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I have dabbled with fasting for spiritual reasons, and I remember reading in books stories of people who have had literal miracles happen to their bodies after prolonged fasts. Tumors disappearing, life-long ailments being cured, and so on and so forth. My mom was really afraid I had an eating disorder, but NOW science is backing it up!
After my dad passed away from heart failure, I was told to go through his books to see if there was anything that caught my eye. His doctor recommended that he should read a book called, “The Grain Brain,” by Dr. Perlmutter MD, and in it my world was changed on how sugar affects our brains and cancer. One thing that blew me away was that he encouraged his readers to Fast (go without food) for 3 days 4 times a year. He then goes on to explain why, and I was seriously blown away.
Our bodies are not made to constantly have food, it actually is pretty tough on our system. I remember hearing it’s better to have 6 small meals a day than 3 big ones, but honestly scientific evidence is showing that is false. There is a story about a man who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, he went on a prolonged water only fast and it completely reversed it! Like WHAT? I will explain the lengths of fasts and what certain lengths of fasts actually do to our bodies, but MAN!
From my understanding is that cancer thrives on sugar, if we starve out the sugar we starve out the cancer. Here is what happens to our bodies after certain lengths of time –
- 0–4 hours: Burning up all the food you just ate and storing any excess energy for later.
- 4–16 hours: You’re starting to see the benefits of fat-burning and the start of autophagy (making new cells which slows down the aging process)
- 16–24 hours: You’re in the fat-burning zone and autophagy ramps up.
- 24–72 hours: You start producing ketone bodies to fuel your brain, see an increase in fat loss and autophagy. AND you see an increase in BDNF which supports brain function. ALSO, any pre-cancerous or crappy cells literally get booted out.
- 72 hours and beyond: ALL the benefits I said above will continue at a crazy rate.
- In the book I will suggest to you in the next paragraph you will see EVEN MORE benefits to fasting.
I want to add some of the other things I have learned on this journey. I found out that if you are doing a prolonged fast and you are a girl, it’s best to read the book, “Fast like a Girl,” by Mindy Pelz because there is a time and place during our monthly cycle as girls to fast because of our hormones. For example, about a week before our periods we want to not fast, not do the keto diet, and do workouts like yoga because progesterone is the hormone we want more of, but if we are stressed the bully of a hormone (cortisol) goes up and progesterone goes way down. It’s why when women did the same fasts all month began to lose their hair, felt burnt out and were completely exhausted.
You do not want to go for more than 36 hours of fasting more than once a month is what I was told. She has also worked with many women who have eating disorders, so she would be a phenomenal resource of you struggle with anything.
In my personal experience, I learned that my body won’t allow me to go more than 2 days on water alone. My lower back aches and burns sort of like I pinched a nerve. I later found out that it’s really important to keep up on your electrolytes so I ordered THIS from Dr. Berg and it’s found on Amazon. After that 2 day fast, my energy was back, my mind was clear and food TASTED GOOD! It’s actually true that your taste buds change and become more sensitive to flavors of food so it actually does end up tasting better.
Another thing I want to point out is to never break your fast with a crappy meal, it’s all about NATURE’S carbs instead of man-made ones. Healthy fatty foods like avocado, nut butter, and natural gut correctors like RAW sour kraut and Kim-chi are phenomenal to kick start your body and set it off on the right track. Mindy says when you break your fast with crappy foods it’s like you’re taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back.
My mom is now much more on board with me since I’m not reading books about fasting from the early 1900’s, and having science based evidence to back me up. God’s got a way of backing anything up that He is a fan of too I’m sure.:) My mom even said she wants to try it with me!
I want to post things that help people, I really hope this will help you. I need to also clarify that before you start doing any fasting you should really check with your doctor to see if it’s a good option for you. EVERYONE is different, and not every fast will give you the results you’re looking for, so be kind to yourself, and be patient in figuring out what works best for you.