HOW LONG COULD I FAST?

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160812, 20 November 1920, Page 11

HOW LONG COULD I FAST?

AN AVERAGE MAN CAN WORK TEN DAYS ON WATER.

BY A DOCTOR. The writer of the following article is one of leading British experts on fasting and its effects. (London Evening News, September 16). How long ban a person fast? It depends entirely on tfya person. Generally speaking, a man can fast longer than a woman, and iniddle-aged and "elderly people longer than young people. As a rule, fat people can go longer without food than thin ones.- , By fasting 1 mean taking no food whatever—absolutely nothing but water. - . Now, there is a great distinction between fasting and, starving. Fasting goes on for many days before, starvation begins. • _ * Starvation only begins when the tissues are beginning to undergo degenerative changes, The faster has begun to live on his own tissuei 80 OR 40 DAYS. It takes days without food for a fat man to reach the starvation stage. He has to use up his fat tissue before his essential tissues are, attacked. It is not unusual for 1 people to be able to undergo a. real fast jfcom 30 to 40 days. But no man can fast without taking water. He would die, without it, in about half the time he could last by taking water.

British medical men are years behind doctors in other countries in their knowledge of fasting. But I ain certain the time is coming when the medical profession will see that fasting is more Beneficial than the use of drugs. For one thing, fasting is a great aid in the diagnosis of obscure complaints, such as certain growths. It is also useful in the treatment of all acute specific fevers, such as rheumatic fever, pneumonia, and influenza. • Some surgeons fast their patients before performing serious operations, not for a few , hours, but (by those who understand it) for several days before the operation. With forty years’ experience of fasting as a cure, I say unhesitatingly that many people dig their graves with their teeth.

“FASTING IS NATURAL.” If they ate less and fasted more they would live longer. Fasting is natural. Animals fast when they are ill. The first 24 hours of a fast are the most difficult. After that fasting becomes easier every day. After the first week the. patient absolutely dislikes food. With the end of the 'first day the patient’s mental energy is greatly increased. f This go,es to prove that niental capacity is dulled and hindered by absorption of the poisons produced in an overfed system. The brain works better both during and after fasting. During the first ten days of fasting an average person can carry on his ordinary life in the usual way, provided it is not too strenuous.

Plenty of water (preferably distilled) should always-be available.