Fasting for Better Health

Much of the ill health in the U.S. is caused by our fortunate lifestyle.  Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, indigestion, and uncomfortable bowel habits, among many more conditions are all closely intertwined with poor lifestyle, which is easy to do in our day and age.  While environmental chemicals and activity levels are part of this, so is the privileged convenience of packaged foods and the sustained interest in these foods based on our modified taste buds.  Don’t despair!  These taste buds, and their conjoined brain signals, do change back to wanting less “tasty” treats.  A diet emphasizing foods as close to their natural form does the body a great service, and one’s better health is a direct result.

You’d have to be a saint to sustain an entirely whole foods diet in our day and age, however.  Nonetheless, we all should aim for 75% of our meals being made from scratch (from whole foods).  Certain health conditions would benefit from an even higher percentage.  A healthy human body should be able to cope with a 75% pure – 25% manufactured diet.  The most popular fad diet today is the Paleolithic diet.  In my opinion the body should have the flexibility to be able to process grains.  If the person is unable to process grains, the person lacks flexibility in their physical health and improving one’s digestion should be the goal.  Our bodies should be able to cope with modifications as long as a whole foods’ diet is at its base.  And, if it isn’t, there are measures to be taken to strengthen the body so that it regains flexibility.  One of the measures to be taken is to go on a Paleolithic diet, but it should only be a temporary step toward the long-term solution of bringing flexibility back into one’s physical health.

Decreased flexibility in physical health comes from more than just a fortunate, or unfortunate as it may, lifestyle.  Environmental chemicals play a part in this too.  This body burden can come from normal metabolism when the body’s detoxification organs aren’t working properly as well.  Abnormal metabolism can be caused by allergies and nutritional deficiencies and they make the detoxification pathway sluggish.  A detoxification diet is one tool to strengthen the body.  It reduces inflammation, which is a common element in chronic illness, and it tonifies the detoxification pathway.  The detoxification pathway consists of the liver, digestive system, kidneys, lungs and skin.  In addition to a detoxification diet, specially targeted supplement and nutritional therapy can be used to cleanse and strengthen these organs. 

The body absorbs chemicals.  For the most part, it excretes water soluble chemicals, but it stores the fat soluble chemicals.  Fat soluble chemicals re-circulate under certain circumstances, such as during exercise or from the ingestion of certain medication and foods.  This is another reason to have supplement and nutritional therapy during detoxification; it helps the body get rid of these re-circulating chemicals rather than re-depositing them back in the body.

There are different levels of detoxification, but the most basic, which should accompany all levels of detoxification, includes a food elimination-type diet accompanied with fasting.  A detoxification diet repairs the body by letting it rest from an offending lifestyle and it provokes the body’s healing ability.

One should never undergo fasting without the advice of a physician or without knowing what you’re doing as it can be hazardous to your health if done improperly or without supervision.  There is a difference between fasting and starvation.  Fasting is for a specific purpose with a designed course to follow and benefits the health (or it is done with specific spiritual goals in mind as in some religions).  Lastly, there are some conditions that do not benefit from fasting.  So, it is wise to consult a physician and/or do your own research before going on a detoxification diet.

Please contact my office if you want to know what a detoxification diet can do for you.

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