Fasting

“ Eat one meal every other day for ten days. In the last two days of the fast do not drink any water, or at least only enough to keep from real thirst. The Fast is not penance,—it is a joy, and thirst that one can easily combat will do the work of empting the blood vessels. Get a big thirst, but do not push it to the point of suffering.
Why do we eat one meal every other day instead of fasting continuously? ”

“ Now in wasting or famishing from the want of food, this process of elimination goes on in a much more rapid manner than ordinarily, and the vital force, which would otherwise be expended in digesting the food taken, acts now in expelling from the vital domain, whatever morbid matters it may contain. This, then, is a beautiful idea in regard to the fasting-cure—that whenever a meal of food is omitted, the body purifies itself thus much from its disease, and this becomes apparent in the subsequent amendment, both as regards bodily feeling and strength. ”

“ I have read the books of Bernarr Macfadden, C. C. Haskell, and Dr. L. B. Hazzard, all of whom have treated scores and hundreds of patients by means of the fast, and all of whom are strenuous on the point that one should drink as much water as possible. I myself while fasting have taken at least a glass every hour. ”

“ The night's rest following the first appetite-sanctioned meal will not be disturbed by nightmares. Fasting, like exercise and refrigeration, makes repose sweet. The dull, unheeded, but ever-gnawing reproaches of the physical conscience have been silenced.
One great aid to the successful accomplishment of a fasting-cure is the rule to keep the mind as much as possible occupied, so as to prevent its brooding over the topic of alimentary deprivations; create some diversion by exciting pastimes or interest-absorbing work. ”

“ The ordinary individual, fasting for a short cut to health, freedom, liberty, success, love and truth, can be just as happy and normal in his one meal as he knows how to be.
Common sense demands that he eat slowly, Fletcherizing his food. It will give him a sense of uncomfortable distension of the stomach and sometimes bloating and gas if he does not. When one feels worse after eating than before, it is because he has eaten too fast and not taken time to masticate his food. ”

“ Fasting is defined as follows:—The voluntary denial of food to a system, which is diseased, and which, because of disease, does not require nourishment until rested, cleansed, and eager again to take up the labor of digestion. ”

“ By fasting I mean that you take no food whatever. I know some nature cure teachers who practice what they call a "fruit fast." All I know is that if I eat nothing but fruit, I soon have my stomach boiling with fermentation, and also I suffer with hunger; whereas, if I take a complete fast, I promptly forget all about food. You must drink all the water you can on the fast. This helps nature with her house-cleaning; it is well to drink a glass of water every half hour at least. Do not try to go without water, and then write me that the fasting cure is a failure. ”

“ With regard to the rich, (who are obviously called upon to fast in greater degrees,) I have the authority of an eminent physician, whom I well know not to be wedded to any particular theory of medicine, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the degree of fasting recommended in my tract would not only not be injurious, but be beneficial. He added, "Fasting is like the Sabbath—healthy to the body as well as to the soul." ”

“ Later on, in a chapter on fasting, I shall prove to you that you carry around with you in your body sufficient reserve of food to keep you alive for eighty or ninety days; and if you draw on a small quantity of this you do not do yourself the slightest harm. Cut down the amount of your food; eat the bulky foods, which contain less calory value, and weigh yourself every day, and you will be surprised to discover how much less you need to eat than you have been accustomed to. ”

“ Appetite will always come where death is not inevitable, no less in the ordinary conditions of low health than in cases of acute sickness, and fasting is the swiftest, the most effectual and the most unfailing of all devices ever conceived for inviting natural hunger. Keen hunger, hunger only, makes known the individual need. ”

“ The one danger in the fasting treatment is that when you break the fast, hunger is apt to come back with a rush, while, on the other hand, the stomach is weak, and the utmost caution is needed. If you yield to your cravings, you may fill your whole system with toxins, and undo all the good of the treatment ”

“ The influence of habit tends to make abstinence easy—as easy almost as the dietetic restrictions which our gormandizing ancestors used to dignify by the name of fasting. Lenten fare, in the South-German sense of the word, came at last to imply only the shelving of flesh-pots, without excluding eggs, butter, cheese, oysters and fish, in any desired quantities. ”

“ Salisbury.
One should take a bath every day while fasting. I prefer a warm bath followed by a cold shower. Also one should take a small enema. I find a pint of cool water sufficient. I received several letters from people who were greatly disturbed because of constipation during the fast. People apparently do not realize that while fasting there is very little to be eliminated from the body. ”

“ When you are hungry, the sun seems slow at describing its daily semicircle from East to West; yet though involuntary fasting gives you at first an acute pain in the stomach, it doesn't become unbearable until after several days' absolute want of food; that is to say, if you are in a way accustomed, as we were, to extra long intervals between one meal and the next. When we got to our third day's fasting we were keen enough for a meal ”

“ These include conditions such as cancer, aids, chronic arthritis, chronic pneumonia, emphysema and asthma. Chronic degenerative conditions usually respond within a month to three months of fasting. The fasting should be broken up into two or three sessions if the condition has not been relieved in one stint of supervised fasting. Each successive fast will produce some improvement and if a light, largely raw-food diet is adhered to between fasts the patient should not worsen and should be fairly comfortable between fastings. ”

“ Since the physiological changes involved in the application of fasting for the cure of disease need to be made gradually, the ideal method of approach to the period of abstinence is to prepare the system by a gradual lessening of the food supply ”

“ If the most serious diseases can be cured by fasting— which has been proven in thousands of cases—and if by this way of living one gets even stronger “if it is done right,” then the most energetic food, the fruit, should cause one so much the more to become strong and healthy. ”

“ Never undertake a prolonged fast unless you have been properly prepared by natural diet and treatment, and never without the guidance of a competent Nature Cure doctor.
Fasting in Chronic Diseases
At all times some of our patients can be found fasting; but they do not begin until the right physiological and psychological moment has arrived, until the fast is indicated. When the organism, or rather the individual cell, is ready to begin the work of elimination, then assimilation should cease for the time being, because it interferes with the excretory processes going on in the system. ”

“ Cooked grains may also be added, along with steamed vegetables and vegetable soups.
The Prime Rules Of Fasting
Another truism of natural hygiene is that we dig our own graves with our teeth. It is sad but true that almost all eat too much quantity of too little quality. Dietary excesses are the main cause of death in North America. Fasting balances these excesses. If people were to eat a perfect diet and not overeat, fasting would rarely be necessary.
There are two essential rules of fasting. If these rules are ignored or broken, fasting itself can be life threatening. ”

“ Fasting will be at once the principal part of your self-treatment, and forever thereafter your stomach will be free from the drug habit, and if you expect to retain the slightest respect for yourself you must first learn to respect your stomach. ”

“ It lies in the nature of the thing that he who fasts must not be bothered by gas or decomposing matter which form from the excrements remaining in the bowels; it suffices that the mucus during the excretion gives him enough trouble, as already stated.
Who does not care to do a more prolonged fasting, although he is healthy, may try a short one. Even a fasting of thirty-six hours, weekly one or two times, acts in the long run very favorably. ”

“ If nourishment by mucus and over-eating is the true fundamental cause of all diseases without exception, which I can prove to anybody on his own body, then there can exist but one natural remedy, i.e., fasting and fruit-diet. ”

“ Nobody should mind then the so-called bad looks or the decrease in weight The body fasts itself into health, despite such miserable complexion, and soon the cheeks will be adorned by a healthy, fresh red, and the weight is also restored very soon after the fasting to its normal standard. After a fasting the body reacts on every ounce of food. Very moderate and frequently fasting people have a very fine, inspirited expression of the face. ”

“ Careful observation of several thonsands of fasting cases makes plain the fact that the fast will perfectly relieve all ailments of a functional character, but that it can never wholly overcome mechanical defects in body organism. However, the fast will uncover the organic condition of the system, and will cause the nature of its deficiencies to be clearly displayed. One whose organs are functionally equal to the requirements of elimination undergoes the treatment with no unusual symptoms. ”

“ Nor is it for people who do not understand fasting and are afraid of it. People who have associates that are opposed to it, and people who do not have a strongly-functioning liver or kidneys should not fast either. Seriously ill people that have been on a meat-heavy diet with lots of addicting substances need a long runway into a fast so as to not overwhelm their organs of elimination. Does the person in front of me have an eating disorder, or an otherwise suicidal approach to fasting, etc. ”

“ The accelerated healing process that occurs during fasting can scarcely be believed by a person who has not fasted. No matter how gifted the writer, the experiential reality of fasting cannot be communicated. The great novelist Upton Sinclair wrote a book about fasting and it failed to convince the multitudes. But once a person has fasted long enough to be certain of what their own body can do to fix itself, they acquire a degree of independence little known today. ”

“ This points up one of the liabilities of juice fasting; the person is already eating, their digestive system never shut down and consequently, it is much easier for them to resume eating. The thing to keep in mind is that if the symptoms return, the fast was not long enough or the diet was not properly reformed after the fast. ”

“ In some very serious diseases, as for instance occasionally in Bright's disease and rather more frequently in diabetes, fasting periods of short duration have been found particularly valuable as therapeutic measures. In certain forms of digestive disease fasting is also a valuable adjuvant, though it needs to be used under the {116} direction of a physician, for people who prescribe their own fasting often fail to realize that they may weaken their digestive organs rather seriously by the process. ”

“ Instead of feeling weak as most fasters do, as each of the first four or five days of water fasting pass, he experiences a resurgence of more and more energy. On the first fasting day he would usually feel rotten, which was why he started fasting in the first place. ”

“ Death was certain, fasting or feeding. This list of eleven deaths is selected from a total of eighteen, the latter figure comprising all the fatalities of sixteen years of the practice of fasting for the cure of disease. ”

“ DIET at any time is largely a matter of special need, but it would seem that, after a course of fasting, the successful issue of which depends upon a reduction to normal in all respects, certain fixed rules might be laid down to apply to all cases. ”

“ This is verified by the fact that a person fasting for a certain period, say, four weeks, during the course of a serious acute illness, will not lose nearly as much in weight as the same person fasting four weeks in days of healthful activity. ”

“ It is just as much a sign of error to have a body that never responds to food never puts on a pound of flesh, as to have one which calls for food continually and builds it all into excess flesh.
Our first step, then, in the physical fast, is just to stop eating long enough wholly to rearrange the food body. We must want to fast more than we want to eat and have spiritual discipline enough to set the law for our own cell calls. All appetite is in the food body and as it lives by the stimulation of food, it must die if it does not receive it. ”

“ Abstinence from two meals has become natural enough to require no self-denial whatever, and in the course of time a fasting-cure expert can tackle the task of a two-days' term of total abstinence almost without a presentiment of discomfort. ”

“ My wife began to be hungry after fasting thirty-one days, and broke her fast in a similar manner to myself.
"It is now two years since we took the conquest fast, and my wife has no return of her former troubles. And I am enjoying all the mental and physical pleasures which come from clean bowels. We think we have learned how to live that we will never need another fast. ”