Ketosis - Good Or Bad?? AND NEW TOPIC - FOOD COMBINING

May 17, 2006

Ryan, You're way ahead of me. I'm a newbie to this group, with more questions than answers. You've suggested numerous things that really make sense. You've agreed with my thought that a good intestinal cleanse is not only desirable but essential to do before trying a serious water only fast. I think I got a pretty good cleanse with the Master Cleanser, but want to try the Schulze program before starting another lengthy water only fast. I just received a copy of THERE ARE NO INCURABLE DISEASES by Richard Schulze. Is this the main reference for doing the Schulze cleanses? If so, I'll start working on it as my next major detoxing project. Since I don't yet have a juicer, and just have a cheap blender for smoothies instead of a Vitamix or a Champ blender, I'm also a complete neophyte when it comes to juicing and

smoothies. I'm collecting the references for juicing and blending, but am not able to put them into practice yet. I guess the big question with regard to making green smoothies has to with which combinations of greens and fruits result in alkaline-forming combinations. Does anyone have a reference that has that information? Frank nature_luver333 <revcarson wrote: In regards to the bowel movement thing... A good friend of mine was detoxing faster than the toxins could be rid from the body. The result... everyone that saw her thought she had a severe case of the measles. My thoughts are that the body will have purge the putrifying substances, if not through the bowels it must be through the skin. Even if your

skin doesn't break out, without proper elimination you will feel the autointoxication (reabsorbing toxins into the blood) through headaches, nausea, irritability, and other unpleasentries to your fast. I have since heard of several other skin "break outs" during detoxification so I believe it can be a common side effect. I am lead to believe the bad stuff must come out first and foremost (before water fasting), in say a raw vegan diet for a period of weeks, or a colon cleanse, or a Master Cleanser. And I would never even think or suggest anyone doing a water fast if they aren't having at least 2 healthy and soft bowel movements a day before they begin. Get the colon working properly and then work on healing the body. It all starts in the colon my friends. As far as the food combining argument goes, I love the green smoothies and I hope that someday people will stop referring to

leafy greens as vegetables. There needs to be a new catagory in our food identification, Greens. My spinach, romaine, or kale added to my fruit smoothies should not be in the same catagory as adding cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, (or starchy things). Healthy animals such as chimps who's primary diet is greens will also eat fruit growing along side greens. I look forward to hearing if there is documented evidence against my theory.Ryan

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May 22, 2006

Hi people,

I'm enjoying a lot these subjects that have been brought up lately,

and I'd like to contribute with the discussion about cleaning the

intestines. Dr. Moser has done a water only fasting acording to Dr.

Sheldon's view anda has sth do say about it.

My Own 56 Day Long Fast

Fasters go through a lot of different emotional states, these can

get intense and do change quite rapidly. The physical body, too, will

manifest transitory conditions. Some can be quite uncomfortable. But,

I don " t want to leave the reader with the impression that fasting is

inevitably painful. So I will now recount my own longest fast in

detail.

When I did my own 42 day water fast followed by two weeks on

carrot juice diluted 50/50 with water, which really amounted to 56

consecutive days, my predominant sensation for the first three days

was a desire to eat that was mostly a mental condition, and a lot of

rumbling and growling from my stomach. This is not real hunger, just

the sounds the stomach likes to make when it is shrinking. After all,

this organ is accustomed to being filled at regular intervals, and

then, all of a sudden, it gets nothing, so naturally the stomach wants

to know what is going on. Once it realizes it is on temporary

vacation, the stomach wisely decides to reduce itself to a size

suitable for a retired organ. And it shuts up. This process usually

takes three to five days and for most people, no further " hunger

pangs " are felt until the fast is over.

Real hunger comes only when the body is actually starving. The

intense discomforts many people experience upon missing a meal are

frequently interpreted as hunger but they aren " t. What is actually

happening is that their highly toxic bodies are taking the opportunity

presented by having missed a meal or two to begin to cleanse. The

toxins being released and processed make assorted unpleasant symptoms

such as headaches and inability to think clearly. These symptoms can

be instantly eliminated by the intake of a bit of food, bringing the

detox to a screeching halt.

Two weeks into the fast I experienced sharp abdominal pains that

felt like I imagine appendicitis feels, which compelled me toward the

nearest toilet in a state of great urgency where I productively busied

myself for about half an hour. As I mentioned earlier, I was

experimentally adhering to a rigid type of fast of the sort

recommended by Dr. Herbert Shelton, a famous advocate of the Natural

Hygiene school. Shelton was such a powerful writer and personality

that there still exists a Natural Hygiene Society that keeps his books

in print and maintains his library. The words " Natural Hygiene " are

almost owned by the society like a trademark and they object when

anyone describes themselves as a hygienist and then advocates any

practice that Dr. Shelton did not approve of.

Per Dr. Shelton, I was going to fast from the time hunger left

until the time it returned and I was not going to use any form of

colon cleansing. Shelton strongly opposed bowel cleansing so I did no

enemas nor colonics, nor herbs, nor clays, nor psyllium seed designed

to clean the bowel, etc. Obviously at day 14 the bowel said, enough is

enough of this crap, and initiated a goods house cleaning session.

When I saw what was eliminated I was horrified to think that I had

left that stuff in there for two weeks. I then started to wonder if

the Sheltonites were mistaken about this aspect of fasting.

Nonetheless, I persevered on the same regimen because my hunger had

not returned, my tongue was still thickly coated with foul-smelling,

foul-tasting mucus and I still had some fat on my feet that had not

been metabolized.

Shelton said that cleansing is not complete until a skeletal

condition is reached--that is, absolutely no fat reserves are left. Up

until that time I did not even know that I had fat on my feet, but

much to my surprise, as the weeks went on, not only did my breasts

disappear except for a couple of land marks well-known to my babies,

but my ribs and hip bones became positively dangerous to passersby,

and my shoes would not stay on my feet. This was not all that

surprising because I went from 135 pounds down to 85 on a 5 " 7 " frame

with substantial bone structure.

Toward the end of the fast my eyes became brighter and clearer

blue, my skin took on a good texture, my breath finally became sweet,

my tongue cleared up and became pink, my mind was clear, and my

spiritual awareness and sensitivity was heightened. In other words, I

was no longer a walking hulk of stored-up toxemia. I also felt quite

weak and had to rest for ten minutes out every hour in horizontal

position. (I should have rested much more.) I also required very

little sleep, although it felt good to just lie quietly and rest,

being aware of what was going on in various parts of my body.

For those who are interested here it goes the whole chapter about fasting

How and When to Be Your Own Doctor

by Dr. Isabelle A. Moser with Steve Solomon

Chapter Three

Fasting

From The Hygienic Dictionary

Cure. [1] There is no " cure " for disease; fasting is not a cure.

Fasting facilitates natural healing processes. Foods do not cure.

Until we have discarded our faith in cures, there can be no

intelligent approach to the problems presented by suffering and no

proper use of foods by those who are ill. Herbert Shelton, The

Hygienic System, v. 3, Fasting and Sunbathing. [2] All cure starts

from within out and from the head down and in reverse order as the

symptoms have appeared. Hering " s Law of Cure. [3] Life is made up of

crises. The individual establishes a standard of health peculiarly his

own, which must vary from all other standards as greatly as his

personality varies from others. The individual standard may be such as

to favor the development of indigestion, catarrh, gout, rheumatic and

glandular inflammations, tubercular developments, congestions,

sluggish secretions and excretions, or inhibitions of various

functions, both mental and physical, wherever the environmental or

habit strain is greater than usual. The standard of resistance may be

opposed so strenuously by habits and unusual physical agencies--that

the body breaks down under the strain. This is a crisis. Appetite

fails, discomfort or pain forces rest, and, as a result of

physiological rest (fasting) and physical rest (rest from daily work

and habits), a readjustment takes place, and the patient is " cured. "

This is what the profession and the people call a cure, and it is for

the time being--until an unusual enervation is brought on from

accident or dissipation; then another crisis. These crises are the

ordinary sickness of all communities--all catalogued diseases. When

the cold is gone or the hay-fever fully relieved, it does not mean the

patient is cured. Indeed, he is as much diseased as before he suffered

the attack--the crisis--and he never will be cured until the habits of

life that keep up toxin poisoning are corrected. To recover from a

crisis is not a cure; the tendency is back to the individual standard;

hence all crises are self-limited, unless nature by maltreatment is

prevented from reacting. All so-called healing systems ride to glory

on the backs of self-limited crises, and the self-deluded doctors and

their credulous clients, believe, when the crises are past, that a

cure has been wrought, whereas the real truth is that the treatment

may have delayed reaction. This is largely true of anything that has

been done except rest. A cure consists in changing the manner of

living to such a rational standard that full resistance and a balanced

metabolism is established. I suppose it is not quite human to expect

those of a standardized school of healing to give utterance to

discovered truth which, if accepted by the people, would rob them of

the glory of being curers of disease. Indeed, nature, and nature only,

cures; and as for crises, they come and go, whether or not there is a

doctor or healer within a thousand miles. Dr. John.H. Tilden, Impaired

Health: Its Cause and Cure, 1921.

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.

Many of those experienced with fasting no longer dread being without

health insurance and feel far less need for a doctor or of having a

regular checkup. They know with certainty that if something

degenerates in their body, their own body can fix it by itself.

Like Upton Sinclair and many others who largely failed before me,

I am going to try to convince you of the virtues of fasting by urging

you to try fasting yourself. If you will but try you will be changed

for the better for the rest of your life. If you do not try, you will

never Know.

To prompt your first step on this health-freedom road, I ask you

to please carefully consider the importance of this fact: the body " s

routine energy budget includes a very large allocation for the daily

digestion and assimilation of the food you eat. You may find my

estimate surprising, but about one-third of a fairly sedentary

person " s entire energy consumption goes into food processing. Other

uses for the body " s energy include the creation or rebuilding of

tissues, detoxification, moving (walking, running, etc.), talking,

producing hormones, etc. Digestion is one aspect of the body " s efforts

that we can readily control, it is the key to having or losing health.

The Effort Of Digestion

Digestion is a huge, unappreciated task, unappreciated because few

of us are aware of its happening in the same way we are aware of

making efforts to use our voluntary muscles when working or

exercising. Digestion begins in the mouth with thorough chewing. If

you don " t think chewing is effort, try making coleslaw in your own

mouth. Chew up at least half a big head of cabbage and three big

carrots that have not been shredded. Grind each bit until it liquefies

and has been thoroughly mixed with saliva. I guarantee that if you

even finish the chore your jaw will be tired and you will have lost

all desire to eat anything else, especially if it requires chewing.

Making the saliva you just used while chewing the cabbage is by

itself, a huge and unappreciated chemical effort.

Once in the stomach, chewed food has to be churned in order to mix

it with hydrochloric acid, pepsin, and other digestive enzymes.

Manufacturing these enzymes is also considerable work! Churning is

even harder work than chewing but normally, people are unaware of its

happening. While the stomach is churning (like a washing machine) a

large portion of the blood supply is redirected from the muscles in

the extremities to the stomach and intestines to aid in this process.

Anyone who has tried to go for a run, or take part in any other

strenuous physical activity immediately after a large meal feels like

a slug and wonders why they just can " t make their legs move the way

they usually do. So, to assist the body while it is digesting, it is

wise to take a siesta as los Latinos do instead of expecting the blood

to be two places at once like los norteamericanos.

After the stomach is through churning, the partially digested food

is moved into the small intestine where it is mixed with more

pancreatin secreted by the pancreas, and with bile from the gall

bladder. Pancreatin further solubilizes proteins. Bile aids in the

digestion of fatty foods. Manufacturing bile and pancreatic enzymes is

also a lot of effort. Only after the carbohydrates (starches and

sugars), proteins and fats have been broken down into simpler water

soluble food units such as simple sugars, amino acids and fatty acids,

can the body pass these nutrients into the blood thorough the little

projections in the small intestines called villi.

The leftovers, elements of the food that can " t be solubilized plus

some remaining liquids, are passed into the large intestine. There,

water and the vital mineral salts dissolved in that water, are

extracted and absorbed into the blood stream through thin permeable

membranes. Mucous is also secreted in the large intestine to

facilitate passage of the dryish remains. This is an effort.

(Intestinal mucous can become a route of secondary elimination,

especially during fasting. While fasting, it is essential to take

steps to expel toxic mucous in the colon before the poisons are re

adsorbed.) The final residue, now called fecal matter, is squeezed

along the length of the large intestines and passes out the rectum.

If all the digestive processes have been efficient there now are

an abundance of soluble nutrients for the blood stream to distribute

to hungry cells throughout the body. It is important to understand the

process at least on the level of oversimplification just presented in

order to begin to understand better how health is lost or regained

through eating, digestion, and elimination. And most importantly,

through not eating.

How Fasting Heals

Its an old hygienic maxim that the doctor does not heal, the

medicines do not heal, only the body heals itself. If the body can " t

heal then nothing can heal it. The body always knows best what it

needs and what to do.

But healing means repairing damaged organs and tissues and this

takes energy, while a sick body is already enervated, weakened and not

coping with its current stressors. If the sick person could but

somehow increase the body " s energy resources sufficiently, then a

slowly healing body could heal faster while a worsening one, or one

that was failing or one that was not getting better might heal.

Fasting does just that. To whatever degree food intake is reduced

the body " s digestive workload is proportionately reduced and it will

naturally, and far more intelligently than any physician could order,

redirect energy to wherever it decides that energy is most needed. A

fasting body begins accessing nutritional reserves (vitamins and

minerals) previously stored in the tissues and starts converting body

fat into sugar for energy fuel. During a time of water fasting,

sustaining the body " s entire energy and nutritional needs from

reserves and fat does require a small effort, but far less effort than

eating. I would guess a fasting body used about five percent of its

normal daily energy budget on nutritional concerns rather than the 33

percent it needs to process new food. Thus, water fasting puts

something like 28 percent more energy at the body " s disposal. This is

true even though the water faster may feel weak, energyless.

I would worry if sick or toxic fasters did not complain about

their weakness. They should expect to feel energyless. In fact, the

more internal healing and detoxification the body requires, the

tireder the faster feels because the body is very hard at work

internally. A great deal of the body " s energy will go toward boosting

the immune system if the problem is an infection. Liberated energy can

also be used for healing damaged parts, rebuilding failing organs, for

breaking down and eliminating deposits of toxic materials. Only after

most of the healing has occurred does a faster begin to feel energetic

again. Don " t expect to feel anything but tired and weak.

The only exception to this would be a person who has already

significantly detoxified and healed their body by previous fasting, or

the rare soul that has gone from birth through adulthood enjoying

extraordinarily good nutrition and without experiencing the stressors

of improper digestion. When one experienced faster I know finds

himself getting " run down " or catching a cold, he quits eating until

he feels really well. 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. On the second fasting day he " d feel more alert and

catch up on his paper work. By his third day on only water he would be

out doing hard physical chores like cutting the grass, splitting wood

or weeding his vegetable garden. Day four would also be an energetic

one, but if the fast extended beyond that, lowering blood sugar would

begin to make him tired and he " d feel forced to begin laying down.

After a day of water fasting the average person " s blood sugar

level naturally drops; making a faster feel somewhat tired and

" spacey, " so a typical faster usually begins to spend much more time

resting, further reducing the amount of energy being expended on

moving the body around, serendipitously redirecting even more of the

body " s energy budget toward healing. By the end of five or six days on

water, I estimate that from 40 to 50 percent of the body " s available

energy is being used for healing, repair and detoxification.

The amount of work that a fasting body " s own healing energy can do

and what it feels like to be there when it is happening is incredible.

But you can " t know it if you haven " t felt it. So hardly anyone in our

present culture knows.

As I mentioned in the first chapter, at Great Oaks School I

apprenticed myself to the traveling masters of virtually every system

of natural healing that existed during the '70s. I observed every one

of them at work and tried most of them on my clients. After all that I

can say with experience that I am not aware of any other healing tool

that can be so effective as the fast.

Essentials of a Successful, Safe Fast

· 1. Fast in a bright airy room, with exceptionally good ventilation,

because fasters not only need a lot of fresh air; their bodies give

off powerfully offensive odors.

· 2. Sun bathe if possible in warm climates for 10 to 20 minutes in

the morning before the sun gets too strong.

· 3. Scrub/massage the skin with a dry brush, stroking toward the

heart, followed by a warm water shower two to four times a day to

assist the skin in eliminating toxins. If you are too weak to do this,

have an assisted bed bath.

· 4. Have two enemas daily for the first week of a fast and then once

daily until the fast is terminated.

· 5. Insure a harmonious environment with supportive people or else

fast alone if you are experienced. Avoid well-meaning interference or

anxious criticism at all cost. The faster becomes hypersensitive to

others " emotions.

· 6. Rest profoundly except for a short walk of about 200 yards

morning and night.

· 7. Drink water! At least three quarts every day. Do not allow

yourself to become dehydrated!

· 8. Control yourself! Break a long fast on diluted non-sweet fruit

juice such as grapefruit juice, sipped a teaspoon at a time, no more

than eight ounces at a time no oftener than every 2 or 3 hours. The

second day you eat, add small quantities of fresh juicy fruit to the

same amount of juice you took the day before no oftener than every 3

hours. By small quantities I mean half an apple or the equivalent. On

the third day of eating, add small quantities of vegetable juice and

juicy vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers.

· Control yourself! The second week after eating resumed add complex

vegetable salads plus more complex fruit salads. Do not mix fruit and

vegetables at meals. The third week add raw nuts and seeds no more

than 1/2 ounce three times daily. Add 1/4 avocado daily. Fourth week

increase to 3 ounces of raw soaked nuts and seeds daily and 1/2

avocado daily. 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. But if the

rules are followed, fasting presents far less risk than any other

important medical procedure with a far greater likelihood of a

positive outcome. And let me stress here, there is no medical

procedure without risk. Life itself is fraught with risk, it is a

one-way ticket from birth to death, with no certainty as to when the

end of the line will be reached. But in my opinion, when handling

degenerative illness and infections, natural hygiene and fasting

usually offer the best hope of healing with the least possible risk.

The first vital concern is the duration of the fast. Two

eliminatory processes go on simultaneously while fasting. One is the

dissolving and elimination of the excess, toxic or dysfunctional

deposits in the body, and second process, the gradual exhaustion of

the body " s stored nutritional reserves. The fasting body first

consumes those parts of the body that are unhealthy; eventually these

are all gone. Simultaneously the body uses up stored fat and other

reserve nutritional elements. A well-fed reasonably healthy body

usually has enough stored nutrition to fast for quite a bit longer

than it takes to " clean house. "

While house cleaning is going on the body uses its reserves to

rebuild organs and rejuvenate itself. Rebuilding starts out very

slowly but the repairs increase at an ever-accelerating rate. The

" overhaul " can last only until the body has no more reserves. Because

several weeks of fasting must pass by before the " overhaul " gets going

full speed, it is wise to continue fasting as long as possible so as

to benefit from as much rejuvenation as possible.

It is best not to end the fast before all toxic or dysfunctional

deposits are eliminated, or before the infection is overcome, or

before the cause for complaint has been healed. The fast must be ended

when most of the body " s essential-to-life stored nutritional reserves

are exhausted. If the fast goes beyond this point, starvation begins.

Then, fasting-induced organic damage can occur, and death can follow,

usually several weeks later. Almost anyone not immediately close to

death has enough stored nutrition to water fast for ten days to two

weeks. Most reasonably healthy people have sufficient reserves to

water fast for a month. Later I will explain how a faster can somewhat

resupply their nutritional reserves while continuing to fast, and thus

safely extend the fasting period.

The second essential concern has to do with adjusting the

intensity of the fast. Some individuals are so toxic that the waste

products released during a fast are too strong, too concentrated or

too poisonous for the organs of elimination to handle safely, or to be

handled within the willingness of the faster to tolerate the

discomforts that toxic releases generate. The highly-toxic faster may

even experience life-threatening symptoms such as violent asthma

attacks. This kind of faster has almost certainly been dangerously ill

before the fast began. Others, though not dangerously sick prior to

fasting, may be nearly as toxic and though not in danger of death,

they may not be willing to tolerate the degree of discomfort fasting

can trigger. For this reason I recommend that if at all possible,

before undertaking a fast the person eat mostly raw foods for two

months and clean up all addictions. This will give the body a chance

to detoxify significantly before the water fast is started, and will

make water fasting much more comfortable. Seriously, dangerously ill

people should only fast with experienced guidance, so the rapidity of

their detoxification process may be adjusted to a lower level if

necessary.

A fast of only one week can accomplish a significant amount of

healing. Slight healing does occur on shorter fasts, but it is much

more difficult to see or feel the results. Many people experience

rapid relief from acute headache pain or digestive distress such as

gas attacks, mild gallbladder pain, stomach aches, etc., after only

one day " s abstention from food. In one week of fasting a person can

relieve more dangerous conditions such as arthritic pain, rheumatism,

kidney pain, and many symptoms associated with allergic reactions,.

But even more fasting time is generally needed for the body to

completely heal serious diseases. That " s because eliminating

life-threatening problems usually involve rebuilding organs that

aren " t functioning too well. Major rebuilding begins only after major

detoxification has been accomplished, and this takes time.

Yes, even lost organ function can be partially or completely

restored by fasting. Aging and age-related degeneration is

progressive, diminishing organ functioning. Organs that make digestive

enzymes secrete less enzymes. The degenerated immune system loses the

ability to mobilize as effectively when the body is attacked. Liver

and kidney efficiency declines. The adrenals tire, becoming incapable

of dumping massive amounts of stress-handling hormones or of repeating

that effort time after time without considerable rest in between. The

consequences of these inter-dependent deterioration " s is a cascade of

deterioration that contributes to even more rapid deterioration " s. The

name for this cascading process is aging. Its inevitable

result--death.

Fasting can, to a degree, reverse aging. Because fasting improves

organ functioning, it can slow down aging.

Fasters are often surprised that intensified healing can be

uncomfortable. They have been programmed by our culture and by

allopathic doctors to think that if they are doing the right thing for

their bodies they should feel better immediately. I wish it weren " t

so, but most people have to pay the piper for their dietary

indiscretions and other errors in living. There will be aches and

minor pains and uncomfortable sensations. More about that later. A

rare faster does feel immediately better, and continues to feel ever

better by the day, and even has incredible energy while eating

nothing, but the majority of us folks just have to tough it out,

keeping in mind that the way out is the way through. It is important

to remind yourself at times that even with some discomfort and

considering the inconvenience of fasting that you are getting off

easy--one month of self-denial pays for those years of indulgence and

buys a regenerated body.

Length Of The Fast

How long should a person fast? In cases where there are serious

complaints to remedy but where there are no life threatening disease

conditions, a good rule of thumb is to fast on water for one complete

day (24 hours) for each year that the person has lived. If you are 30

years old, it will take 30 consecutive days of fasting to restore

complete health. However, thirty fasting days, done a few days here

and a few there won " t equal a month of steady fasting; the body

accomplishes enormously more in 7 or l4 days of consecutive fasting,

than 7 or 14 days of fasting accumulated sporadically, such as one day

a week. This is not to say that regular short fasts are not useful

medicine. Periodic day-long fasts have been incorporated into many

religious traditions, and for good reason; it gives the body one day a

week to rest, to be free of digestive obligations, and to catch up on

garbage disposal. I heartily recommend it. But it takes many years of

unfailingly regular brief fasting to equal the benefits of one,

intensive experience.

Fasting on water much longer than fifteen consecutive days may be

dangerous for the very sick, (unless under experienced supervision) or

too intense for those who are not motivated by severe illness to

withstand the discomfort and boredom. However, it is possible to

finish a healing process initiated by one long water fast by repeating

the fast later. My husband " s healing is a good example of this. His

health began to noticeably decline about age 38 and he started

fasting. He fasted on water 14 to 18 days at a time, once a year, for

five consecutive years before most of his complaints and problems

entirely vanished.

The longest fast I ever supervised was a 90 day water fast on an

extraordinarily obese woman, who at 5 " 2 " weighed close to 400 pounds.

She was a Mormon; generally members of the LDS Church eat a healthier

diet than most Americans, but her " s included far too much of what I

call " healthfood junkfood, " in the form of whole grain cakes and

cookies, lots of granola made with lots of honey, oil, and dried

fruit, lots of honey heaped atop heavily buttered whole grain bread.

(I will explain more about the trap of healthfood junkfood later on.)

A whole foods relatively meatless diet is far superior to its refined

white flour, white sugar and white grease (lard) counterpart, but it

still produced a serious heath problem in just 30 years of life. Like

many women, she expressed love-for-family in the kitchen by serving

too-much too-tasty food. The Mormons have a very strong family

orientation and this lady was no exception, but she was insecure and

unhappy in her marriage and sought consolation in food, eaten far in

excess of what her body needed.

On her 90 day water fast she lost about 150 pounds, but was still

grossly overweight when the fast ended. Toward the end it became clear

that it was unrealistic to try to shrink this woman any closer to

normal body weight because to her, fat represented an invaluable

insulation or buffer that she was not prepared to give up. As the

weight melted away on the fast and she was able to actually feel the

outline of a hip bone her neurosis became more and more apparent, and

the ability to feel a part of her skeleton was so upsetting to her

that her choice was between life threatening obesity and pervasive

anxiety.

Her weight was still excessive but the solace of eating was even

more important. This woman needed intensive counseling not more

fasting. Unfortunately, at the end she choose to remain obese. Fat was

much less frightening to her than confronting her emotions and fears.

The positive side was that after the fast she was able to maintain her

weight at 225 instead of 375 which was an enormous relief to her

exhausted heart.

Another client I fasted for 90 days was a 6 " 1 " tall, chronic

schizophrenic man who weighed in at 400 pounds. He was so big he could

barely get through my front door, and mine was an extraordinarily wide

door in what had been an upper-class mansion. This man, now in his mid

twenties, had spent his last seven years in a mental institution

before his parents decided to give him one last chance by sending to

Great Oaks School. The state mental hospitals at that time provided

the mentally ill with cigarettes, coffee, and lots of sugary treats,

but none of these substances were part of my treatment program so he

had a lot of immediate withdrawal to go through. The quickest and

easiest way to get him through it was to put him on a water fast after

a few days of preparation on raw food.

This was not an easily managed case! He was wildly psychotic, on

heavy doses of chloropromazine, with many bizarre behaviors. Besides

talking to himself continuously in gibberish, he collected bugs, moss,

sticks, piles or dirt, and switched to smoking oak leaves instead of

cigarettes. He was such a fire hazard that I had to move him to a

downstairs room with concrete floor. Even in the basement he was a

fire hazard with his smoking and piles of sticks and other

inflammables next to his bed, but all of this debris was his

" precious. " I knew that I was in for trouble if I disturbed his

precious, but the insects and dirt piles seemed to be expanding

exponentially.

One day the dirt exceeded my tolerance level. To make a long story

short he caught me in the act of cleaning up his precious. Was he

furious! All 350 pounds of him! (By this time he had lost 50 pounds.)

He barreled into me, fists flying, and knocked me into the pipes next

to the furnace and seemed ready to really teach me what was what. I

prefer to avoid fights, but if they are inevitable, I can really get

into the spirit of the thing. I " d had lots of childhood practice

defending myself because I was an incurable tomboy who loved to

wrestle; I could usually pin big boys who considered themselves tough.

So I began using my fists and what little martial arts training I had

to good use. After I hurt him a bit he realized that I was not going

to be easily intimidated, and that in fact he was in danger of getting

seriously damaged. So he called a truce before either of us were badly

beaten up. He had only a few bruises and welts, nothing serious.

After that he refrained from collecting things inside the building

(he continued to collect outside). This compromise was fine with me,

and the incident allowed me to maintain the authority I needed to

bully him into co-operating with the program: taking his vitamins, and

sticking to his fast until he finally reached 200 pounds. After 90

days on water he actually looked quite handsome, he no longer smoked,

he was off psychotropic medication, and his behaviors were within an

acceptable range as long as your expectations were not too high.

He was well enough to live outside a hospital and also

clear-headed enough to know that if he let too many people know how

well he really was, he might have to give up his mental disability

pension and actually become responsible for himself. No way, Jose!

This fellow knew a good thing when he saw it. So he continued to pull

bizarre stunts just often enough in front of the right audience to

keep his disability checks coming in, while managing to act sane

enough to be allowed to live comfortably at home instead of in the

hospital. By keeping to my program he could stay off mind-numbing

psychotropic medication if he kept up his megavitamins and minerals.

This compromise was tolerable from his point of view, because there

were no side effects like he experienced from his tranquilizers.

It is very rare for a mentally ill person who has spent more than

a few months in a mental hospital to ever usefully return to society

because they find " mental illness " too rewarding.