WHAT IS FASTING?
Fasting describes the temporary abstinence from all food and drink (except water) whilst securing physiological, mental, emotional and sensory rest. It is a method of maximally enhancing the body's ability to cleanse, heal, restore and rejuvenate itself on a cellular level. Fasting may continue for as long as the nutritional reserves of the body are adequate to sustain normal metabolic function. To continue abstinence beyond the time when the body's stored reserves are used up is to induce malnutrition, and eventually, starvation.

HOW HAS FASTING BEEN MISINTERPRETED?
"Detox" is a buzz word of our times. Over the last decade the full impact upon health of environmental pollutants, poor dietary choices and sedentary lifestyle has begun to be recognized. Many people are searching for ways to counteract their previous unhealthy choices, including attempts to "spring clean" their bodies. Although such intentions are essentially well directed, the danger lies in a lack of understanding of how the body works. Few subjects are as grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted as fasting. Fasting itself does nothing, it is simply a way of allowing the body sufficient opportunity to conduct its own healing processes. The truth is, the act of fasting in itself heals nothing, but facilitates the body's ability and efforts to self heal. To call fasting a therapy is therefore erroneous, as no "treatment" is involved.

Numerous so-called fasting techniques are touted by the whole spectrum of media from magazines and newspapers to books and TV. Mono fruit "fasts," such as the exclusive consumption of grapefruit or melon over a fixed period of time, are frequently advertised as being the proverbial "cure all" and ultimate weight loss regime. This claim is grossly inaccurate on four counts.

1. The word "fast" means to "abstain from," so, strictly speaking, a grapefruit "fast" describes the consumption of all foods except grapefruit.

2. Fruit does not have the intelligence or ability to conduct any healing of the human organism whatsoever. Only the brain has the necessary wisdom and dictatorship to initiate, modulate and terminate bodily processes.

3. The healing made possible by implementation of fasting has its limitations. These are set according to the vitality of the individual, the degree to which damage has already taken place, and the manifestation of the diseased state.

4. If health is the goal, it is vital to realize that health is built through healthy living practices on a day to day basis. No amount of periodic fasting can annul or counteract past abuse of the human body.

Fasting simply allows healing to take place, but the scars of abusive living can never be totally eradicated. The state of a person's health is the collective result of the dietary lifestyle and psychological choices they have made so far. It is also affected by genetic influences and the environment in which they have been living. It is what is done between fasts that has the greatest impact on health. Congruent with the treatment mentality, many advocates of fasting incorporate various types of intervention in their approach. This includes a wide assortment of formulas, elixirs and potions in the form of powders, vitamin preparations, herbal mixes, drinks and a multitude of concoctions designed to speed up the action of the liver and promote other detoxification processes. In fact, most simply result in diuresis by blocking or poisoning the ability of the kidney's collecting ducts to reclaim water. All such types of ignorant interference create bodily disorder and distress; effectively detracting from the body's natural healing processes and adding further to its toxic load. The use of enemas or colonic irrigations while fasting are other examples of a profoundly blundering misunderstanding of the body and its needs.

The application of these "treatments" is based on two erroneous beliefs: 1. they speed up detoxification and 2. if allowed to remain in the bowel, toxins will be reabsorbed back into the body. Both assumptions are inaccurate.

The body is the master of its own domain and will cleanse itself at the speed of its choosing, independent of outside interference. In fact, intrusion will only create further challenges to its functioning and therefore impede the cleansing process. An example of this is the way in which the pressurized water involved in colonic irrigation actually has the tendency to force wastes further back into the bowel, slowing elimination. When the body is left to its own devices the bowel only reabsorbs water, not toxins. It is worth mentioning, however, that in a few rare cases, where the natural peristaltic action of the intestines has become so crippled by poor eating habits as to render the bowel nonfunctional, that the judicious implementation of an enema may prove necessary.

IS FASTING NATURAL?
Unlike most humans, wild animals have not lost touch with their natural instincts and offer us insights into how best to treat the body when in a diseased or distressed state. When sick or injured, animals will instinctively find a warm and comfortable spot to lie down and rest. The usual absence of appetite that accompanies such times is acknowledged and the creature will shun food. Most, however, will continue to take water, provided that it is available to them. Instinctively animals know that in order for rapid and effective healing to take place, the body needs total rest.

In contrast, as a result of the human tendency to sacrifice instincts for intellect, most people will attempt to maintain their hectic work schedules when sick or injured. Not only are the standard rich dietary habits continued but other people advise them to eat more to "keep up their strength." Instead of recognizing and respecting the body's innate healing powers, toxic drugs are used for quick relief in order that the individual can return to the "normal" lifestyle (that was, no doubt, the cause of their ill health in the first place), as soon as possible!

In nature other examples of fasting can be observed that are not in response to disease. Hibernation, demonstrated by a wide variety of creatures, is a classic case in point. Likewise, estivation (the summertime version of hibernation) is surprisingly common. In both cases the animals exist for many months at a time in a state of deep rest ingesting no food whatsoever but surviving on the nutritional reserves within the body. For certain creatures the mating season is a time when the male of the species fasts, while the females of other mammals often fast through periods of nursing.

IS FASTING AMONGST HUMANS A "NEW" SCIENCE?
The earliest recordings of humans fasting for health benefits (as opposed to for religious or political reasons) date back to the ancient civilizations of Greece and the Near East. Plato and Socrates undertook several ten day fasts in order to "attain mental and physical efficiency." Pythagorus fasted for forty days prior to taking his examination at the university of Alexandria. The ancient Egyptians implemented fasting in order for the body to cure itself of syphilis. The Greek physician Hippocrates prescribed fasting during the critical periods of disease. An Arab physician by the name of Avicenna, recommended patients fast for three to five weeks duration. In the sixteenth century the famous Swiss doctor Paracelsus stated that in his opinion, "fasting is the greatest remedy." In the seventeenth century a doctor by the name of Hoffman wrote a book on the subject entitled "Description of the Magnificent Results Obtained Through Fasting in All Diseases".

So, fasting is by no means a "new" science. It is, more accurately, a forgotten instinct which, by its very nature, would seem to date back to the development of animal life itself. To fast is to intelligently do nothing but provide the organism with maximal rest in order for it to have the opportunity to heal itself.

IMPORTANT NOTE
Consultants of Healthful Living International recognize the enormous benefits of fasting when appropriate but do not recommend that anyone undertake a fast without professional and qualified supervision. Healthful Living International is here to guide you towards such professional services.

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