So gauge your process by weighing yourself FIRST THING in the morning before you drink anything. If you need to use the toilet in the morning, do so BEFORE you weigh yourself to make the scale friendlier. : )

If you practice a religion or spiritual discipline, you will be wide open to receive fresh insight and discernment when either juice fasting or water fasting.

You will likely get answers to problems that used to baffle you. For more on this, go to Spiritual Fasting series of articles.

Another of the many fasting health benefits is that you will have substantially more energy, need less sleep and find it much easier to concentrate than before.

The reason for this is that deep cleansing of toxins adhered to the colon renew your digestive system and cleanse the blood. Now please remember, these benefits will be very noticeable AFTER you finish the fasting process.

The detoxification process, on the other hand, can have the opposite effect while your body cleanses itself. So it DOES often get worse before it gets better. Do not be surprised if this happens!

You will find an ongoing discussion this detox topic on the Fasting and Cleansing section of this website. Toxins in the bloodstream can cause depression and many other psychological problems. When the body is polluted the mind is compromised.

Go to Fasting and the Mind for a page that talks about the negativity which surfaces while one is fasting. Indeed, the more information you have while you are fasting, the better it will be and the more fasting health benefits you will receive. That way your body and mind cannot blindside and derail your efforts.

Emotional Breakthrough

When I first adopted fasting as a lifestyle, I suffered from a variety of emotional problems including depression, anxiety and isolation. It was hard for me to function from day-to-day.

I would be alright for a few weeks or months, then another episode of depression would hit me and I would spend months isolating, gorging and getting fatter and fatter. Help with depression was one of the key fasting health benefits I received.

It is my hope through this website that you never have to go through this. If you are already there, then I want to welcome you and let you know that you are not alone and that there is hope!

It is not my intention to simplify the issue of depression, or to say that fasting is the only way to overcome it. Neither am I against psychiatry and psychology.

I used all those methods. In my case, however, I can say that fasting gave me breakthrough that none of the other methods did. It was not a "fix-all", but instead gave me the mental stamina and health improvement to address changes in other areas of my life.

In essence, detox fasting removed the shackles from my feet so I could move freely and get to the issues of life. After completing a 40-day water fast several years ago, the depression problem has largely diminished. I have since done more fasts, including another 50-day combination of juice fasting and water fasting. This lifestyle has been one of the most awesome fasting health benefits I could have asked for. Coincidence? I hardly think so.

Lessened Risk of Heart Disease - The Mormon Church and Australian Obesity

Recent scientific health studies done on members of the Mormon church bring to light even more fasting health benefits. It was found that Mormons have substantially less susceptibility to heart disease because, as part of their religion, they fast for one day every month.

This should be a real eye-opener to those who insist they must eat every day or die. The Church of Latter day Saints is based in Utath, where the study was performed.

What were the fasting health benefits? Pretty amazing. A 40 percent reduced likelihood of clogged arteries for those who abstained from solid food for one day every month!

That is almost cutting the risk of heart disease in half. In another recent study it was disclosed that Australia is now the fattest country on the face of the earth - overtaking the US!

The study showed that 26 percent of adult Australians - almost four million - are now obese, one million more than the last calculation in 1999. The obesity rate in the US, it indicated, is right about 25 percent.

This alarming study represents the results of height and weight checks done on 14,000 adult Australians nationwide in 2005, providing a very real and grim picture of this horrible obesity epidemic.

According to the study, middle-aged Australians lead the pack with seven-in-10 men and six-in-10 women aged 45-to-64 now registering a Body Mass Index of 25 or more.

Worse yet - An analysis of the data shows that there will be an extra 700,000 heart-related hospital admissions in the next 20 years due to obesity alone. Almost 125,000 people will die as a result, many prematurely.

So, as you can see, obesity and toxicity are a "global" problem. But there is a solution. Anybody can seize these fasting health benefits by - at the very least- fasting one day a month!

While the research does not eliminate the negative stigma fasting has in some circles, it DOES indicate that there is definitely something to it. What do you think?

Perhaps in years to come it will finally be settled that fasting is - by far - one of the most powerful instruments available to achieve optimum levels of mental clarity, emotional stability, physical health and overall life-quality.

Hopefully the fasting health benefits will become so apparent that many will begin to practice it and escape obesity, toxicity and premature death.

Anti-Fasting Argument

Most of the negative argument around fasting centers on the fact that it tends to slow-down the metabolism as a defense for the lack of solid food.

Then, it is said, when a person goes back to eating, the body starts storing food right away as another way of defending itself against hunger.

The result of this "storing" is that the person gains all the weight they lost while fasting, doctors against fasting indicate. This can definitely happen if you end the fast and immediately return to pizzas and cheeseburgers.

But that is not the type of fasting that we are talking about here. We are talking about a commitment to PERMANENTLY changing your eating habits for life - one day at a time.

Go to Fasting Health Info for an article by one of our medical consultants on fasting and health.

Again, my response to the anti-fasting argument is that fasting is a way for quick weight loss, but it DOES require permanent eating-habit changes once the fast is over. The fasting health benefits have to be sustained with effort and commitment. Come to the Cleansing Diet page when you have some time for more on how to get back to eating after fasting.

Detoxification

Fasting health benefits are attainable, but it is important for you to realize that there will be an uncomfortable withdrawal period of roughly eleven days. This is the process we call detoxification. The body is not receiving solid food and instead turns to the stored fat to keep up with energy demands.

Detoxification is one of the most well-known fasting heath benefits. According to studies done on fasting, the detox fasting process is caused when the body dumps toxins through the skin, liver, kidneys, lungs, colon and lymph nodes.

When fat reserves are used for energy during fasting, the process releases harmful chemicals stored in the fat. The toxins in the fat get there from the food we eat and the environment.

In other words, when one eats destructively, the toxins from the food are stored in the fat and basically come out to "play" when you start fasting. This is not limited to toxins from food you ate, but also from toxins the body absorbs through the air and/or water.

All of those toxic "bad boys" hide in the fat and spring out to the blood stream when one start fasting because all solid food intake stops for a season. I hope I am not confusing you more, but that is the gist of detoxification and the reason why it hurts initially.

Healing from Disease

Still, one of the biggest fasting health benefits is its potential to actually heal diseases. What does this mean and how does it happen? Well, I am not a scientist but have read a lot about it.

As I said before, I suffered from a horrible liver condition that almost killed me. After fasting, while not totally healed, I can say that the improvement is drastic.

So, healing is indeed one of the top fasting health benefits.

Overall, fasting produces healing because, since the body is not being bombarded with more and more food, it is able to turn its attention to the immune system and metabolism.

Any type of sickness like, for example, a tumor or growth, becomes vulnerable because the toxicity (stored in the fat cells) that it thrives upon is being expelled. Throughout this process, the body continues to burn stored fat at the rate of roughly one pound (3,500 calories) per day.

Cellular Repair

Fasting also gives the body time to repair at the cellular level which, in turn, results in renewed tissue and organs. In my particular case, liver enzymes were greatly renewed and the disease was pretty much stagnated.

If you still are not convinced, let us look at animals. Do you ever wonder why, when sick, dogs and cats stop eating and instead turn to grass and leaves? Amazing, huh? Not me. Even while sick, I could not stay away from pizza and donuts. But this tendency to "fast-when-ill" is not totally absent in humans.

Many times, if you get sick with the flu or some other type of viral illness, you may find that you simply are not hungry. It stands to reason that fasting health benefits are actually a very part of your nature.

If your body is given a break from digesting food - especially bad foods -, then it can look at other functions that have been neglected. I have seen some persons drastically improve and even eliminate their diabetes and pre-diabetes thanks to fasting.

For more on that, join our Fasting and Diabetes discussion. If you have any fasting stories of your own, or wish to share your thoughts and ideas on this topic, go to the Fasting Forum page and write an article. You can even upload a picture if you want!

Also, if you have a question or need help in any particular area, please know that we are here to support you in every way that we can. Send me a message anytime by going to the Contact Us page on the Navigation bar to the left of this page.

Return from Fasting Health Benefits to Fasting Health Info. MAIN.

Robert D Johnston - FTF Editor

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