Re: Breaking a fast safely

Hi #123569,
if your fast is extended until the return of natural hunger, then any solid high water content food in season would be ideal: fruits or vegetables.
The body is willing and in need of nourishment when this occurs and digestion is extremely efficient.

However, if you break your fast before the return of natural hunger, then the body will need to be nurtured back into its full digestive capacity and this has been mostly accomplished with fresh juices for a day or two before introducing fruit for the same time frame, and then eventually vegetable salads.

The longer the fast the more care is needed in breaking it.

The vital thing is not to overeat and to introduce nourishment gradually or many of the benefits accrued will be lost................

Shelton..........

"The care that must be exercised in breaking a fast is in proportion to the length of the fast and to the general condition of the fasting individual. The approved plan is to break the fast on liquid food, using for this purpose fruit juice, or tomato juice, or Watermelon juice, or vegetable broths. Fruit juice--usually orange juice--is used most often............

..................Orange juice, grapefruit juice, or fresh tomato juice are excellent with which to break a fast. Watermelon juice or the juice of the fresh pineapple or of fresh grapes may also be used. A half a glass may be given at the start. After an hour, another half glass may be given. Juice may be given every hour the first day. The second day a whole glass of juice every two hours may be employed. On the third and fourth days give the whole orange or grapefruit and on the fifth day other foods may be added. Large meals should not be attempted in less than a week. These instructions are for the long fast. A short fast requires less care in breaking and is usually followed for several days by an eliminating diet.................

...............There is a tendency on the part of the faster to overeat, not alone because he is hungry, but also because he is desirous of regaining his weight. His friends also urge him to eat. Sinclair truly says: "A person at the end of a (long) fast is an agitating sight to his neighbors, and their one impulse is to get a 'square meal' into him as quickly as possible."

Almost any food may be employed in breaking a fast, although greater care must be exercised if the concentrated types of food are employed for this purpose. There are individual factors that must receive attention. Sinclair tells of breaking a fast on a large, thoroughly ripe Japanese persimmon, and says that "it doubled me up with the most alarming cramps." A friend of his had the same experience from the juice of an orange; "but he was a man with whom acid fruits had always disagreed." The tendency of the long fast is to remove these digestive shortcomings, but it is not always completely successful, and this is especially so where the fast has not been carried to completion".
http://chestofbooks.com/health/natural-cure/The-Hygienic-System-Fasting-and-S...


Chrisb1.