Paleo Fasting?

Is that a thing or did I just make it up. I just made it up, but it is very descriptive when it comes to understanding how it used to be. We are so ingrained with having to take something, do something, pay something when it comes to our health that we tend to complicate what should be a simple and effective tool to keep or get back our health. In paleo times, when food was scarce, all they had was water. They did not have vitamin supplements, supplemental salt, enemas, exercise routines, or anything we place such great importance on today. The one fasting therapist that proved how simple fasting should be supervised over 30,000 fasts. His name was Dr. Herbert Shelton (1895-1985). He was a very prolific writer on his fasting experience so finding his writings on fasting is pretty easy. There is even a youtube video made of a film he produced.

One other thing, a big thing that gets in the way of our fasting adventure is ignorance. Too many of us want to get right into it without doing our homework. Knowing what to expect is a really big deal with fasting. The information is there and much of it free like a lot of Shelton’s work. The best book I’ve read on fasting is Fasting and Sunbathing by Shelton published in 1934. 1934!!! That’s too old! How can that be relevant today? Fasting has been with us and written about since mankind developed writing. Shelton’s work reads just like Dr. Jason Fung’s book The Complete Guide to Fasting published in 2016 except that Fung has physiological evidence of things like the fat to protein loss ratio during fasting (97% to 3% respectively) that Shelton could only estimate. The tools to answer questions like that were simply not available to Shelton in the 1930’s. Despite this his estimate was accurate. Chasing after the latest and greatest is another ingrained mindset we suffer from when it comes to information about our health.

Knowledge is power to the person who has it. To go into a fast without knowing the myriad of side effects is a catalyst for failure. People fear what they don’t understand and to fast without knowing what to expect can be a journey of terror with the slightest, but normal issue throwing you into the refrigerator to find something to eat. Fasting anxiety is a threat to your success. I’ve read where men perished after “starving” for seven days. As we all know it wasn’t lack of food it was fear of a lack of food.

Fasting is to do nothing, but drink a little water. Nothing is easier than nothing. Don’t complicate it with silly rules that didn’t exist in Paleo times. Arm yourself with the knowledge of what to expect. After the first couple of days it should be and can be a very pleasant experience as your body heals itself shedding what it doesn’t need or finds harmful to its future. All the thinking is done for you automatically by the brilliant discretion of autophagy. So relax, have a sparkling water with a wedge of lime and enjoy the journey taken by millions of people for centuries before you. You will find out why fasting is a religious staple, a healing gift from God whether you believe He exists or not is irrelevant.

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