Thomas Lodi, M.D.

All animals fast when they are sick. This is nature’s cure; not man’s cure. Approximately 60% of the immune system is either embedded in or adjacent to the gastrointestinal system therefore fasting allows the digestive tract to rest, heal and strengthen. Since the body is not expending its energy digesting and eliminating newly ingested toxins in the system, it is able to direct all its energy toward the elimination of accumulated toxins and defense. Fasting benefits the body by:

• Detoxifying Cells
• Allowing for Repair of Damaged Cells
• Freeing the Body of Abnormal Changes in Tissues
• Lowering Blood Pressure and Cholesterol
• Losing Excess Weight and Stored Toxins
• Increasing Energy
• Improving Mental Clarity
• Improving Digestion
• Regulating Bowels
• Slowing and Reversing Aging
• Activating Youthful Gene Expression
• Increasing the Rate of Metabolism
• Preventing Damaging Changes from Occurring in Vital Organs
• Improving Efficiency of Organ Functioning
• Relieving Tension
• Teaching New Eating Habits
• Providing Spiritual Revelations

Fasting for short periods of time such as seven to ten days is considered completely safe by most fasting experts. During a juice fast, you have to stay full of juice. Drink as much juice as you can.

For the first 4 or 5 days, there will be a battle going on within you between appetite and hunger. Hunger is a physiological need being expressed but appetite is learned. Hunger is easily satisfied and appetite is never satisfied! That is why we eat when we are full and drink when we are drunk. Once appetite goes away after a few days, we become rational.

You know when you wake up in the morning feeling hungry, it is not hunger but gastric irritation because you are finally emptying the stomach. Hunger is never painful. Like any physiological need, there is a longing, but it is not painful. The initial feeling of a physiological need is a longing, not a requirement. Like eating, when you first start to get hungry you get an empty feeling and it is a positive feeling.

The most important thing to know about any juice cleanse is how to break it, because if you break it in the wrong way you might as well not have done it. It will do more damage than good. A general guideline is to allow one day of breaking the fast for each three days of fasting.

It is important to break a fast appropriately. While fasting the digestive system has been shut down and it must be restarted carefully. The first foods you put in your body will be absorbed much more easily, so what you choose to eat should be what is needed to rebuild and nourish the body. This is the time to reorient yourself around a new quality of diet.

Strict water fasts are not safe unless closely supervised, nor are they recommended for those who are critically ill. Juice fasting is a much safe alternative for fasting, as it actually provides abundant nutrition through the time of cleansing. It is truly a powerful tool for healing.