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Benefits of Fasting
The benefits of fasting and detoxification. The best set of data I have read on fasting.
Date: 11/11/2007 1:37:24 PM ( 17 y ) ... viewed 3063 times Fifty percent of all North Americans are sick and obese and it is getting worse every year. Despite the advances made in medical science, cancer, heart disease, high-blood pressure and diabetes are exploding out of control. The modern life-style only deepens the problem of emptiness and depression by producing a destructive cycle of feeding cravings and starving the spirit. This cycle dulls the five senses, stripping us of vitality and energy, disconnected from a vibrant world. The effect is similar to going deaf, forced to increase the volume to a level of damage. More fat, salt, and sugar are needed for the same emotional lift, until every cell groans under the burden of toxic build-up.
It is well known that thinking is sharper when hungry.
The experience of mental clearness during a fast is much like an early morning drive in the country. The sun is shinning; rolling hills are covered in brilliant light, then you drive down into a valley. The car hits a fog patch, the surrounding landscape disappears and you are barely able to see the road ahead. The up and down sensations of clear and foggy mindedness are opposite mental states that are able to trade off numerous times within a single day.
Some, for the first time during a fast will experience emotional stability. The reasons for this are multifold—the elimination of the dependence on food, exclusion of stimulating foods like caffeine, processed sugars and trans-fatty acids, all of which can have a devastating effect on brain chemistry.
Most people make the mistake of trying their very first fast on water, not preparing with a transition of eating fresh fruit and vegetables two weeks before the fast, easing detoxification. So they bail out after a day, left with an entrenched wrong impression that fasting is about bad breath, weakness and headaches, mistaking detoxification with fasting.
The truth of the matter is the North American diet never allows the body to cleanse itself. We eat all the time. The math is simple. When intake of calories is greater than burned, the results will be stored body fat. It is the same with toxins. When intake of toxins is greater than removed, the results will be toxic overload. If you are overweight this is a pretty good sign you are carrying around a storehouse of toxins, affecting normal cell functions. What happens if the toxic-load is greater than the internal-caretaker can remove? Sickness, weakened immune system and premature death, the plagues of our modern lifestyle.
The three ways our bodies handle toxins are neutralizing, transforming or eliminating them. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals. The liver transforms toxic substances into harmless agents. And blood carries waste to the kidneys or liver, eliminating through the bladder or intestines. Elimination can also occur through sweating during exercise or heat. These are only a few examples of the built-in cleaning mechanisms, working hard to maintain the thousands of miles of tubes and membranes. If all these systems are working well, and we are taking in fewer toxins than the body can detoxify; the result will be vibrant health and long life.
Eliminated during the detoxification process
Ø Dead, dying or diseased cells
Ø Unwanted fatty tissue
Ø Trans-fatty acids
Ø Hardened coating of mucus on the intestinal wall
Ø Toxic waste matter in the lymphatic system and bloodstream
Ø Toxins in the spleen, liver, and kidneys
Ø Mucus from the lungs and sinuses
Ø Imbedded toxins in the cellular fibers and deeper organ tissues
Ø Deposits in the microscopic tubes responsible for nourishing
brain cells
Ø Excess cholesterol
The Result
Ø Mental clarity is improved
Ø Rapid, safe weight loss is achieved without flabbiness
Ø The nervous system is balanced
Ø Energy level is increased
Ø Organs are revitalized
Ø Cellular biochemistry is harmonized
Ø The skin becomes silky, soft, and sensitive
Ø There is greater ease of movement
Ø Breathing becomes fuller, freer and deeper
Ø The digestive system is given a well-deserved rest
People testify that after making changes toward better eating, fasting becomes easier. You could say fasting is a measure of lifestyle.
There is a vast difference between fasting and starving. During the absence of food, the body will systematically cleanse itself of everything except vital tissue. It continually readjusts to make minimum demands on reserves. Starvation will occur only when the body is forced to use vital tissue to survive.
Human fat is valued at 3,500 calories per pound. Each extra pound of fat will supply enough calories for one day of hard physical labor. Ten pounds of fat are equal to 35,000 calories! This is equivalent to 35 pounds of fish or 192 pounds of carrots, good value for your fat. We carry around a supermarket of reserves, capable of sustaining us for many weeks.
All living things have the ability to survive harsh circumstances. Organisms are able to store nutrients in the fat, blood, bone marrow and other tissues. Camels are capable of storing fat and water in their humps; tadpoles abstain from eating when their legs are developing, subsisting on their tails, which are no longer needed. The Mexican Gila Monster stores up reserves in its tail when food is plentiful and can survive for six weeks when food is scarce. The marine iguana of the Galapagos Islands is named the Vegetarian Dragon because it lives on seaweed. It can abstain from food for over one hundred days. In the Western World, food is plentiful and often rich in calories. Unless involved in strenuous exercise or famine we do not have the opportunity to use up the excessive fat stores conveniently deposited around the expanding waistline.
Our body goes into a state of fasting while we sleep. With great patience, it waits until we start dozing off, and finally, in the sleep state, begins its miraculous work of cleansing. Breakfast is appropriately named, breaking a nightly fast with a morning meal. Upon awakening from this short fast, the tongue is coated, breath foul, skin puffy, and the mind foggy. These are all early symptoms of the body in a state of detoxification, short little holidays taken every night from a life of feasting. Bacon, eggs, a side order of pancakes, and a cup of coffee is a sure way of halting detoxification—of course, you feel instantly better, attributing it to a greasy breakfast.
One of the blessings you will experience later in a fast is effervescent energy when rising out of bed in the morning. No sleepy dirt or puffy eyes; your hair in perfect place. A breath sweet as the morning mist that flows over hills covered in spring flowers. Fasting, followed by a healthy diet, is the way of rediscovering the birth of a new day.
Taken from
http://www.FreedomYou.com
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