A friend is telling me that he Juice fasts and get’s all the benefits of fasting while keeping his bowels moving. He says that is healthier because his bowels don’t shut down.
I think he is just full of cr@p ;-) and would be better off eating some non starchy veggies with some bone broth, if he needs to. If he can go straight water & Salt, then he will benefit from the bowel getting a chance to heal.
My 11 day fast was fantastic, except for the crazy I felt toward the end. As I prepare for my next fast, I am going to follow the ancient practice of fasting AND PRAYING… And journaling. I think that will help me process the history of emotional memories that my brain would do about anything to avoid.
Thoughts?
I’ve done juice fasting, it’s torture. I did a 10 day juice fast several years ago.
You still have the insulin trigger, but none of the fiber and other parts of the veggies that the body needs. So it’s just calories and sugar going in.
Full fasting is so much easier and better. The whole point of fasting is to lower insulin levels and get the body to stop releasing it and give it a rest. Any food taken in will trigger the insulin.
The idea behind a fast is 2 fold from my understanding: Lowering insulin and authophagy
​
Juice will drastically increase insulin so it completely defeats the purpose of fasting. Even the non-starchy vegetables won’t be doing you any favors. Humans have no enzymes to digest vegetables (fiber); if anything they’ll cause digestive distress. At best a vegetable will provide a small bit of sugar to be stored by the liver; however, a piece of fruit does a much better job of that (hence why fruit tastes good and vegetables taste bad).
+1; your post asks a reasonable question.
> would be better off eating some non starchy veggies
Thank you :)
Or, as Dr. Fung points out, he can take psyllium (e.g. Metamucil or generic).
But, really, the psyllium is pointless unless he feels constipated.
The body moves the bowels only when necessary. During a fast, not much waste is produced, and bowel movements are often unnecessary.
During a fast, vegetable juice can provide electrolytes, and fruit juice can provide sugars (though sugars aren’t actually healthy). But yes, I suspect it’s probably wiser to get electrolytes from non-starchy vegetables rather than from juice.
In general, from what I’ve read, it’s usually best to consume whole foods in their natural state. Sunflower seeds rather than sunflower oil. Vegetables rather than vegetable juice.
So, here’s a summary:
> emotional memories that my brain would do about anything to avoid
Psychotherapy can be useful for this kind of thing.
> the crazy I felt toward the end
May I ask what happened?