By Clint Young
Editor’s Note: This topic is lost on much of the church today and yet it is mentioned 28 times in KJV of the bible. Some things require fasting (certain deliverance scenarios).
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:29
The typical reaction when someone reads or hears the words, “fast” or “fasting” is to immediately think of someone in a religious classification that they don’t want to be part of. Overall, these words strike a negative chord with most. And most certainly want to avoid what their perception of a fast is or what it might involve.
This typical reaction is both unfortunate and quite inaccurate.
Actually, each person fasts each day when they sleep. Fasting is when one is not eating. Looking at daily fasting, this period of time can be as short as 3-5 hours for some to as long as 20-22 hours for others.
Some eat right before they go to bed and eat again when they wake up during the night and yet again when they awake for their day. Those in this category may only fast 3 to 5 hours a day. Those who are fasting only 3-5 hours a day usually are very toxic because our human body was not designed to be continuously flooded with food. Those who fast only 3-5 hours a day usually wind up with a very toxic body that has many ailments.
Most fast longer than 3-5 hours a day. They eat supper and avoid foods until they wake up the next day. This eating schedule allows most to fast for 8 to 12 hours a day. This allows their body to do a much better job at detoxifying their body.
An increasing number have found the great benefits of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is going without food for 16 plus hours each day. Those in this category do an even better job of daily detoxifying their body and usually do better physically than those who fast less hours.
Those on a Standard American Diet over time usually find their body has become very toxic. This is especially true for those who are older. Age can and often does throw a wrench into the body’s detoxification mechanism.
Because of the host of problems an over toxic body can manifest, more are changing their diets and daily fasting longer to deal with this common problem.
Below is some fasting info that I put into bullet form on both daily fasting and longer fasting. I hope this information can be of good use to you in better understanding fasting and the important role it has in helping our bodies to live longer with more energy.
Daily Fasting :
- Fasting is the time when one is not eating. Everyone is fasting when they are not eating.
- Everyone fasts while they are sleeping unless they are hooked up to an IV tube which is feeding them glucose or some other food related substance.
- Eating the first food of the day stops or breaks the daily fasting period.
- I recommend that the daily fast be broken with a serving of fruit that is eaten in the right way, instead of eating a traditional breakfast.
- The first meal of the day is called “breakfast” because this first food of the day breaks the daily fast.
- If one extends their daily fasting to 16 hours or more each day, this is called “intermittent fasting”.
- I highly recommend intermittent fasting. It has significantly helped me to address several physical challenges in the last 3 years, including obesity. Intermittent fasting allows the body to better detoxify every day. Over time this can significantly help the body to reduce toxins within the body.
- Any increased daily fasting time can help to better detoxify the body.
- Most can easily handle a minor increase of daily fasting time of 15 to 30 minutes.
- Most can safely and easily transition to daily intermittent fasting by slowly increasing their daily fasting time 15 to 30 minutes every week, 2 weeks or month until they achieve 16 hours fasting every day.
- If someone is in critical condition, extending daily fasting times alone may not be the best approach to regain health. It would be better to first focus on diet modification that helps the GI tract become clean and stay clean combined with increased daily fasting times.
Longer Fasting:
- Longer fasting can be defined as any fasting that is longer than one typically experiences. I consider longer fasting for myself to be fasting over 3 full days (72 hours).
- Longer fasting can be of great help in achieving a higher spiritual state since the natural desires are lessened or even eliminated.
- Longer fasting can help the body to remove obstructions which hinder the flow of blood and other within the body.
- Longer fasting can help to quickly remove toxins from the body.
- Certain precautions before going on and during a longer fast are advisable because longer fasting can cause rapid toxin release to the blood stream.
- Longer fasting can be beneficial in dealing with cancer because cancer thrives in tissues that have high concentrations of toxins.
- Because no one makes money off of fasting, the medical establishment is never going to recommend it for helping any of man’s ills or pains even though it can be a powerful therapy for many ailments.
- Only pure water should be ingested during a longer fast.
- It is best to get off of caffeine a week or two before a longer fast. This frees up a lot of liver processing capacity which may be needed during a longer fast . During a longer fast a lot of toxins are released from stored toxins found in fat cells, muscle cells, organ cells and even cancer cells. With a load of toxins being dumped during a longer fast, having the extra liver processing capacity to break down those toxins is beneficial.
- When the body starts using ketones from stored fat for its energy, this is called “ketosis”.
- Until ketosis kicks in, one can become lethargic due to lack of carbs to burn and not yet burning ketones for energy.
- Being in a state of ketosis can be monitored with urine ketone strips or special strips on some blood glucose monitors.
- Longer fasting needs to be approached very cautiously, especially if one is in critical condition.
- Longer fasting where the body in a state of ketosis can be dangerous if one is highly toxic. As fat is burned, toxins that are stored in fat cells is released. If the liver can not keep up with processing those released toxins, a dangerous situation can develop as too many toxins concentrate in the blood stream.
- To prepare for a longer fast lasting 3 or more days, it is best to first clean out the intestines. This is because during a longer fast, digested foods from the stomach tend to slow or stop moving in the bowels. These slowed/stopped digested foods combined with accumulated past material on the intestine walls can cause the release of a large amount of toxins into the blood stream. This situation can cause more harm than any potential benefit that a longer fast might provide.
- The best way I have found to clean the bowels prior to a long fast is to eat only fruit for 2 or 3 days in the right way.
- If you have never fasted beyond 3 days or if it has been a long time since you did so, it is best to approach longer fasting with several shorter fasts first to see that your body is up to a longer than 3 day fast.
- Longer fasts often result in the body going into a fast detoxification mode where the body is rapidly releasing a lot of toxins. Increased release of toxins can be noticed by a coated tongue that may be white/yellow in color. Also, the urine may darken and have a strong odor associated with it.
- As soon as a longer fast is broken the detoxification rate rapidly falls back to normal levels. Soon after a longer fast is broken, a coated tongue goes back to normal color.
- The detoxification achieved via longer fasts can help your body feel much better with increased energy levels. The reduced toxin levels brought about by a longer fast can help to bring back vibrancy that had been lost due to an over toxic body.
- The body will often tell you when you should break a longer fast. This can be by pain or immense hunger. Whenever immense hunger occurs during a longer fast, the fast should immediately be slowly broken.
- A longer fast that lasts for many days always needs to be broken slowly. I use diluted grape juice or eating very small servings of high-water-content fruit for a day or even longer to break a long fast. The longer the fast the slower it should be broken.
Personal Note:
I am grateful for the tremendous benefit that fasting has provided.
I am pretty confident that if I had not improved the length of my daily fasting and went on longer fasts when needed, the quality and longevity of my life would have been impacted in a severe way.
- Most days, I express gratefulness to the Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ for life.
- I have attempted to obey the Lord and find His purpose for this existence.
- I did, and still do, have respect for my father and mother. I always attempted to obey them.
- Both longer daily fasting and longer fasts have been helpful.
- I attempt to eat fruit the right way every day.
- I now eat more fruit than in the past.
- I permanently got off alcohol 2 years ago and will not go back to it, ever.
- I got off coffee 2 months ago. I am very careful not to drink a drop because then I will be right back to fighting the coffee battle again. I had rather spend the effort getting further down the road of life than fighting old battles again and again. Coffee was providing 90% plus of the caffeine that I consumed. So, getting off of it resulted in a 90% caffeine drop.
- I am surrounded by those who really do love me and I love them. I am old enough and wise enough now to figure out who really does and who really does not love me.
- When I am tired, I nap instead of drinking a lot of caffeine.
- I keep the Sabbaths of God.
- I am motivated to stay alive.
- I avoid drugs and vaccines and most of today’s medical procedures. Today’s medicine is locked into perversion instead of what really helps their “patients” to find and to continue life.
- When I have a physical problem, I go to God first and ask Him what to do. This has been working out a whole lot better for me than anything the doctors could do for me. If the Lord tells me to go to a doctor, I will do just that. Yet, this has not happened for a long time.
- Recently, I started to eat only fruit only for 3 days each week. This seems to be helping somewhat. The verdict on this is still out. Within a few months I will be able to better comment upon it.
BEST FOODS:
- Require minimal amount of energy to digest. This allows more energy for other things the body needs.
- Easily flow through the GI system. This prevents constipation and unpleasant flatulence.
- Clean the GI tract.
- Do not start to stick and accumulate for long periods of time along the intestine and colon walls. When a foods starts to stick within the bowels, it leads to much more toxins being released from the interior walls of the bowels into the blood. Over time this really bad process causes a host of physical problems.
- Keep the blood sugar at a minimum. Almost any eaten food will cause some increase in blood sugar after that food is digested and moves to the small intestine. The key is to keep the blood sugar at a minimum which in turn keeps insulin production at a minimum. High carb foods are OK if eaten in small portions and allowed to digest and move out of the stomach before eating more food. When determining if a food is or is not good for you, also look at the amount of that food your are eating in one serving. Allow each serving of high carb foods to digest and move to the small intestines before eating another serving of that same food or other foods. This usually requires around an hour wait time for each small serving when eating any high carb food.
- Do no cause the body to become more toxic. Some foods are toxic by their nature. For example, caffeine requires 32 separate steps to break down each caffeine molecule to make it water soluble so it can be released from the body. When the body is processing a lot of caffeine, many other toxins within the body have to wait to be processed. This can cause the body to become more toxic over time. Other foods build up on the inside walls of the intestines which create a toxic environment where a lot of toxins are continually released into the blood stream.
- Allow the body to utilize the enzymatic digestive processes more and the acid digestive processes less. Continually, eating foods and food combinations which require acid digestion, places an undue stress upon the GI system.
Clint
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