So they opt for intermittent fasting and so on and so forth . But one of the things that you hear very often is that some people like being fasted because they like the clarity of mind that it provides . Here's the situation , neurons , unless you're in a ketogenic diet , really thrive on glucose .
However , if we have any food , if we have enough of it , that is , if our gut is full , it diverts blood to our gut and we become sleepy and we can't focus as well . So a lot of people really like fasting in the state of being fasted for focus and concentration because they don't have as much of that parasympathetic activation . They're just not as sleepy .
But I know there are a number of people who are doing longer fast or they're eating in a six hour window . We did an entire episode about fasting . You can again find that Huberman lab dot com will likely have Sachin Panda who's an expert in intermittent fasting on the podcast .
And as I mentioned before , your ability to think and perceive things is actually enhanced by having sufficient glucose in your bloodstream . So why would it be that some people experience a heightened state of mental clarity when they are fasted ? I've certainly experienced that before .
Imagine a U shaped function , right ? Where if you're very fasted , you're going to have a high degree of focus and concentration . But then if you ingest some food and your belly is full , your focus and concentration is reduced .
