Going Without: The Health Benefits of Fasting

Going Without: The Health Benefits of Fasting

Reviewed by Pablo Medina, Herbalist

It’s a grim reality: The toxins in our food and environment are causing inflammation and speeding up cellular degeneration, meanwhile cellular rejuvenation is being handicapped by over-consumption. 

However, fasting restores the balance and removes toxicity, giving your body a break from digestion to redirect energy towards healing and rejuvenation.

The practicedates back centuries and plays a central role in many cultures and religions. Dr. Sebi himself was a huge advocate of fasting, and he would do it frequently to maximize the healing and cleansing benefits of his compounds.

It’s one of the most powerful ways to reset your body. Damaged tissue, toxins, tumors, mucus, abscesses, cysts, and fatty deposits are eliminated during the remarkable immune system deep-clean that’s activated by fasting.

How Does Fasting Work?

The fasting state triggers immune processes that remove poorly performing or toxic cells. After 16 to 24 hours without food, your body begins looking for energy, so it engulfs and digests damaged cells, fats, and stored energy. 

Thus, it’s natural to experience some mild side effects like lethargy, headaches, fatigue, and weakness during this period when the body is adapting to burning energy stores and mobilizing toxins for elimination.

As your immune system begins to seek out diseased cells to terminate them and re-allocate nutrients, this process is gradually accelerated, reaching a maximum rate after about 4 days of abstaining from food. This tunes our physiology, allowing only healthy cells to remain operational. 

Nutrients from the digested cells are recycled into new cells that perform better, and produce fewer acidic waste products, at the same time toxins are eliminated from deposits inside cells, and the gut. This dramatically reduces inflammation, improves metabolic responses to hormones, removes accumulated mucus, and can significantly improve your overall health.

Unfortunately, our nutritional excess means we rarely spend time without food, so we don't activate this cellular autophagy (self-eating).

"When you fast, the body goes into maintenance mode, self-healing." -Dr. Sebi

What Are the Benefits of Fasting?

Fasting has helped many people reach their health goals and improve their overall lifestyle. Keep reading to find out about the health benefits of fasting.

Promotes Blood-Sugar Control

By decreasing insulin resistance, which means your body is more effective at transporting glucose from your bloodstream to your cells, fasting improves blood sugar control

This benefit is most often experienced in short-term, intermittent fasting; for example, abstaining from food for 16 hours a day and eating in an 8-hour window (16:8 intermittent fasting).

Fights Inflammation

Inflammation is a side effect of consuming too many acidic-forming foods and toxins or by being in a toxic environment. Inflammation is also involved in the development of chronic conditions, such as heart disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. 

By fasting for only 12 hours a day, it’s possible to reduce inflammation, which aids in treating the diseases mentioned above.

Enhances Heart Health

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death around the world. By making healthy lifestyle changes and incorporating fasting into your routine, it’s possible to decrease high blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol — all of which can reduce your risk of heart disease.

Boosts Brain Function

Fasting does good things for the brain, and this is evident by all of the beneficial neurochemical changes that happen in the brain when we fast. It also improves cognitive function, increases neurotrophic factors and stress resistance, and reduces inflammation. 

You can boost the brain benefits of fasting by using Dr. Sebi's Banju, which stimulates the brain and helps in the treatment of diseases related to the central nervous system, such as depression, anxiety, irritability, and insomnia.

Increase Longevity

Looking to live longer? Try incorporating fasting into your routine, as it's proven to delay aging and increase longevity in those who practice it along with other healthy lifestyle choices.

Other Benefits of Fasting

Resting the digestive system frees up energy and provides a break from bad habits. Prolonged fasting can also deliver profound states of euphoria, mental clarity, and rapidly improve your mood—as brain inflammation quickly reduces and gut function is enhanced. Here are some of the additional benefits:

  • Attention: focused, aware, and alert
  • Blood: purified and cleansed
  • Calming: restores neurotransmitters
  • Confidence: enhanced by self-discipline
  • Detoxifying: expel toxins and heavy metals
  • Emotions: break from food for comfort
  • Endocrine: hormonal reset
  • Gut Biome: bad bacteria die off
  • Fat: mobilized and detoxified, aiding weight loss
  • Intestine: elimination enhanced
  • Lymph: waste and toxins cleared
  • Metabolism: reset and optimized
  • Mood: enhancement and stability
  • Organs: opportunity to rest and heal
  • Senses: heightened smells and tastes
  • Stamina: enhanced strength and endurance

"On the 57th day of fasting, of not eating anything, I had an errection... The body got the chance to do what? Cleanse itself! " -Dr. Sebi

How Do You Fast?

Fasting is the voluntary abstinence or reduction from some or all food, drink, or both for a period of time. Start by following Dr. Sebi's Nutritional Guide and let your body adapt slowly to it. Then, try skipping one meal a day until you build up to a full day (if you can) and move on.

An absolute fast or dry fasting means abstaining from all food and liquid. Other types of fasts involve consuming water, liquids, or even certain foods (like juices, soups, or smoothies). In fact, Dr. Sebi used to accompany his fasts with agua de tamarindo (tamarind water). Dr. Sebi recommended tamarind as a powerful antioxidant juice, in addition to hydrating with plenty of spring water.

"You drink your water and your juice, and you take your Green Food. I have tamarind in Honduras, but here you have apple juice, it's okay." -Dr. Sebi

Combine this digestive and metabolic rest with taking it easy and getting lots of healing sleep. Find ways to fill your time and prevent boredom with relaxing activities and planned entertainment. Gentle regular movement, like walking, is encouraged, but don't overdo it or add stress to your body.

Fasting Timelines

While fasting, the body must scavenge nutrients by recycling cells, so it's forced to recharge from within. After 72 hours, cellular recycling (autophagy) has increased by 350%—that's a lot of damaged cells being removed!

Fasting can also have different time periods, but Dr. Sebi didn't recommend any specific method or time period for fasting, as everybody will react differently to it, and fasting is not for everyone. He believed it's essential to follow your body's inner wisdom, so we encourage you to listen to your body and be aware of its reactions when you try fasting.

The length of a fast can vary depending on your experience and health. Longer fasts can only be done after successfully completing shorter ones. Cleanse before fasting to reduce toxic load, making fasting more comfortable and reducing side effects from toxin mobilization (headache, moody, rash, lethargy).

Fasting can be done regularly, a few days per week or month, seasonally or yearly, depending on your preferences or requirements. Start slowly and build up your tolerance, your body is stronger than you know, listen to what it has to tell you. Dr. Sebi fasted quite often, he experimented with multiple time frames and herbs that sustain the body.

Fasting Nutritional Support

While fasting, support your body with minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants to increase detoxification and ensure new cells are built with maximum nutrition. 

  • Dr. Sebi's Bromide Plus enhances heavy metal elimination and delivers re-vitalizing nutrients to saturate new cells with balanced minerals.
  • Dr. Sebi's Green Food Plus is energizing and naturally suppresses appetite while keeping the mind focused and alert.

How to Break a Fast

Adhering to Dr. Sebi's Nutritional Guide is essential to breaking the fast and gradually reintroducing foods. When you fast, digestion and other metabolic functions are put on hold. All energy goes towards healing and cleansing your body, so breaking the fast with the proper foods is vital. 

Soups based on the Nutritional Guide are ideal since they are nutrient-dense and easy to digest, like this delicious Creamy Squash and Tomato Soup.

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