Re: Does it take less time for already-lean people to reach stage five of a fast?

santafegirl,
Not all Hygienists agreed among themselves.

Shelton frequently disagreed with Carrington and others: Carrington believed in the employment of "forcing measures" and "enemas" for example, while Shelton and other Hygienists dispensed with them over time, as having little value and the cause of much harm. Shelton described enemas as a "pernicious evil".

We should bear in mind that Shelton was by far the most experienced in terms of fasting supervision.
I have a copy of Carringtons book, and familiar with the part you are referring to.

The point I would like to make is that thin or underweight people are usually this way thru no choice of their own: they may "eat like horses" and still remain thin. This means the digestive and assimilative capacities are impaired, and therefore nutrient reserves are minimal or depleted.

On the other hand, people who gain weight very easily and with the minimal amount of food, means their digestion and assimilation are extremely effective and efficient, and will have better quality food reserves.

Everything but everything hinges on the quality of the pre-fast diet, whether thin or obese.
What I originally referred to was fasting in "underweight" individuals, where Shelton did comment that he was amazed that they could go for 20 days or more before breaking the fast with safety in mind.


SHELTON..........
Graham's statement that the fat man will lose weight much faster than the thin one is literally true...."Science of Human Life, pp. 193-194.

".......but what he overlooked is that this rapid loss of weight is not continued. Indeed, we often see fat women who undertake to fast to reduce, lose twenty to twenty-five pounds the first two weeks, but six pounds the third week and two pounds the fourth week. The rapid rate of loss does not continue. It should be observed at this point, also, that some thin people lose rapidly the first few days of their fast......................

............................A fast of a hundred days or more can be survived even under the most favorable conditions, ONLY by the individual who possesses sufficient food reserves to sustain his vital organs and vital functions for this period of time.
**The smaller the amount of food stores one has in reserve, all things else being equal, the earlier is the starvation period reached."**
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch6.htm



The crux of the matter as to how long someone may safely fast: the thin/underweight or the fat/obese? depends entirely on the quality and quantity of the food reserves to hand.
I know or have known some very obese people who are literally "starving" because of their malnourished and processed diet, and where this diet does not meet the nutritional needs of the body, and thin/underweight people whose food-reserve quality is the same, because of either a poor diet, or lack of assimilation of nutrients.

It is difficult to come to a firm conclusion, but on the whole the underweight do not fast safely for as long as the normal/obese.

Here is just one reference to food reserves that may be of help...........

FOOD RESERVES........
"the vital tissues are nourished first off the food reserves and, when these are exhausted, off the less vital tissues. No damage will or can occur in any of the vital tissues of the body so long as its reserves are ADEQUATE to meet the nutritive needs of these tissues.
This varies from a few days in very emaciated people to a few months in very fat individuals. There need be no fear of fasting, even the most prolonged fasting, under experienced and intelligent guidance. The human body may have stored within it such enormous resources of energy that it will be able to fast many days.....
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch4.htm


Also.......
THE FASTERS SUMPTUOUS FARE.
"The fasting organism is safe from harm, so far as abstinence is concerned, so long as its stored reserves and expendables are adequate to meet the nutritive requirements of its functioning tissues. Even thin individuals carry a reserve of food in their tissues to tide them over periods of abstinence." SHELTON.
FASTING FOR RENEWAL OF LIFE...Pages 53 & 54.


Concerning your comment Santafegirl, that the body actually uses its waste material/cancerous growths first and the like -- its diseased tissues; as fuel..................

SHELTON
"........useless fat and the less essential tissues are consumed first, and the most essential tissues of the body are hardly touched, even where death from starvation results. But never having watched the process they cannot know anything of the rapidity with which dropsical fluid, for example, is absorbed from the cavities or tissues and utilized as food. They cannot know how tumor-like growths are often rapidly absorbed and how, even large tumors are reduced in size. Resolution in pneumonia is hastened, the process taking place so rapidly, often that it would be difficult to believe unless one should see it. "Diseased" tissues are broken down, exudates, effusions and deposits are absorbed and either used or eliminated. The body utilizes everything it can dispense with during a fast in order to preserve the integrity of the essential tissues. The useless and least essential things are sacrificed first".....
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.ch4.htm



I would also bear in mind that in Sheltons/Carringtons day and their contemporaries, including those who came before them, food quality was superior: little to no processed/devitalized/adulterated food, which is so rampant now, and where the soils in which they grew their crops, was much more fertile.
You only have to ponder the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) to know that.

Chrisb1.


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