Fasting means you consume no food, specifically no caloric intake whatsoever. So, a true fast diet consists of not eating and only consuming water for a number of days.
Fasting is not starvation because a starved dietary condition occurs when all your stored energy, like adipose tissue, is gone. Therefore, you’re breaking down essential tissue just to survive.
Whereas, during a not eating fast you burn stored energy, one of the alleged sites of toxins. Albeit, a little bit of muscle gets lost in the process.
The initial side effect you can expect from a no food fasting is muscle weakness. And many experience headaches. Some other reported side effects include:
- acne
- fatigue
- edema
- fainting
- malaise
- myalgia
- fainting
- arthralgia
- bad breath
- extreme hunger
- allergy, cold & flu symptoms
Not eating for a couple of days can cause an effect of a heightened sense of well-being.
Often, these effects are touted as caused by toxin elimination and cleansing. Yet, there is no consensus in the scientific community that a fast diet has any ridding your body of toxin benefit.
During the first day or two of not eating, your body uses up most of its glycogen store. Then, it’ll turn to ketosis for it’s energy requirement. This process involves your liver’s conversion of stored fat and other nonessential tissue into ketones. Fortunately, your brain, muscles and heart can use it for energy.
Some noticeable effects of ketosis are:
- increased energy level
- hunger sensation dissipates
- hormone levels, other functions stabilize
Reaching ketosis is the goal of fasting because this is when excess fat, and in theory damaged tissue, get used. Thus, diet fasts need to last at least three days.
Another effect of no eating is weight loss. You can expect an average of a pound a day for as long as your fast diet lasts.
A further effect that’s believed from not eating is it gives your body a break from digestion, allowing the rest of your body to heal and restore. An additional digestive fasting effect is that your body is not being exposed to food related threats, like bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxins. Thus, your immune system is free to detox, heal and strengthen your body for combating disease.
In the alternative medicine community, fasting is a widely accepted treatment for many health conditions, such as:
- acne
- fever
- ulcers
- asthma
- arthritis
- allergies
- glaucoma
- headaches
- chronic pain
- colon polyps
- hypertension
- heart disease
- benign tumors
- digestive disorders
- inflammatory diseases
Mainstream medicine does not share in the validity of no food as a treatment for any of these ailments. And they further argue that scientific evidence doesn’t support the claim that fasting is effective for preventing or treating cancer.
The majority of support for fasting’s beneficial effects is testimonial rather than controlled scientific experiments. That doesn’t translate to no benefit, just not proven. You could try not eating for a couple of days and find out for yourself.
Diet fasts lasting a week or longer should not be attempted without supervision, especially if you suffer from a chronic health condition. Prolonged fasting can result in:
- anemia
- low blood sugar
- irregular heartbeat
Although the jury is still out on many of the fast diet claimed effects, what’s not left to debate is the consumption of a nutritional diet and regular exercise are the primary means of prevention or cure of much of what ails you.
Juice fasts and metabolic therapy are also used for detoxification, although they’re are not technically fasts. One effect the no food fast diet has over these caloric restrictive diets is your body may never reach ketosis on them. The primary negative is the belief that deep detoxification and healing isn’t possible.
Try no food for a bit, you may like it.
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