What is fasting? – Part 01
There is much talk about this is fasting and that is fasting, so it is important to clarify what exactly is fasting. Let us start with what fasting is not. First of all, fasting is not starving. Carrington says many doctors speak of the fasting or starvation cure, which simply shows that they do not know what they are talking about. Fasting is an absolutely different thing from starvation. One is beneficial, the other is harmful. One is a valuable therapeutic measure, the other a death dealing experiment.`
Starvation results from food denied, either by accident or designed to assist them clamouring for sustenance. Fasting consists in intentional abstinence from food by a system suffering from disease and non desirous of substance, until rested, cleansed and ready for the labour of digestion. Fasting is neither a hunger cure nor a starvation cure as it is sometimes called. The fasting person is not hungry and fasting is not a method of treating or curing disease. It merely creates a window of opportunity for the body to cleanse itself.
Says Doctor Page the term frequently applied starvation cure is both misleading and disheartening to the patient. The fact is, he is both starved and poisoned by eating when the hope of digestion and assimilation is prohibited, as is in great measure the case in all acute attacks and more, especially when there is nausea or a lack of appetite. Fasting is a rest, a physiological vacation. It is not an ordeal nor a penance. It is a house cleaning measure which deserves to be better known and more widely used.
Secondly, fasting also does not refer to any kind of diet, as is the word used today. Fasting is the abstention entirely or in part and for a longer or shorter period of time from Food and drink or from food alone. The misuse of the term fasting is quite common. We read and hear of fruit fast, water fast, milk fast, etc. when talking of a fruit diet, a milk diet, etc. It’s not quite the same thing. A fruit fast is the abstinence from fruit, milk fast is the abstinence from milk and a water fast is abstinence from water.
Here is a list of a few things that fasting does not do: Fasting does not cause the stomach to shrink up (i.e. atrophy). Fasting does not cause the walls of the stomach to grow together (i.e. adhere). Fasting does not cause the digestive fluids of the stomach to turn upon it and digest the stomach. Fasting does not paralyze the bowels. Fasting does not impoverish the blood nor produce anemia. Fasting does not produce acidosis. Fasting does not cause the heart to weaken nor to collapse. Fasting does not produce malnutrition in all edema. Fasting does not produce tuberculosis nor predisposed to its development. Fasting does not reduce resistance to disease. Fasting does not endure the teeth. Fasting does not injure the nervous system. Fasting does not weaken the vital powers. Fasting does not injure any of the vital organs. Fasting does not injure the body's glands. Fasting does not cause abnormal psychism and much more.
Fasting as employed by Neo Natural Hygiene, is a voluntary and entire abstinence from all food except for water. If you eat anything or drink even a sip of anything except for pure water, then you are not fasting. Only water according to desire and also this doesn`t mean drinking litres of water to fight the emptiness, which is referred to as Inanition. Inanition, is a technical term literally meaning emptiness, which is applied to all forms and stages of abstinence from food and to many forms of malnutrition due to various causes.
