Herbert Shelton fasting. Fasting will save your life. A case of the common cold

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Note

The National Health Association is the successor to the American Society for Natural Hygiene, founded in 1948. Her work is based on concepts many of which date back to the 19th century: a predominantly plant-based diet, the need to avoid unnecessary drugs and surgery, the recognition of the human body's ability to heal itself, and the role that fasting can play in restoring health.

This movement was started by a small group of physicians who used the above unconventional concepts in their work and noticed that patients who followed their advice had better health outcomes than those who did not. Further research led these physicians, including Herbert McGolfin Shelton, to the fundamental concept that health is the result of a healthy lifestyle.

The National Health Association is committed to its goal of educating people about timeless principles and providing the most accurate and up-to-date information on healthy lifestyles. At a time when millions of people are suffering needlessly as a result of unhealthy lifestyles, this organization offers much-needed hope.

In this book, the concept of fasting is presented as a systematic approach to health care, the effectiveness of which has been experienced by thousands of people who, under the supervision of Herbert Shelton, fasted to get rid of many different health problems.

The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for medical treatment or advice of any kind. Moreover, since the body of each person reacts to fasting in its own way, everyone is strongly advised to consult a doctor and be under medical supervision during the entire period of fasting, even a short one, and then exiting it.

This publication is due to the intention of the National Health Association to acquaint readers with this work by Herbert Shelton. Dr. Shelton's theories and doctrines reflect his own views and do not necessarily represent those of the National Health Association.

dedication

This book is dedicated to the millions of sufferers who spend their whole lives in desperate search for health and do not know where and how to find it. The firm conviction of the author, formed as a result of many years of practical experience in the use of fasting to solve health problems, is that fasting and observing the principles of hygiene in everyday life will certainly lead to powerful health.

introduction

Dr. Herbert McGolfin Shelton was born October 6, 1895 on a small farm near the town of Wylie in Collin County, near Dallas, the capital of Texas. In 1890, the population of the district was 500 people, and today it has exceeded 25 thousand. “I was born in a thunderstorm, and perhaps that is why thunderstorms never ceased to rumble over my head throughout my life,” Dr. Shelton once told me.

Dr. Shelton's academic background was linked to his interest in the ideas of the early hygienists. This interest arose very early on when, as a teenager (in 1911), he read Dr. Russell Troll's pamphlet "The Art of True Healing" ("True Healing Art"), based on a lecture Troll gave at the Smithsonian Institution in 1862. According to Dr. Shelton, his constant companions during those years were the works of Russell Troll, Sylvester Graham, Isaac Jennings, Robert Walter and others. Acquaintance with flawlessly harmonized logical principles of hygiene ignited the flames of enthusiasm in him. Shelton looked forward to the day when he, too, could use this invaluable knowledge to take care of people.

In 1920, he graduated from the International College of Non-Drug Therapy, founded by the famous physical culture promoter Bernard Macfadden, and received a doctorate in physical therapy. A successful businessman, Bernard McFadden, owned a publishing company that included the editorial office of The New York Evening Graphic newspaper. After graduating from college, Dr. Shelton became a wellness columnist for that newspaper. He made his first steps in the publishing world by writing several books, but only as a literary slave. Shelton's writing skills were already well developed and known.

In 1922 he graduated from the American School of Naturopathy, founded and chaired by the illustrious Dr. Benedict Last. Subsequently, Shelton worked at this school as a teacher.

During his life, he wrote almost forty books on various aspects of health. After completing his education, he worked as an editor for How to Live magazine and as a lecturer in the Principles of Dietetics and Naturopathy course at the American School of Naturopathy. Shelton later became editor and publisher of the monthly magazine Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review, dedicated to popularizing the teachings of hygiene and identifying the fallacies, dangers and errors of the traditional medical system. This publication brought together doctors from different countries who showed interest in the principles and practices of hygiene care. During this period, many eminent hygienists joined his educational work, including Dr. Christopher Gian-Curcio, William Esser, Gerald Benes and Virginia Vetrano. Today, many people are involved in the teaching and practice of hygiene. All these people owe much to the legacy of Dr. Shelton, even if they do not admit or try to hide the fact of using the basic principles that he has collected together and laid out in a logical sequence. This fact testifies to the colossal influence of his works. A few years after Shelton's death, the International Association of Hygienists was established with the intention of bringing together into a powerful body of practitioners who were properly educated and who conscientiously applied the principles he had developed.

Since Dr. Shelton began working in this field at the beginning of the 20th century, the value of much of the knowledge he has collected and the relevance of his claims have been confirmed again and again by the results of scientific research. Nowadays, many doctrines of hygiene teaching are increasingly being promoted by the media.

I first encountered Dr. Shelton's writings in 1949 when one of his extremely important works, The Basic Principles of Natural Hygiene, was published. What an indescribable relief I experienced when my false ideas about health gave way to a clear understanding of the principles of caring for him, which were soft, positive and allowed a person to independently control his condition. At that time, I diligently studied all the books on the topic of health that I could find, both medical and non-medical. The difficult process of obtaining a medical education dragged on for the fourth year, and I felt extremely uncomfortable in the atmosphere of the therapeutic nightmare that surrounded me.

Shortly after my well-deserved enlightenment, interesting books began to appear, revealing cracks in the unshakable edifice of medical science. In 1952, the first edition of Mailer's encyclopedia, Side Effects of Drugs, was published, followed in 1959 by Dr. Robert Moser's Diseases of Medical Progress. In those days, any changes in the healthcare sector seemed truly revolutionary! Indeed, even today, according to the December 2006 Journal of the American Medical Association, iatrogenic factors are the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer.

One of Shelton's major works, Human Life. Her Laws and Philosophy,” was written when he was in his early thirties. This book, a copy of which he gave me during my first visit to him, is a monumental work of a scholar and erudite. Its final chapter had an exceptionally profound effect on me.

In introducing this book to the reader, I think it is important and appropriate to emphasize that fasting is not a therapy. The term "therapy" has a clear definition: "treatment of internal diseases without surgical intervention with drugs." Those who confuse fasting with therapy are committing a conceptual error of the most fundamental kind. Fasting is just a period of abstinence from food, which is an integral part of life. To understand this, it is enough to remember that animals are engaged in fasting, and some of them for quite a long time. Cessation of food can be considered as one of the types of rest. This rest from eating has nothing to do with healing. The point is not what fasting does to the body, but what the body does during the break from eating. Health and disease are aspects of the same biological continuum, and fasting enhances the effectiveness of self-healing processes by removing barriers to recovery.

The living body builds, protects and repairs itself. All the efforts and attention of hygiene are aimed at facilitating these processes and increasing their effectiveness. Every action that is made is controlled by the body and not by some foreign substance or influence. Fasting as such has nothing to do with the treatment of the disease. It is not a medicine or a treatment. Rest from food simply allows the body to perform its healing functions more efficiently. Often one of the first symptoms of the disease is loss of appetite. So why don't we respect what our body is trying to communicate?

One of the unique qualities of Dr. Shelton was his ability to use the so-called Occam's razor in any dispute or serious discussion. This methodological principle, credited to Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), gained worldwide fame thanks to William of Ockham (1285-1347), a Franciscan friar who studied and taught theology at Oxford University. This principle, also known as the law of economy, says: "It is not worth multiplying entities beyond necessity." Its use in medicine implies that once a diagnosis is made, the physician should try to find the fewest possible causes, the simplest of which will be responsible for all the symptoms. The counterargument to Occam's razor in medicine is the so-called Hickam's aphorism - a simple peremptory statement: "Patients can have as many diseases as they want." Occam's Razor was a unique cognitive context in which Shelton assessed the philosophy of health and demonstrated uncompromising accuracy in the analysis of arguments in the best tradition of Aristotle.

Among other things, Dr. Shelton showed an interest in politics, leaning towards socialist views, which have never been dominant in the United States. He was even going to run for president in 1956. I know from him that in his travels across the country, Shelton spent much of his time delivering persuasive speeches on the subject of hygiene. It is enough to read the materials of Dr. Shelton's Hygienic Review to clearly see the philosophical roots of his political beliefs.

Following in the footsteps of nineteenth-century giants of medical reform such as Drs. Isaac Jennings, Russell Troll, and Robert Walter, Shelton coined a variety of terms to emphasize the biological relationship between the organism and its environment—the materials, agents, and influences upon which health and life depend. person. One such term, orthopathy, was coined by Jennings from the Greek words orthos(correct, pointing up) and pathos(illness, suffering) to show that illness is the correct state of the body under existing conditions. Another important term, biogony, was made up of the words bios(life and agony(struggle) to show that the disease represents the struggle for existence, for recovery and is an extremely energy-intensive process.

Herbert Shelton has passed away, but his work lives on. They are preserved for future students, scientists, historians and researchers who will study and analyze them. Not a day has passed since I studied at the University of London that I do not remember how great is my intellectual debt to Dr. Shelton. I will always miss his insightful mind and inexhaustible sense of humor.

In conclusion, I would like to quote one of the favorite poems of Herbert Shelton, written by Charles Mackay:

You say you have no enemies?
You, my friend, alas, have nothing to brag about.
You, apparently, were far from the fight,
Thus providing peace to yourself.
To whom honor and truth are dear,
He will certainly make an enemy.
But if you calmly listened to the lies
And the scoundrel did not call to account,
Then everyone around you seemed good,
However, he was a coward.

Alec Burton, MSc, Doctor of Osteopathy, Doctor of Chiropractic, Director of Arcadia Wellness Center, Sydney

Introduction

As paradoxical as it sounds, fasting can save your life.

For those who are concerned about a serious deterioration in health or the need to undergo a course of medical treatment that carries a significant risk of side effects, fasting under the supervision of a qualified and experienced doctor may be a safer and more effective alternative. The fact is that the traditional medical approach to treatment symptoms disease with the help of drugs and surgical means does not eliminate it causes. In contrast, therapeutic fasting followed by a transition to a healthy lifestyle really eliminates the causes of disease and maybe significantly speed up the healing process.

Many books have been written about juice fasting programs, fasting for weight loss, religious fasting and other dietary restrictions, but none of their authors consider fasting from the point of view of physiology. This book describes fasting as a purely physiological process. Its essence is to abstain from all foods and drinks, except pure water, at a time when the reserves of nutrients are sufficient to maintain the functions and structure of important vital organs. Only such fasting can maximize the healing potential of the body.

In his inspiring manner, drawing on his unparalleled experience of over 40,000 fasts, Dr. Shelton discusses the main aspects of this healing method. He explains why fasting often leads to results that would seem impossible to many, and goes into detail about the misconceptions about fasting that are common among the uninitiated. Most importantly, however, Herbert Shelton describes fasting not as a separate method, but as part of a comprehensive system of health care, which he calls natural hygiene.

The roots of Dr. Shelton's principles of fasting and natural hygiene can be easily found in the work of a group of nineteenth-century progressive physicians such as Isaac Jennings, Harriot Austin, Susanna Way Dodds, Russell Thacker Traill, and John Tilden. They were the first to admit that health is the result of a healthy lifestyle, the terms of which are a clean environment and sunlight; natural vegetarian diet (mainly fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains); productive activity (sufficient amount of exercise and rest); emotional balance and self-respect. These ideas arose long ago as a result of understanding the laws of nature, but now they are being rediscovered and scientifically confirmed in the nutritional, environmental, physiological, and psychological writings of an ever-increasing number of modern health reformers.

This book not is a practical guide to self-fasting. Readers should keep in mind that this procedure should be managed and monitored by a qualified doctor who knows the technique of therapeutic fasting.

In 1978, Dr. Shelton co-founded the International Association of Professional Natural Hygienists, which sets standards for therapeutic fasting, provides documentation, and initiates research into this extremely beneficial process. Membership in this organization is open to licensed primary care physicians (internists, osteopaths, chiropractors and naturopaths). Members of the International Association of Professional Natural Hygienists may be trained and licensed to use Therapeutic Fasting.

In addition, Dr. Shelton was involved in the creation of the American Society for Natural Hygiene, an organization dedicated to educating people about the principles of a natural lifestyle. Since its inception in 1948, the society has grown significantly, and now its ranks include representatives from many countries of the world.

Readers need to remember that fasting is not a panacea for all your ailments. It should be used like part healthy lifestyle, not instead of him. In order to maintain and consolidate the favorable results of fasting, after its completion, it is imperative to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Ronald Cridland, MD, Vice President of the International Association of Professional Natural Hygienists

Preface to the second edition

A lot of water, often very dirty, has flown under the bridge since the first edition of this book, Fasting Will Save Your Life, went out of print. Numerous newspaper and magazine articles have appeared, as well as a number of books on fasting, presenting such a variety of conflicting views and opinions that the reading public is hopelessly confused. The vast majority of this controversial material discusses the validity of fasting as a means of weight loss. A significant part of the work is devoted to the dangers of starvation, usually imaginary. Many emphasize the need to conduct each fast lasting more than three days under medical supervision, preferably in a hospital. Some books and articles offer readers "just as good" or even better substitutes for fasting. In addition, there is a lot of controversy about the correct implementation of fasting. But while experts are carried away by furious disputes, what is the poor reader to do?

One experimenter made the situation even more confusing by repeating the phrase "the therapeutic use of exhaustion" several times in one short article. Some pundits use the terms "fasting" and "wasting" interchangeably, completely ignoring the fact that when a person fasts, their body is not exhausted. If a person brings his body to exhaustion, then this has nothing to do with starvation. The irresponsible use of the terms "starvation" and "wasting" in the same sense implies that both processes are exactly the same. If this is not done in order to form a prejudice against fasting, then this is a clear sign of complete confusion in the mind of the author.

The phrases "unwanted side effects" and "adverse reactions" appear so often in the writings of scientific experimenters that the reader can easily get the impression that they are talking about drugs. When a person begins to starve, refrains from drinking tea, coffee, alcohol, carbonated drinks, spices, mustard, food additives and other irritating and stimulating substances that he is used to absorb during meals and between meals, stops regularly swallowing aspirin and other medicines, he experiences headache, dizziness, weakness, trembling, pain in the abdomen, back and joints. He may faint. Nausea and vomiting may occur. These withdrawal symptoms are not "side effects" of fasting, but the result of the habit of regularly poisoning your body with smoking, coffee, dessert popular stomach pills, etc., evidence of which is the fact that with continued fasting, they all disappear without a trace.

Another reason for these symptoms is that experimenters advise starving people to satisfy their need for liquid (water) with tea, coffee, carbonated drinks, beer, wine, ale, pureed soups, broths. They give people painkilling drugs and even let them continue to smoke and take other medications.

There is a huge difference between "poisoned" and "non-poisoned" fasting. Scientists will be able to correctly evaluate the results of fasting only after they have carried out a proper check of "non-poisoned" fasting. If a very obese woman were to fast for more than three hundred days and during that time satisfy her fluid needs with tea and coffee, which contain caffeine that negatively affects the heart, and then blame fasting for heart failure, this would be counterintuitive. If you generously stuff a starving person with synthetic vitamins and minerals, this can also cause the complete collapse of the experiment.

In addition, too much importance is attached to the danger of a lack of proteins, which increases the fear of starvation. Taken from the ceiling, warnings about the consequences of a lack of protein scare a lot of people. In fact, starvation of a standard duration does not pose any danger in terms of the development of protein deficiency. This can happen during a fast of 200 to 300 days, but the greatest danger in these exceptionally long fasts is poisons taken as drinks or medicines.

It is difficult to fully appreciate the physiological damage caused by the multiple examinations and analyzes that are required when fasting in a hospital setting. The depressing effect of daily pulse counting, blood pressure measurement, cardiac examination, blood and urine tests, temperature measurement and other procedures that affect the psychological state of the patient is very significant. To get the best results, the fasting person needs a calm, quiet, pleasant environment. He needs to be given the opportunity to relax and get rid of negative impressions. Too intrusive guardianship and an obsessive thought about the inevitability of death take a person out of balance.

In addition to all this, persistent attempts are being made to revive the old practice of administering enemas.

Proponents of this practice warn of serious complications that can result from autointoxication caused by the reabsorption of harmful substances from the colon. This indicates that the person making such claims has never observed a fast that was carried out without enemas, otherwise he would know how unfounded his warnings are, since the intestines of the fasting person are emptied whenever the need arises.

Finally, some experts claim that feeding fruit or fruit and vegetable juices can achieve the same results as fasting, or even provide even more benefits. They refer to excessive fruit or juice consumption as fruit or juice fasting, although evidence shows that this is more like fruit or juice abuse. For example, a person on a grape diet is strongly advised to eat as many grapes as possible. In the case of a carrot juice diet, it is recommended to drink it in large quantities. The author of treatment with wheatgrass juice fervently expresses his conviction that "fasting on wheatgrass juice" brings more benefits than abstaining from any food, which is persistently called water fasting.

But the undisputed champions of word misuse are the doctors who coined the phrase "the therapeutic use of exhaustion." The word "exhaustion" means the loss of vital resources of the body, deprived of a number of conditions necessary for life, such as heat, water, food. The process of loss of vital resources leads to death, so it can hardly be used as a therapeutic agent.

Of course, juice diets have their rightful place in the hygienist's arsenal. However, we would be making a serious mistake if we abandoned complete fasting and pinned all our hopes on the exclusive use of juices. Fasting is a biological process, an integral part of life in this world.

Herbert Shelton, San Antonio, Texas, June 1978

Herbert Shelton Fasting and Health
Let there be Truth
even if heaven falls
Herbert Shelton
STARVING AND HEALTH

***
THE RIGHT COMBINATION OF FOOD
GREGORY PAGE
MOSCOW
1998
Herbert Shelton. Starvation and health. / Translated from English M ..: Gregory-Page, 1998. (Series "Health Secrets").
This collection is devoted to the issues of health fasting and separate nutrition. This collection is an excellent guide to organizing a healthy lifestyle.
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FASTING CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE

dedication

The author dedicates this book to millions of sufferers who suffer all their lives from various diseases and are looking for ways to get rid of them. My firm conviction, born of years of practical experience: fasting and a hygienic lifestyle are the sources of powerful health.

Foreword

In the history of mankind there are few phenomena so misunderstood as starvation. The important role that it can and does play is often dismissed by public opinion, which can be explained by groundless fear or prejudice about this form of treatment, scientific misinformation, or even a complete lack of information.
The purpose of this book, based on my own experience, studying and observing over 45 years as a fasting hygienist, is to reveal the true role of fasting in creating and maintaining good health, in losing weight when overweight, in controlling it, and also in prolongation of human life.
I would like to make it clear that fasting in itself is not a cure, but a tool that allows you to identify the ability of the human body to effectively heal or get rid of extra pounds at a speed unthinkable with any other method.
One of the main aims of this book is to answer many questions about fasting that people are concerned about due to the frequent publication of articles in newspapers and magazines about weight problems. Since overeating and obesity have become a threat to the health of the population of the United States and some European countries, the question of how to lose weight without harming the body will never lose its importance today.
At the same time, the renewed interest of natural hygienists and their concern for the state of mind and body has drawn the closest attention to the discoveries and theories of hygienists, which have been developing for about a century and a half.
Orthodox medicine is desperately fighting these theories. And all the achievements of the last decades were won in a fierce war of opinions.
Progress in developing right habits of living and eating, slowly but surely, inch by inch, made its way. Recall that fasting was known many centuries ago not only as a means of improving health, but also as a religious ritual.
Experienced people of the 19th and 20th centuries - scientists, researchers, discoverers who devoted their lives to the study and practice of the basic truths of hygienic life, assigned a special role to fasting.
It is not appropriate to emphasize our mental abilities too much as a means of achieving results in treatment and life. The body is a complex organism in which all parts are interconnected. However, good health is a single entity that includes every aspect of our being - physical, mental and emotional. What we are discussing here does not deal with individual simple problems, but deals with the individual as a whole.
These are the general considerations of the approach to a healthy lifestyle. Only a fasting specialist can point out specific health problems to a person. Our goal is to give the layman, the average reader, a wide range of technical information, as well as the hope that the time that a person can live more fruitfully, feel better, will last longer.
Since overeating has become one of the most important physiological and psychological problems here in America in our time, I focus on this aspect in the first chapters of our book. Weight loss in itself is only one of the factors in maintaining a normal physical condition, many of us require a general restructuring of our entire lifestyle and, in particular, nutrition.
How many of us want to be overweight or handicapped because of the many destructive habits that too many people follow?
That is why I not only lay out the basic principles of hygiene, diet and exercise, but as a gift to you, I offer you a completely new way of life.

Starvation and weight loss

Starvation and you

Fasting is much more than just not eating. It is both science and art. It matters in terms of general well-being and affects the psychological and emotional aspects of our lives.
Fasting, as a term used by hygienists, means the complete absence of food for a certain period of time. In other words, fasting is a course of treatment that we carry out on a solid basis under certain and controlled conditions.
As a religious term, fasting means giving up certain foodstuffs for a while. That is, it is a partial refusal to eat. I know people who “starve” during Great Lent and during this time often gain weight rather than lose weight, because they eat food that makes them fat.
Those who think that fasting is the equivalent of exhaustion are deeply mistaken. There are two periods in the process of starvation: the first is starvation, and then the second is exhaustion.
As we study the phenomenon of lack of nutrition in detail, the difference between these two phases - starvation and malnutrition - will become clear. From the very beginning, however, it is important to understand that the stage of starvation lasts only as long as the body can support itself at the expense of the latent resources available in it. Depletion begins when these hidden reserves are depleted or reduced to an alarmingly low level.
We must also understand that it is inaccurate terminology that leads to a misunderstanding of the essence of the fasting process. The term "partial fasting" is used for any form of fasting, when a person severely restricts himself in food. The misuse of the word "exhaustion" is typical not only for common speech, but also for some scientific articles.
Exhaustion is a negative process. You cannot exhaust yourself while still feeling good. But if you fast within reasonable limits, then as a result you will improve your physical condition and restore health. You can live for a long time without food and achieve an excellent effect. When an experienced observer (physician) helping to conduct a fasting course understands that the second phase - exhaustion as a result of lack of food - is close, the fasting is interrupted.
I have already said that fasting is part of the new way of life. Therefore, fasting is carried out not only to reduce weight, but also, importantly, to maintain or restore health in general.
A sick or injured animal is looking for a secluded place where no one will disturb it, where it hides from the weather, finds warmth, peace and silence. There the animal rests and starves. It can, for example, lose a limb, but, being in seclusion, as a rule, recovers without dressings and surgical operations.
In the life of animals, fasting is an extremely important factor of existence. Animals starve not only when sick or injured, but also during winter or summer hibernation (in tropical climates).
Some animals are starving, intending to give birth to offspring, others - during the period of nursing the cubs. Some birds are starving while waiting for their chicks to hatch, and certain types of spiders do not eat for the first six months of life. Often wild animals in captivity refuse to eat, and domesticated dogs or cats may not eat for several days when they get into a new environment. In addition, animals are forced to starve during drought, heavy snowfalls and frosts, while surviving, although they cannot get any food for long periods.
Fasting is not always a pleasant experience, but it brings new sensations as a result. The freedom and peace experienced when not eating often enable a person to discover hitherto unknown depths of the meaning of life.
At about four o'clock in the morning on the first night of fasting, patient A. B. began an asthma attack. He could not breathe while lying in bed, so he had to sit up and call a doctor. After examining him, the doctor promised: “Soon you will feel better. Approximately in a day the asthmatic phenomena will disappear.
After the doctor left, A. B. continued to choke, reproaching the doctor for not giving him any help. However, soon relief really came, and he fell asleep. When the doctor saw A. B. in the morning, he already felt so good that he was ready to forgive inattention. Patient A. B. was getting better day by day, as he breathed much easier and his asthma attacks stopped. After six days of fasting, he was able to pass urine freely like a child. His prostate has shrunk to nearly normal size.
AB continued to starve, the symptoms of illness quickly disappeared, finally, the fistulas cleared of pus, breathing returned to normal, and this made the patient very happy. On the 25th day of fasting, he asked the doctor if he should stop fasting? He replied that it was premature, since the final recovery had not yet come. “But you are not in prison,” the doctor said. No one is forcing you to starve. But if you want to take my advice, stop eating for a while longer.”
A. B. heeded the doctor's advice and continued to fast. What had always seemed to him a miracle became a fact: on the 36th day of fasting, his deaf ear gained the ability to hear. Hearing became so good that the patient could easily hear the faint ticking of a small clock, even when he held his hand at a great distance. Very important was the fact that the restoration of hearing was stable. The fast lasted up to 42 days, after which A. B. began to eat.
But another surprise awaited him, which he learned about at home. Several weeks of fasting gradually restored his virility. The restoration of male strength and the overcoming of female frigidity are not such unusual results of starvation, so for the head of the institute in which A. B. took the fasting course, this was not a surprise.
I did not tell you a fairy tale, but simply gave an example from the life of a person who suffered, went through a course of fasting and recovered. This is not some out of the ordinary case, only the diseases that our patients suffer from differ, although it must be said that the restoration of hearing as a result of starvation is not such a frequent occurrence. Deafness, as well as loss of vision, can be caused by a disease state of any organs, and not all of them, unfortunately, can be cured. Blindness rarely disappears on fasting for the same reason.
Only those who have had the opportunity to observe its results can believe in the restoration of health that occurs during a fast of the required duration, carried out in favorable conditions. Often, ordinary people, like many doctors, simply do not want to discuss issues of restoring health through fasting, because they believe that all this is fiction. However, there is nothing fantastic in the effects of starvation. If we thought a little about this, we would not make hasty conclusions about the dangers of fasting, which is actually the most natural way to treat a sick organism, about which we know so little!
For more than 140 years, natural hygienists have used fasting as a means of restoring health, allowing the body to heal quickly. They have accumulated extremely important clinical experience.
Of course, fasting has many critics. Most of them know very little about fasting in general, even less about its technique. A. Raboglioti, a physician, an English academic, said about it this way: “Most of the popular critical articles about fasting are written by people who have never missed lunch in their lives.”
It doesn’t matter for what purpose, to maintain or restore health, to lose or gain weight, the role of fasting as a factor in life can no longer be ignored by those who are professionally connected with people’s health, or by those who simply want to live a full life - mentally and physically.

About the pounds that "fly away

Your main problems: weight loss, figure control, diet. Everyone considers himself an expert in these areas. The most bizarre diets catch on for a few months and then give way to new curiosities. This week all ice cream, next week only bananas, then only proteins: nothing but juicy steaks. Bring yourself to thinness!
Excessive weight becomes the number one problem, disheartening not only adults but also children. There are several reasons for this: the abundance of food, the rising standard of living in America, on the one hand, on the other, the shortening of the working day, the shortening of the working week, the availability of modern means of transportation and many devices that help in work. It would seem: a person has less work, which means less need for food. But the variety of foods, the artificially stimulated appetite, and rising incomes cause an increase in food consumption.
Hygienists are first and foremost realists. They argue that it is impossible to falsify the fact that fasting is the fastest, proven and safe way to reduce weight, and the only sure way to maintain weight at the normal level is to refuse malnutrition.
The method of losing weight by following a certain diet is very rarely successful for the reason that it is a long drawn out process that requires serious self-control, which the average person is not always capable of. It is not surprising that an obese person, after losing several pounds in weight in a short period of fasting, believing in the positive effect of such treatment, returns to old habits, to overeating and regains its former dimensions. It is very rare to find a fat person who would methodically follow a diet that promotes weight loss.
I want to remind readers of what I have already said many times in my lectures: do not start fasting on your own, without the recommendation and supervision of a fasting specialist. Although fasting is a completely safe means of improving health and losing weight, nevertheless, it affects the entire complex human body and therefore should be carried out under the supervision of a qualified specialist who knows what can be expected and behind what anxiety symptoms should be observed during the course of fasting.
How much weight can you expect to lose? The rate of weight loss, of course, is individual for each organism, but the average figure for prolonged fasting is about 2.5 pounds per day. Is such a large daily weight loss safe for humans? This is true if the fasting is carried out under personal control and with proper and long rest.
What are the advantages of fasting over other methods aimed at reducing weight:
1. During fasting, fast and safe weight loss occurs;
2. A person tolerates fasting more easily than a diet - there is no aching desire to eat;
3. With weight loss, neither sagging nor flabbiness of the skin and tissues is observed (however, this rule does not always apply to very old people).
When the weight of individuals decreases to a certain limit, there are immediate signs of improvement in health:
1. Breathing becomes freer;
2. Ease of movement increases;
3. The feeling of fatigue decreases;
4. There is no longer a feeling of overcrowding in the abdominal cavity;
5. Symptoms of indigestion disappear;
6. Blood pressure decreases, heart murmurs decrease;
7. Less and less common is the state of discomfort.
All these facts are noteworthy. But the overall improvement in physical condition usually far outweighs the effect of weight loss, thus indicating that health improves with a reduction in food intake. There are good enough reasons for saying that a significant reduction in the consumption of sugars, starches, fat has a positive effect on the human body.
In 1962, a woman began fasting under my supervision in order to reduce weight. In conclusion, she told me: “It was a fascinating experience - to watch how the pounds literally disappear before our eyes. I've never seen anything like it." Another lady remarked after a 15-day fast for weight loss: “I visited a highly advertised resort. They kept me on a 700 calorie a day diet and I was constantly hungry. This fasting was a pleasure for me!”
A third lady said after a week of fasting for weight loss, “This is the most remarkable experience of my life. I have enjoyed both fasting and resting.” Are these typical cases? I doubt. Fasting is not always a pleasant experience, as it seemed to these women, but patients rarely disagree that in order to achieve their goal, the fasting process should not be interrupted. It is known that in many patients every breakfast or lunch is accompanied by unpleasant sensations in the stomach, and even pain. In such situations, fasting often brings not only relief, but also joy.
You get great satisfaction from watching how the weight literally "dissolves" at a rate of 2 to 4 pounds per day. Losing 19 pounds in a week is an extremely pleasant factor. Of course, there are exceptions when the rate of weight loss during the first days of fasting is insignificant, there are even cases when one or two days the scales do not register any changes at all. But we must remember that the rate at which you lose weight at the beginning of fasting is not always maintained further.
Fasting, which is carried out in order to reduce weight, is easier than a course of treatment with a specific diet, because, unlike people on a diet, the fasting person does not experience hunger during the entire period of treatment. His taste buds do not respond to tempting food, and the secretion of gastric juice also decreases.
The fasting person may feel the desire to eat on the first or second day of fasting, but it happens that he does not feel such a desire at all. The feeling of hunger usually finally disappears by the end of the third day. And in cases where fasting for some reason has to be interrupted, neither weakness nor hunger returns to the starving person.
Two series of experiments conducted by medical professionals in hospitals also led them to empirical evidence that fasting is not only the safest and fastest way to reduce weight, but also the most convenient.
One of these experiments was conducted by Leon Blum, MD, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he conducted a series of experiments on long-term fasting for weight loss. The second scientist was Gardild Duncan, MD, University of Pennsylvania. He also supervised weight reduction, and his tests confirmed Bloom's conclusions and considerations.
These two scientists found that a starving man lost an average of 2.6 pounds per day, and a woman 2.7 pounds. Both Bloom and Duncan claim that the starving people did not experience hunger, mental or physical exertion. One of the fasting said: "I feel better than ever in my life", another patient after 48 hours of fasting said that she wants to eat no more, and even less than if she missed one meal food.
To quote Bloom: "The current practice of eating at regular intervals leads to the erroneous conclusion that fasting is unpleasant." He states further that, in his opinion, based on observations during the tests, fasting is well tolerated by the human body if water is available to it.
In a later stage of the experiments, Blum allowed a four-week fast, with no ill effects observed. In reading his report of these experiments to the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, Duncan stated, "Although short periods of complete fasting may seem barbaric, this method of restoring health is extremely well tolerated." He added that there is evidence that obese people almost always enjoy complete fasting, in part, perhaps due to the high spirits due to the fact that hunger is not a problem for them. In addition, they are inspired by weight loss.
If a healthy person is starving solely for the purpose of weight loss, then I do not insist on bed rest, moreover, I allow you to do physical exercises. Sometimes I even prescribe a special course of these exercises. However, this does not increase the rate of weight loss as much as one might expect, but helps maintain tissue tone.
The amount of exercise it takes to lose weight with gymnastics alone is more than the average person can do. In order to lose one pound of weight, one must, for example, saw wood for 10 hours or ride a horse for about 43 miles.
Physical exercise always causes the danger of an increase in appetite. During fasting, exercises should be resorted to only to the extent that they can benefit the fasting person - and this is done under the supervision of a physician.
My experience shows that at different rates of metabolism (metabolism), in most cases, excess weight appears not due to violations of the endocrine glands, but because of the habit of overeating. Sometimes they say about some people: "Whatever they eat, everything turns into fat." But the truth is that these people eat not only more than they are supposed to, but even more than they want.
What is the maximum weight loss per day allowed by fasting? The answer is: since fasting is a complete abstinence from food, the body itself solves this problem. If the body fat is tender and flaccid, weight is usually lost quickly in the first days of fasting. I have observed rates of weight loss while fasting 4 to 6 pounds a day. Losing 20 pounds in a week is painless in many cases.
Those who have impaired metabolism, in the first days of fasting, sometimes lose depressingly little weight. Let me reiterate: any fast lasting more than a few days should be done only under the supervision of an experienced specialist. In all cases of any organic defect or chronic disease, such as the heart or blood, even the shortest fasts must be observed. The starving person must be securely protected from any danger lurking in the depths of the body, which can reveal itself during the refusal of food.
This is the general picture of fasting. But once again I want to assure the reader that if he is in perfect health and just wants to lose weight, then fasting will become for him not only a means of losing weight, but also an inspiring factor that will initiate a new worldview.

Life without food

In 1963, the almost unbelievable story of Ralph Flores, a 42-year-old pilot from San Bruno, California, and Helen Klaben, a 21-year-old student from Brooklyn, New York, made headlines in the newspapers, whose plane crashed in the mountains. They were rescued on March 25, 1963, after a 49-day stay in the desert at the end of winter; for more than 30 days they had to go without food.
They managed to endure the severe frost, thanks to fires, a hut and warm clothes. During the first four days after the accident, Helen Klaben ate 4 cans of sardines, 2 cans of canned fruit, and some biscuits. After 20 days, the couple ate the rest of the "food" - 2 tubes of toothpaste. Melted snow became their only dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. “For six weeks,” the student said, “we ate water: cold, hot and boiled.” Miss Klaben, who had been a "pretty plump woman" before the disaster, was pleasantly surprised after her ordeal to learn that she had lost 30 pounds in weight. Florez, who spent more energy on keeping alive, lost 40 pounds. Doctors who examined the couple after the rescue found that the state of health of these people is quite satisfactory.
Many thousands of men and women went without food even longer, and not only without harm to themselves, but also with benefit. Of course, a successful outcome of starvation in such harsh conditions as the pilot and the student found themselves in is an extremely rare fact.
In nature, starvation is a fairly common phenomenon. Winter, floods, droughts deprive water and food, as a rule, of wild animals; households usually depend on stocks made by the hosts. Both herbivores and carnivores in natural conditions often live on starvation rations. What happens to animals in such harsh conditions? Do they die of exhaustion? Rarely.
In his Zoological Observations, Dr. Felix L. Oswald writes: “In a sparsely populated country, feral animals quickly became accustomed to the vicissitudes of a harsh life. The ten-month drought of 1877, which nearly wiped out livestock in southern Brazil, was easily endured by wild pampa cows, who learned to extract water from thick roots, cactus leaves, and wet river sand. Syrian Khmar dogs manage to survive in places where no man can find a trace of game and where water is as rare as in the eternal home of the Divas; however, they breed, and their litter, by the way, has at least six puppies.
The definition of "thinness" is not well suited to describe the physical condition of the Khmar dogs; “tightness” is closer to the truth - the skin and tendons tightly fit the skeleton. I saw their relatives in Dalmatia and often wondered how they did not fall on the move; but Dalmatia is still a country of vineyards and sand rabbits, while even blackthorn berries grow poorly in the Syrian desert. Without water, no spells will produce fruit.”
The facts of survival of animals in such conditions and their reproduction are extremely important. A weasel that falls asleep in a hole goes without food for several days and finds it as soon as it gets to the surface. A mother bear, hibernating in winter and not eating for a long time, gives birth to a cub, and her body is able to produce milk.
The hungry elk and the molting male seal are very active during the hunger strike. Examples of vital activity under conditions of starvation are enough to show that the organism during starvation has the ability to satisfy the energy needs of life even in a state of severe exhaustion.
One of the greatest biochemists, Dr. Ragner Berg, a Nobel Prize winner, an authority on nutrition, says: “You can fast for a very long time; we know about cases of starvation lasting 100 days, so there is no need to fear death from starvation.
The actual fasting period endured by Mr. Florez and Miss Klaben was of relatively normal duration. The question is not how long a person can starve, but what hidden reserves give him the opportunity to do so.
The decay and restoration of tissues is a constant process, it is characteristic of all living organisms, and during starvation this process is not interrupted for a moment.
During hibernation, the body of animals in the Far North needs to generate enough heat to keep them warm. Both man and animal breathe during fasting, and their heart continues to beat, blood runs through the veins, and the excretory organs remove decay products. All vital processes must be maintained, even when the conditions for existence fall somewhat below the norm. Cells must be restored, and wounds must heal.
All this, as I know from many years of observation, occurs during fasting. Moreover, and I will give examples below, there may be an improvement and improvement in physical condition, even if you do not eat at all.
All manifestations of life - movement, excretion, digestion, etc. - supported by body materials. The body operates if it is provided with all the necessary materials for work. In the absence of fresh supplies to replace the spent ones, the organ weakens and becomes unusable. To continue the life of the main minimum level activity is required. Even in the state of hibernation, when activity is reduced to the minimum required to continue life, animals breathe and their hearts pulsate.
The example of a female bear, which breeds during the winter and feeds the cub with milk, is an important illustration of the ability of the organism of starving animals to satisfy the needs of functioning tissues from sources other than daily nutrition.
Understanding the processes by which the body nourishes its tissues and maintains the necessary vital functions during prolonged fasting, and the sources from which it draws strength, explains to us how the body survives during periods when food from the outside does not or cannot be adopted.
A healthy organism exists due to the reserves of nutritious materials, which are deposited in the form of fat, bone marrow, glycogen, muscle juices, cellular fluids, salts and vitamins. In a healthy body, there are always enough internal reserves to withstand several days, weeks, and even 2 or 3 months without food. This is true both in cases of forced starvation (an airplane accident, a collapse in a mine, or, for example, illness), and in the case of voluntary fasting in order to reduce weight. If you do not take food, then the body will begin to use its reserves to maintain the vitality of tissues. And once the reserves are used up, the weight decreases.
Our "pantry" has enough reserves to withstand a long starvation, especially if these reserves are "mothballed" and not used up. In the blood and lymph, in the bones and, of course, in the bone marrow, fatty tissues, liver and other organs, and even in every single cell of our body, reserves of protein, fat, sugar, salts and vitamins are stored that can be used at a time when food is scarce or unsuitable.
Neither animals nor man could endure prolonged starvation if they did not have internal reserves of food for unforeseen cases. The starving organism will not be harmed as long as the internal reserves of nutrition correspond to the nutritional needs of working tissues. Even thin individuals have reserves of food in their tissues, allowing them to withstand fasting for a variety of periods.
Through a process known to physicians as autolia, carried out by tissue enzymes, these internal stores are put into a state suitable for consumption by living tissues, to which they are transported as needed by the blood and lymph. Glycogen, or animal starch, contained in the liver, is converted into sugar and distributed to the tissues as needed. It is very important that during prolonged fasting, diseases such as beriberi (avitaminosis), pellagra, rickets, scurvy and other “deficiency diseases” are cured, and this indicates a good balance of body reserves.
Fasting cures rickets and improves calcium metabolism. In people suffering from anemia, the number of red blood cells increases during fasting. I have seen how fasting helps with pellagra. Biochemical balance during fasting is maintained and sometimes even restored. This must be known, otherwise fasting may be considered harmful.
A huge number of animal experiments have shown that undernutrition, as opposed to overeating, leads to longer life and better health. Other experiments, in which the preference was given to complete starvation, rather than limited nutrition, showed that fasting not only lengthens life, but also leads to a noticeable recovery and rejuvenation of the body.
Thousands of observations on humans and animals have shown that during fasting, body tissues are consumed in inverse proportion to their importance to the body. So, first of all, fat is used. Nutrients are drawn from secondary tissues to support more important organs such as the brain, heart, and lungs. This supernatural ability of the body to redistribute substances during fasting is an art of the highest class.
All body tissues can serve as a source of internal nutrition and be used, if necessary, to one degree or another and in the right department. But fabrics are by no means consumed randomly. On the contrary, the material of unimportant organs is used to nourish the more important ones. Many of the necessary nutritional components, and especially mineral salts, are consumed very quickly.
Data on determining the degree of consumption of tissues and organs during prolonged starvation were obtained mainly from research materials on human and animal organisms that died of starvation. Exhaustion and emaciation are the result of starvation of various degrees. A reasonable approach to fasting will not lead to excessive weight loss and exhaustion.
Distinguish between starvation and exhaustion. Fasting is the abstinence from food at a time when the body has sufficient reserves to nourish all important tissues. Exhaustion is the result of abstaining from food after the body's reserves are completely exhausted. When supplies run low, hunger alerts us to this. This feeling returns with such force that it compels the starving person to seek food, while in normal fasting there is no special need for food. This difference between starvation and exhaustion will help dispel the misconception that exhaustion occurs the very first time you skip a meal.
Contrary to the opinion prevailing among the people and even among experts, the important tissues of the body live an active life without any symptoms of destruction from the moment the starvation begins. A starving organism does lose weight, but over a period of time this happens at the expense of reserves, and not of living tissues. In nature, there are a huge number of examples of continued growth during starvation, and both the whole organism and its individual organs, lost during injuries, grow. Experiments have shown that the growth of the cubs continues during starvation. A starfish during fasting grows a new stomach, new legs, new rays. A starving salamander that has lost its tail grows a new one. These facts irrefutably prove that fasting does not violate the constructive life processes.
The efficiency with which the body regulates the consumption of its resources during fasting is one of the most amazing phenomena of life.
During fasting, even the least important organs do not atrophy until the onset of the exhaustion phase, although they contribute to the maintenance of vital functions of more important organs. The degree of muscle atrophy after fasting rarely exceeds the degree of muscle atrophy after a long period of physical inactivity, but muscle cells do not disappear. Cells shrink, fat is removed from them, but the muscles themselves remain intact and even accumulate strength.
Weight loss during fasting depends on the state and type of body tissues, physical and mental activity, temperature conditions. Physical activity, emotional stress, cold, weakness lead to more severe weight loss. Fat is consumed first.
The duration of fasting, which does no harm, is primarily determined by the state of a particular organism. Two people who had an accident on a plane, for example, survived by drinking melt water, and this saved their bodies from dehydration. They could live without food, but the absence of water would be fatal to them. Every fast requires water.
From all that has been said, it is clear that fasting should be carried out reasonably, with great precautions. Just as any beginner swimmer, before going on a long swim, will find an experienced coach, so a person who begins the fasting process must find a reliable mentor who will take all precautions before his ward starts fasting.

Hunger is the opposite of appetite

Many attempts have been made to explain the mechanism of the emergence of hunger, but none of them has been successful. I believe that, at least in higher animals, hunger is no doubt connected with the nervous system, and it is the source of the desire to eat. What is the feeling of hunger in reality? Here, for practical purposes, we first need to separate the real feeling of hunger from the many other sensations that are often mistaken for hunger.
Unfortunately, many investigators of the physiology of hunger have limited themselves to studying short periods of abstinence from food, no longer than a few days, insufficient to reveal the true nutritional requirements of the organism. It is interesting to note that experienced physiologists still in many cases describe hunger using the term "pathology".
Hunger is a sucking feeling in the abdomen and stomach, which can turn into real pain, it is a feeling of restlessness, hopelessness and weakness. These are the ingredients of the popular famine myth. Even a headache is sometimes mistakenly explained by hunger, and this version is often supported by experienced specialists.
In fact, hunger is a normal, not an unnatural sensation. It is known that all normal sensations are pleasant. It is wrong to consider hunger, thirst, or any other natural desire as a disease or inconvenience. Real hunger usually indicates the general state of the body - the need for food, and we feel it in the throat, nose and mouth, as well as the desire to drink. Normal hunger cannot be associated with "hungry pains". A hungry person experiences a desire to eat, not pain or irritation.
Any appetite that manifests itself in painful irritability, pains in the abdomen, pains, in a feeling of weakness and other inconveniences of an emotional nature, is very different from real hunger. But the average person, bound by the habit of eating at all hours of the day and night, very seldom allows himself to be really hungry, and therefore erroneously attributes, if he has unhealthy sensations, to a strong desire to eat. Since the symptoms of malaise usually disappear when eating, the person comes to the conclusion that the food is what he needed. You can often observe "food drunkenness" when a person eats to drown out psychological trauma, as a drunkard pours alcohol over grief.
True hunger is selective rather than indiscriminate. To satisfy it, certain foods are required, but not necessarily gourmet dishes, but ordinary simple food. A person forced to eat without being hungry never knows exactly what to fill his stomach with. As a rule, he wants something that stimulates his taste buds, something exotic.
Hunger is rhythmic and manifests itself when there is a real need for food. It never lasts; if people are “always hungry,” then they show pathological symptoms. Am I saying that most people don't know when they are truly hungry? Yes, I want. Starting almost from birth, three meals a day sets the usual program for our so-called modern civilization of oversaturation, due to which the average person never experiences true hunger.
Since hunger is a normal indicator of the need for food, it can be considered that in the absence of hunger one should not eat. Either there is no need for food, or the body cannot absorb it. Without hunger, there is no natural or normal reason to take food. There is good reason to believe that the digestive system absorbs food best when a person feels real hunger, and that without hunger, the processes of digestion slow down and even stop. We cultivate the habit of eating by the clock to such an extent that we often stubbornly ignore even the aversion to food. Hungry or not, we still eat out of inertia to keep up with society, because we have nothing else to do or because food, as we think, will alleviate some of our worries.
The basic rule of nutrition, which must always be observed, is this: "Never fill the stomach by force - neither when healthy nor when sick, unless there is a clear demand for food, expressed by genuine hunger."
In adults, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, strong emotions and weakness all lead to the loss of the normal desire to eat. Pain, fever and inflammation also cause a person to lose their appetite and create an unpleasant sensation in the abdomen. The best way to deal with such a situation is to abstain from food until the feeling of hunger returns, until the breath becomes fresh, the tongue is clean and there is a strong desire to eat. Food should be taken only in a calm and balanced state.
There is no feeling of hunger for the simple reason that in acute diseases the body does not have energy and strength for digestion, it is spent on other needs. Fasting in these cases contributes to the redistribution of energy necessary for a speedy recovery. Not only does the nervous energy contribute to recovery, but also the blood that rushes to the organs affected by the disease and requiring additional blood supply in this situation. Digestion is inhibited by such a powerful effort, as in the case of, for example, physical exertion, say, when running.
In such cases, the food is often taken as prescribed by the doctor, who says that we must eat to maintain strength. In such a situation, food is sometimes thrown out in the form of vomiting or distilled through the digestive tract and ends with diarrhea. If the body fails to cope with food in such ways, then it settles heavily in the digestive tract and leads to poisoning of the body.
Effort expended in vomitting undigested food reduces the intensity of the defensive and purifying forces to fight disease. The energy of the body is distracted from the work of healing and is uselessly spent. Such, even a temporary suspension of the work of healing slows down the process of recovery. Indeed, the fact of aversion to food should rather be seen as a “Closed for renovation” announcement at the entrance to the digestive tract. And this must be taken into account.
Sometimes when we are sick, we think we want to eat, but this is a false desire, and if it is satisfied, it can only increase our suffering. I remember an experiment I did on myself as a teenager. I had a slight fever, malaise, foul breath, a bad feeling in my mouth, and general weakness. I went to bed and felt hungry, or at least I thought I was. I decided I wanted sardines. They just seemed to me. I began to demand sardines. My mother thought that sardines were bad for the sick. However, I knew from experience that if you protested long enough, the parents would give in, even against their principles. And continued to demand sardines.
Finally, my mother went to the nearest store, bought a can of sardines, put them on a plate, and served them to me in bed. I took the smallest sardine, tasted it, and returned the plate to my mother. As it turned out, I didn't want anything. My body didn't need food. Although at that time I knew nothing about fasting, it happened to me completely instinctively, and I recovered without any medication.
I know parents who use many methods of coercion and persuasion to get sick children to eat despite their refusal. The traditional way of persuading children is to bribe them with promises to buy toys and sweets. “Eat it for your mother,” is the usual request. "The doctor wants you to eat this." "If you don't eat, you won't get better." Only our ignorance allows us to intimidate sick children.
In a chronic illness, a person may believe that he is hungry, but in fact his sensations are generated by nothing more than irritation of the digestive tract. If the patient begins to starve, then these pathological symptoms disappear. If the desire to eat were an expression of a real need for food, hunger pains would increase if the fast was continued. However, the fact that the "feeling of hunger" disappears during fasting and the patient begins to feel better indicates that he does not have real hunger.
Sometimes one hears the statement that the feeling of hunger stops on the third day of fasting, meaning that real hunger was felt during the first two days of fasting. This, of course, is not true. The sensation mentioned is just an irritation of the stomach, which stops on the second, third or fourth day of fasting.

Four Reasons to Fast

There are many different reasons for fasting, from health improvement and weight management to religious concepts and rituals, although in the latter case fasting is usually no longer than a day, too short to be considered a serious event.
Weight loss is a very tempting goal, but should it be our only goal? Does fasting offer any other health benefits besides weight loss?
Dr. Robert Walter, known for his work as a hygienist, was a longtime director of the world-famous Walter Sanitary Park Sanatorium in Verneville, Pennsylvania. He declares that a moderate "cure by hunger" - as fasting was called earlier by German naturalists and early hygienists - gives excellent results in curing most ailments. In order to understand the mechanism of the therapeutic effects of fasting, we will briefly review the main areas where complete fasting (leaving water intake) can play an important role in maintaining health. We have already started with what can be considered the number 1 cause - weight loss. It is clear that fasting is the fastest, safest and most effective way we have to lose weight.
However, it is important to note that even for overweight people, fasting is beneficial not only because of weight loss, it has many other benefits.
The second reason is what I call physiological compensation, in which the automatic balance of nature begins to work accurately. Spending on the one hand, nature must accumulate on the other. This time-tested fact applies to all manifestations of life, including human life. If water flows into the bath and someone else opens the faucet in the kitchen, then the speed of the water flow in the pipe will immediately decrease. When the water in the kitchen is closed, the speed of the flow of water into the bath will immediately increase.
A similar phenomenon takes place in the life of an organism. To digest food, the blood must flow to the digestive organs, while we become lethargic, we even tend to sleep. And if we overpower ourselves and begin to do some hard work, then the process of digestion practically stops.
Fasting saves the forces normally used for the digestive system and directs them to perform other tasks. Energy saved in one area can be used in another.
The third reason is to provide physiological rest for the digestive, nervous and other systems. Simply put, the more food a person eats, the more work must be done by the organs belonging to the listed systems. If you reduce the amount of food taken, these organs get the opportunity to rest more. If they do not take food at all, then they can completely rest. It is easy to blame that in the absence of nutrition, the entire digestive system, liver and pancreas rest. The heart and arteries also feel less stress and relief. Body glands, other than those that secrete digestive juices, may also become less active. Breathing slows down and the load on the nervous system decreases. And all this means rest.
There is a theory according to which the weak activity of a starving person resembles the hibernation of an animal and that only during the period of intrauterine development of a person is there a greater inactivity of the digestive tract and muscles than during fasting. This theory is largely correct. It should be said that a starving person does not sleep in winter, unlike an animal falling into hibernation, and is not as passive as a human embryo. Indeed, the brain and muscles of a starving person, if he does not go to bed, does not relax his body and does not calm his mind, can be very active. However, the closer the passivity of the starving person to the passivity of the human embryo, the faster the improvement will come - the rejuvenation of cellular structures is proportional to the degree of passivity of the starving person.
The fourth reason, the most important - cleansing the body. D. H. Tilden, M.D., founder of the famous Tilden School of Health in Denver, Colorado, publisher and editor of two journals, and author of several books, said: possible refutation that fasting is the only absolutely reliable therapeutic means of healing the body known to man.
Felix Oswald, MD, agrees with him, confirming: “Fasting is the greatest way to restore health. Three hungry days a year will purify the blood and remove the poisons of diathesis more effectively than hundreds of pills.
Nothing known to man can compare with starvation as a means of enhanced cleansing of blood and tissues from toxins. From the moment of refusal of food, very little time passes, as the excretory organs increase their activity and the real physiological cleansing takes effect.
As fasting is carried out, the deposited slags are removed, and all the internal organs of a person are cleansed. The person feels as if renewed. Apparently, in just a few days it is possible to free the blood and lymph from poisonous toxins, but fasting goes deeper, removing poisons that have accumulated in other tissues.
The lack of nutrition caused by starvation causes the body to destroy (during the process of autolysis) all unnecessary tissues, nutrient reserves and use them to maintain functioning organs. During this process, the deposited toxins pass into the circulatory system, are delivered to the excretory organs and are thrown out by them.
Dr. Oswald states: “Freed from the hard work of digestion, nature uses the long-awaited rest for general cleaning in the body. Accumulated excess substances are carefully examined and analyzed; suitable components are sent to the digestive system, toxins are removed from the body. The release of excesses that overload the body, which cannot occur with excessive nutrition, is possible only with a surge of strength and synchronous processes of physiological and even biological reorganization during fasting.
Excretion is one of the fundamental functions of life and is as necessary for the body as nutrition. More than 100 years ago, Sylvest Graham, author of The Science of Human Life, who launched the first worldwide health campaign in 1831, pointed out that in all living organisms there is a balance of indigestion and excretion equivalent to nutrition. As long as the organism is alive, assimilation and growth, on the one hand, and excretion, on the other, are in constant interaction.
Everything that the body cannot use as food must be eliminated, therefore, the excretion process is necessary, like nutrition, and must be constantly continued.
Day and night, during sleep and wakefulness, from birth to death, there is a never-ending process of removing toxins from the body. To a large extent, both processes - nutrition and excretion - are carried out by various organs, although there is some combination of their functions. The internal forces of the organism are constantly distributed between assimilation and excretion, assimilation and dissimilation, but sometimes one process takes precedence over another. Under certain conditions, the process of excretion is more important for the organism than absorption, and then the latter is reduced to a minimum.
There is a theory according to which the process of excretion stops after eating. This theory is based on the fact that the body cannot absorb and excrete at the same time. There is some truth in this, but the excretion must continue even while the food is being digested, otherwise toxins will begin to accumulate, which can cause self-poisoning. It is safer to suspend the process of digestion for a short time than to stop the process of excretion, although a complete cessation of the process of digestion would also be fatal. It is only in a very narrow sense that "assimilation delays excretion."
There is another theory, according to which the active excretion of toxins from the body, which occurs during fasting, is obliged only by the efforts of the body to provide nutrition to its functioning tissues. The main idea of this theory is this: when the body gets rid of minor substances, using them as food for vital organs, the toxins deposited in the first ones are transferred to the blood and lymph and are removed from the body through the excretory organs. The search for substances to feed is the main goal, while the excretion of toxins is a side effect in the effort to find food.
I believe that this concept already contains more truth. Slags and toxins accumulate in tissues, mainly in fatty and connective tissues, and as soon as these tissues are eliminated, toxins are released. Apparently, this mechanism underlies the gradual increase in the excretion process, since toxins carried out by the blood and lymph at the onset of starvation are removed from the body with a constant increase in the rate of excretion.
However, is it reasonable to argue that such an important life function as excretion is secondary to other functions of the body? Unlikely. Energy is more or less evenly distributed among all processes. Since fasting reduces the energy expenditure on digestion, the body is able to gather its forces for other purposes, such as excretion and extraction.
That this is the correct interpretation of what is happening is proved by two facts: firstly, rest without fasting increases the excretion, and secondly, the reduction of food increases the excretion. It turns out that any decrease in the work of the body allows you to activate the process of excretion. A significant increase in allocation occurs even before the need arises for the use of power reserves. This is especially noticeable in the increased output of the kidneys, whose function had previously been reduced, as is often observed in diseases of the heart. The increase in excretion in these cases even outstrips the effort of cardiac activity. At the early stage of starvation, as well as at the final stages, the increase in excretion far exceeds all quantitative proportions in relation to the destroyed tissues.
Some ask, "Can fasting cure cancer?" I must answer that although I have seen cancerous tumors greatly reduced in size during fasting, I have never seen one completely destroyed.
It has been noticed that diseased tissues in the body are the first to be destroyed and utilized during the period of starvation, as they are used to meet the nutritional needs of vitally important functioning tissues. Dr. Berg claims that this is the most important healing effect of fasting, but I cannot fully agree with him - the destruction of such tissues does not represent more than a small part of the beneficial effects of fasting.
Dr. Berg's discussion of fasting in connection with cancerous tissues is curious: “Suppose, perhaps somewhat recklessly, that there may be diseased altered tissues in the body with their reduced ability to resist, which will be used primarily for actively functioning tissues. This, of course, is not always the case, especially in cancer. It often happens like this: the patient loses weight, and the tumor continues to grow; we know that once a cancerous tumor separates (becomes autonomous) and encapsulates in most cases, it loses all direct connections to the rest of the body.”
Although the assertion that cancerous tumors grow independently may be too strong, it is true that in some cases they continue to grow stubbornly even during prolonged starvation. In other cases, the size of the tumor is significantly reduced, but I have never observed the complete destruction of a cancerous tumor by fasting. However, benign tumors are often completely destroyed and resolved.
Berg adds: “Moreover, through starvation, when no new food enters the body, it gets the opportunity to use all the deposited substances and slags, oxidize them and excrete them.” Since the accumulated slags are in most cases already oxidized materials, the release rather than the oxidation of tissues that are destroyed during starvation occurs. The disappearance of bruises, bruises, infiltrates and tumors of various kinds is often accelerated during fasting.

Acquisition of strength

“I really feel great and do not feel any difference in physical condition compared to the time before fasting.” The young woman who told me this went without food for three days during her initial weight loss fast. She did not feel any change in her powers. In fact, she felt a certain excitement, a lightness almost comparable to euphoria.
This is a common feeling. A huge number of patients, instead of losing strength during fasting, gain it. Patients who became weak from numerous "nutritious diets" as soon as they began to starve, often felt a surge of strength. Paradoxically, the weakest patient often gets the most benefit from fasting. Weakness in most cases is not due to lack of food, but due to poisoning of the body.
Conventional wisdom says that when you are weak, you need to eat. Patients are told they are "too weak to starve". Even when the sick person continues to get weak, although he eats plenty of good healthy food, it is still believed that he needs to continue to eat to strengthen his health. A greater error cannot be imagined! If the patient is so weak that he cannot turn over in bed due to acute pain and fever, he has no strength to digest food. And feeding will have nothing to do with his recovery. Sometimes forced feeding at a critical moment can cause the death of the patient. Will he get better if he starves? Not always. However, he will have a chance of recovery.
It is a very popular idea that human health depends entirely on the regular intake of food at regular intervals, and a person will die of weakness if he misses a few meals. This is the general delusion. Healthy and sick, we expect to eat three or more times a day. We are often deaf, blind and dumb to any signal of distress in our body. There is no desire to eat, but we eat anyway. There was an aversion to food - we eat. Nauseous - eat. Digestion is disturbed or temporarily suspended - we still eat.
How often do we read about some outstanding person: the patient is now "able to eat", and then, in the next message, about the deterioration of his condition. This is such a general case that it is difficult to understand why a connection was not immediately discovered between the feeding of the patient and the subsequent deterioration in his state of health. One notable example from the past is the case of world famous actor Joseph Jefferson. Dr. Charles E. Neige made the following extracts from published bulletins of his illness: “April 16: No food. April 20: the patient is better; takes food. April 21: worse, delusional. Jefferson had pneumonia, a disease in which hunger is healthier than food. In addition, a few months before pneumonia, the patient was diagnosed with gastritis. At first, this disease was described as "an attack of indigestion after a violation of the diet at a friend's house." During pneumonia, Jefferson did not want to eat, his body refused to digest and assimilate food, but despite this, the patient was fed. Then followed: forced feeding, alcohol and cardiac stimulants. And when a man died, it turned out that it was only "his age was against him."
Thousands of people, eating under such circumstances, die prematurely. The world still believes that a person must eat to be healthy. However, abstaining from food in these cases not only reduces the pain, but also gives rest to the heart and facilitates the work of the kidneys. A meal that should have been skipped can kill the patient. The patient gets better when he does not eat, and falls ill again if the food is prematurely resumed. The facts I have presented convincingly testify to the harmfulness of nutrition in acute diseases.
It is almost a universal rule that a person who is seriously suffering from acute pains, after fasting, feels himself gaining strength, for the painful symptoms gradually disappear, and at the time of the onset of the natural need for food, his strength is truly amazing. Often we see a patient who, although he eats regularly, is so weakened that he cannot get out of bed, and when starvation begins, he feels a surge of strength, by the end of a week or 10-day fast he is even able to walk. . I have observed very weak patients literally crawling up the steps while eating, and the same patients easily running up the same steps after several days of fasting.
At the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, many starving people tried to figure out how much work they could do while they were without food. Tonner competed in the running, Gilman Lowe set several world weight-lifting records, and many did a lot of work, both mentally and physically, during fasting when compared to the period of regular eating.
One starving man was questioned by a newspaper reporter who refused to believe that his interlocutor did not experience physical weakness during several days of fasting. "I'll prove it," the starving reporter said. "I'm in better shape than you right now." The reporter asked if this was a challenge. "Yes. I'll overtake you by a hundred yards." A competition was immediately organized. The starving man and the reporter stood side by side and ran. The reporter was much younger and much more athletic than the starving man, but he lost to a man who had not taken a crumb in his mouth for several days.
Another person who had great experience in fasting told me: “The mind becomes amazingly clear, the body is filled with strength; fatigue, unwillingness to work disappear, and a person takes up his daily affairs, full of energy and enthusiasm, enjoying the excellent health that everyone is gifted with from birth.
Of course, the fasting person must always follow the instructions of the person watching his fasting. This is especially true for physically weak individuals, whose body reserves may be less than that of an average normal healthy person. In any case, the fasting specialist's command to "stop the hunger" must be followed immediately.
There are times when fasting is interrupted after two or three days. Perfectly. If this is done at the insistence of a specialist.
As in all other human affairs, our actions must be guided by wisdom, caution, and common sense. But in most cases, fasting, with proper guidance, has a duration corresponding to the individual physical needs of the person, and his basic physical and spiritual capabilities increase rather than weaken.

Fasting according to G. Shelton is a method of fasting on water. Herbert Shelton had a great experience of fasting, and also observed thousands of patients in his clinic. All this allowed him to supplement the method of fasting with his own developments and observations.

Preparation for fasting is minimal and consists mainly of building up the determination to do so.

Herbert Shelton is against the use of laxatives and enemas during fasting.

The drinking regime is not limited, but the author is against excessive fluid intake: “A starving person sometimes wants to drink, although less often than during the period when he eats. The normal need for water must be met by the purest water available. Mineral waters and bad tasting waters are not recommended. Soft spring water, rainwater, distilled, filtered, or any free water is acceptable.

You should drink no more than you want. There are theories that recommend drinking more than you need, but that doesn't make any sense. It is true that the kidneys secrete more solutions, the more water is drunk. But this does not apply to increasing the amount of waste excreted from the body. In fact, this can lead to the opposite - a decrease in their number.

In summer you want cold water. Cool water is amazing, but very cold water slows down the recovery process. It's not smart to drink water with ice. In some cases, hot water may taste better than cold or room water. I don't see any reason why not drink it while fasting."

Motor mode is limited. Shelton believes that the body must rest during fasting and excessive physical activity only depletes its strength and takes away the energy that is necessary for the recovery processes to proceed: “Rest is necessary during fasting because during the normal functioning of the body, nutrition and activity must balance each other. There are specialists who allow their starving people to take long walks and require them to exercise daily. In short-term fasting, some moderate exercise is permissible under supervision. In other cases, I consider even weak exercises a useless waste of energy and reserves. Activities should be combined with nutrition. When there is no food intake, activity should be kept to a minimum. We need rest, not spending.”

Water procedures are recommended, but in limited quantities: “The need to wash and maintain personal cleanliness during fasting is no less than always. You can swim daily or as long as you need. Bathing should be accompanied by minimal loss of energy. For this you should know:

a) bathing should be brief, both in the shower and in the bath. The usual practice of being in the bath for a long time is relaxing and therefore not recommended;

b) the water in the bath should not be hot, not cold, but tepid. In both extreme cases, large energy expenditures are required from the body. Energy consumption is less, the closer the water temperature to body temperature. Remember that bathing is for cleanliness, not for any promised therapeutic effects. Wash quickly and get out;

c) if the starving person is weak and cannot take a bath himself, he can be sponged in bed.

The same applies to solar treatments: “Sunlight is an important nutritional factor for both plants and animals – it is useful for starvation. It should not be thought of as a medicine, it is not a medicine, but an integral part of the process of nutrition. Its role is especially great in the calcium metabolism of the body, but it is also important for the absorption of phosphorus and ensuring muscle strength. Sunlight serves to perform several vital tasks of the body at once.

Sunbathing, if not abused, promotes relaxation and does not require a serious expenditure of energy. A significant consumption of it may be associated with too hot sun, with an excessive duration of the session, or difficulties in the patient's transition to the solarium and back.

In addition to the above, remember the following rules:

a) in the summer, take sunbaths early in the morning or late in the evening, and at noon - if it is not hot, you can also at any time of the day when the temperature is right;

b) start sunbathing with a 5-minute exposure of the front half of the body and 5 minutes from the back. On the 2nd day, you can increase the duration to 6 minutes on each side. Adding a minute a day, bring the duration to 30 minutes on each side. It is better to stop the increase on this;

c) if the fast lasts more than 20 days, reduce the exposure to 8 minutes on each side, and so on until the end of the fast.

In any case, if sunbathing irritates the starving person or he develops weakness, the duration of the procedure should be reduced. Do not abuse the exposure to the sun.

The duration of fasting is different, depending on the capabilities of the patient's body and the conditions for conducting it, but Shelton believes that it is best to starve until physiologically complete fasting: “It is strange that it is so difficult to realize the simple truth: the best moment to end a hunger strike is the time when a feeling of hunger appears. When this happens, the tongue becomes clean, the smell on the breath and the bad taste in the mouth disappear. All signs indicate that the body has finished self-cleansing and is ready to resume nutrition ... "

Shelton believes that you can get out of fasting on any product, but fresh juices are best. The duration of the exit should be at least half the duration of the hunger. After leaving, you need to pay attention proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle. It is best to adhere to a vegetarian diet and the principles of separate nutrition.

1. Eat acidic foods 15-30 minutes before meals.

2. Eat acidic foods and starches at different times.

3. Eat acidic foods and proteins at different times.

4. Eat starches and proteins at different times.

5. Eat only one concentrated protein per meal.

6. Eat proteins and fats at different times.

7. Eat protein and sugar at different times.

8. Eat starches and sugars at different times.

9. Drink milk separately from other food (possible 30 minutes after sour fruits).

10. Eat melons separately from other food (same with fruits).

11. Eat sweet and sour fruits at different meals.

12. Eat sugars and sour fruits at different meals.

13. Eat greens with sour fruits and cottage cheese (or nuts).

14. Eat greens with sweet or semi-sweet fruits, but don't put anything else in them.

15. Do not eat more than two foods rich in sugar and starch at one time.

16. Water should be drunk 10-15 minutes before meals. Better 15 minutes before acids such as sour fruits, tomatoes, cranberries, sorrel, rhubarb, etc.

17. Avoid desserts. If you must eat it, then with lots of greens.

18. Be especially careful to avoid chilled desserts such as ice cream.

19. In the morning it is better to eat fruits (you can then eat sour cream, cream, curdled milk, etc.), in the afternoon - starches, in the evening - proteins.

20. Well combined: fat with starch, melons with other non-acidic fresh fruits, non-starchy greens with starch, or proteins or fat, especially with a natural combination of protein and fat such as sour cream, cheese, nuts, etc. It is especially effective in this regard. raw cabbage. The antiseptic properties of fresh herbs can help you even when you don't have | lok (for example, kefir) turned out to be sour.

21. Typical dietary and non-dietary nasty things: mayonnaise, all sandwiches except bread and butter, canned fish in oil or tomato sauce, cheese with raisins, buns with raisins, cottage cheese, marmalade, meat with tomato or other sour or spicy sauce .

22. There is another combination that Shelton does not discuss, but which some experts insist on banning (Indra Davy, Paul Bragg, etc.) is the ban on starches in combination with foods rich in sulfur: cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, peas, eggs, figs, onions, carrots, garlic; flax seeds (experimental data). So, do not eat cabbage with starches!

In conclusion, I would like to say that by starving according to Shelton, you will not harm yourself and will get the maximum benefit from the wonderful method of fasting!

The Herbert Shelton fasting system is a structured refusal of food in order to improve the body. It gives the body lightness in the body, clarity of mind and harmony, which are the main components of external beauty and health.

In the 20th century, many methods of healing the body were developed. One of the well-known supporters and promoters of curative fasting was the author of more than 40 books on a healthy lifestyle, Herbert Shelton. A huge influence on his views was the work of doctors - hygienists, which he studied in his teens. In books, Shelton wrote that the body is capable of self-healing and healing through curative fasting. In the process of refusing food, human life support systems are tuned to special life rhythms, thanks to which mechanisms are launched for cleaning from toxins, the results of the vital activity of microorganisms that inhabit human organs, blood renewal and rejuvenation. According to Shelton, the body is able to repair and restore itself, and the refusal to eat seems to be a period of rest.
The scientific postulates of the doctor say that before turning to traditional medicine for medical treatment, it is worth trying therapeutic fasting under the supervision of a competent expert. Controlled practice activates the hidden resources of the body and eliminates the causes of the disease. Therapy with drugs can only relieve the symptoms, and not get rid of the causes of the disease.

The patient does not need additional preparation, except for a resolute mood for a long abstinence from food. In the process, the consumption of food and drinks is prohibited, except for clean drinking water without impurities. It is worth drinking melted, rain, clean filtered water, and the body will receive nutrients from its own fat reserves. Tea, coffee, alcohol, carbonated drinks, mineral water, juices are prohibited.

The correct approach to therapeutic fasting excludes the exhaustion of the body, since exhaustion implies the loss of fluid, heat and nutrition. A person receives nutrition from adipose tissues, which are less necessary for him in comparison with internal organs, water is shown to the patient in the process of self-healing, and he does not lose heat if the conditions for rehabilitation by hunger are organized as follows:

it is better to carry out therapy in nature, in the conditions of a resort holiday: fresh mountain air, rich in oxygen, is shown to the patient;
exclude physical and mental activity: walking, sports, reading books, watching TV negatively affect the emotional state of the patient and take away vital resources that are 100% mobilized for body regeneration;
body hygiene is limited to a short shower, the water temperature is comfortable, to save vital energy;
daily sunbathing is considered to feed the body with energy, by analogy with the nutrition of plants from the sun's rays. It is recommended to start sun therapy from 1 minute on each side of the body, but not more than 8 minutes at the final stage of fasting;
the entire course of cleansing therapy should be sufficiently rested, movement should be minimal, in order to avoid energy costs for thermoregulation of the body;
refrain from conducting enemas and other cleansing procedures.

Will it save a life or hurt

Dr. Shelton's philosophy of therapeutic fasting and natural hygiene has been repeatedly criticized. Opponents argue that long-term refusal of food is similar to a state of exhaustion, when chronic diseases become aggravated and new ones are provoked. The advantage is weight loss.

Weight loss can be rapid - up to 2.5 kilograms per day, which is condemned by modern dietology. After therapeutic fasting according to the method of Dr. Shelton, you should give up bad habits, adhere to a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Disputes around the theory unfolded about the phenomena that arose in the process of recovery: vomiting, nausea, intestinal disorders. Followers claim that this is evidence of cleansing the body and getting rid of unnecessary substances. Opponents are sure that these are signs of poisoning the body with decay products of its own tissues. Prolonged abstinence from food should be carried out under the supervision of specialists.

Instructions for the implementation of the fasting procedure

The fasting and health system has several stages, the implementation of which contributes to an excellent result in the implementation of the procedure.

Entrance

To start therapeutic fasting according to Shelton, no special preparation is needed. A decisive attitude, giving up bad habits is all that the patient needs at the initial stage.

Find out how fasting according to the Herbert Shelton system affects the treatment of various diseases by reading his book

Starvation

Difficulties arise in the process of therapy. A person may experience unpleasant symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, a white coating on the tongue, bad breath, fainting, dizziness, darkening and a strong smell of urine. All this testifies to the cleansing and healing of the body, and these unpleasant phenomena can occur on any day of recovery. With persistent prolonged negative symptoms, fasting should be suspended for a short time. If the patient's mood allows, it is better to wait out the cleansing crisis. The doctor recommends bed rest, so unpleasant symptoms are easier to bear.

Therapeutic starvation according to Shelton is allowed for up to two months. But the doctor was sure that the hidden resources of a person are able to support his life without harming himself for a much longer period.

Should be gradual. The end of the recovery process will be indicated by the cleansing of the tongue from white plaque, the unpleasant odor will disappear, and the appetite will return. Normal is an increase in appetite within 2 weeks after fasting, it is necessary to control the gradual return to normal nutrition. On the first day, it is advised to drink freshly squeezed juices every hour for half a glass. On the second, the same volume of juice should be drunk at intervals of 1 hour. On the third day, three meals a day are allowed with juicy fruits, 1-2 pieces at a time.

The main advice is not to overeat and follow the thorough chewing of food. On the fourth day, salads of 2-3 types of vegetables without salt and fatty seasonings are recommended. The amount of food consumed should gradually increase. After the excessive appetite disappears, it is recommended to switch to plant foods, avoid deep heat treatment of foods. It is not recommended to take more than 2-3 foods at one meal, which is the basis for separate meals. Fatty foods of animal origin, desserts, refined foods, sugary drinks are prohibited. The source of protein should be nuts, seeds, legumes. The main idea of Shelton's philosophy of health lies in the belief that only subsequent abstinence from harmful foods can protect against relapses of the disease.

Contraindications

The main condition for therapeutic fasting is the procedure under medical supervision. Contraindications are severe diseases of internal organs, gastritis, recovery periods after surgical interventions, blood diseases. Such diseases and their acute conditions must be treated medicines. Contraindications for a particular person are established by the doctor. Nutritionists - contemporaries supplement the technique with reading books, conversations and walks for psychological comfort in the process of abstaining from food.

The philosophy of natural hygiene, promoted by Dr. Shelton and his followers, is reflected in the writings of many modern nutritionists. The main idea boils down to several scientifically confirmed postulates: moderation in nutrition, plant foods, rejection of bad habits and products will make the patient's health stronger and life longer. Herbert Shelton died at the age of 90, and his main work is called "Fasting will save your life."

In the history of mankind there are few phenomena so misunderstood as starvation. The important role it can and does play is often denied by public opinion, which can be explained by groundless fear or prejudice of this form of treatment, scientific misinformation, or even a complete lack of information.

The purpose of this book, based on my own experience, studying and observing over 45 years as a fasting hygienist, is to reveal the true role of fasting in creating and maintaining good health, in losing weight when overweight, in controlling it, and also in prolongation of human life.

I would like to make it clear that fasting in itself is not a cure, but a tool that allows you to identify the ability of the human body to effectively heal or get rid of extra pounds at a speed unthinkable with any other method.

One of the main aims of this book is to answer many questions about fasting that people are concerned about due to the frequent publication of articles in newspapers and magazines about weight problems. Since overeating and obesity have become a threat to the health of the population of the United States and some European countries, the question of how to lose weight without harming the body will never lose its importance today.

At the same time, the renewed interest of natural hygienists and their concern for the state of mind and body has drawn the closest attention to the discoveries and theories of hygienists, which have been developing for about a century and a half.

Orthodox medicine is desperately fighting these theories. And all the achievements of the last decades were won in a fierce war of opinions.

Progress in developing right habits of living and eating, slowly but surely - inch by inch - made its way. Recall that fasting was known many centuries ago not only as a means of improving health, but also as a religious ritual.

Experienced people of the 19th and 20th centuries - scientists, researchers, discoverers who devoted their lives to the study and practice of the basic truths of hygienic life, assigned a special role to fasting.

It is not appropriate to emphasize our mental abilities too much as a means of achieving results in treatment and life. The body is a complex organism in which all parts are interconnected. However, good health is a single entity that includes every aspect of our being - physical, mental and emotional. What we are discussing here does not deal with individual simple problems, but deals with the individual as a whole.

These are the general considerations of the approach to a healthy lifestyle. Only a fasting specialist can point out specific health problems to a person. Our goal is to give the layman, the average reader, a wide range of technical information, as well as the hope that the time that a person can live more fruitfully, feel better, will last longer.

Since overeating has become one of the most important physiological and psychological problems here in America in our time, I focus on this aspect in the first chapters of our book. Weight loss in itself is only one of the factors in maintaining a normal physical condition, many of us require a general restructuring of our entire lifestyle and, in particular, nutrition.

How many of us want to be overweight or disabled due to illnesses resulting from the many destructive habits that too many follow?

That is why I not only lay out the basic principles of hygiene, diet and exercise, but as a gift to you, I offer you a completely new way of life.

Part 1. Fasting and weight loss

Starvation and you

Fasting is much more than just not eating. It is both science and art. It matters in terms of overall well-being and affects the psychological and emotional aspects of our lives.

Fasting, as a term used by hygienists, means the complete absence of food for a certain period of time. In other words, fasting is a course of treatment that we carry out on a solid basis under certain and controlled conditions.

As a religious term, fasting means giving up certain foods for a while. That is, it is a partial refusal of food. I know people who “starve” during Great Lent and during this time they often put on weight, but do not lose weight, because they eat food that makes them fat.

Those who think that fasting is the equivalent of exhaustion are deeply mistaken. There are two periods in the fasting process: the first is fasting, and then the second is exhaustion.

As we study the phenomenon of lack of nutrition in detail, the difference between these two phases - starvation and malnutrition - will become clear. From the very beginning, however, it is important to understand that the fasting stage lasts only as long as the body can support itself from the latent resources available in it. Depletion begins when these hidden reserves are depleted or reduced to an alarmingly low level.

We must also understand that it is inaccurate terminology that leads to a misunderstanding of the essence of the fasting process. The term "partial fasting" is used for any form of fasting, when a person severely restricts himself in food. The misuse of the word "exhaustion" is typical not only for common speech, but also for some scientific articles.

Exhaustion is a negative process. You cannot exhaust yourself while still feeling good. But if you fast within reasonable limits, then as a result you will improve your physical condition and restore health. You can live for a long time without food and achieve an excellent effect. When an experienced observer (physician) who helps to conduct a course of fasting, understands that the second phase - exhaustion as a result of lack of food - is close, fasting is interrupted.

I have already said that fasting is part of the new way of life. Therefore, fasting is carried out not only to reduce weight, but also, importantly, to maintain or restore health in general.

A sick or injured animal is looking for a secluded place where no one will disturb it, where it hides from the weather, finds warmth, peace and silence. There the animal rests and starves. It can, for example, lose a limb, but, being in seclusion, as a rule, recovers without dressings and surgical operations.

In the life of animals, fasting is an extremely important factor of existence. Animals starve not only when sick or injured, but also during winter or summer hibernation (in tropical climates).

Some animals are starving, intending to give birth to offspring, others - during the period of nursing the cubs. Some birds starve while waiting to hatch, and certain types of spiders do not eat for the first six months of life. Often wild animals in captivity refuse to eat, and domesticated dogs or cats may not eat for several days when they get into a new environment. In addition, animals are forced to starve during droughts, heavy snowfalls and frosts, while surviving, although they cannot get any food for long periods.

Fasting is not always a pleasant experience, but it brings new sensations as a result. The freedom and peace experienced when not eating often makes it possible for a person to discover hitherto unknown depths of the meaning of life.

At about four o'clock in the morning on the first night of fasting, patient AB had an asthma attack. He could not breathe while lying in bed, so he had to sit up and call a doctor. After examining him, the doctor promised: “Soon you will feel better. Approximately in a day the asthmatic phenomena will disappear.

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