The Transformation Issue - The newest science behind boosting performance, attacking aging and staying vital until the day you die or possibly ...
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LU X U R Y W I T H O U T C O M P R O M I S E
The Transformation Issue
The newest science behind boosting performance, attacking aging
and staying vital until the day you die (or possibly don’t)
AUGUST 2020
Aug_Cover.indd 1 7/2/20 11:15 AM
Breakfast:
Tea With Honey
65 calories
70 NOVEMBER 2018
G2G_Aug_Feat_Fasting.indd 70 7/6/20 3:26 PM
RUNNING
ON
EMPTY
Periodically depriving yourself of food
may add years to your life.
But could you commit to a 200-calorie-a-day
liquid diet? Mark Ellwood did.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNY HUANG STYLING BY SOPHIE LENG
R O B B R E P O R T. C O M 71
G2G_Aug_Feat_Fasting.indd 71 7/6/20 3:27 PM
I
overdrive. With my metabolism working harder it’s an investment in the well-being of seventy-
to produce energy, I experience a new level of something you.
strength and mental clarity. I am Superman with- There’s no hardship here, though. The clinic
out the blue tights. In fact, the only challenge for doesn’t resemble a traditional sanatorium but
me is my sleep. Usually, I slumber deeply and rather a five-star hotel. Scattered among several
soundly anywhere, so it’s strange to find myself buildings on a steep hill, the rooms are decorated
so fitful, with bouts of deep rest punctuated by in muted tones and filled with tasteful, vaguely
an unfamiliar alertness. Otherwise, I nod sympa- modernist furniture. One of the front-of-house
thetically as I try not to gloat when folks mourn- staff is an alum of the Ritz Carlton in New York
fully complain in the “feeding salon,” the lounge- and proudly wears the lapel pin of Les Clefs
like area where our non-meals are devoured. d’Or, the elite cabal of concierges. There’s a hair
It’s inside the salon that I first meet my fel- salon but no conventional luxury hotel-style
low fasters on day one, at what passes for a wel- spa. Instead, the clinic offers two main medi-
come party at Buchinger Wilhelmi, on the shores cal complexes, where the doctors and nurses on
I should be miserable. I’d been cautioned: Watch of Lake Constance in Germany, just across the staff perform their examinations, plus numerous
out for day three. That’s when the demons begin border from Switzerland. My fellow fasters are treatment rooms discreetly tucked into various
to rage. I’m on a medically supervised 10-day fast a motley bunch, drawn from across the world. buildings, where guests can book everything from
that promises to help me shed some weight while I’m surprised the room is equally split between osteopathy and shiatsu massage to outré rituals
also futureproofing that newly slimmed-down men and women. There are several first-timers like Chi Nei Tsang, a Chinese abdominal massage,
body against aging. Worth the odd demon or a like me: a Saudi couple, for instance, well-pad- to pass the time between non-meals.
pang or two, then. ded fiftysomethings who plan to stay for three And, yes, the food. Other than at the start and
Indeed, I’m a bit hungry—but that’s not sur- weeks. Other newbies include a pair of friends, end of your stay, when you’ll receive delicious,
prising, given that I’ve consumed little more fit, middle-aged financiers who usually take an low-calorie vegetarian meals to help ease your
than tea, juice and soup over the past 48 hours. adventure vacation together each year, leaving digestive system into and out of hibernation,
But I had been anticipating far worse, as several their wives at home. Most of the room, though, there’s little to eat. (Don’t confuse fasting-in-
friends, all veterans of the Buchinger Wilhelmi consists of starvation pros, folks who’ve followed duced ketosis with a ketogenic low-carb, high-
process I am undertaking, had warned me. The the Buchinger Wilhelmi method several times fat diet.) Breakfast is herbal tea and a tiny saucer
real challenges in forgoing food wouldn’t be before. Typical is the French sculptor who’s back of honey; keep it for the day, the nurse advises,
simple hunger, they said. “Fasting isn’t the hard for a seventh stay. He became a devotee when his and eat it sparingly when you need some energy.
part,” said one. “It’s the emotional side. I usually first stint allowed him to per- Lunch is fresh-squeezed
spend the third day curled in a ball in my room, manently shed the 40 pounds juice, cut with more herbal
weeping. Everything you repress just comes out, he’d gained after a car acci- tea to reduce its calories.
all at once.” A second moaned about the physical dent. Tall and gaunt, he looks After what passes for Dinner is the aforemen-
side effects on day three for her: throbbing head-
aches, a furry tongue and dry skin, all because the
to be in his late 60s or older;
he’s come again, he explains,
lunch, you’ll spend tioned broth. Such scraps—
or drips—of food leave my
toxins her body was purging began to crest, she as an anti-aging effort. More
than the chance to shed
an hour or more in digestive system effectively
said, wide-eyed. The consensus was that I’d feel, fallow, though there are reg-
generally, dreadful—not just hungry but also sad, pounds, it’s this elusive prom- bed, swaddled like ular enemas from the nurse
aching and exhausted, likely confined to my bed, ise that underpins the work at just to make sure. She also
wakefully toggling between napping and fretting. Buchinger Wilhelmi. a baby with a hot checks my vitals each morn-
Yet another confided that it was day three when
the risk of cheating peaked. She’d heard that folks
For this is no conventional
fat farm. Forget face-lifts
water bottle pressed ing, reminds me to drink at
least six liters of water a day
usually skulk out the clinic’s back gate and into and fitness classes—it’s bouts to your liver. (to stay hydrated and prevent
the nearby town to scarf down a furtive frank- of fasting that Buchinger gout) and comes to my room
furter or two to offset the gnawing pains. Wilhelmi claims will offer every afternoon to wrap my
Instead, I feel fine. a slimmed-down path to eternal youth, or liver, one of the quirks of the Buchinger Wilhelmi
More than fine. Remarkably, I feel absolutely something close to it, at least. Fasting, the staff process: After what passes for lunch, you’ll spend
dandy. I’ve no physical problems whatsoever; in preaches, will better safeguard your body against an hour or more in bed, swaddled like a baby with
fact, I’m swimming 50 laps in the pool here at the the forces of age. The focus here, though, is not a hot water bottle pressed to your liver. Per the
Buchinger Wilhelmi spa every afternoon, and the only extending your life span but also improving clinic’s theories, such cosseting helps boost the
only reason my eyes are watering is the trouble- the quality of whatever life you have, or what’s liver’s ketone production process.
some pollen. I miss chewing, for sure, and I’m not now known as your health span. The clinic’s The woman who helped formalize many such
partial to some of the broth recipes: The mere practice aims to address a conundrum: How do theories is Françoise Wilhelmi de Toledo, M.D.
mention of turnip evokes Dickensian deprivation, we ensure our brains and our bodies remain in Trained as a conventional physician, she visited
though the watery tomato is bright-flavored and peak condition for our entire lives, bringing both the clinic as a guest in her 20s—and never left.
delicious. But I haven’t cheated, despite deliber- quantity and quality of life in sync? Slash our After marrying into the family, she became the
ately wandering into town yesterday morning to daily energy source, Buchinger Wilhelmi pos- medical director. Toledo is now the clinic’s head
tempt myself with the smells of fresh-cooked sau- its, and the body’s metabolic switch is triggered. of medical research and lives in a sleek glass
sages. I took a deep breath—delicious for sure, but Deprived of easy fuel, our body’s metabolism box of a house nearby; one of her two sons, Leo
I was happy to eat with my eyes. instead turns to ketones, compounds produced Wilhelmi, handsome with a mane of dark hair,
Either I’m too two-dimensional to be trou- from fats by our liver in a state known as ketosis, handles day-to-day operations. At 66, she has
bled by deep thoughts or I’m one of the lucky achieved by fasting at least 10 to 12 hours. There’s a gamine energy and a feline intelligence, and
ones, sailing straight from eating three meals more afoot, too: During ketosis, the body starts to could easily pass for a decade younger. Doubtless,
daily to the Zen state of semi-starvation without repair and reboot, helping bat away looming bad she’d attribute her youthful glow to her decades-
detouring down a physical and emotional rabbit health. Per the clinic’s owners, eating 200 to 300 long adherence to fasting, both daily (in 16-hour
hole. I’ve arrived, instead, at 200-calorie nirvana, daily calories for several days, any time from your windows) and twice yearly, when she follows the
where the body, now short on fuel, is forced into 20s to your 60s, isn’t just good for your waistline; clinic’s regimen for 10 days or more at a stretch.
72 AUGUST 2020
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Lunch:
Freshly Squeezed Juice
50 calories
G2G_Aug_Feat_Fasting.indd 73 7/6/20 3:28 PMRunning Hed
Dinner:
Broth
36 calories
74 NOVEMBER 2018
G2G_Aug_Feat_Fasting.indd 74 7/6/20 3:28 PMRunning on Empty
She invites me over for tea—fresh herbs, thyme allow the body to shift into that sought-after state state with drugs or radiation because cancer cells
picked from her garden—so she can explain the of ketosis. cannot use ketones [as fuel], so if the glucose lev-
work here in person. Like the clinic’s staff and Peter Bowes is a longtime BBC journalist who els in the body are relatively low, it makes them
entire operation, the Swiss-born Toledo slides periodically fasts in his role as host of the pod- more vulnerable,” he explains.
fluently between French, English and German as cast Live Long and Master Aging. During fast- Andrew Jenkinson, a London bariatric sur-
she talks; she has an evangelist’s charisma. Think ing, he says, the body undergoes autophagy, or geon and author of Why We Eat (Too Much), does
of fasting as metabolic training, she urges, teach- spring-cleaning mode, meaning it recycles dam- not recommend long-term fasting but is a propo-
ing the body how to use different energy sources, aged or old cell machinery. Studies suggest that nent of the 16:8 approach. “Ketogenesis is proba-
much as a hybrid auto switches between elec- this process—which derives from Greek words bly the best way to lose weight, but unfortunately,
tricity and gas for efficiency. Hunger isn’t to be meaning “self” and “to eat”—can even result in it’s difficult to sustain. Whatever diet you do for
avoided but rather deployed, a forgotten reflex new synapses forming in the brain. “When your weight loss needs to be your new life,” says Jen-
that we need to relearn. Toledo is pleased that immune system is challenged like this, it throws kinson, who recommends a low-carb diet. “Fast-
the clientele here includes so many men as well out the cells it’s not using, that are maybe a lit- ing for a sustained period of time will improve the
as women—that 50:50 ratio is a rarity for conven- tle weather-worn,” Bowes says, “and builds a new inflammatory response over the short term, and
tional spas. “Fasting is not easy, as we take away immune system, re-growing white blood cells.” it will make you think faster and more clearly—it
everything you like at the beginning, so it’s more A prolonged state of autophagy, then, could will give you a real buzz.”
of a challenge. Men like that,” she says. be thought of as a real-life counterpart to the Experts differ on how long it takes for autoph
Indeed, it was a man who founded the clinic, serum that transformed scrawny Steve Rogers agy to kick in from intermittent fasting—from
a hundred years ago. His reasons were per- into super-soldier Captain America. Indeed, the right away to 12 weeks—but for optimal results,
sonal: Otto Buchinger, a physician, was wheel- US government has explored how to use inter- Toledo recommends practicing it five days a
chair-bound from severe rheumatoid arthritis, mittent fasting to improve the performance of week. Jenkinson urges caution, too: Individual
at least until he fasted for almost three weeks on elite commandos, according to Mark Mattson, a metabolisms and default weights vary. Veer from
the suggestion of another doctor. Buchinger fol- world-renowned expert in fasting and adjunct the program and you’ll likely rebound to where
lowed the most extreme protocols, ingesting only professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins Uni- you started, he says. Though Toledo has led
water. As a result, he later claimed, he was able versity School of Medicine. Mattson says officials extensive in situ studies to determine the safety
to walk again. Buchinger turned his belief in the from NASA and the air force contacted him to of the protocols used at the clinic, there are no
healing power of calorie restriction into his life’s discuss how to use his research in just this way. records on the long-term efficacy of stays. The
work, setting up this clinic, which his descen- “It’s evolution,” he says. “If you’re food-deprived, high ratio of repeat visitors could suggest that
dants, including his great-grandson Leo, still run. you need to be more alert and motivated to find it is, indeed, hard to maintain such weight loss.
But it is only in the last two decades or so that food—that’s why you often feel sleepy after a Then again, it could be evidence of how effective
conventional science has turned its attention meal.” He suggested using intermittent fasting her evangelical zeal proves in recruiting converts.
to the potentials of calorie restriction, and men as a training tool, spending two days per week, I’m impressed, if not completely converted,
have increasingly embraced fasting as the final for example, drinking only water. Mattson has by day 10. At my final morning check-in with
fitness tool—a way to put their insides through focused his studies on such intermittent fasts and the nurse, I’ve lost close to 12 pounds and two
as punishing a training regimen as they follow at has a hunch it’s more effective than the Buchinger inches from my waistline. More than anything,
the gym. Broadly speaking, there are two com- Wilhelmi method of one long annual fast, though though, the stay here has changed the way I eat. I
mon approaches that aim to leverage reduced he recognizes the benefits of calorie-deprivation couldn’t even finish the first meal of solids, post-
food intake for health and weight benefits. The of any kind. His research includes clinical stud- fast, served up with a candle and certificate in
first, periodic fasting, is the approach followed by ies of individuals at risk of cognitive impairment celebration. I’m just not as hungry as often any-
the clinic; cut calories for an extended period from Alzheimer’s and similar diseases, in which more, and I’ve adopted that 16:8 system most
every year or so, for example. The second is he found that those on a diet that included fast- days. Three months later, even during lockdown
intermittent fasting, which deprives the body of ing showed memory and learning improvements with limited exercise, I’ve remained slim. Would
nutrition in a given pattern each day or week: 16 within two months. Mattson says intermittent I come again? Absolutely. But perhaps the bigger
consecutive hours in every 24 is popular (often fasting is also a promising component in cancer question is: Why should I need to? Check back
called 16:8). Proponents claim both systems treatment. “You should hit them in the fasting with me in a year.
EXTREME SHA, Spain
The most unusual offering at
Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
Not a hospital but not exactly a
VivaMayr, Austria
To describe VivaMayr as
We Care Spa, California
In a world of impersonal medical
SPAS SHA has to be the personalized
“cognitive empowerment”
spa, the medical center at Bad
Ragaz has become a destination
regimented would be a gross
understatement. The prototype
centers and wellness clinics, We
Care offers an intimate 20-room
Buchinger Wilhelmi may be program. The brain-training for everything from sleep for all European medical resorts, facility. The liquid diet and
the granddaddy of hard- course employs EEG technology, disorders and weight loss to VivaMayr is squarely focused on detoxification rituals are popular
core vacation clinics, but neuro-feedback video games in-depth exams. The “Business gut rehabilitation and alkalizing among Hollywood’s A-list, who
it doesn’t have a monopoly and transcranial direct-current Health Check-Up” leaves no stone powders that purportedly regulate come to purge in peace and make
on punishing protocols. stimulation to fire up the sleepier unturned, with on-site testing the acid/base balance in our full use of educational classes
Here, Ahmed Zambarakji areas of your gray matter to for liver, kidney, lung and thyroid bodies, therefore bolstering (cooking, yoga, transitioning back
finds a few others worth boost professional performance. function, blood sugar levels and immunity. You can distract to solids) and “healing installations”
checking out. The Alicante-based clinic also blood lipids. The setting, a hot yourself from hunger pangs with with a shamanic vibe, such as
offers a curious but effective spring near a cluster of world- a host of detoxifying rituals that the Floating Bed, where you can
blend of Eastern and Western class hotels, makes the ordeal range from daily oil pulling—an meditate privately atop a gently
therapies—acupuncture, genetic of a medical exam considerably Indian folk remedy that involves rocking outdoor bed, as well as
testing, Watsu aquatic bodywork— more appealing than a visit to a swishing oil around in your mouth fire ceremonies. There is a strong
and a gourmet Japanese- traditional clinic. And if you need a in the hope of eliminating toxins—to spiritual bent to the program at We
Mediterranean macrobiotic diet little extra persuasion, know that colonic irrigation at its high-tech Care but one that doesn’t seem
that’s designed to strengthen the you can always let off some steam spa. The inevitable weight loss, we entirely out of place in Desert Hot
immune system. in St. Mortiz afterward. are assured, is merely a bonus. Springs, Calif.
R O B B R E P O R T. C O M 75
G2G_Aug_Feat_Fasting.indd 75 7/6/20 3:28 PMYou can also read
