Thursday, April 24, 2008

Fasting: not always a good thing

Fasting is normally a good thing. It’s mentioned in the Bible, in numerous books, and in magazine articles. Fasting detoxifies the body. The 10-day brown rice fast I described in Diagnostic Bodybuilding was a good thing.

I recently went on a fast involving nothing but canned tomatoes and fresh grapefruit, alternating each item for six small meals a day. The two ladies who talked me into going on this fast—it lasts 7 days—told me it increased their energy significantly on Day 6 and Day 7 of the fast. Theoretically, you get sick and run a fever on Day 2 as the body detoxifies.


Why so heavy a concentration of acidic food? Supposedly, the body reacts to the acid by overcompensating alkaline.


My experience with this fast was as follows:


1. I got sick on Day 1.

2. By Day 5 I couldn’t look at another tomato.
3. By Day 6 I couldn’t handle another grapefruit.
4. I had no energy increase.
5. Worse, for several days after I finished this fast, I was extremely short-winded.
6. After the fast I had more color in my cheeks. Did my circulation improve? I don’t know.

Try it.
You probably won’t like it.

2 comments:

  1. Mike,
    One fast I tried is an orange fast. I learned about it from an old health book called "Back to Eden" by Jethro Kloss. I ate 8 oranges a day for 5 days. It definitely benefitted me. I didn't feel starved like I thought I would, in fact it was very satisfying. The few times I just got tired of eating oranges a few handfuls of almonds for some protein got me through it. Now doing 20 rep squats and drinking milk I'm seeing gains I haven't experienced before.
    Jeff

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  2. Thanks. Might try this one myself. I still don't ever want to see another stewed tomato.

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