fasting9.html

    Crash diets and fads have been a nutritional staple among overweight Americans for decades. We've tried protein diets, low-carb diets, vegetarian diets, raw food diets, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, NutriSystem, and the latest, French diets ("French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure,") by Mireille Guiliano, 2004.
    The only thing Americans haven't tried is to stop eating. Mention the latest get-slim-quick gimmick, diet, exercise machine or pill and eager weight watchers will probe you for details, but mention fasting and you're likely to be greeted with puzzled looks and myriad facts about why not eating is dangerous to your health. Most people believe they can't exist without three square meals a day and
the current theory is that five small meals are even healthier than three.
    The notion that fasting up to 40 days on water, and
100 days or more on water and juice, is perfectly safe for normal, healthy individuals may come as a surprise. The most common length for fasts in European clinics is 14
to 21 days.
   In the book "Fast Cures—Wondercures," Dr. Adolph Mayer, a prominent German physician, says, "I assert
that fasting is the most efficient means for correcting any disease." Some nutritionists believe that fasting not only
is a good method of weight loss but that it actually
helps rid the body of built-up toxins and waste. Have you ever noticed that when Fido gets sick, he stops eating and
may snack on a few blades of grass? Animals know
instinctively what to do when they feel ill. Dr. Mayer believes that fasting is one of the safest healing methods known to science. During a fast, the process of
eliminating dead and dying cells is speeded up and the building of new cells is accelerated. The process of aging begins when the normal cycle of cell regeneration and rebuilding slows down.
    Charles L. Goodrick, of the Gerontology Research
Center in Baltimore, experimented with two groups
of rats; one group ate freely while the other fasted. According to Goodrick's evidence, "Health, vigor and
a long life may be maximally promoted by a reduction
of daily food intake or by periodic fasting."
    During a prolonged fast, after the first three days, the body will live on its own substance. When it is deprived
of the needed nutrition it will burn and digest its own tissues by the process of autolysis. The body will first decompose and burn those tissues that are diseased, damaged, aging or dead. Amino acids are released from
the decomposed cells and used again in the building of young, strong cells. The body builds healthy cells quickly because proteins in the body are in the dynamic state,
or they are changing from one stage to another, during
a fast.
    Among the advantages of fasting, getting rid of impurities is one of the most beneficial. The cleansing capacity of the eliminative organs is greatly increased during a fast, say experts. For example, the amount of toxins in the urine can be up to ten times as high as normal when fasting. The reason this happens is that
the eliminative organs get a rest from digesting foods
and eliminating the wastes. Scientists know this
because it is the same process that occurs in sleep. Therefore, the organs can concentrate on eliminating
old, accumulated wastes and toxins. A fast provides a physiological rest to the digestive, assimilative and protective organs of the body.
    A new study, which will appear in the May 2005
issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrino-
logy and Metabolism, has found that healthy mice
given only 5 percent fewer calories than mice allowed
to eat freely had a significant reduction in cell
proliferation in several tissues, which is considered an indicator for cancer risk. The mice eating 5 percent
fewer calories were fed only three days a week. "Cell proliferation is really the key to the modern epidemic of cancer," said Marc Hellerstein, professor of human nutrition in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley,
where the study was conducted. "Significant caloric restriction is the one and only thing that has been scientifically proven to extend life span," said
Hellerstein. He noted that while exercise and good nutrition can prevent premature death by disease,
they have not been shown to extend a maximum
life span.
    Man can live without food for months but can kill
himself by overeating in just a few weeks. During the
past 20 years, obesity among adults has risen signifi-
cantly in the United States. The latest data from the
National Center for Health Statistics show that 30
percent of U.S. adults 20 years of age and older—over
60 million people—are obese. Although one of the
national health objectives for the year 2010 is to
reduce the prevalence of obesity among adults to
less than 15 percent, current data indicate that the
situation is worsening rather than improving.
Approximately 300,000 adult deaths in the United
States each year are attributable to unhealthy dietary habits and physical inactivity or sedentary behavior, according to trends on obesity studies from 1960 to 2000
by the Centers for Disease Control.
    According to a public service announcement prepared
by the Department of Health and Human Services, "Approximately 8 million Americans a
year enroll in some kind of structured weight-loss
program involving liquid diets, special diet regimens,
or medical or other supervision. In 1991, about 8,500 commercial diet centers were in operation across the country, many of them owned by a half-dozen or so
well-known national companies." The FTC has been cracking down on false claims and dangerous products.
"Before you join such a program, you should know that according to published studies relatively few participants succeed in keeping off weight long-term. Recently,
the FTC brought action against several companies challenging weight-loss and weight-maintenance
claims. Unfortunately, some other companies
continue to make overblown claims," the
public service announcement states.
    But the medical establishment is also quick to point
out that shedding pounds not only removes inches but
also will add years to the dieter's life. Observations from
the famous Framingham Heart Study, in which several thousand members of the small Massachusetts town
have been followed medically since 1948, have shown
that a 20 percent excess over ideal weight constitutes a health risk. Excessive weight has been linked to a long
list of health problems, high blood pressure, respiratory problems,nighttime sleeplessness and (resulting
daytime sleepiness), heart disease, diabetes mellitus, elevated blood lipids, gallstones, arthritis, and some cancers including that of the breast, endometrium and gallbladder in women, and colon, rectum and prostate in men.