Fasting -- feast or famine?

by Debra McDuffee (Subscribe to Debra McDuffee's posts)
Sep 30th 2006 8:00AM

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

Fasting has a very negative connotation for me. It conjures up images of starvation, being weak and shaky, feeling lethargic and nauseous. Call it Fastophobia, but I just don't think I could do a full-out fast.

I have read for years about all of the benefits, both physical and spiritual, and something about depriving my very needy body of food for even a few hours gives me the shakes. Maybe if I was concerned about weight loss I would be more motivated to fast, as that is touted as one of the benefits of fasting. And then there is the question, if you eat well enough all of the time, is there really anything from which to detox?

The information in a new article I read from ThirdAge, though, is fascinating, all about how fasting puts the body in survival mode and can even increase life spans up to forty percent. Not enough for you? Well, how about reducing free radicals, preventing diabetes and heart disease? Believe me, this article is worth the read to see all the amazing things fasting can do for your body.

The article nicely outlines The Master Cleanse as well as some other detox diets, too, so you can get an idea of the different types of fasting that can be done. It was good to see that you don't necessarily have to eat nothing for days on end; there are other ways to do partial fasts.

Am I convinced of the benefits of fasting? Clearly. Will I fast? Probably not, especially not while I am still nursing my son. But there will come a day when my body is my own again and I may think about restricting certain foods for two weeks, or even trying a modified version of the every-other-day plan outlined in the article.

Have any of you had any success with fasting? How did it make you feel? Would you do it again? Help me defeat my Fastophobia!

Source

Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Heidi 9-30-2006 @ 12:00PM

I highly reccomend the benefits of fasting. The first day is the hardest, because thats when the headaches come (esp worse if you are used to caffeine). But the second day is blissful and worth getting to. My fav book on the subject is Dr. Fuhrman's (Eat to Live) Fasting and Eating for Health.

Dave 9-30-2006 @ 12:26PM

I first started fasting over twenty years ago. It was originally a hit or miss thing. I would fast irregularly, in terms of frequency, but would do so for an entire day. I did this to cleanse my body and to help me eat better. Fasting makes you much more aware of what you put in your body, both when you are choosing not to eat and for days after you break your fast. I liked doing this because it provided a way to practice self-discipline, in a way that helped me to feel more confident, and it made me feel better physically.

Then there was a point in my life when I was fasting on a weekly basis. This was related to my attending a sweatlodge. I would fast on the day I would go to the sweat. Going through my day without eating helped me to prepare for my evening. The entire day, taken as a whole, also helped me to build a better spiritual consciousness in a way that rippled through the rest of the days of the week. All the benefits I had experienced before with my fasting before were even greater (cleansing my body, making me aware of what I put into my body, and giving me a physical boost) plus it had the added benefit of being part of a spiritual practice.

As life is ever changing, there came a point in time when I moved far away from the sweatlodge I used to attend. I have only fasted once or twice since then. Reading this article reminded me of my past experiences and makes me think…maybe it is time to start fasting again.

For me fasting on any given day used to be surprisingly easy or really hard. There was little in between. On some hard days I would sometimes give up and eat. I found when I was carrying out this practice on a weekly basis that the easy days of fasting were much more common. It is definitely something that is well worth trying. It helped me to change how I felt about myself in some really positive ways, made me eat better, and generally altered how I perceived food and eating. I also found, with my spiritual practice, that it really helped me to grow spiritually.

Dave