Hi,

I have been doing some research on fasting for cleansing and also for weight loss and wanted to save you from some of the BS out there.

One very popular idea is that fasting can help your body get rid of toxins. 

At this point in time I know of no legitimate research that would support that idea. 

There are however zillions of articles about fasting and cleansing and purporting the benefits. 

If you are a human, then your body can already take care of itself.  The liver, kidneys, skin, colon, lungs all help to get rid of any toxins that come in your body. 

Sure you can over do it and overcome the effects of your organs by going out of your way to destroy yourself. 

You could smoke a couple of packs of cigarettes a day and help to ruin your lungs.  You could eat nothing but junk food every day and help to ruin your liver and kidneys.  You could sit out in the sun every day for a few hours and actually burn your skin.

But, let’s assume you are not doing that.  For most your body’s organs will protect you. 

However, I saw something that I thought was pretty funny in an article on fasting. 

They were talking about intermittent fasting.  This is fasting for brief periods of time.  It could be for 24 hours and every other day to fasting by skipping a meal or two once a week. 

When talking about the benefits of fasting the author said:  “The first being that you actually give your body and your digestive system a break and in the process it gets a chance to “catch up” and actually cleanse your body properly.”

There is so much wrong with that statement that it is hard to know where to start.  But, that won’t stop me:-)

Your body is designed to eat, to process food and to eliminate the wastes.  Unless you have a disease or have abused your body so much that it can’t function properly, then you do not have to worry about giving your digestive system a break. 

If functions quite fine without any type of break.

But, what the author seems to have forgotten about is sleep.  Sleep is designed to give all of your systems “a break”. 

And most of us do not eat while sleeping.  In fact, most of us already fast for several hours every day just by sleeping. 

If you don’t eat after 8 pm and eat breakfast around 7 am, then you have just fasted and given your digestive system a break for 11 hours. 

I think that is enough of a break.  And this is a natural occurance without even needing to think about fasting. 

The other part about actually cleansing your body properly is even funnier.  So I guess the digestive system now is in charge of cleansing your whole body. 

Well, get into this and another interesting statement from this article in the next post on fasting for cleansing. 

Thanks