Fasting as a Part of Your Dynamic Health Program

Classic Dr. T. C. Fry & Dr. Herbert M. Shelton
http://www.livingnutrition.com

Regular fasting of from one to three days will prove a great health boon! This writer abstains from all food from Sunday evenings until Tuesday noon and finds this weekly fasting period one of the most efficacious of health practices.

Without doubt Dr. Herbert M. Shelton is the world's greatest authority on fasting; he has supervised the fasts of more than 40,000 people. In practicing Hygiene, it is essential to understand the heightened healing powers of fasting. Therefore, it is most appropriate that we include here a chapter from Dr. Shelton's best selling book, Fasting Can Save Your Life, Chapter 1: Fasting and You (now out-of-print; however, Dr. Shelton's Fasting for Renewal book is equally informative).

Fasting is much more than simply not eating: it is both a science and an art, impacting our overall well-being.

Fasting, as we use the term here, means total abstinence from all food for a definite period of time. The word comes from the old English word "faesten," which means firm or fixed. In other words, the fast is something we hold to on a firm basis under controlled and fixed conditions.
In religious terms it may mean abstinence from certain foods on certain holy days. But this is partial rather than total abstinence. I know persons who have "fasted" during Lent and actually gained weight, because they chose to substitute foods which put on even more pounds.
Those who think that fasting is equivalent to starvation are entirely wrong. There are basically two periods in the process of abstaining from food that should concern us here: the fasting period proper and the period of starvation.

As we study the phenomena of abstinence in greater detail, the distinction between these two phases will become clear. From the outset, however, it is essential to understand that the fasting stage continues so long as the body supports itself on the stored reserves within its tissues. Starvation begins when abstinence is carried on beyond the time when these stored reserves are used up or have dropped to a dangerously low level.

We must understand also that there is much loose terminology that adds to confusion on the subject of fasting. For example: we hear people speak of going on a "water fast" which technically would imply that they were giving up drinking water. What they mean, actually is that they are going on a fast in which they give up everything but water. Other examples would be "going on a fruit juice fast" or a "vegetable juice fast," meaning they are abstaining from everything except fruit or vegetable juice.

The term "partial fast" is used for any form of fasting where individuals put extremely limiting conditions on what they eat. The misuse of the word "starving" not only in the vernacular, but even in some scientific papers, has done vast harm. The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "stearfas," which means to die, not only from lack of food but also from overall exposure to cold. This is how the phrase "starving cold" developed.

Starvation is a process of dying, in effect. You cannot starve yourself into good health. You can fast for proper and reasonable periods and thereby improve your physical condition and often restore yourself to good health. It is possible to abstain from food for long periods of time with beneficial effects. When the experienced advisor conducting the fast perceives the imminence of the second phase (of starvation), the fast is broken.

As I have said previously, the fast is part of a new way of life, outlined in this book. Thus it is not only used to lose weight, but is equally important as part of an approach to maintaining and restoring good health.

The sick or wounded animal finds a secluded spot where he can keep warm, protected from the weather, where he can have peace and quiet and be undisturbed. There he rests and fasts. He may, for example, have lost a limb, but he lies there in his privacy and generally recovers without drugs, without bandages or surgery.

In the animal world, fasting is tremendously important not only when sick or wounded but also during hibernation or aestivation (sleeping throughout the summer in tropical climates).
Some animals fast during the mating season and in many cases during the nursing period. Some birds fast while their eggs are being hatched. Some animals fast immediately after birth. There are forms of spiders who do not eat for six months after they are born. Some wild creatures fast when taken into captivity, and a domestic pet, a dog, or a cat, may not eat for several days when it comes into a new environment. Animals also survive forced fasts during periods of drought, snow, and cold, living for long periods when no food is available.

In mankind, fasting has been practiced in various parts of the world over centuries for religious reasons, for self-discipline, for political purposes and as a means of restoring health. The concept that we must eat to keep up our strength has only become a deeply entrenched idea in recent centuries.

In the words of Dr. Felix Oswald, who came to America before the turn of the century: "The fast cure method is not limited to our dumb fellow creatures. It is a common experience that pain, fever, gastric congestion and even mental afflictions take away the appetite and only unwise nurses will try to thwart the purposes of Nature in this respect."

Fasting is centuries old; it is mentioned in the Bible and in Homer. It was employed in the care of the sick in ancient temples in Egypt, Greece and throughout the Mediterranean world. The use of fasting in acute disease conditions dates back to remote times.

It was prescribed by Arabian physicians during the long dark night of Europe's Medieval Age. One hundred and fifty years ago in Italy, Neapolitan physicians employed fasts that sometimes lasted for forty days in the case of fever patients.

This writer has been engaged in conducting fasts since the summer of 1920. In this period of approximately forty-five years, I have conducted thousands of fasts ranging from a few days' duration to ninety days, both for weight reduction and to assist in recovering from disease states.