Posted by badhaircut on March 3, 2004, at 5:36:34
In reply to Fasting?, posted by missamor on March 1, 2004, at 11:23:19
This didn't get moved when the thread was redirected, so I'm reposting it...
> I am interested in doing a 3, 7 or 10 day fast for health and psycological benefits.
There's not a lot of info out there — except on "juice fasting," where you consume nothing but raw fruit & vegetable juices for several weeks. And most of that info is, IMHO, utter nonsense. (Juice-fasters seem especially attracted to enemas.)
The most rational fasting book is New Jersey physician Joel Fuhrman's 1995 "Fasting and Eating for Health". About half the book discusses a low-sugar, low-salt, low-fat vegetarian diet, but he talks about fasting for weight loss, heart disease, asthma, arthritis, and intestinal problems. He tries to back up many of his claims about diet & fasting with scientific studies, but he also makes unsubstantiated claims and makes too much of some studies (like the so-called "China Study"). Fuhrman has a web site promoting his diet, but it is silent on fasting.
Fuhrman's fasting mentor was the late Herbert Shelton, who ran a clinic in Texas. Although often labeled a dangerous quack and although he had nutty ideas like "food combining," Shelton's 1973 book "Fasting Can Save Your Life" is still available and explains the (as far as I know unproven) theory behind physiologically therapeutic fasting better than Fuhrman does. Fuhrman doesn't actually say much about theory.
Both of these guys discuss long fasts (7-40 days & more) in which nothing is consumed except water. Both strongly advise not undertaking a fast of over 3 days unless you are under experienced supervision including blood tests, preferably at an in-patient clinic. Things can go wrong in a fast; also, any excess demands made on your body during an extended total fast, including emotional stresses, can be dangerous and disrupt the therapeutic process. And you probably won't have the energy to handle household tasks for yourself.
Both pooh-pooh the idea of juice fasts. Shelton says that by taking in nutrients every day, the juice-faster doesn't allow her body to consume enough of its own diseased or toxin-filled tissue to get any benefit.
Neither of these authors has much to say about direct psychological benefits of fasting. Fuhrman cites a Japanese study of fasting as treatment for depression but gives no details. Fuhrman & Shelton say that spiritually-motivated fasts, which are generally under 3 days, are probably not physiologically significant.
If you are contemplating a fast for psychological reasons, I encourage you to visit http://www.beyondveg.com/ . It has a lot (a *lot*) of very thoughtful, first-person accounts of people who took healthy dietary ideas including fasting to unhealthy ends. A great site for perspective before starting any diet program.
I'd be interested to know how you came to consider fasting. I can't remember how it first piqued my curiosity.
-bhc
poster:badhaircut
thread:319006
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040225/msgs/319616.html