A couple weeks ago my brother Daniel suggested I watch a Youtube video by a Dr Jason Fung, a kidney specialist from Canada. He had been treating diabetic patients for 20 years for kidney disease caused by diabetes when it dawned on him that none of his patients ever got better. He actually asked himself why was he doing something that obviously did not work? He was doing what all the doctors have agreed was the “right thing” to do, but it simply was not working. Back in the day we used to call these moments BFO’s – Blinding Flashes of the Obvious. Here is the link to the video I watched.
Well he went back to the books and discovered that 100 years ago doctors had a cure for type 2 diabetes. This was back before there were any medications for “managing” diabetes. Once those meds were discovered the cure was somehow forgotten. What was that cure? The leading diabetic specialist wrote that fasting a patient for about three weeks would reset their ability to properly metabolize sugar and cure their diabetes. So that was what doctors did back then (1915). There was no profit in keeping a patient diabetic, so they simply made them better.
Switch to today, as I am overhearing the television in the bed space next to Ellen at her rehab facility. The news reporter quoted the scary statistic that within 5 years half of all Americans will be diabetic or prediabetic. That is overwhelming. In the 80’s only a quarter of Americans fell into this category, then the powers that be decided to insist that everyone get rid of fats in their diet and eat more grains. Well that has worked well – if your goal was to get everyone paying for diabetic drugs. We are half way there. The other half is probably on antidepressants and blood pressure medications. Not to be too cynical, but it sure sounds like somebody’s marketing strategy is working brilliantly.
I started my first fast when I was 18 and a freshman at UC Davis – a 2 week water fast. It was amazing and empowering. After a couple days the hunger went away and my mind was totally clear and focused yet calm at the same time. I felt so good when I fasted that it became a normal part of my lifestyle. Very little information was available about fasting back then – in particular about how to come off a fast. I can tell you not
to do what I did, which was to break the fast with liverwurst and mustard on a sourdough roll…bad choice.
Since that time I have regularly fasted for a week or two every year plus avoid all food from Thursday night to Saturday morning each week. I changed this pattern about 8 years ago when I discovered I was gluten intolerant and had to avoid all grains and dairy. Because I was already avoiding so much I stopped my regular fasting. Instead I was living a carb free lifestyle, which I thought would do as much for me as the fasting had done.
Eight months ago I decided to try Paleo eating. This was pretty similar to my carb free lifestyle except that slow carbs like sweet potato and more fruits were acceptable. This was a refreshing change for me as I love fruit. Bam – I gained 40 pounds almost overnight. Obviously this was not working for me but I wanted to work with it to see if I could get it to work. All the scientific data I was reading and the experiences of others who had gone this route said it should work. It probably does work for most folks, but apparently not me. I cut out the fruit a month ago and no change. Plus I was getting more and more inflamed. My knees were hurting every day as I walked on them. I could knock out the pain with my anti-inflammatory Chocolate, but it was right back the next day.
Time for a change. My brother’s suggestion to watch that video was perfect. A few years ago I had revisited the concepts and physiology of fasting as an article for this newsletter. I changed my old water-only fasting protocols to something I named a green fast. The idea is that when we fast our liver steps into detoxification and clean out mode. This means it dumps a ton of poison into the small intestine in the bile fluids. In a healthy person it is supposed to do this every night after it has finished processing the food from the last meal. When the bile dumps into the intestine, the poisons are supposed to bind to various fibers and then be carried out of the body in the feces. During a fast, if you are not eating any fiber these poisons tend to get reabsorbed back into the blood stream further down the intestinal tract. This can make you feel awful for a bit as the poisons start hitting the brain. I believe this phenomenon is what folks in the fasting world would call a “healing crisis” or “retracing”. They were trying to make their suffering sound like it was a good thing. I don’t think it was, but just poisons re-entering the body.
Because of this understanding of fasting physiology I reasoned that during a fast you want to keep a steady supply of fiber running through the digestive tract. By keeping the total calories you are eating under 500 calories a day, you stay in the “fasting state” and the liver stays in detox mode. This means that eating just fiber foods without eating carbs, fats, or proteins is an excellent fasting protocol. This mimics what humans in the northern climates did every year toward the end of winter. Their stored food would have run out so all they had to eat was tree bark and new greens that were starting to come up – fiber and not much else.
In doing food composition research for my current fast I re-encountered the wonders of flaxseed – a food that is almost all fiber and omega 3 oil. Chia seed is very similar in that regard. I also discovered what a high fiber food Jicama (Mexican yam) is – almost no carbs, proteins, or fats. I have also written recently about seaweed noodles as a fiber source that fits the needs for fasting. So my old Green Fast is now expanding. I have been experimenting with flax/chia seed crackers (which taste great alone or my favorite – with yellow mustard.) And as I wrote in my recent vegetable stew newsletter the seaweed noodles make a great addition to the stews. The vegetable stew modifications for the fast are to leave out the root veggies and the avocado oil as well as the protein source. All we want in the stew is flavorful fiber and not much in the way of calories, fat, protein, and carbs. It is still quite delicious even though I am essentially eating a modern version of tree bark and grass. I further support the gut healing by growing my own yogurt charged with tons of different good guy bacteria as well as special prebiotic fibers and glutamine to heal the gut lining. I also take a pile of supplements to support my system in various ways specific to my issues.
Fasting is a profound way to reset your basic metabolism. It burns out all the accumulated fat storage in your liver and pancreas that is messing up your blood sugar regulation. The elimination of all the offending foods performs a complete reversal of the pathologic gut microbiome most Americans have. The bad guy bacteria die off and are replaced by good guy bacteria. This directly affects inflammation levels in your body, hormone synthesis, neurotransmitter function, immune function, and so on. Although my license does not allow me to address diabetes with my patients, the video by Jason Fung clearly shows how dramatically you can impact diabetes with fasting. This is only the tip of the iceberg for the power of fasting to heal the body.
I don’t recommend just jumping into fasting without preparation and proper testing and guidance. I started two weeks ago getting my body into a fat burning state before I reduced to just fiber as a food source. I also did a couple hundred dollars worth of lab blood work to make sure everything was ok systemically before engaging in the fast. There are certain findings that definitely say not to do fasting – serious liver and kidney issues for instance, or electrolyte imbalances. If you are anemic you would not want to fast, or if you have an active infection. So be smart and let’s check you out before you jump into a fast to change your life. It can and will make dramatic improvements in your health, but you need to know to do it correctly or have guidance along the way.
If you don’t have any significant health concerns but just want to turn back the clock a few years then I would suggest a modified program. You go on a two week setup to put you into the fat burning mode then alternate between 1500 calories a day and 500 calories a day. I am currently putting together such a program for folks that want to rejuvenate their bodies inside and out. This program will be combined with some new exciting specific wavelength light therapies I am setting up in the office to make skin look younger and remove trouble spots of fat deposits. This protocol will be available in the office – just ask. I will also set people up with any lab work they might need for this work.
Fasting is the most powerful tool we have to make a huge impact on our health in a very short time. It sounds extreme only because our culture has avoided it. It is common in most other cultures, and has been used commonly for health for thousands of years. It is actually pretty easy to do – much easier than dieting. Consider fasting for health.