Heal Yourself in 15 Days (part 6)
February 8, 2010
Natural News
By Mike Adams
Continuing our 15-part article series called Heal Yourself in 15 Days, today we focus on not doing something. In particular, I’m talking about not eating for 24 hours.
It sounds simple in theory, of course: Refrain from eating anything (or drinking any beverages other than water) for 24 hours. Your body has plenty of calories stored to carry you through those 24 hours, and the pause from digestion will give your body a chance to focus its healing energies on other parts of your body.
Note: Be sure to check with your naturopathic physician about the safety of fasting. While fasting is safe for most people, it’s not for everyone. People in a weak state of health or those suffering from diabetes should take special precautions to make sure fasting is safe for them.
Why fasting?
Fasting has been used from Biblical times through the modern world to help purify and heal the body. It can help detox your liver, kidneys and digestive tract. It also encourages you to rethink your eating habits. When you fast for just 24 hours, and you’re really committed to it, you’ll be shocked to discover how many times you habitually reach for food.
People habitually reach for food in all sorts of circumstances that have nothing to do with actual hunger:
• When they’re bored…
• When they feel emotionally stressed…
• When they watch television or movies…
• When they’re traveling in their car…
• When other people are eating around them…
• At social events, parties or gatherings…
Try fasting for 24 hours and you’ll see for yourself just how many times you habitually reach for food.
This will teach you many important things about your own eating habits, and that’s the point of this exercise. Just pick a day — preferably a weekend when nothing big is going on — and fast for 24 hours, drinking nothing but water.
In accomplishing this, you will realize three very important things:
1) You didn’t die from starvation in 24 hours. In fact, most people have enough spare calories to go 30 days or more without eating.
2) You found the self-discipline to achieve 24 hours without eating. This is a milestone accomplishment in self control.
3) You learned to observe yourself and recognize the numerous situations in which you habitually reach for food. This can be extremely educational in helping you reform your eating habits in the future.
On top of all that, of course, you gave your digestive system a break and encouraged more rapid healing throughout your body. You may notice some detox effects (like bad breath) or a difference in your energy levels. This is all a normal part of the fasting process, and it indicates your fasting is working!
My own fasting experience
I recently fasted for 90 hours, then I had food for 24 hours followed by another 48-hour fast. The experience was quite enlightening. I had virtually no negative side effects, most likely due to the fact that I consume a very cleansing, healthy diet on a day-to-day basis. Typically, the worse your diet, the more detox side effects you may experience when fasting.
If you want to make your fasting more tolerable and more cleansing, you also have the option of drinking an 8-oz. glass of fresh vegetable juice in the middle of your fast. I did this during my fast, and it not only gave me more energy to make it through the fast; it also greatly enhanced the cleansing effects of my fast. I further enhance my own fasts with products from Ed Group’s company, Global Healing Center (www.GHChealth.com). I especially like the Oxy Powder and Paratrex products. I take them with every fast.
Naturally, the choice is yours on how to approach this. You also have complete freedom to decide WHEN you want to do this. It doesn’t have to happen on Superbowl Weekend. Pick a nice, easy Saturday or Sunday when you don’t have anything big going on, and make that day your 24-hour fast. You’ll feel better for it, and you will have achieved an important new milestone in your journey toward improved health.
Once you fast for just 24 hours, you’ll then know that you can choose to avoid food at any particular time you want. You will discover new flexibility in your food consumption. You’ll realize that you can say no to food any time you choose, and you won’t die from lack of calories. You’ll eliminate that fear and gain a new level of maturity in your relationship to food.
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Good for Your Body Study Connects Fiber With Biology
November 23, 2009
Natural News
By S.L. Baker
You probably know that getting enough fiber in your diet can keep constipation at bay and it can lower high cholesterol levels, too. Now Australian researchers have found another reason why the indigestible part of plant-based foods, known as roughage, is good for you — it plays an important role in keeping your immune system healthy and in preventing specific diseases.
When fiber moves through the digestive tract it remains mostly unchanged, working as a type of internal broom. Then, in the colon, bacteria interact with roughage. Fermentation takes place, producing compounds called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which are known to help soothe ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory gut condition. Probiotics and prebiotics, beneficial bacteria found in kefir, yogurt and nutritional supplements, affect the healthy balance of gut bacteria and have been documented to help the symptoms of two other inflammatory diseases, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
But what is the connection between fiber, “good” intestinal bacteria and the healing of disorders marked by inflammation? In a study just published in the science journal Nature, Sydney-based scientists say they’ve found the answer to that question. They’ve discovered a mechanism that explains how a plant-based diet rich in fiber works with beneficial gut bacteria and the immune system to promote health and potentially prevent a host of diseases.
Kendle Maslowski, a PhD student, and Professor Charles Mackay from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, working in collaboration with the Co-operative Research Center for Asthma and Airways, have demonstrated that a molecule dubbed GPR43 expressed by immune cells and previously shown to bind SCFAs reduces inflammation. They found that mice lacking the GPR43 gene have increased, unresolved inflammation in their bodies because their immune cells can’t bind to and use SCFAs.
So how does this information translate into helping human health? “We’re now beginning to understand that from the moment you’re born, it’s incredibly important to be colonized by the right kinds of gut bacteria. The kinds of foods you eat directly determine the levels of certain bacteria in your gut,” Maslowski explained in a statement to the press. “Changing diets are changing the kinds of gut bacteria we have, as well as their by-products, particularly short-chain fatty acids. If we have low amounts of dietary fiber, then we’re going to have low levels of short chain fatty acids, which we have demonstrated are very important in the immune systems of mice.”
Professor Mackay pointed out in the press statement that the notion what you eat might have profound effects on immune responses and inflammatory diseases has never been taken seriously enough. “We believe that changes in diet, associated with western lifestyles, contribute to the increasing incidences of asthma, Type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Now we have a new molecular mechanism that might explain how diet is affecting our immune systems,” he stated.
The scientists conclude that their current research provides compelling reasons to eat a diet rich in unprocessed whole foods such as fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds. “The role of nutrition and gut intestinal bacteria in immune responses is an exciting new topic in immunology, and recent findings including our own open up new possibilities to explore causes as well as new treatments for inflammatory diseases such as asthma,” said Professor Mackay.
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