therapeutic fasting may become important in shifting the status quo, thus permitting subsequent nutritional therapy to bear fruit. It’s also true that in severe cases, more than one fast may be necessary to reach optimal health, as illustrated in my peer-reviewed article on SIBO (Journal of Preventive Medicine and Holistic Health, 2025).[v]
This is where we come full circle, returning to the importance of nutritional therapy. For it is through individually optimised nutrition that forward momentum can best be maintained over the long term, in between therapeutic fasts. This holds true given the fact that, even when fasting is practised most aggressively, a large majority of days necessarily involves eating and not fasting.
A symbiosis of opposites
If fasting can help boost the efficacy of nutritional therapy, then the opposite is also true. Long-term diet prior to any therapeutic fast certainly impacts on the efficacy of the given fast. For example, some diets which minimise the aggravation of dietary sensitivities also lower the body’s ability to dive into deep detox during a fast (eg. a low FODMAP diet in the case of someone suffering from SIBO, as per my article above). Nutritional therapy can thus ensure that you benefit from an individualised diet which minimises current symptoms while also maximising the potential of therapeutic fasting.
In short, you enjoy the symbiosis of opposites, in which fasting and nutritional therapy complement each other in order to promote better health.
[i] Wolska W, Gutowska I, Wszołek A, Żwierełło W. The Role of Intermittent Fasting in the Activation of Autophagy Processes in the Context of Cancer Diseases. Int J Mol Sci. 2025 May 15;26(10):4742. doi: 10.3390/ijms26104742. PMID: 40429883; PMCID: PMC12112746
[ii] Qian J, Fang Y, Yuan N, Gao X, Lv Y, Zhao C, Zhang S, Li Q, Li L, Xu L, Wei W, Wang J. Innate immune remodeling by short-term intensive fasting. Aging Cell. 2021 Nov;20(11):e13507. doi: 10.1111/acel.13507. Epub 2021 Oct 27. PMID: 34705313; PMCID: PMC8590100
[iii] Hacker K. The Burden of Chronic Disease. Mayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes. 2024 Jan 20;8(1):112-119. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2023.08.005. Erratum in: Mayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes. 2024 Dec 13;9(1):100588. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2024.11.005. PMID: 38304166; PMCID: PMC10830426
[iv] Hong YC. The Age of Chronic and Late Chronic Diseases: A New View of Diseases. The Changing Era of Diseases. 2019:35–68. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-816439-6.00002-8. Epub 2019 Feb 8. PMCID: PMC7150344
[v] Barker T. The full healing of SIBO (gut dysbiosis) achieved through an extended water fast: A case report. J Prev Med Holistic Health. 2025;11(2):99–101
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