Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
The best time to start fasting is after a light evening meal the day before your fast.
Fasting is not recommended for anyone under the age of 18, anyone pregnant or breastfeeding, diabetics, asthmatics and others. As with any diet, you should consult with your doctor first.
Moses is the first person recorded in the Bible to have fasted.
Muslims practice sawm, or fasting, for the entire month of Ramadan. Muslims from about the age of 12 abstain from both food and water until the sun sets every day during this month.
During the first three days of a fast is "the hunger" - it is suggested that you find a way to purge your intestines. Since you won't be eating, you won't be excreting, and excretion is how the body does away with most of the stored toxins in your intestines.
After the hunger stage, a fasting body switches into a low consumption mode, and begins to use its internal reserves. In order, the body converts subdermal greases, liver stock and then muscles into energy. The body also starts to cleanse itself of toxins, and you should drink and urinate a lot to compensate, and find a way to replenish your salts. You start to stink pretty badly too.
Upon finishing a long fast, the body will require a gradual reintroduction to food, or else it will start to reject it.
Fasting induces the body to rid itself of useless kystes, grease, stored toxins, sick cells and even cancerous cells. Fasting for periods up to and including two months under close medical supervision is used in Germany as a form of cancer treatment.
During a fast, cells are replaced at a high rate than normal, and older cells are replaced by new ones as a means for the body to reduce its energy output.
Fasting becomes easier with experience.