A Prelude to Fasting

The main reason most people in our culture eat is for pleasure. It may be to please their taste buds, or to quell addiction’s craving, or simply to enjoy a pleasing habitual (Pavlovian) relaxation ritual called dinner. We certainly don’t eat primarily for nutrition, nor is it for the body’s health that we feed. I say this, because most of what we eat is wasted by our body’s inability to absorb all that we cram into it, and so much of what we stuff into it is harmful to us in the long run. In the short run, the onset of indigestion accompanies many of our gastronomical transgressions.

Dr Jamnadas tells us that 60% to 70% of what we eat is used to process the 30% to 40% our body does utilize of our meal. What’s the point of all of the additional eating? It’s just putting our digestive system through unnecessary work and keeping our bodies from performing optimally, or healing themselves.

Sir William Osler, “…one of the most brilliant physicians of modern time,” according to Dr. Bieler, says, “We are all dietetic sinners; only a small percent of what we eat nourishes us, the balance goes to waste and loss of energy.”

From another source, Bieler quotes: “Most of what we eat is superfluous. Hence, we only live on a quarter of all we swallow: Doctors live off the other three quarters.” That’s from an ancient Egyptian papyrus. Given the opportunity, humans have always flirted with, if not totally given themselves over to, gluttony. And suffered the consequences in proportion to their indulgence in it.

Cat and I have reduced our food intake by a third in our first stage of fasting, “Intermittent Fasting,” simply by cutting out breakfast, and we have not lost any more weight than we wanted. We already lost all of our excess weight when we gave up carbohydrates—60 pounds between the two of us. It melted off quickly and with a lot less effort than we expected. We proved to our satisfaction that carbohydrates cause fat in the body and reducing them reduces it. We experienced this process in our own bodies and continue to unto this day.

A word about skipping breakfast, supposedly “the most important meal of the day.” It is not. If you will follow these posts along you’ll find out why skipping breakfast will give you more benefits than eating it ever did.

We do not fast to lose weight. Fasting is a method of solidifying our gains and propelling our bodies’ health forward with the onset of autophagy, and the release of Human Growth Hormone and brand new Stem Cells to make our bodies younger as our years go by. Dr Jamnadas tells us that both stem cells and human growth hormone are prohibitively expensive, but we can make them in our own bodies. Do see his video, Fasting for Survival.

I’ll go into detail about fasting in next month’s post, but first:

A Warning

Before you even think about fasting, give up carbohydrates. Save yourself a world of hurt from withdrawal sickness. If you eat sugar and starch you may want to begin by reading my previous post, A First Step on a Journey of a Thousand Meals. That’s where you’ll find out who Dr. Beiler and Dr. Jamnadas are.

Have you ever heard of “Morning Sickness?” That is the pregnant mother’s body’s attempt to rid itself of toxins in order to make a safe and healthy residence for the fetus. We have Dr. Bieler to thank for that information. Fasting for a period of more than twelve hours will start a similar cleansing process as the new mother, and a similar withdrawal cycle, in your body. So take it one step at a time. Reduce your carbohydrate intake, then begin to explore the benefits of fasting.

Giving up processed sugar is giving up a white crystalline drug. Giving up fructose, the sugar from fruits, is giving up poison for your liver in the form of fat deposits that are the last to be accessed by the body’s fat-burning processes during periods of low carbohydrate intake. Once again, please see my earlier post for more details.

People give up on fasting early and turn away from it because of the symptoms of withdrawal from sugar and starch (which turns into sugar in the body). The symptoms of this toxemia include, but are not limited to, headaches, nausea, shakiness and craving. The severity of these consequences are directly proportional to the depth of the dependency. If an individual would gradually, but with resolve, withdraw from sugar and other carbs before attempting to fast they would enjoy the benefits of fasting and avoid the consequences of starting too soon.

Your body has accommodated itself to all of the sugar you’ve been consuming and you are going to cause major changes when you give it up. Something called vis medicatrix naturae has done its best to keep your body in equilibrium in the face of assaults from sugar, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and other poisons. When you withdraw them your equilibrium will be off to the degree you are dependent, and it will take your body some time to regain its balance.

Sugar has hidden as the culprit for weight gain for a long time because people in authority have pointed to the fat that people consume as the reason for the fat they retain. That was when we lacked understanding of the role insulin plays in seeing that sugar is always utilized, burned, first.

This is why the low-carb diets work. There is no sugar coming in to burn so the body starts burning both the most recently consumed fat, and eventually, fat stored by the body earlier. Your body can even turn excess protein and fat into sugar in a process called gluconeogenesis; and that’s how you lose fat and weight, and still fuel the body, by not eating sugar, quite simply stated. There is a lot of chemistry involved, but this is the result.

The body’s hormone insulin directs the body to burn sugar first and store any fat. Excess sugar, or starch that the body can’t process right away turns into more fat in a process called lipogenesis (the conversion of carbohydrate to fat).

If you’ve been eating carbs and starches your body is loaded with toxins to get rid of before you can fast without suffering withdrawal just like an addict. Reducing your carbs over time will keep you from suffering as you slowly rid you body of its accumulated toxins.

There certainly is a lot more going on in the body when one fasts, but I want to concentrate in the next post on four things: 1) What autophagy is and why it is so exciting, 2) How the production of human growth hormone can be stimulated in our bodies to enable us to rebuild them, 3) How the creation of stem cells in our bone marrow can rebuild our cells after their parts have been recycled by the miracle of autophagy, and 4) How these processes make us younger.


I’ll go into more detail about four fasting modalities for you to try, step-by-step, when you are ready:

Intermittent fasting; Our first step (12hr to 16 hr to 18 hr…)
What it is
What it does for the body
We fast for 14-18 hours daily

Thirty-six hour fast; Our second step
What it does for the body
We’ve done one a week for the last eight weeks

Three day fast
What it does for the body; Our third step
Two of the 8/thirty-six hour fasts turned into 80 hr ones
These fasts were six weeks apart

Seven day fast
What it does for the body;
Looking to do one to end 2021 and to begin 2022.

Thank you for reading this far. ’Til before you know it, I wish you health and peace.