Fasting for health

Have you ever tried fasting? Have you ever wondered if it’s worth doing? The answer in my view is a  really big yes!

We’ve all heard the term ‘detox’ and there are many products on the market now that are designed to detox the body – probably the most well known at present is the Lemon Detox. I’ve seen it selling here in Australia for between $65-$95. I think it’s well known basically because it’s been marketed well. It takes pride of place out the front of chemists and health shops everywhere it seems at the moment.

I don’t know whether these kits are worth buying or not, having never used them, and while there are definately herbs and things that will help you to detox, the basis for cleaning up your body is going to be a fast of some sort.

There are different ways of fasting – some more difficult than others and which one you try really depends on what you want to achieve, your lifestyle and limitations. The most severe (and probably the most effective) fast is water only. That means you eat nothing, and consume only water or herbal teas. This can be done for only a couple of days over a weekend, or some people do it for weeks at a time.

Probably the next level of fast is no food, but only fresh fruit and vegetable juices along with water and herbal teas. This is a great way of fasting if you can relax and don’t have to do too much. It gives your body awesome instant nutrition every time you consume your fresh juice and can be incredibly healing in cases of serious illness. Juicing and juice fasts are commonly used in treating cancer and other serious illnesses successfully.  Again this can be done for a couple of days or much longer depending on your situation and circumstances.

The third level is the fruit fast. This is where you consume only raw fruit. Once again you’re getting great nutrients and it can be done for any length of time from a couple of days to months. Make sure you eat a good variety of fruits to gain a good variety of nutrients. Fruit only takes approx 20 minutes to be digested and pass through the stomach and so takes little energy from the body allowing it instead to focus on healing and repair.

I was first introduced to fruit fasting about 10 years ago by Jane – a friend with very severe rheumatoid arthritis. She gave me a copy of Ross Horne’s book ‘Pritiken. You can do better’ . At that time she was in her early 40’s and had been diagnosed with the arthritis  in her 20’s. Although she was advised not to by her doctors, she became pregnant and had her daughter about 9 years before I met her. She told me how she had became bedridden after having her daughter as her arthritis was so bad (her hands and knees are covered in scarring from surgeries). A friend of her’s had introduced her to Ross Horne’s book at the time that she was bedridden. She read his story, went on a fruit fast and went from bedridden to running on the beach in 6 weeks! I haven’t seen Jane for a number of years now as we lost touch, but she used to use the fruit fasting to control her arthritis – fasting when she needed to so that she could live a normal life and not be too reliant on medication.

Miracles do happen on fasts. Fasting gives your body the chance to clean out, tidy up and repair. Our bodies are so bombarded these days with our diets, our environment and our lifestyles that it’s really a miracle that we function as well as we do.

All the studies being touted in the media about how detoxing is pointless are absolute hogwash! Anyone who has actually fasted properly knows that to be the case – particularly if they have health issues.

I did my first fruit fast when I read that book that Jane lent to me and my health improved dramatically. I lost 15 kilos in about 3 months and the health benefits lasted for years. When I did it originally tho, I was taking on a fruitarian diet as Ross Horne had. His argument made sense to me at the time, however after my initial few weeks on fruit only, I introduced nuts and eventually rice back into my diet. Over time though my diet got to be not so good. I was vegan for probably 2 years or maybe more and remained vegetarian up until about 3 years ago.

I think the my extended time eating the way that I was eating, and not taking any good supplements actually caused me some health issues in the long term. So for me now, the fruit fast is temporary – not a permanent way of eating. I will note here that Ross Horne died of cancer in his 70’s after living on only fruit for over 20 years. I think that eating only fruit long term, the lack of protein, fats and nutrition, particularly if eating commercially grown fruit (never mind the pesticides) would cause health problems in most people.

However temporarily as a fast, it’s brilliant. I haven’t done another long fast since my venture into fruitarianism  (it’s a bit overdue I must say!). I’ve done some 2 or 3 day fasts, but that’s been it. I’m currently doing a fruit fast now. I’m on my 4th day and noticing miracles already! My eye site has improved heaps (after the first 2 days!) and so have my energy levels. My feet have stopped swelling (they’ve been constantly swollen for the past few weeks).  I’m planning at this stage on staying on this fast for 4 weeks and then I may do it again in a couple of months.

I’m very fortunate to be living in Queensland where I have access to a huge range of fruit at reasonably prices, so I’m currently living on mangoes, grapes, pawpaw, melons, stone fruit, lychees, pineapple and more.

I’m also using herbs such as dandelion to help my liver and kidneys to do their respective jobs and taking my supplements to make sure I’m getting all the vitamins and minerals that my body needs.

The big advantage of the fruit fast is that I can still exercise and live my life as per normal – all except for the diet that is! I also read just recently about doing rice fasts. Apparently that is something that has been around for a long time in Asia. I guess it would work, but I doubt that  it would work as effectively. Rice is harder to digest than the fruit and has less nutrients, but could be a good option for winter perhaps?

Anyway, I’ll post again at the end of my fast and update how it all went. It’s great so far!