Fasting & Healing

FEBRUARY, 2018

Fasting is one of the most ancient traditions in the world and millions of people have done it, testifying to some astounding health benefits. Science has confirmed in the meantime some significant & beneficial long-term health effects. No matter if you are an experienced, a first-time or a new person to fasting, you might have noticed that there are many varied fasting regimens or protocols offered. From the pure Water Fasting to the Master Cleanse, to Juice or Fruit Fasting, Partial Fasting or Intermittent Fasting, just to name a few. All are reported to have some specific benefits, meaning there is no ‘One-Fits-All’ approach to this subject.

Is indulgence the enemy?

When there is an abundance of foods to eat, most people tend to eat more than what they need. Ideally, researchers tell us to stop eating at 80% of feeling full, but reality is that 99% of all people indulge & therefore overeat! This constant supply of foods, coupled with an overload of unhealthy choices, is called FEAST MODE and largely responsible for chronic diseases. Plus scientists say, in addition it is the fact that we are eating too frequently! For weight loss purposes, eating small portions every few hours can be a valuable strategy. But usually people eat or snack until they are full – they indulge! This puts us in a constant ‘feast mode’ to the effect that our body loses the ability to ‘Repair & Rejuvenate’ naturally.

BALANCE is usually KEY for a healthy & happy Life and so it is for the ‘Feasting Mode’. Indulgence in foods does not really harm the body, science says, as long as it is NOT CONSTANT. In other words, indulge for a few days, but let that be followed by a restricted period! In other words, it makes a lot of sense to regularly take times to limit or abstain from certain foods, or Fast.

Science-based evidence for Repair & Rejuvenate

Returning to science here, it turns out that during the last decades scientists have proven why there is good reason to fasting. These are the most important benefits that they found:

It normalizes insulin & leptin sensitivity and boosts mitochondrial energy efficiency – a very important function that gradually declines with aging.

It normalizes ghrelin levels, also known as the ‘hunger hormone’ leading to minimal cravings, if not any at all.

It significantly lowers triglycerides and LDL (the bad fats), and preserves HDL (the good fat) since the body switches usually after 48 hours from glucose burning to fat burning.

After switching to fat burning the body’s ability to ‘clean’ & ‘detox’ itself is increased. The body starts to use first the most impure and inferior materials, such as dead cells, fat deposits, damaged tissue, morbid accumulations, even tumors or abscesses.

When switching to fat burning, the body increases the production of ketones (produced in liver; distributed by blood) which is the preferred fuel for the brain, especially when insulin resistant. It also promotes neural health (through a protein, called brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF). One of these neural processes is to activate brain stem cells to convert into new neurons!

This is for sure an impressive list of benefits!

But let’s be realistic: even after listing this impressive list, the vast majority of people will not consider fasting. Most people see it more as a ‘Starvation,’ than a tool for good & long-lasting health. And this despite science-based evidence how it enables the body’s ability to ‘Repair & Rejuvenate.’

So here is one important question: what if one could still eat or drink, let’s say a very low calorie Diet, but the benefits could be close to Water Fasting? What if it were possible to supply the body with nutrient-dense ‘foods or drinks’ so that it would not miss anything from a nutritional point of view? (It needs to be noted here that this last point is one of the biggest issues people have with Fasting, since they fear to physically deteriorate when they do not get their daily vitamins and minerals, plus proteins).

Would the switch from glucose to fat-burning and the ‘Repair & Rejuvenate’ Process still work? Before answering that let me explain what I discovered about Fasting over the past 30 years.

“Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration & improves immune function.”

My personal quest for good health

To continue I need to tell you some more of my own personal experience. When I lived in Switzerland, in my early twenties, I experimented with a group of health-conscious people to find the healthiest, most rejuvenating while efficient Self-Healing approach. And science had already documented that Fasting triggered stem cell regeneration & improved immune function. Naturally, we turned to Fasting to find out how we would do, despite the fact that none of us had any serious health concerns. We all came from many different backgrounds and ranged in age from the Twenties to the Forties. Some were doctors, teachers, artists, lawyers, secretaries, translators, office managers, housewives, railroad engineer, etc.

We studied the protocol for Only-Water-Fasting first, but it was fairly quickly out. First, longer periods of time (e.g. 14 – 21 days) of Water-Fasting really needs a physician’s supervision. Second, most persons, including me, had a basic inner rejection to Only-Water-Fasting because of the lack of nutrition. So we decided to follow a variety of Juicing Fasts (varying between 7 days, 10 or 14 days) over a period of several months. Every time we compared our experiences & results.

Fruit-Juicing was a concern for many of us because of the amounts of fructose – natural fructose true, but still fructose or sugar. It was an ingredient that many of us wanted to take a break from. Vegetable-Juicing was liked by many for a short period, like 5-7 days, but not really much longer since some got troubles with teeth & gum health. At that time, the hype of the Lemon-Maple-Syrup-Fast started – now called the Master Cleanse – and of course, we tried that too, with the least liked results. After a few days, some people started to space out (were not grounded in their body) and had to stop, and others had extreme cravings after beginning to eat normally again. Only a few of us said that they liked it and would do it any time again.

After this period we turned to Partial-Fasting, meaning that you restrict eating to only select types of food, like for example, the Brown-Rice-Fast – a fast that has been practiced for centuries – or the Whey-Fast, or along Dr. Budwig’s protocol, a cottage cheese & flaxseed oil Fast/Cleanse, or even a simple Vegetable Fast. We started with the Brown-Rice-Fast with good results reported by everyone. Yet, we felt it was still too restrictive & extreme and we decided to try a Brown-Rice-Vegetable-Fast. This was the easiest one to follow, since it involved eating real food (chewing every bite about 50x) – just restricted, but eating. In regards to having a social life, even going out was possible because many restaurants were able to serve steamed or stir-fried vegetables, and if needed with a cup of brown rice.

Because we got many more people interested, we kept on for a year or two with this Cleansing Diet (it is not really a Fast in its original meaning anymore). In case you’re interested, just ask me about the details or protocol we used. It is simple, not too difficult and truly healthy. After that time we slowly went different ways in our life, but I made a commitment to do this type of Fasting (always between 14-21 days) once a year. This I did for more than 20 years with very good results, in other words I am completely healthy in my mid-fifties.

What about Intermittent Fasting

A few years ago, I became aware of the research for Intermittent Fasting, which is in short that you limit the eating hours, for example from 8am in the morning to 3 or 4pm in the afternoon. Then you don’t eat anymore until the next morning, about the same time. This translates into not eating for about 16-17 hours (= intermittent fasting). Many people have it easy to try this version, but it needs to be done regularly in order to truly see a difference for one’s health. If you do it once a week, you’ll feel good the next day, but it won’t translate into sustained health benefits. One has to do it more consistently, i.e. 3-4 days intermittent Fasting per 7 days of the week, for at least 28 days. Then you’ll see similar benefits as mentioned above about Partial Fasting. And yet, because many people realize what shifting from glucose burning to fat-burning can do for their health, Intermittent Fasting might be the easiest way to get started. As always, to keep one’s body in fat-burning mode is a little more complicated than Fasting. Yet, the good news is that it can be done (see the newest developments of the Keto-Diet).

“Fasting has a positive & significant long-term effect on metabolism & obesity.”

Switch from Glucose to Fat-Burning

Now let’s ask the important question again: “Would the switch from glucose to fat-burning and the ‘Repair & Rejuvenate’ Process still work,” when doing a very low-calorie, but highly nutritious Protocol?

The answer is yes, it does. With great interest did I follow the newest research of Dr. Valter Longo, from the Longevity Institute, Davis School of Gerontology and Department of Biological Sciences, of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. He created what is called the Fast-Mimicking-Diet and proved that a nutritious, plant-based Fast-Mimicking-Diet could indeed bring similar results to water fasting. Click here and here in case you are interested in their research.

So after my many years of partial Fasting, I decided to update my own Partial Fasting Protocol, meaning it is now adjusted to four (4) days. Following Dr. Longo’s research it is ideally repeated for 3 consecutive months. The results of this are excellent, the feedback confirms that it is not very difficult to do, the overall health is improved, and some sustained weight loss is a nice side-effect of it all.

Taking a break during hectic times is an important part of Fasting.

How does our nutrient-dense Fasting work?

The 4-day Protocol is highly nutritious, plant-based, and the few foods eaten per day are nearly liquefied by chewing every bite extensively.

One can choose to do a ‘One-time’ Test, or follow this protocol once or twice a year. If you need or want greater results in repairing and rejuvenating, you will want to do it for 3 consecutive months. In other words, do the low-calorie-plant-based Protocol for 4 days in a month, and follow a normal diet during the rest of the 26 days of the month. No matter if you follow this Partial Fasting Method once or more times, you will notice & feel the benefits & small changes in your body.

If this sounds interesting enough that you’d like to try it, give us a call to make an appointment. We’ll first assess your health situation with our Health Assessment Questionnaire, and then take it from there according to your goal. Or simply click here to look at our website page of Fasting & Healing.

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