[MightySunTzu]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

Here are some things from Shelton's book mentioned above. P 79-- "For example, tissues are lost in the inverse order of their usefulness-- fat and morbid growths first, and then the other tissues." A 21 year old woman had a hard lump in her breast that caused her great pain for 4 months. They suspected that it was cancer. In 3 days of fasting, the lump and pain were gone.

Page 85-- "It is generally held by men with wide experience with the fast that abnormal tissues are broken down and eliminated more rapidly than normal tissue during periods of abstinence."

(end of Shelton quotes)

Originally Posted by ginkgo

[Note that fat is adipose tissue. It would be just plain stupid for the body to get rid of fat while other tissue causes the person to die. Right? If tissue is infected with a dangerous infection, the fast consumes that tissue and infection first. My website tells how I had an infection that the dentist said could enter my brain and kill me, but fasting got rid of it, faster than it could burn up fat.

Hey there Ginkgo,

Well you're partly right and your Shelton quotes are accurate, but i'm afraid you are drawing the wrong conclusions from this information. I would love to believe that the body will completely burn up all disease before fat, but it just isn't the way it works. The body will simultaneously burn fat and a much lesser amount of tissue (protein tissue)... and preferentially take the worst, most diseased protein tissue first before any other protein... but not instead of fat. Within this set of "rules", yes your body would burn up your infection very quickly, while it is burning fat as well.

This is a fuller account of the information i found in Shelton's writings "The hygienic system, fasting and sun bathing vol III" From chapter 5, "Autolysis":

"The phenomena of fasting supply many examples of the control the body exercises over its autolytic processes. For example, tissues are lost in the inverse order of their usefulness--fat and morbid growths first [i interpret this as meaning "simultaneously"], and then the other tissues.

No more profound change in metabolism is possible than that produced by fasting and the change is of a character best suited to bring about the autolysis of a tumor, malignant or otherwise.

Due to a variety of circumstances, some known, others unknown, the rate of absorption of tumors in fasting individuals varies. The general condition of the patient, the amount of surplus contained in [h]is body, the kind of tumor, the hardness or softness of the tumor, the location of the tumor and the age of the patient are all known to influence the rate of tumor absorption. Let me cite two extreme cases to show the wide range of variation in this respect.

A woman, under forty, had a uterine fibroid about the size of an average grapefruit. It was completely absorbed in twenty-eight days of total abstinence from all food but water. This was an unusually rapid rate of absorption."

In this 28 day timeframe, enough protein was burned up to eliminate the entire grapefruit sized tumor (about a pound), while the patient is likely to have burned off 10-15 pounds of fat as this was taking place.

Shelton: "Another case is that of a similar tumor in a woman of about the same age. In this case the growth was about the size of a goose egg. One fast of twenty-one days reduced the tumor to the size of an English walnut. The fast was broken due to the return of hunger. Another fast a few weeks subsequent, of seventeen days, was required to complete the absorption of the tumor. This was an unusually slow rate of tumor-absorption."

In this 21 day timeframe, enough protein was burned up to eliminate about 3 ounces of this tumor while the patient is likely to have burned off 7-12 pounds of fat. It took another 17 day fast to eliminate the remainder of that tumor (perhaps 2 ounces of protein) as the body burned another 6-10 pounds of fat. Though Shelton cites this as an example of being unusually slow, even the fastest burning tumors (as in the example of the grapefruit over 28 days) burn considerably slower than the body's primary fuel souce in ketosis which is fat. The the primary source of fuel (fat) and the secondary source of fuel (protein) are taken simultaneously in a proportion of about 10:1.

Shelton continues: "Tumor-like lumps in female breasts ranging from the size of a pea to that of a goose egg will disappear in from three days to as many weeks. Here is a remarkable case of this kind that will prove both interesting and instructive to the reader. A young lady, age 21, had a large, hard lump--a little smaller than a billiard ball--in her right breast. For four months it had caused her considerable pain. Finally she consulted a physician who diagnosed the condition, cancer, and urged immediate removal. She went to another, and another and still another physician, and each made the same diagnosis and each urged immediate removal. Instead of resorting to surgery the young lady resorted to fasting and in exactly three days without food, the "cancer" and all its attendant pain were gone. There has been no recurrence after twenty-three years and I think that we are justified in considering the condition remedied."

This growth was small enough (perhaps 3-4 ounces) and apparently "unhardened" enough, to be eliminated within 3 days, an amount of protein the fasting body would be expected to burn in that timeframe. Ketosis at this point has barely kicked in.

Shelton continues: "Let me cite a comparatively recent instance from my own practice. A manufacturer brought his wife to me from Los Angeles. A growth in one of her breasts had caused her to consult two or three physicians in that city. Each of them had insisted upon the immediate removal of her breast. I placed her upon a fast which was continued for thirty days. At the end of the fast, the tumor, which was about the size of an English walnut at its beginning, had been reduced to the size of a pea. In less than a month on a vegetable and fruit diet this small remainder disappeared."

This particular tumor was so stubborn, it was only about 2 ounces in size and took 30 days to eliminate 95% of it. How much fat was burned over this 30 day period? Here again, a notable and absolute contradiction to your contention that diseased tissue will be burned up preferentially before fat.