Fasting

[Thomas401]

Hello Everyone,

Been a while since I've been on here.

I'm pretty strongly habituated/addicted to refined sugar and and caffeine.

I have made some steps to introduce more salads and fruits and vegetables into my diet but I am still finding it hard to kick the sugar and caffeine.

I would like to try some short wet fasts perhaps 1 day or even less to start with to try and help my body 'reboot' away from the quick hit of sugar and caffeine onto more healthier foods.

I also know fasting can heal which would be good for getting rid of toxins and might even help my epilepsy and aspergers who knows. Out of curiousity can fasting help repair teeth?

I've also read a very little bit about low calorie eating being the key to living longer Patrick Holfords optimum nutrition bible and this is something that interests me long term.

For now I'd settle for getting off my very unstable uncontrolled attitude to eating and always having to have sweet stuff for the sake of my waist and my health.

There are people on here a lot more knowledgeable and experiencced than me and I'd appreciate any help or advice.

Thanks,

Thomas

[firenexx]

My first advice is to bring a shopping list when you shop, and strictly adhere to it. Don't let sweet stuff be around you, and it will be a lot easier to kill the temptations. The hard part will then be resisting stuff when you are at parties and events, but that's a minor problem compared to resisting it when it's in your kitchen.

I was very addicted to carbohydrates, even several months after I adopted a healthy diet. I solved the problem by not buying crackers and sweets and things that I would uncontrollably eat a ton of.

Fasting certainly can heal, as can a healthy diet. I don't know how much they can do for epilepsy, but only because I know very little about epilepsy. I know that they will help your aspergers, though. If only by vastly improving your mental state.

Keep in mind that while short fasts are good to start with and will definitely improve your health and get you used to the idea of fasting, longer fasts are more effective in healing.

Out of curiousity can fasting help repair teeth?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer:
Dental health is a complex subject, partly because much of the mainstream knowledge on the subject is confusing, misleading, or incorrect. For instance, sugar is bad for teeth, but the reason usually given is that it sticks to them and decays them on contact. The bigger reason is actually a more complex one involving leeching minerals and inhibiting re-mineralization. I won't elaborate too much, but basically, a good diet is just as important as fasting when it comes to repairing teeth. And yes, fasting can help teeth. Others on this forum have said that a 4-5 day fast is often enough to fix certain tooth problems, but perhaps they can elaborate since I know very little on the fasting approach to dentistry.

I will say this. These things:
-Proper diet, ESPECIALLY with sufficient amounts of minerals
-Absolutely NO fluoride
-Toothpaste with no glycerin or fluoride (preferably home-made, involving coconut oil and baking soda)
-Proper saliva pH, attainable by eating alkaline foods
-Proper hygiene, including mouthwashes with sea salt or other suitable substance
Are all important in maintaining good dental health.

It is possible to grow cavities back. This is hard. It is preferable to not get any in the first place. Use google for more details; I've gone horribly off-topic with my dentistry rant :-)

[ginkgo]

Doing a wet water fasting fast or fast, it can help you to change your eating habits. Here is a webpage about fasting with quotes by 23 MDs about fasting.

Three of the above MDs are psychiatrists.

Gabriel Cousins, M.D., (psychiatrist) says "I often observe in the fasting participants that by four days of fasting, concentration seems to improve, creative thinking expands, depression lifts, insomnia stops, anxieties fade, the mind becomes more tranquil and a natural joy begins to appear. It is my hypothesis that when the physical toxins are cleared from the brain cells, mind-brain function automatically and significantly improves and spiritual capacities expands."

Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, director of the fasting unit of the Moscow Psychiatric Institute, reported on the use of scientific, therapeutic fasting to successfully treat over 10,000 patients, all suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and various neuroses, concluding: "The hunger treatment [as Soviet psychiatrists term fasting] gives the entire nervous system and the brain a rest. The body is also cleansed of poisons, and the tissues and the various glands are renovated."

Joel Fuhrman, M.D. says in his book "There are hundreds of journal articles in the medical literature documenting the value of fasting in improving the function of the entire body including brain [cites studies]. Fasting has been repeatedly observed to alleviate neurosis, anxiety and depression."

[Thomas401]

Done better today managed to eat fruit, nuts, vegetable soup and a stir fry.

Decided to fast from dinner on Thursday to dinner on Friday.

Going to try and eat as best as I can again tomorrow give my body a boost.

Trouble with all this is I'm having to learn how to make healthy veg based meals that aren't the same sald and soup lol.

I always seem to get a very irrational fear before fasting, even though I know that nothing bad will happen, anyone else get this?

Thomas

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by Thomas401

Done better today managed to eat fruit, nuts, vegetable soup and a stir fry.

I always seem to get a very irrational fear before fasting, even though I know that nothing bad will happen, anyone else get this?

Thomas

Do you mean that you get a very irrational fear and do it or get the fear and do not do it? It is so normal to be afraid of something that you have never done before. I know a 25 year old who has never swam and she is afraid to learn. I was swimming since age 4. I know a 40 year old that never learned to ride a bike so she is afraid that she can never learn now-- too late. I am very good with a computer but always fear doing a new thing with it.

If you have never done it before you do not know what will happen. A big hairy monster may pop out of your mouth and eat you. Just because it has never happened before means nothing. There is always a first time.

[Thomas401]

I have done one or two before but the fear persists, go figure.

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by Thomas401

I have done one or two before but the fear persists, go figure.

If you do several more I bet there will be less fear. I had a fear when I first started roller blading. Well after doing it many times I am not very good at stopping so I have still have a fear. Of course that fear or caution or respect keeps me from putting myself in a dangerous postion. In the beginning I did fall several times.

[Thomas401]

I was wondering if people could help me out with nutrition.

This might sound very stupid but I don't really know how to eat healthily!!

If I give up the sugar and processed food from my diet as I am hoping to do after the fast I am only really left with 3 meals that meet my healthy requirement.

1. Baked Potato With Salad
2. Salad of whatever veg is in the fridge
3. Soup with whatever veg are in the fridge
4. Porridge
5. Fruit

This tends to get very samey. I am trying to cut down on meat and dairy as well the long term aim being to go vegan, but I am struggling.

Can anyone help?

[firenexx]

Stir fry w/ rice or quinoa? Steamed veggie dish? Refried or sprouted bean burrito w/ guacamole and salsa? Be aware that the internet is a great recipe book. It's certainly hard to think of "food to make," especially if you're not very skilled as a cook.

If you can't actually think of any healthy recipes to search for, simply google "healthy dinner recipes" or whatever general kind of thing you're looking for. Find some recipes you like, and write a menu for the week. Make a list and go grocery shopping. A menu helps you to both plan healthy meals, and shop for them so you have the correct ingredients.

Cutting down on meat and dairy will most definitely improve your health, as most westerners eat far too much meat and dairy. The meat and dairy you do eat should be organically grown, to prevent exposure to growth hormones, antibiotics, etc.

If you know nothing about nutrition or healthy eating, it will be pretty hard to go vegan, so it's good that you have it as a long term goal. My only suggestion is that you learn a lot about nutrition in general while you are in the contemplation stage. When making such a significant dietary decision, you will get people throwing science at you left and right. Not only on this forum. You will get people saying "Where will you get your protein?" and people saying "I felt so great after I stopped eating meat" and people saying "I felt so great after I started eating meat again." Even the people that actually know what they're talking about will be confusing as you might read one thing that provides irrefutable evidence that humans need to eat meat, and another thing that provides irrefutable evidence that humans don't need to eat meat. IMHO, both sides are full of **** and should have something better to do with their time.
It's hard to make a decision like that if you are unaware of the nutrition involved and are constantly self-doubting because the science on both sides seems so right! Just remember that it is a personal decision that you should only make if you are well-informed and confident.

[Thomas401]

I want to go vegan in the long term to help the planet and cause less suffering to animals. Health benefits would definitely be a nice plus as well though.

I'll google round for some recipes and see if I can start to build up a pool of recipes to draw from.

[svrart]

Hi,
I have done fasts before. The longest was a 10 day water fast. I think during these kind of fasts the body rejects toxins, so your teeth should improve. Mine did a little.

But I think fasting is like getting a short glimpse of what an ideal life could be. When you come out of the fast if you still continue with the old habits the old life will continue. This is true of food, teeth, exercise, creativity etc.

Good luck with your fast.
SVR

[ginkgo]

First of all you have over 10,000 dfferent fruits to eat (not an exageration). I like berries like strawberies, blueberries, blackberries and rasberries. Whole Foods sells a mixture of the above. I also like raisins, apples, oranges, avocados and bananananas. Eat fruits first since they do not need to digest in stomach. Here is a lot more of diet advice like that.

Now do you want me to list all the hard fruits? They are high in protein and vitamin E. You can buy a mixture of them like sunflower seeds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, pumpkin seeds, raisins (not a hard fruit) and more. You can eat these like snacks.

I am not going to list all the vegetables that you can put in salads. You will notice that with raw foods that you can eat the same foods over and over and not get tired of them.

Then you have your cheaper foods like red, golden and purple steamed potatoes (I do not like the brown potatoes), yams and brown basmati rice. I like to mix pototoes or brown basmati rice with beans. Now do you want me to list all the beans like chick peas, lima, butter, adzuki, soy, black, navy, kidney and more?

Americans do not get tired of eating only a few meats like beef, pig, chicken or turkey daily. Trader Joes has wild rice that is cooked in vacuum plastic packages.

[Thomas401]

13 hours in so far going well, just have to watch out for the inertia of habit at work!!

[Thomas401]

Ok I lasted 18 hours which is pretty pitiful I know but I did it and I learnt a lot from it.

I kept having 'voices' in my head or thoughts to go eat something sweet anything from a vending machine be it chocolate or soda. Didn't realise I was that badly addicted to sugar. I was mentally exhausted by the end of the 18 hours. Strange thing was for the first time putting some thought into I realised physically I wasn't hungry at all.

I finished the fast with something sweet which was probably a bad idea my head swam and then my energy crashed. Again giving me a much clearer picture of what sugar is doing to me.

Going forward I'm glad I done this and learnt from it. I'm going to cut out all the processed sugar and caffeine and try again in a week's time and see what different.

Instead of fearing the next one I'm actually looking forward to it.

[firenexx]

Congrats. It will only get easier, and the results will only get better. Keep us posted. \

It is interesting to notice when your mind is telling you to eat but your stomach is not actually hungry.

[sheffy4]

When you crave something sweet (junk food), eat some fruit instead. It might not satisfy you completely in the beginning, but if you keep up with it, it won't take long for just the sweetness of fruit to be enough to satisfy your craving. At least that's the case with me. I'm actually cutting back on sugar as well, and my favorite fruit the last two weeks has been grapefruit. It's delicious and intense.

I have done "no refined sugar" diets in the past, and I've found that after only about 2 weeks of avoiding refined sugar, my cravings diminish greatly. Then if I make it past the intense craving stage, and I decide to "indulge" in a piece of cake or something, it usually makes me feel sick, so that works as a deterrent in the future to avoid it.

Also, have you tried making fruit smoothies? They are great for breakfast or a snack. I used to make variations on this one all the time:
- Soy Milk (maybe a cup? depending on the thickness you want)
- Handfull of frozen strawberries
- Handfull of frozen blue berries

Blend and enjoy!

I would sometimes add fresh spinach leaves to the smoothie, too. It adds nutrients and the berries mask the flavor of the leaves so it's still sweet.

[Thomas401]

Thanks for the advice everyone, looking forward to the next one nad improving on the last one.

For 24 hours is it better to wet or dry fast, I wet fasted last time but tried not to overdo the water.

In preparation for this weeks coming fast I'm making a few changes to my diet. My brekfast has now gone from soda and chocolate (I know!!) to 2 tangerines, some grapes, and an apple or a pear, followed by a few nuts later in the morning. I've swapped the morning coffee for green tea.

I'm trying to eat vegetable based lunchs as much as I can, salads, baked potatoes and soups are what I've learnt to do so far, will expand my repetoire in time.

I'm hoping this with the elimination of junk from my diet will lessen the cravings somewhat on the next fast.

[svrart]

Hi Thomas,

Don't despair! You are growing.

My first few fasts were day fasts, that led to 3 day and then 10 day. You have learnt something and that's what counts. IMO, fasts less than 3 days are the hardest because the psychological hunger monkey will keep chattering. After that it will disappear.

For 24 hours, both dry and wet fasts should be ok. If you are well hydrated and won't be doing much sweating during that time, dry would be ok.

Good luck with your next one,
SVR