Juice Fasting

[bythor13]

Has anyone here tryed that? I've done a bit of reading on it, and have read nothing but good stuff. Does it affect your ability to workout? Any bit of infomation will be greatly apprieciated. Thanks in advance.

[Johnka]

Here's a good article by John Berardi concerning this subject.

Basically, he says that fasting has no place for a healthy person, unless it's for spiritual purposes.

40 Days and 40 Nights?

Q: I keep hearing about the health benefits of fasting and how a short fast can "detoxify" the body. I know some old-timer bodybuilders would use short fasts sometimes, too. What do you think of short term fasting?

A: I think that short-term fasting makes me hungry - stark, ravenous, prison-camp hungry. That's right, I've tried fasting before and let me tell you, when your nickname is "Massive Eating Berardi," fasting ain't easy.

So why did I do it? Well, I'm fascinated by physiology and have always been a physiological daredevil. Some might even call me the Evil Knievel of physiological manipulations. In fact, many of the most hardcore T-men would go fetal if I discussed some of my abuses.

So, when some holistic, papaya-juice drinking, granola-head friends of mine told me about their regular foray into juice fasting and how amazing it made them feel, I stood - metaphorically speaking, of course - at the edge of the grand canyon, ready to jump.

So why and how would one fast? Well, forgive me as I go Eastern medicine and philosophy on ya, but here comes some touchy-feely stuff. According to the fasting experts, juice fasting is the most effective way to detoxify the mind, body, spirit, and emotions, while promoting energization and relaxation. These individuals believe that the average person's unhealthy, highly processed, and highly toxic diet (their words) contributes to many symptoms of toxicity and ill health - including their physical and mental/emotional health.

In response to this, they believe that the abstinence from food for periods of seven or more days can rejuvenate, purify, and heal the body and bring about greater spiritual awareness. But rather than complete abstinence from nutrition, it's recommended that one consume easily digestible juices and a whole lot of water. In one holistic practitioner's words:

"Fresh juices are easily assimilated and require minimum digestion, while they supply many nutrients and stimulate our body to clear its wastes. Juice fasting is also safer than water fasting, because it supports the body nutritionally while cleansing and probably even produces a better detoxification and quicker recovery."

Personally, I'm always intensely curious and maintain a healthy skepticism about health and dietary practices that seem to have been around for thousands of years yet have shaky sounding physiological bases and next to no research support. Certainly, fasting fits into this category.

When evaluating the merits of such practices, there are two ways to proceed. The first is to simply give them a try and evaluate the outcome. And many individuals who have followed short-term juice fasts are strong supporters of the outcomes. However, there are weaknesses to their testimonies since they often enter into a fast as strong believers of the practice - so, of course, they see some benefit. In research we call this the placebo effect.

The second way to proceed is to deconstruct the practice into its component parts (i.e. physical, mental, emotional, spiritual "regeneration"), evaluate them individually and in relation to the whole organism, and generate a priori hypothesis (a pre-measurement guess) as to whether fasting will offer any benefit or not. While this latter method has its weaknesses (the body doesn't work as independent parts but as an integrated whole), that's the nature of empirical research as well as the nature of this column. So here we go.

In my humble opinion, when evaluating the fasting pamphlets and the words of fasting practitioners, there are a few glaring weaknesses. While these weaknesses are certainly not fatal flaws (i.e. not enough to invalidate their claims), they are enough to give one pause.

One of the weaknesses I mention lies in the fact that fasting has a tradition steeped in philosophical and religious rite. Voluntary abstinence from food has been a tradition in most religions and has been used for such things as penitence, preparation for ceremony, purification, mourning, sacrifice, union with God, and the enhancement of knowledge and powers. Even Jesus Christ was a believer in fasting.

Unfortunately for the credibility of the historical argument, many of these same individuals often believe that drinking their own urine is a reasonable thing to do! From the historical perspective, it's easy to understand how fasting would be vociferously advocated since it's played such a large part in the tradition of people's belief structures. As we all well know, religious and philosophical belief structures are the most vehemently adhered to, often in the face of reason and logic (Catholics, see The Crusades).

However, this alone isn't enough to discredit the practice. Perhaps fasting became such an integral part of the culture because of the consistent physical benefits it offered. One integral part of the Biblical fasting ritual included "going to the waters," a euphemism for going to a river or lake, inserting a hollow reed into the rectum and irrigating to "flush the evils" from the bowels. This is the precursor to the modern day naturopathic practice of colon flushing.

Therefore, the fasting ritual did include some physiological manipulation. When it's recognized that people believed that "Satan" or "evil" was manifest physically in the form of illness, it's understandable that physical ailments and treatments were associated intimately with the spiritual and the religious. So we can't discredit fasting on these grounds.

Current research in rats and in humans has been showing that caloric restriction increases longevity due to an increase in tissue turnover, altered liver and gastrointestinal structure and function, and a modification of the redox (oxidation-reduction or the oxidant-antioxidant) state of the body. So perhaps there is something to this fasting phenomenon? Unfortunately, short-term fasting is just too short in duration to promote many of the structural and functional changes its proponents claim that occur.

On a side note, I'd like to quickly address the caloric restriction thing. While the caloric restriction proponents are singing the praises of low-calorie diets, part of the benefit of such programs is that these individuals make better food selections when eating their low-calorie diets. So the secret may be in the food choices, not in the lack of food.

Furthermore, many of the changes seen with caloric restriction are also seen with regular strength and endurance exercise. While caloric restriction may be needed to enhance health and longevity in sedentary individuals who have no regard for smart food decisions, for us iron heads that spend our lives dedicated to training and proper nutrition another approach is warranted. If your goals are to maximize muscle mass while being healthy, perhaps the key to longevity lies partly in eating a lot of food but making good food choices (see my "Lean Eatin'" articles - parts 1 and 2). In addition, our regular program of exercise will bring complementary benefits to enhance the positive effects of our smart food decisions.

This discussion is relevant to even short programs of fasting since fasting is justified most often in the condemnation of the average person's food choices. However, if you follow an excellent dietary regimen, many of the "toxicities" and ailments that fasting is supposed to help are nonexistent to begin with.

Another major weakness of the pro-fasters is the same complaint I have against many chiropractic practitioners. The pro-fasters claim that fasting can and will have opposing effects. For example, I've had chiropractors tell me, in colorful language, that the adjustment will either make me feel better, worse, or no different. Gee, thanks for the prognosis, doc! After my root canal my dentist can at least tell me that I'm going to feel like shit.

While they say that fasting is rejuvenating and promotes positive health and big increases in energy, here are some contradictory claims from their materials:

The tongues of most people will develop a thick white or yellow fur coating, which can be scraped or brushed off.

Bad breath and displeasing tastes in the mouth or foul-smelling urine or stools may occur.

Skin odor or skin eruptions such as small spots or painful boils, may also appear, depending on the state of toxicity.

Digestive upset, mucusy stools, flatulence, or even nausea and vomiting may occur during fasting.

Some people experience insomnia or bad dreams as their body releases poisons during the night.

The general energy level is usually good during fasting, although there can be ups and downs.

Every two or three days, as the body goes into a deeper level of dumping wastes, the energy may go down.

Great, so my energy may go up, down, or stay the same. My skin may break out in painful boils, may get better or stay the same. My digestive system will spill out noxious fluid and be upset, may get better or stay the same. Talk about noncommittal!

Again, while these contradictions aren't fatal flaws, when the most forceful proponents of fasting don't seem to have a clue as to what fasting does, it makes me wonder why the heck I would trust in their advice.

So at this point, I've covered some of the weaknesses of the fasting argument. But what about the benefits? A simple internet search will provide thousands of testimonies as to the tremendous benefits of a short term juicing fast. However, these benefits aren't necessarily physiological in nature. These case studies often describe the mental and emotional benefits before physiological ones. But I certainly won't discredit these benefits simply because we can't measure them. Like I said earlier, there are thousands of years of tradition that point to fasting as a way of enlightenment, and I can see how this could occur.

When dieting for bodybuilding shows, the body is deprived of adequate caloric intake. It slows down and becomes much less physically active. In the absence of physical activity and nervous activity, there's much more time for calm and relaxed thought. This may be where the spiritual stuff comes into play.

So, to tie this discussion together, it's important to realize that the proponents of fasting claim there are spiritual, mental, emotional, and health benefits to fasting. The mental stuff I can see, but the physical stuff is questionable. The dramatic claims for benefit tend to be emphasized in those who are sedentary and follow unhealthy eating patterns. These aren't the same individuals who are reading T-mag, training regularly and intensely, and eating as per my recommendations.

So here are the questions a T-mag reader might ask and the answers I'd give:

Are there any muscle building or fat-loss benefits with healthy fasting?

No.

Are there any benefits to fasting when my diet is already very complete and I'm making excellent food choices?

Probably not.

Are there any spiritual or mental benefits with healthy fasting?

Maybe.

Are there any benefits to fasting for my sedentary, overweight, Krispy Kreme eatin' mother-in-law?

Yes. (Now be nice and try not to convince her to drink her own urine!)

[BjsAust]

Thanks for that John, I must have missed that one over at Berardis. My initial thoughts would have been that as a means to "purify" the system it could well be a good idea, but that at the end of the day if you're already eating clean, healthy foods then why need to purify? I'd much rather eat healthy foods all the time than spend a few months eating junk then spending 2 weeks on a juice diet to "purify".