What's Wrong With Fasting?

Decades of experience have taught me that fasts, cleanses, diets and skipping meals can undermine your health. In Chinese medicine your insides are like a soup pot that is supposed to be kept simmering. Without regular fuel (hot meals) the fire can go out and you are like a pot of soup on a cold stove. From what I've seen, thyroid conditions, which are very common in our modern world, can be partly the body's response to a lack of regular hot meals. They are effectively the body on powersave mode. (Chinese medicine prefers hot meals to cold.)

After dieting or skipping meals for years I retain excess weight without overeating partly because my body seems to be on powersave mode. Diets almost always lead to binges, where you gain back the excess weight with interest. Get this:

The binges are part of the diet.

You and thousands of other people are falling off that diet and bingeing. I remember the book Diet for the 21st Century by Victoras Kulvinskas, a very influential book in wholistic circles circa 1980. It advocated a raw, whole food diet with plenty of live foods. I tried it but I kept ending up at a drive-in bingeing on ice cream. Turns out, at the same time, the book's author was also bingeing on ice cream, unbeknownst to anyone.

Going without carbs is bad. We need carbs for brain fuel and serotonin for our moods. Going without carbs may lead to moodiness and dependence on stimulants to get through the day. The Japanese eat more white rice than anything else by volume. They live longer than anyone else, and have nice skin. They are probably less moody than Americans, on average. They aren't fat. Think about that.

Lemon juice fasts can be harmful because too much acid is bad for the kidneys. The kidneys are responsible for breaking down acids. We are at our healthiest when what we consume is slightly alkaline overall. There is a belief that lemons are alkalizing based on their ash, when burned, being alkaline. I take issue with that system. We don't eat ashes. According the Chinese medicine, if you have dark circles and puffiness under your eyes, your kidneys are challenged.

I've spent decades sorting through wholistic medicine. It's a mixed bag. Some of it is wonderful. Sometimes extreme regimens can do more harm that good. Some invasive and taxing treatments are not necessary to a given person.

When fighting an infection, one way to help is by upping the person's strength and vitality. As Louis Pasteur said, "The microbe is nothing; the terrain is everything."

In the case of allergies and sensitivities, avoiding the offending substance can of course, be important. Chinese Medicine points at additional steps. They believe that when our internal organs and Chi are strong and circulating we will be less affected by external exposures. Not skipping meals gives our bodies the raw material to keep our mucous membranes and other tissues strong and resilient so that things that should not be in our bloodstream won't get through. Prevention of infection works about the same way. Our bodies are always rebuilding and they need fuel.

Think about all the disgustingly healthy people who don't eat organic or go on fasts. They do probably eat regularly and don't forgo hot meals. Hmmm. Think about the World War II generation who did so much. They tended to eat just regular food; hot meals and hot coffee. Not a lot of fasts. You can't reduce a generation to raw materials, but I think that these habits helped them to be resilient.

For the money, I find that proper nutrition and lifestyle according to Chinese Medicine is one of your best bets when dealing with a health challenge. A link to my article on Chinese Medicine is below.

As always, listen to your body.

Luminosity on Chinese Medicine:
http://www.longecity...inese-medicine/

Luminosity on Health:
http://www.longecity...inese-medicine/