A Fasting Overview

Fasting is an ancient tradition that has prevailed in different cultures for thousands of years. Primarily religious and ritualistic in nature, cultures from historic Incan to modern Islam used and use fasting. To see a list of fasts by religion, check out this site: < http://www.beliefnet.com/features/fasting_chart.html > Simply googling “X Religion” and “fasting” will turn up numerous websites listing the reasons and techniques of their specific fasts.

Fasting has generally fallen from favor and in rigor in modern society, no longer practiced by the people en masse. Except in the case of the political fast, one hardly hears of a person fasting unless they know them personally. No doubt, though, that one of Mahatma Gandhi’s most useful tools was the political fast. Prisoner’s also use fasts to send a message, one of the few tools they have to make a statement. Some information is found here < http://www.pressureworks.org/frontline/features/fast.html >

Less well publicized is fasting for detoxification or medicinal reasons. Fasts were commonly used in the past when confronted with bouts of illness, though now we typically eat through colds and flu. More popular now is a detox cleanse, that is typically a juice fast (though water fasts are seen), and a mono-diet, focusing on only one type of juice for the duration. The Master Cleanse is in this category, where the only nutrients and calories taken in come from one source, though water and herbal teas are sometimes used. Until the recent history (ahem, globalization), our diets were significantly more restricted than many realize, responding directly to the kinds of foods that could be both (a) grown locally and (b) grown during a specific season. For this reason, I feel our bodies are more adept at handling a mono/restricted diet than we assume. That said, I will whole-heartedly agree that this diet does not contain every nutrient you need, and am hesitant to recommend it for too long. Anyway. Some sites on detox fasts:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/detox-diets-cleansing-body
http://health.ivillage.com/eating/estyles/topics/0,,4vhc,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_cleansing
http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1996

And what about water fasts? I would never attempt more than a two day water fast alone. These typically require full bed rest and a physician to do it without damaging your body. And don’t worry, if you’re interested there are plenty of fasting spas that specialize in water fasting, with specialists on staff and a lovely room for you to stay in with some great views. They also charge appropriately… < http://www.tanglewoodwellnesscenter.com/index.php > (In reading the user's comments it seems the only stress many felt during the experience was about how much money they were spending to do the fast... not a good sign.)