I think it might make sense to first talk a little bit about fasting and the origins.

Fasting is not inherent to humans, although we would like to think we came up with the idea. It’s a pretty common thing among animals in nature.

It would appear in some respects animals are far more smarter than us humans when it comes to listening to our bodies.

If you have ever seen an animal even your own dog or cat, when they are injured or sick, one of the last things that they often do is eat. They instinctively know that they need to give their body a rest to recover and repair.

If you stop to think about it, digesting food is one of the most energy intensive things your body can possibly do on a daily basis.

The digestive system incorporates at least six organs to do its job, including but not limited to: mouth, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, small intestine.

Here is a great table that breakdowns the functions:

The six primary processes of the digestive system include:

1. Ingestion of food
2. Secretion of fluids and digestive enzymes
3. Mixing and movement of food and wastes through the body
4. Digestion of food into smaller pieces
5. Absorption of nutrients
6. Excretion of wastes

When we factor in the cycles our body goes through each day just to maintain us it is simply amazing.

Cycles Of The Body

According to the concepts of Orthopathy also know as Natural Hygiene the human body’s diges­tive sys­tem goes through three, eight-hour cycles every twenty-four hours:

Noon – 8pm: Appro­pri­a­tion of food (eat­ing and digestion)

8pm – 4am: Assim­i­la­tion of food (absorp­tion and use)

4am – Noon: Elim­i­na­tion (excre­tion of waste)

Understanding these cycles is critical to one of the most important parts of the boy, the digestive system.

So what does this all mean?

Well in a past post I wrote about this subject with the intention of explaining the health benefits of detoxification through fasting. The fact that many are using this to get cut and lean, aka intermittent fasting is no real surprise.

The whole subject of intermittent fasting is can be summed up in one sentence: Give your digestive system a break for an extended period of time.

Of course there are variations on this idea:

In some contexts, fasting allows the consumption of a limited amount of low-calorie beverages such as coffee or tea.^[2]

One form of intermittent fasting, alternate day fasting (ADF), involves a 24-hour fast followed by a 24-hour non-fasting period. This is sometimes referred to as every other day fasting or every other day feeding. Alternate-day calorie restriction may prolong life span.^[3]

Modified fasting involves limiting caloric intake (e.g., 20% of normal) on fasting days rather than none at all. A study suggests that this regimen may retain most of the benefits of intermittent fasting.^[3] The scientific literature for intermittent fasting, in its various forms, was extensively reviewed in 2014.^[4] Another form involves eating only one meal per day.^[5]

More generally, forms may choose to specify various ratios of fasting to non-fasting periods. The BBC2 Horizon documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer^[6] covered people who committed to fasting two non-consecutive days per week. Known as the 5:2 diet, people consumed 400–500 calories (women) or 500–600 calories (men) during the days of fasting. During feed days, the diet was regular.^[7]

Human health

Studies on humans suggest possible benefits:^[4]

• Alternate-day fasting may encourage fat oxidation.^[17]
• Alternate-day fasting may reduce body weight, LDL, and triglyceride levels to the same degree regardless of maintenance of low fat or high fat diet on the feeding day.^[18]

The above mentioned benefits are just a couple of the massive advantages that come from fasting. Of course, like anything in life, if you do it in excess it can become detrimental to your health, so please don’t go overboard on fasting or intermittent fasting.

It is a tool like anything else.

I personally incorporate mini-fasts each day, usually not eating anything until 1 or 2 PM. Normally I may take a smoothie before hand but nothing that can serious tax my digestive system. I also, use fasting, when I feel a bit under the weather or sense my body is a little off. Typically with the change in seasons, the temperature can drop and the barometric pressure can affect me.

This is anecdotal and I have not double blind study test results to prove the change in temperature or barometric pressure affects everyone, I am speaking just from my own experience.

What I tend to do, is just refrain from eating heavy foods, and normally just take vegetable juices or fruit smoothies as completely whole and with no processed foods mixed in like rice milk, etc. Just vegetables, fruits and water, juiced or blended. I do this, as soon as I feel something off in my body.

And the next day, it’s like a reset button for my body, I feel recharged and renewed.

In conclusion, intermittent fasting, is nothing new. It’s just giving your body and more so your digestive system a well-deserved break. There are many different methods but I personally like to just refrain from eating anything until 1-2 PM. Just juices or water.

I hope this helps to shed a little light on this subject.

One more thing, here is my recipe for fruit smoothies:

1-2 Tablespoons Vitamineral Green

2 Apples

1 Tablespoon Goji berries

2 cups of sliced mangos

1 banana

Blend and enjoy

For several days they went on this fast of lemon water and cayenne pepper.

What they purported was quite astounding.

They both attested to seeing the strangest things come out of them during their bowel movements.

I suppose this was when I first became interested about fasting and detox.It wouldn’t show its glaring head for another 6 years when I went backpacking throughout Europe.

In 2008, I was living in Spain, and when. an ex-girlriend of mine was getting her degree in Naturopathic medicine.

In order to complete her studies, she needed to do a thesis.

The subject she chose was, fasting.

As my ex-girlfriend was working a full-time job and going to school to complete her course work, she did not have a lot of time to do the research for her thesis,

So I took on the task, and did all the necessary research required for her thesis.

The best part was that the thesis was in Spanish which greatly helped skyrocket my learning another language.

We had done fasting before for 10 days, doing just the master cleanse diet originally created by Dr. Stanley Burroughs in the 1940’s, which consists of the following:

2 (tbsp). of lemon or lime

2 (tbsp). of genuine maple syrup

1/10 tsp cayenne pepper

10 oz. water (hot or cold as preferred)

I would make this recipe in a 1.5 liter water bottle, by increasing the dosage 5 times, as there are roughly 5 10 ounce glasses in a 1.5 liter bottle.

This was more convenient to travel and take on the go.

I have found that fasting for long periods such as 7-12 days, best works during the spring and summer seasons, however mini fasts of 1-2 days is not a problem during the fall and winter months.

Just cut the amount of physical exercise you do. I normally keep my exercise to zero during a fast as my body has no nutrients to replenish itself.

Food is fuel.

And if you are working out, you need to give your body new energy supplies, which during a fast would be next to impossible.

The most difficult part of the fast was the first three days. After that it was relatively easy.

After seeing incredible results with the master cleanse diet, I tried doing mini-fasts, which consisted of the same liquid but only up until 2-3 PM, and then I would eat normally.

Again I saw dramatic benefits, such as clarity of mind, more energy, clear skin, and my digestive system and overall health just seemed super-charged.

Cycles Of The Body

According to the concepts of Orthopathy also know as Natural Hygiene the human body’s diges­tive sys­tem goes through three, eight-hour cycles every twenty-four hours:

Noon – 8pm: Appro­pri­a­tion of food (eat­ing and digestion)

8pm – 4am: Assim­i­la­tion of food (absorp­tion and use)

4am – Noon: Elim­i­na­tion (excre­tion of waste)

Understanding these cycles is critical to one of the most important parts of the boy, the digestive system.

The Digestive System

The digestive system is one of the wonders of this planet. It starts from your mouth to your anus.

Table 1. The digestive process

Aside from when we are having sex, the human digestive system, uses the most energy in our body.

If you have ever noticed when you are really sick, one of the last things you want to do, is to eat.

Why is that?

The loss of appetite, caused by the fact that your body is using all of its resources (aka energy) to actually heal you and make you better.

It’s an absolutely miraculous system.

When we eat, we rob our body of its valuable healing energy that could be otherwise used to make us better.

That’s why, it’s best, if you feel the slightest bit of a cold coming on, to go on a mini-fast.

At least, not to eat until midday or just do whole fruit vegetable juices or smoothies.

This has become second-hand for me, when I feel the tiniest bit of a cold coming on, I just juice all day.

And voila, I am back to 100% the next day.

I mean if you really think about it, the digestive system is what helps to fuel the body.

If that system is off or if we in some way inhibit its natural process, the consequences will be horrific.

According to Kirstin Hendrickson, in her article, How Do the Digestive & Immune Systems Work Together,

Your digestive tract has an important relationship with your immune system, since the digestive tract is one of the mechanisms through which you’re exposed to tremendous numbers of pathogenic organisms each day. The immune system works with the digestive tract to help protect you from infection by these potential invaders.

Don’t take just trust what’s written in this post, take a look at the top selling over the counter medicines.

Advil, used for inflammation and fever, which relates to your bodies own defense systems not working properly. $ 490 Million in sales.

Poise, used for bladder issues, again the digestive system. $ 379 Million in sales.

Aleve is very similar to Advil, to reduce inflammation and sometimes for fever, again the immune system. $ 364 Million.

At number 5, is antacid tablets with $358 Million in sales. Antacids can offer almost instant relief for many stomach troubles such as indigestion

Four of the five top-selling over the counter medicines are directly or indirectly related to the digestive and immune system.

Here is a great video on the digestive system it’s from the folks at Kids Health (Time 3:34 minutes)

Without a doubt one of the single most important things you can do to re-vitalize and re-energize your cells is fasting.

When you fast you give your body an opportunity to recover. It’s a sort of break from the daily routine.

As I mentioned before one of the most energy intensive things our body does is digest food. When you fast the energy that would normally be used to digest food can now be used to treat and/or heal other areas of the body.

It also gives the body an opportunity to reduce some of the toxins that have accumulated within the digestive tract.

Imagine for a moment that your digestive system is similar to the plumbing system of a house. When the pipes get rusty and clogged the water within the pipes is unable to travel freely.

Until all the pipes become backed up. This eventually has adverse effects on all the household appliances that depend on the plumbing system such as the dishwasher, washing machine, toilets, and sinks.

The effects are that soon the appliances stop working. Fortunately for us we only have one pipe that runs from our mouth to our anus. As food travels through our system it revitalize and re-energizes our body by providing the well-needed nutrients it requires to meet the best level of health and well-being.

In conclusion, it’s pretty obvious, our digestive system is fundamental to our health and well-being.

By giving your digestive system an occasional break by fasting you can reset the clock on your body and give it a fresh new start.

The two go hand in hand.