How To Get The Remarkable Benefits of Fasting—Without Going Hungry!

by Robyn Openshaw

Fasting is, in essence, consuming very little to no food, for one day or longer. This practice offers phenomenal health benefits, which I explore in this book, reviewing the published literature.

Unfortunately, in an age where most people have multiple medical diagnoses, and we are more “toxic” than at any time in history—with 80,000 synthetic chemicals approved for use in our air, water, food, and products—many people cannot go completely without food. Or they are afraid to try.

So, what’s even more exciting, new findings published by researchers all over the world show what I will call “modified fasting” to be possibly the most important and revolutionary anti-aging and disease-preventing breakthrough of this century so far!

In this practice, you don’t have to skip food altogether—or go hungry.

And if many clinical trials suggest that you can avoid hunger, and eat small amounts of food, to achieve equally spectacular health benefits compared to total fasting—how much can you eat, when, and what kinds of foods?

This short book will cover that, too!

For thousands of years, fasting has been a common practice for political, spiritual, and physical cleansing reasons, all over the world. The ancient Greek scholars, Socrates and Plato, fasted in order to purify the mind and body. And fasting was practiced in Biblical times to humble and strengthen the Spirit as the body is made weak.

Very few people in the history of the world had access to three meals a day, year-round, their entire lives. That is new, in the past century, thanks to preserved and packaged food, obtained inexpensively, throughout the developed world.

So, you may not realize that this incredible health-preventative practice has been accidentally practiced by virtually everyone in history—except us! In my speaking tour of 450 cities, I was amazed to learn that most Americans report having never missed a meal in their lives. (Unless food poisoning or a stomach bug was involved.)

In the past decade, new research documents health effects of modified fasting, showing how the body redirects energy and goes to work, tearing down and rebuilding broken parts, when it isn’t having to spend most of its energy metabolizing food—because you’re eating much less, and you’re eating only very easily digested, clean food.

These positive health changes caused in even a few days of modified fasting include fat burning through ketogenesis, particularly abdominal fat stores; balancing hormones; reducing inflammation; improving stress resistance and healing the neurological system; and autophagy¹, where the body “self eats” broken parts such as cancerous growths, worn-out cells, and infections.

Clinical trials in human subjects show disease reversal and symptoms improving or disappearing for certain conditions.

For example, clinical trials show multiple sclerosis (MS) reversing through fasting². When someone has MS, their myelin sheaths (sleeves of fatty tissue that protect the nerve cells) can be damaged, resulting in weakened muscles, damaged coordination, and even paralysis. Though no available drug has been able to rebuild myelin sheaths, the human body can do it, when you fast!

Evidence such as this suggests that when modern humans in the last century stopped fasting—even though most primitive humans didn’t “fast” on purpose, but perhaps were preventing disease when they didn’t have food for days or weeks at a time—we also lost the ability to leverage the body’s self-directed healing power.

Another landmark study showed that a modified fast appears to be able to reverse type 2 diabetes and even type 1 diabetes³. ealthy insulin production, reduced insulin resistance, and more stable blood glucose levels were seen, even in the late stages of the disease.

Even just in these first two examples I’ve given you alone—neurodegenerative disease and diabetes—we see how the innate abilities of the body, when denied food, may deliver benefits that thousands of medical doctors worldwide have been unable to achieve, with all their drug regimens. Insulin is life-saving for type I diabetics, but no drug has been able to actually reverse the disease process.

But we’re just warming up. The benefits extend far past diabetes and MS. Other studies show significant improvements in hypertension^4,5, rheumatoid arthritis⁶, cardiovascular disease^7,8, metabolic syndrome⁹, osteoarthritis¹⁰, fibromyalgia¹¹, chronic pain¹², and quality of life¹³.

In this book, you’ll discover what happens when you fast or do a modified fast. I’ll soon share why autophagy is a word that should be in your vocabulary from this day forward if you care about your health. And you’ll see why you don’t have to starve if you want to achieve the health benefits of fasting.

Why Do People Fast?

Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine and the famous Hippocratic Oath, believed that eating when sick simply feeds the illness. Pythagoras required individuals to fast before becoming his students, and considered a 40-day fast necessary to access deep truths:

“…Through this purification, my center of being has changed. From the intellect it has come down to the heart. Now I can feel things…Now, truth is not a concept to me, but life.” —Pythagoras, following his 40 days of fasting¹⁴

Many religious groups encourage fasting¹⁵. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan. Roman Catholics observe a 2 to 40-day fast during Lent.

And Latter-day Saints (Mormons) observe a “Fast Sunday” the first Sunday of each month, eating no food for 24 hours. Mormons believe that as the physical temple is weakened by forgoing food, their humility, faith, and devotion to the source becomes strong. My seven siblings and I were raised in this faith, and from the age of 8, onward, we ate no food from Saturday night dinner, till Sunday night dinner. Due to this training, I do not fear fasting as much as most people seem to.

Fasting for health, detoxification, and longevity is becoming more popular today. In this book, I discuss a newer practice I call “modified fasting.” In fact, I developed a product called the Flash Fast, where 5 organic, pre-measured mini-meals per day sustain life for 3 days, so you can work and function normally. The small meals are designed to keep calories and macronutrients at the quantity proven in clinical research to still achieve fasting’s health benefits—but with every micronutrient you need to avoid any risk of malnutrition or of severe reactions to fasting. And as you eat the meals within a 12-hour window, you needn’t be excessively hungry as you fast, either.

The Flash Fast, then, accomplishes a modified fast without the difficulties of completely forgoing food, without having to do complicated food preparation, and without significant reactivity.

The 5 daily mini-meals are hypoallergenic for most, non-GMO, gluten-free, and organic. One kit is vegan, and the other is vegan except for bone broth, for those who want extra gut-healing benefits.

No other modified fast on the market is comprised of organic food or extremely affordable like the Flash Fast. And those with significant weight to lose can complete the program monthly, or more often.

We tracked our first group of Flash Fasters, and 3.6 pounds was their average weight loss in 3 days. At that rate, a monthly Flash Fast would yield a 43.2-pound weight loss in one year, even changing nothing else in the year-round diet.

Many people who may be weakened by leaky gut and other gut imbalances or cancer and its related treatments—and even the rest of us who are exposed to 80,000 chemicals¹⁶ used in our air, food, and water—cannot fast or find it very difficult because of a high Toxic Body Burden.

Herxheimer reactions, also known as the “cleansing crisis,” can be a short-term result of any detoxification program, as toxins flood through the organs of elimination on their way out, causing discomfort in the way of headaches, digestive disturbance, energy deficits or other brief symptoms for some people who fast with no food at all, and a very small number of those doing a modified fast.

Your Toxic Body Burden is C in the equation A - B = C

A is the buildup of toxins in your body’s tissues and organs through food, air, and the environment minus B, the body’s innate abilities to eliminate toxins through your organs. Your Toxic Body Burden, or C, is what remains. And that will be different than someone else’s due to your unique exposures to metals, plastics, drugs, and other chemicals—play how your elimination pathways are functioning.

Many Western doctors will scoff at detoxing, or the need for such, saying, “That’s what your kidneys and liver are for!” However, assuming your liver and kidneys can handle thousands of synthetic chemicals and vastly more particulate pollution as well is like saying your Model T should be able to run forever in the 1930’s Dust Bowl without ever changing the air filter or oil filter.

Simply put: the modern individual’s organs of elimination simply cannot keep up. Spiraling disease rates are the consequence.

In an increasingly toxic world, and depending on each individual’s Toxic Body Burden, Herxheimer Reactions are normal symptoms, such as headaches and lower energy, that some people experience for a short time as the body goes through detoxification.

A modified fast is safe (when done right), is easier than fasting, and it offers the benefits of fasting—while still getting to eat food.

Can Fasting Diets Be Dangerous?

As “detoxes” have been trendy in the past decade, I’ve seen some disturbing processes and products marketed to the unsuspecting public that don’t seem to leverage the known benefits of detoxification or fasting, at all!

Programs that recommend processed, high-protein shakes like whey or soy isolates, refined foods, packaged foods full of synthetic or “fake foods, or those promising to force your body into a state of ketosis by overeating fats are simply lowering your caloric intake and are designed for unsustainable weight loss—they are not designed for improving energy and digestion or clearing your body of wastes, toxins, and disease.

There is a significant difference between therapeutic modified fasting, and simply minimizing your food intake for weight loss. A useful and safe fasting program should follow what is known in the published literature and should include the right macronutrient ratios and the right amount of food (not too many calories). A legitimate modified fast should supply the most micronutrient-rich foods and should be comprised of clean, organic, high-fiber, whole foods, to keep the bowels moving and put minimal strain on digestive organs.

What Are the Different Types of Fasting?

Let’s take a look at 6 types of fasting you may be reading about, as the whole concept of “fasting” has been co-opted by the high-fat, low-carb diet fads. (This fad’s emphasis on not eating for 12-16 hours a day may be providing health benefits that help compensate for the dubious and even dangerous advice to over-eat fats and avoid healthy carbohydrates!) We’ll examine what these fads really mean, and which ones offer the greatest benefits.

Water Fasting

Water fasting is going without food and drinking only water for an extended period of time. This practice gives the body time to rest from the processes and energy normally devoted to digesting food and gives it the opportunity to focus on burning up accumulated toxins and fat stores, repairing tissues, and renewing at a cellular level.

Keep in mind that it’s useful to prepare for a water fast by preceding it with one to two weeks of a cleansing diet (no processed food or animal products or stimulants), followed by a few days of fresh juices—if you are considering limiting yourself to just water for a period of days or weeks.

Preparing the body gradually in this way allows waste products to move through various organs of elimination and not overload the body as they break down. The body will, given time and deprived of food sources, begin to consume everything that is not vital to daily functions, such as viruses, bacteria, chemicals, and heavy metals to name a few. This is the process of autophagy that I mentioned in the introduction would be an important part of your vocabulary and your awareness about why periodic fasting, or modified fasting, is a powerful ongoing strategy in staying healthy (or recovering your health).

Yes, autophagy will even break down a small amount of muscle tissue, but only the tissue that needs to be replaced anyway—muscles must regenerate, too! The body does not consume healthy tissue first, because it’s resistant and hard to break down. Your intelligent, amazing body is programmed to go after diseased, mutated, and old tissues first!

Juice Fasting

Juice fasting is similar to water fasting in that your digestive system is getting a needed break from solid foods. It differs from water fasting in that your body is getting a limited amount of energy from nutrient-dense fresh vegetable and fruit juices.

These nutrients help maintain the alkalinity of the body as well as your glucose and electrolyte balances. Because your body is getting some calories, autolysis (when the body begins digesting itself in search of energy) is not quite as pronounced the first few days.

Dry Fasting

Dry fasting is, as I see it, is fasting at its extreme. In essence, it entails denying yourself both food and water. This type of fasting seems to be most often performed as a sacrifice or a show of faith. LDS (Mormon) adherents are instructed to avoid both food and water for 24 hours, on the first Sunday of each month, for instance. Some doctors who lead fasting retreats claim that the “burn” in the body is exponentially increased, by a day or two of fasting with no water. I have not been able to find published scientific evidence to prove this, however.

Your body is still going through the detoxification process, only without the aid of water to carry away the toxins. If you feel compelled to undergo a dry fast, be sure to complete a detoxification process first.

I do not see the value of dry fasting for more than a day at a time. Water is essential.

For those of you who are nervous at the thought of no food for days on end, you’ll be happy to hear that alternatives exist.

Fasting-Mimicking Diet (FMD)

Dr. Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California and one of the world’s leading researchers in longevity, developed the newly popular Fasting-Mimicking Diet.

I highly recommend his book The Longevity Diet, where in greater detail than I do in this book, he reviews his own research at USC and other institutions, on the health benefits achieved in a modified fast. He also covers the evidence via his “five pillars” of science, showing what people eat, world-wide, who have low rates of disease and who live to be very old.

[Related Vibe Podcast: Fasting for Longevity with Dr. Valter Longo]

This protocol allows you to reach a biological fasting state while still consuming food. Later in this book, we’ll cover research by Dr. Longo and fellow researchers that suggest that “fasting-mimicking” health benefits are possible from eating 600 to 800 calories a day for up to 5 days at a time.

I’m a fan of Dr. Longo’s work, and in this book, many of my references are to his research discovering many proven benefits of eating 800 calories or fewer of plant-based whole foods.

Another form of modified fasting is to cut your calories by 80%, every other day, for 8 weeks, used in a study showing strong benefits by Dr. Mattson’s team at Johns Hopkins University, which I will discuss in more detail later in this book.

Intermittent Fasting

Growing in popularity, this method of losing weight and reducing disease risk involves lowering caloric intake, or not eating, for a few days once a week or once a month.

For instance, with the Flash Fast, you consume less than 800 calories for 3 days.

Many people call not eating from dinner until breakfast (or a larger window) daily, sometimes missing a meal, and eating only 2 meals per day ”intermittent fasting.”

While there are health benefits to any length of time not eating, I consider this to be more accurately called “time-restricted eating” (see the next section), rather than true fasting.

Time-Restricted Eating (TRE)

Time-Restricted Eating is also gaining in popularity. This method of fasting involves not eating for an extended period each day. The hours you abstain from food vary dramatically—anywhere from 12 to 20 hours.

At a minimum, throughout history, people have often not eaten between 7 pm to 7 am. The body recovers in many ways while limited to a 12-hour “feeding” window. So it’s a good idea, as a general practice, year-round!

It’s a strange modern American phenomenon that people eat all day, every day. This is likely part of why we have unprecedented levels of health problems and obesity—it’s not just what we’re eating; it’s also how often and for how long.

So, “time-restricted eating” seems very basic to me, just getting us to recognize that the body needs 12 hours to rest from food—and perhaps doesn’t quite qualify as “fasting.”

The Benefits of Fasting, According to Studies

Studies show that, when done correctly, fasting and modified fasting offer a wide array of benefits. These include the following:

Increase Mental Clarity and Energy

Clinicians have found that fasting, particularly between day 2 and 7, corresponds with an improvement in mood, an increase in alertness, and a sense of serenity. ¹⁷

In a study conducted by Dr. Longo, mice that received a low-calorie, plant-based diet for 4-day cycles twice a month, starting in middle age, showed better short and long-term memory, as well as calmer behavior and increased learning abilities.¹⁸

Aid in Cellular Renewal and Stem Cell-Based Regeneration

A study published in USC News showed that prolonged fasting “induced immune system regeneration, shifting stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal.” ¹⁹

Dr. Longo and his team of researchers discovered that fasting for prolonged periods (going without food for periods of 2 to 4 days at a time) broke down a significant number of white blood cells, which triggered stem cell-based regeneration of new immune system cells, thus stimulating strengthened immune function.

Later, they found in both animal and human studies, that suppressing calories to 800 or fewer, for a few days at a time, achieved very similar health benefits to water-only fasting.

Clears the Body of Toxins, Mucous, Yeast, and Bacteria

Unfortunately, we currently live in a toxic soup. There are 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States, with nearly 5,000 in our food, air, and water supplies. The average baby is born with about 280 chemicals in their umbilical cord, 180 of which are known carcinogens.^20,21

To really thrive, you need to clear these toxins, chemicals, and carcinogens from your body.

Your liver, kidneys, lungs, colon, lymphatic system, and skin have the responsibility of eliminating these pathogens and waste products.

To support them, consider including a low-calorie, plant-based, organic and nutrient-dense whole-foods diet for 3 days out of every month, such as the Flash Fast.

An example of the kind of toxins that virtually every human being now tests positive for, and which blocks fat loss and disrupts healthy hormone function, is bisphenol-A (BPA), a synthetic estrogen that leaches out of plastics and other material and hides in your fat cells. In fact, this toxic chemical is so prevalent it is difficult to avoid, does not degrade or break down, ever, and has been linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

This is just one of the many toxins we are faced with. The good news? Fasting can help optimize detoxification processes and pathways and give the body time and space to eliminate at a higher rate.

Enhances the Immune System and Lowers Inflammation

Multiple studies are showing how the body mobilizes a protective effort while fasting.
A 2014 study published in Cell Stem Cell found that fasting causes the immune system to regenerate. Stem cells shift from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal.²²

A 2019 study published in Cell discovered that, during fasting, T cells, a type of immune cells that produce molecular weapons to kill pathogens and cancers, become supercharged—they are optimized and better able to protect the body.²³

Well-fed mice took around a week to destroy a pathogen. Mice that were undergoing a modified fast cleared the infection in only 2 days.

Another 2019 study published in Cell focused on monocytes, white blood cells that directly attack pathogens. During fasting, fewer monocytes circulate in the body, leading to a drop in inflammation.²⁴

Improves Immune Function Against Cancer Cells

Dr. Longo, along with Sebastian Brandhorst, another researcher from the Longevity Institute at USC, believes that periodic fasting demonstrates a wide range of beneficial effects that help prevent cancer and increase the effectiveness of current cancer therapies.²⁵

One of their many studies at USC revealed that a diet that mimics a fast could trigger the same effects produced by immunotherapy, which is a therapy that relies on the immune system to kill cancer cells.

The USC study found that this type of diet weakened the cancer cells, strengthened healthy cells against chemotherapy, and revved up the immune system—making chemo more effective against cancer and less toxic to healthy cells.²⁶

Improves Markers Associated with Diabetes

There are several studies that suggest periods of fasting improve insulin sensitivity, decreasing the risk of developing diabetes.

A study published in 2017 revealed that a 4-day diet mimicking fasting triggered changes in mice that led to pancreatic β cell regeneration and the return of insulin secretion—changes that correspond to the reversal of type 2 diabetes.²⁷

Another study showed the regeneration of insulin-producing beta cells, as well as the reversal of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes symptoms.

Improves Markers Associated with Neurological Health, Including Multiple Sclerosis

While still under clinical and laboratory investigation, Dr. Longo and his team of researchers have had remarkable results with mice placed on what he calls the Fasting Mimicking Diet. One study showed the reduction or elimination of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis as well as regeneration of the damaged myelin sheath in their spinal cords.

In older mice, this type of fast promoted new nerve growth in the hippocampus (the part of the brain involved in the formation of new memories), as well as improving cognitive performance and decreasing the risk factors associated with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.²⁸

Reduces Markers Associated with Heart Disease

When researchers asked 71 participants to complete 3 cycles of a Fasting-Mimicking Diet, the results were remarkable.

In addition to weight loss, subjects reduced their blood pressure, total cholesterol, and C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation.²⁹

Increases Life Expectancy

An article in Mechanisms of Aging and Development reported that it has been well-known for some 70 years, and backed by studies, that restricting the food intake of rats, mice, hamsters, dogs, fish, and even yeast extends their life span.³⁰ When mice eat 30 to 40 percent fewer calories, they developed half the tumors and other diseases than their cousins eating a normal diet.

Our bodies renew themselves on a daily basis. In fact, it is estimated that in one year’s time, 98 percent of our body is replaced. We have a new liver in about 6 weeks, new skin every 30 days. And our gastrointestinal tract regenerates in less than a week. This suggests how powerful our opportunity for a fresh new start is!

Giving your digestive system a break by minimizing your food intake and making sure that what you do eat is pure, natural, and easy to digest gives the 60 trillion cells that make up your body a chance to come clean and be the brilliant purpose-filled organisms that they are.

And the easiest foods to digest are raw, simple plant foods.

Should You Fast to Lose Weight?

While weight loss is a natural byproduct of going a length of time with absolutely no food, and it is the #1 concern of most Americans today, I recommend fasting or detoxifying with the intention of cleansing every cell in your body and taming inflammation, not the intention of fitting into a smaller pants size. That way, there is no failure—weighing yourself daily is an emotional roller coaster with little parallel to good health—and then the weight loss is just a byproduct you can get excited about.

I recommend weighing in only before and after doing the 3-day Flash Fast—not every day—and just notice the disappearing inflammation, notice joint pain disappearing, notice your pants fitting better.

(And as we roll out the Flash Fast on a wider scale, we ask everyone who participates to fill out a questionnaire at the end, so please do let us know what you noticed, during and after the process!)

A proven benefit of fasting is that in autophagy, the body goes after fat stores first, especially belly fat.

Does Fasting Lower Your Metabolism?

It’s a myth that fasting leads to a lowered metabolic rate and, ultimately, weight gain. I cannot find a single published study to support this “old wives’ tale.” Every time you eat, your “metabolism” converts the fuel into energy that your body then uses to power every activity. The rate at which your body performs this function is based on several factors, including your body size, the health of your hormone system, and your muscle mass³¹.

So, not only does fasting not harm your metabolism, we now have plenty of evidence alluded to in this book and its references that fasting provides an excellent rest and re-set for the hormone system and metabolic system to perform for you better when you get back to normal caloric intake.

Autophagy — A Reason Why Fasting Promotes Healthy Longevity

Fasting activates a process in the body called autophagy³². I promised you in the introduction that this is a word that is worth adding to your awareness and vocabulary because as a health benefit, it is as powerful as anything you’ll learn in this book—even more important than hyper-fueling stem cell growth and attacking belly fat! (All these processes, though, are related.)

Autophagy is a form of cellular cleansing or self-detoxification. Due to limited nutrients, cells begin to eat debris and eliminate waste. Dead or toxic cell matter is cleaned out, and damaged components are repaired and recycled.

This process is defined as “self-eating.” When the body has no other fuel, it feeds its cells and does cleanup work by metabolizing cancerous growths and breaking down yeasts, mold, fungi, viral, bacterial, and many other aberrant cells and growths.

Autophagy is compromised with age—setting the basis for chronic diseases³³. So increasing autophagy can help prevent disease.

In particular, research suggests that autophagy may help prevent cancer³⁴. A lack of autophagy leads to lower levels of tumor-suppressing genes.

Additionally, autophagy plays an important role in all aspects of heart health³⁵. And it also protects against diseases, such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, and certain forms of dementia. Early-stage Alzheimer’s disease is linked to deficits in autophagy³⁶.

Autophagy deficits have also been associated with depression³⁷ and schizophrenia³⁸. Autophagy is also beneficial for the immune system³⁹, as well as for protecting against excessive inflammation⁴⁰.

Why You Don’t Have To Starve On A Fasting Diet

You don’t have to limit yourself to water for weeks at a time to obtain the health benefits associated with fasting.

Undergoing a 26-day detoxification program for deep cleansing of the colon, kidneys, gallbladder, liver, and blood—or the quicker Flash Fast using our nutritionally complete 3-day modified fasting program, can both result in biological rewards without the feelings associated with starvation.

Later in this book, I share a bit about my personal experience doing four long-term (7- to 12-day water fasts) in the course of 2 years. I was not able to work or do any exercise, despite being a generally fit person who plays sports 6 days a week, my entire life, and having a strong background in fasting. I have also done three 20-day juice fasts, where I was able to work, exercise, and function normally.

Modified fasting has been a breakthrough for me, as I can carry on with my daily responsibilities to my work, family, and even competitive tennis! without the need to take my blood pressure and other biomarkers a few times a day, and suffer through the fatigue and severe kidney pain that usually results when I “water fast” for a week or more.

I was thrilled to discover the very new scientific literature on modified fasting because it makes this health preventative practice possible—even easy—on a monthly or at least quarterly basis.

Detoxification “Fasting Diet”

The 26-day detox I undertake twice a year has 4 phases, which systematically cleanses the colon, liver, kidneys, gallbladder, lymphatic system, and blood.

The first phase prepares your body for fasting by limiting your daily intake to meals that consist of vegetables and a bit of oatmeal for the first four days.

This is followed by a “fast” of green smoothies for 3 days—giving your body the nutrients it needs while it enters the biological fasting phase.

This green smoothie fast in the first week is followed by a schedule of re-introducing categories of foods (so this detoxification protocol also qualifies as an “elimination diet”), giving specific organs a chance to rest.

Detox Ad | Detoxifying Drinks: What Works? What Doesn't?

After a period of breaking down and eliminating catarrhal mucoid plaque from the 35 feet of the gastrointestinal tract, and after a kidney cleanse, you are ready for a liver and gallbladder flush.

You can watch a free video masterclass about the science and purpose behind this kind of highly cleansing diet to achieve many of the benefits of fasting without actually depriving yourself of food completely.

And, to give modified fasting a try, do the 3-day Flash Fast as your “beta test,” and document how you feel and what your results were, afterward. (We’ll send you a questionnaire, tabulate your data, and let you know later what our first 5,000 Flash Fasters had to say, so stay tuned! We’ll send you an email with that information.)

The “Healing Crisis” That Isn’t

I was surprised after my first major detox, when I was in my early 30s, that my body released emotions as well as toxins. Emotions that had long been buried came to the surface and passed through me—leaving me forever. I talk more about the experience of this “emotional detox” in the last video of the Masterclass.

In addition to uncomfortable emotions, a deep cleanse can also result in what is known as a healing crisis, or “Herxheimer reactions.”

In actuality, it’s not a crisis but rather a sign of toxicity leaving the body—your body is cleaning out the toxins, bacteria, viruses, and chemicals that have lodged in your tissues, and even more, in your fat stores.

Fat has an affinity for toxins, salts, and other substances, and when you do a modified fast, your body’s “self-eating” mechanisms attack fat first. So, this releases even more toxins than any other tissue breakdown would release. Decreasing toxicity is a bonus, with decreased fat stores!

Unfortunately, these toxins must pass through the bloodstream in order to be flushed out of your body. As they are filtered and eliminated from your body, you can experience cleansing symptoms that include:

Headaches
Nausea
Muscle or joint aches and pains
Low-grade fever
Diarrhea
Symptoms associated with a previous illness or injury
Anxiety and mood swings
Congestion
Skin breakouts
Dizziness
Loss of energy

If you do experience any of these passing symptoms, consider them a sign that your body is cleaning out its cells and tissues which will leave you, ultimately, in a state of regeneration and renewal. (For more significant reactions, see your functional medicine practitioner and discontinue or modify the cleanse protocol.)

There are ways to clear these cleansing reactions more quickly: drink lots of water, get plenty of rest, dry-brush your skin (to improve lymphatic flow) and massage your colon to help in the elimination process, spend time in an infrared sauna, consider a professional massage, try a coffee enema.

And know that this, too, shall pass—cleansing crises rarely last longer than a day or two. (Again, if your reactions are severe, consult your trusted healthcare practitioner immediately.)

Are There Side Effects of Fasting?

While Herxheimer reactions can be considered “side effects” of fasting, they signal that healing is taking place. But there are other fasting side effects to be aware of—ones that tell you it may be time to stop your fast and begin re-introducing your body to whole, healthy foods.

Ever see Dallas Buyers Club, a movie that starred Matthew McConaughey as an AIDS patient? To look the part of a man dying from AIDS, he decided to go on a stringent diet. In 4 months, he lost 47 pounds and got the look he was going for—hollowed-out cheeks and a body that looked like it couldn’t support his head.

Besides the gaunt look, extreme and prolonged fasting/dieting can lead to muscle weakness and a compromised immune system. At a certain stage, the detrimental side effects of this type of fasting diet outweigh any benefits:

Irregular heartbeat
Muscle weakness
Anemia
Disorientation or confusion
Susceptibility to illness (a possible sign of weakened immune function)
Abdominal swelling with pain in the upper right abdomen (possible signs of liver damage)
Fluid retention and decreased urine output (signaling possible kidney damage)

These symptoms will not occur in a few days of a modified fast, and in fact, they will not even occur in a few weeks of fasting, either—not unless you were already in a wasting (cachexic) state before you began fasting in the first place.

How to Choose A Fasting Diet Wisely

Many individuals report relief from chronic diseases after undergoing a fasting diet. However, it’s important to choose a type of fast that doesn’t end up causing other problems.

A saying from the Ayurveda healing system describes it perfectly: “When lifestyle is wrong, medicine is of no use. When lifestyle is right, medicine is of no need.”

In my experience, most people cannot or should not do an unsupervised water fast longer than a day or two—but almost anyone can do a modified fast, eating 800 calories or fewer of whole, plant-based foods, for 3 or more days in a row.

(Most people have never fasted for even a full day unless food poisoning was involved—and most are fearful of the process. Try a 3-day Flash Fast first! That’s always a great place to start.)

These protocols, the 3-Day Flash Fast and the 26-Day Detox, provide safe avenues for ridding the body of accumulated toxins that are causing many health problems, while giving your cells the nutrition they need to regenerate healthy tissues and systems.

I Tried Water Fasting Without Food for 40 Days—Here’s What I Learned

I’m completely fascinated by the process and benefits of fasting if you haven’t figured that out by now. I’ve always felt that when Christians, Muslims, and Jews—and hungry people, since there aren’t very many in the First world—quit fasting routinely, something important was lost. After all, some in those religious traditions used to fast, at length, for weeks at a time. Until recent research, it wasn’t clear why the physical benefits were considerable—mostly, the spiritual benefits were emphasized throughout history.

My own personal experimentation—doing 4 water fasts in the past few years (for 12 days, 9 days, and 7 days twice, and some shorter ones at home)—has less to do with spiritual fasting or purification and more to do with the health benefits.

I do not honestly believe that most people can or will do what I did (go completely without food for a week or more). In fact, I’m not sure they even should.

Let’s talk about what crazy, slightly disgusting and simultaneously amazing things happen in the human body when you fast for a long period of time, why I keep doing this, what I get from it, and why you might want to consider doing it.

The following chapters are derived from a GreenSmoothieGirl blog post I wrote last year, so you’ll notice a slight shift in tone—less scientific, more about my personal experience—though we continue on with the references to published evidence as well!

Why I Didn’t Do My Water Fasting at Home

I have very little self-discipline. I’m not a biohacker, constantly using technology on myself, to experiment. I’ve never run a race longer than a 10k and don’t plan to. And, I don’t have any self-denial fetishes. I don’t just do every hard thing just because it’s a challenge.

Besides being raised LDS (Mormon), where we fasted Saturday night to Sunday night one Sunday every month from the age of 8, I have absolutely no reason why fasting for 40 days would be easy for me.

I’m one of those people who, if something hurts, or I’m hungry, everybody around me is going to know about it.

In fact, I knew I couldn’t do it at home.

I would start with the best of intentions, I’m sure. I might even last a whole day. But, the fridge would be right there 100 steps away. My car would be in the garage. I live just 10 minutes away from food. Really good food.

My willpower is nothing when I get ferociously hungry. I’m a vegetarian, but very frankly, I’d eat a T-bone cooked rare if I got hungry enough—maybe even a hot dog. (I suffered actual pain admitting that, since I haven’t eaten a hot dog in 25 years, and no one else should, either.) So, I flew to a spiritual retreat in Texas run by Hindu monks and nuns to fast.

What It’s Like to Water Fast at Siddhayatan

Siddhayatan is in Nowhere, Texas. Truly, it is miles from anything, and you cannot use your Uber or Lyft app from there to sneak out and get food in a moment of weakness. That’s why I went there.

It’s cheap, maybe the cost of a Motel 6.

It makes sense that it’s cheap, considering they’re feeding you nothing, and you might be sharing a bathroom, or staying in a room with no drywall, and only a naked lightbulb is your form of light.

For my next fast, I plan to go to True North in California where they’ll “medically supervise” me, and the lodgings are probably nicer.

But heck, while I was facing all my addictions, I decided I might as well face my addiction to upper-middle-class luxuries.

I take a sliver of soap and a towel. (The Hindu ashram does not provide a towel or washcloths.)

I take a $100 Uber from the airport, where you can actually get a ride. You can Uber to the ashram, but not back to the airport.

Later, I’ll have a private car company drive me back. But, you can’t just call them when you’re freaking out and wanting food. You can schedule them to pick you up tomorrow.

So, this saves me from my freakouts. I mean, freakouts are by definition short-term.

For me, at first, it was the perfect place for extended water fasting, because temptation is completely removed.

Also, you "can" have a meal there if you find you aren’t doing well, fasting completely without food.

You would have to be in a serious crisis to just drop in for lunch, though. First of all, that would be embarrassing.

You’re supposed to give them a heads up because this is the most frugal place you’ve ever been.

The monks and nuns (dressed all in white) make a homemade vegetarian Hindu meal three meals a day, but they make just enough for the exact number of people they have there doing the yoga, meditation, silent, and spiritual retreats.

(You, the water faster? No soup for you. They didn’t plan on you crashing the meal.)

So, besides being embarrassing to fail to ask well in advance if you can eat a meal with everybody else, you might actually be causing everyone they did plan for to not get enough to eat if you just crashed a meal. It’s really Dickensian.

So, my point is, your food cravings are not easily indulged at this place. And for me, that’s half the battle.

There are the actual hunger strike and physical weakness itself—sometimes even symptoms from long-term fasting without food (I’ll get to that)—but the constant temptations you’d have at home are removed.

I know a guy at home who recently fasted for 23 days. He went out to lunch and coffee with people, the whole time, and just abstained.

I guess some people are motivated or more self-disciplined than I am.

I almost lost my mind watching Netflix on my laptop during my last fast, for 7.5 days.

(Do you know how much food they show on most movies and TV shows? This is the kind of thing you only notice when you’re fasting.)

So, some people might have an iron will and be able to fast at home, but I am not one of them. The total isolation at the Texas ashram is hard (I like being around people!), but it’s also helpful.

Should You Try Water Fasting?

Now, if you’re thinking about this for yourself, there are a few caveats.

One, there is no medical supervision at the ashram. No nurses or doctors. They have people fasting here all the time, without serious incident, but people have actually died from prolonged fasting before--or so I’ve heard. (In the literature, the only cases were decades old, and they were obese people fasting for over two months.)

I mean, the odds of you dying from fasting are probably about as high as you dying from taking most over-the-counter medications or driving in a car.

That is, your odds of serious incident are pretty low.

But, when I interviewed Valter Longo, PhD, a fasting and longevity expert and author of The Longevity Diet, he did cite two deaths he knows of, who were people fasting for a length of time, one of them with diabetes and one with multiple sclerosis.

While Longo recites the many incredible health benefits of fasting, I imagine he doesn’t want the liability of people at risk fasting for long periods of time, due to his recommendations.

Frankly, neither do I, in an age of litigiousness.

This seems ridiculous, given that millions of people have fasted, accidentally due to lack of food, or on purpose, for literal millennia. But, here we are in 2019 where most Americans have never gone a whole day without food, and some tell me they’ve never even skipped a meal. We might be more in need of fasting than any culture in the history of mankind.

So, here’s my onerous disclaimer: if you undergo a water-only fast or dry fast longer than a day, don’t say that I told you to do it. Please do it under the supervision of a trusted functional medicine practitioner.

This story you’re reading is about my experience, is not medical advice, and does not substitute for competent medical care.

What Are the Side Effects of Water Fasting Without Food?

Hunger and Energy Fluctuations

It goes without saying that you’re really insanely hungry the first few days. Then, your body and mind settle in.

Some people describe having lots of energy. Most don’t! Generally, the longer you fast, the more your cravings for food subside, and so does your energy.

Your spirit will stay higher if you’re “doing the mental work” of challenging yourself with the task of confronting your addictions, congratulating yourself on your progress each day (or hour), reminding yourself of the health benefits, and staying positive.

If you’re smart, you don’t take a laptop with a huge writing project and deadline, like I do. (Every single time. A single mom’s gotta work!)

If you can afford the time off from life, you can just lie in bed and take short walks now and then, but not do much of anything unless you feel like it.

That said, you know yourself, and some of us do better when we’re as productive as energy allows.

I think fasting without food would actually be harder for me if I were like everyone else at the ashram and didn’t work at all.

On about day 4, I start to have periods of not feeling hunger. One of the nuns told me that this is my body and mind “accepting” the fast.

Muscle, Tissue, Organ, and Fat Cleanup

But, I also, in each of my last 3 fasts, start to have lower back pain on day 4. In my regular life, I do not experience low-back pain.

A health expert friend told me it was backlogged broken-down proteins in my kidneys. Dr. Alan Goldhamer at True North Health Clinic, when I interviewed him on my podcast (Vibe, Episode #134 on iTunes and Stitcher) told me that’s not the issue. He said it’s not a serious problem, and it’s common with water fasting.

But frankly, the pain was bad enough that I could not sleep without ibuprofen, a few times, even though I never take painkillers or other meds in my regular life. And taking a drug known to cause risk to gut and liver on an empty stomach made me wonder if I was doing more harm than good in my long water fasts when I hit day 4, and the low-back pain began.

Your organs, muscles, joints, and even every cell, needs some cleanup, and this is the work you do when you stop taxing the body’s energy systems with food metabolism. Perhaps some systems of elimination get backed up, on occasion. When I am doing the Flash Fast for 3 days, I do not get the back pain, the adrenaline surges, or any other Herxheimer reaction.

Don’t overattach, as the Hindu monks would tell you. Don’t worry that fasting will wreck your healthy muscle tissue.

Remember, the fasting process doesn’t want to break down a healthy muscle. Healthy muscle is strong, and it is serving you well.

As you deprive your body of food, it’s nasties like bacteria, cancer, and yeast that are gobbled up like crazy—that, and belly fat!

Fasting Is Different For Everyone

My friend Katie Wells, who has one of the most popular wellness blogs online, “The Wellness Mama,” recently water fasted for 2 weeks and found that after the first three days of weakness and hunger, she was insanely productive⁴¹.

She cooked for her family of 6 children and just abstained from food.

As I mentioned before, if I was at home cooking for my own children, I lack confidence that I wouldn’t cave and throw in the towel, after a day or two, promising myself, “I’ll start again tomorrow.”

Total isolation and removal from food temptation, like I get at the Texas ashram, is very beneficial to me (also a little lonely).

Fasting without food gets you “up close and personal” with all your addictions. You know how you need a coffee to wake you up? (Or if you’re like me, it’s an afternoon pick-me-up while you’re working.)

Well, you can’t have one. You can’t have a glass of wine (or two) on Saturday night, you can’t snack. Maybe you can have a cup of tea, though--as long as it has no caffeine.

And, this becomes an interesting deep dive into your soul, where you learn how addicted to stimulation, in general, you are.

What will you do with that knowledge? I think even the awareness is helpful towards managing addictions and moving through them to a healthier place.

I think that if you can soldier on and do your work and tend to your family, the time will pass more quickly than if you do what I do:

Sit around in bed, mostly, working on your laptop and watching movies. P.S. Try not to watch movies about food.

When I was hitting a wall, in my most recent 7-day fast, on day 3, the nuns told me about some of their other water fasters.

The longest? An older man fasted for 40 days without food. Pretty Biblical, right? They said he would pretty much lay in bed the whole time and was very, very weak.

But, the woman who stayed in my room before me had come for a 30-day fast, brought her dog, and planned to confront her emotional eating problem.

She ended up extending two more days. (Wow.)

Another woman came for three weeks and walked 10 miles a day.

Like I said, fasting is different for everyone. In fact, while each of my long fasts has had similarities, my process, struggles, and epiphanies are different each time, too.

What Does Research Show the Benefits of Water Fasting Are?

There are a host of health benefits that result from giving your body and your digestive system a break. What’s exciting is that the new but growing body of evidence on modified fasting yields very similar results.

Anti-Cancer Benefits

I was first handed a bibliography of books on fasting by Thomas Lodi, MD when I was on a worldwide research tour of 20 clinics studying non-toxic cancer treatment.

Lodi feels that fasting for 30 days is the best thing a cancer patient can do. Those books on fasting are found in the References section below.

Some disagree. In fact, Valter Longo, PhD, who specializes in fasting and in oncology in his research, feels that fasting while doing chemo is highly effective, protective of healthy cells. However, he says that in both animals and human studies, he’s never seen fasting alone turn cancer around.

And, I think it’s clear that when a patient is in Stage IV and cachexia has set in, where the body is metabolizing muscle to feed cancer and stay alive, fasting may be a very poor idea.

But, Dr. Lodi maintains that the evidence shows it to be a powerful cancer preventative and treatment adjuvant.

With quite a bit of cancer in my family, my primary reason to fast, periodically, is cancer prevention.

Anti-Diabetes Benefits

One study shows fasting to be regenerative for insulin production, as the pancreas repairs itself during a period with no food. And, the results weren’t short term: months later, they remained.

This is especially true when the person fasting begins “refeeding” on a plant-based diet. (Dr. Longo says the evidence is clear that the plant-based diet, for life, is best, for longevity, with small amounts of wild-caught fish, twice a week, as well.)

Several studies in Dr. Longo’s book cite turning around type 2 diabetes, though Dr. Longo feels that a modified fast is preferable and less risky for diabetics. Those taking insulin should not go without food for a long period of time.

Having guided 13,000 people, now, through our detox program in the past 5 years, I agree with Dr. Longo that many people are simply too toxic to do a full-blown fast, with no food at all.

(Some feel great the whole 26 days, but others struggle, even with eating three times a day on the detox, as they come off their caffeine, alcohol, sugar, salt, and other addictions.)

However, with rare exceptions, anyone can do our 26-day detox protocol, and almost anyone can do the new Flash Fast, which is a 3-day protocol where all the food you need is sent to you.

Autophagy Benefits: Cleaning Out for Better Rebuilding

At the water fasting retreat I did in 2016, I met a man named Eric.

His reason to fast was that a practitioner told him to do it for 20 days, to burn out a severe candida overgrowth.

Eric had been a heroin addict for many years, and he’d been hospitalized for the effects of his drug use, where he contracted MRSA that required a month of antibiotics. And, as you may know, antibiotics usually lead to gut issues.

His were extreme. Absolutely anything he ate bloated his otherwise flat stomach to looking like he was 8 months pregnant. He was miserably sick and desperate.

He was desperate enough to stop eating for 3 weeks.

However, contrary to Eric’s belief, arriving at the retreat, the primary benefit of fasting isn’t ketosis, although you are definitely in ketosis after a day or two.

Eric was after “ketosis,” where the body burns ketone bodies in the brain for fuel, which is all the rage currently with practitioners.

(I predict the obsession with ketosis, which is actually the body in crisis, will eventually go the way of the dodo. And in fact, those having positive results doing the high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet may be feeling better and losing inches because it is usually accompanied by time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting! In other words, the positive effects of short fasts, and getting off processed foods, are why some people lose weight—not because they’re over-eating fats and avoiding even healthy carbohydrates.)

I explained autophagy to Eric, which is far more interesting to me.

It is literally defined as “self-eating," because when the body has no other fuel, it feeds its cells and does cleanup work by metabolizing cancerous growths and breaking down yeasts, mold, fungi, viral, bacterial, and many other aberrant cells and growths.

Dr. Longo’s research culling epidemiological studies, as well as centenarian studies and his own research with various populations, points to not just the “self-eating” phenomenon of autophagy burning out aberrant cells first (not muscle mass, my friends, not unless that muscle needed replacing) but also the efficacy and power of the rebuilding process, which happens after the fast.

Amazingly, 3 weeks of water fasting rectified Eric’s desperate situation, and a few months after finishing his fast, he texted me that he was still feeling great.

Neurological Benefits of Water Fasting and Fasting

Not only does fasting help our bodies, but it also benefits our brains. New studies show that fasting may improve cognition, long after the fast itself, and fasting can actually ward off neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and even improve our memory and mood.

Dr. Longo cites a study showing that fasting contributes to stripping down and rebuilding the myelin sheath, an exciting possibility for multiple sclerosis patients.

Other studies reveal a correlation between fasting and improved neural connections in the hippocampus (the part of our brain that plays a critical role in memory)⁴². It has also been shown to reduce the number of amyloid plaques—the proteins associated with Alzheimer’s.

Fasting has also been shown to increase the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that contributes to the growth and maintenance of the brain’s nerve cells and has an anti-depression effect.

Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, explained in Johns Hopkins Health Review how fasting produces changes in the brain.

When you eat, glucose (or sugar) is stored in your liver as glycogen. Once the glycogen is used up, in about 11 hours, your body starts burning fats that are converted to ketone bodies.

It is these acidic chemicals that actually produce positive changes in the structure of synapses—or the gap that transmits information from one nerve cell to another. These cells have been shown to transmit signals to and from the brain at speeds of 200 mph.

When we constantly eat, our bodies don’t have a chance to produce these ketones. It’s interesting to note that exercise has similar positive effects on the brain.

Immune System Regeneration Benefits

The results of yet another study conducted by Professor Longo and his colleagues at USC surprised even them—in fact, they called the unexpected outcome “remarkable.”⁴³ The research consisted of asking a group of people to fast for 2 to 4 days a month, for a period of 6 months.

What surprised the researchers was this: fasting caused the immune system to regenerate. They believe that the body, put into a state of low reserves, does what it can to save energy.

The result is that a lot of damaged immune cells, along with glucose, fat, and ketones, are broken down. The depletion of these immune (white blood) cells results in stem cell-based regeneration of new immune cells.

Another one of their findings was a noticeable decrease in the production of the enzyme PKA, a hormone that has been associated with an increased risk of cancer.

The reduction in PKA allows the stem cells to switch into regeneration mode, ultimately rebuilding your entire immune system. It's pretty incredible.

Anti-Aging Benefits

Researchers from the Department of Medicine at the University of Virginia found that fasting for just 2 days produced a 5-fold increase in human growth hormone (HGH)⁴⁴.

This hormone that diminishes as we age is associated with muscle and bone growth as well as sugar and fat metabolism. It has also been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms of congestive heart failure.

In addition, clinical findings showed a decrease in cholesterol and triglycerides as well as inflammation which, as we know, is associated with a number of chronic diseases such as arthritis, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure.

Asthma Benefits

In another study conducted by Mark Mattson’s team, participants with moderate asthma cut their caloric intake down to about 1/5th (or 20 percent) of their normal consumption every other day for 8 weeks (this would be an example of a modified fast)⁴⁵.

The result? The symptoms associated with their asthma “improved significantly.”

Is Water Fasting Without Food Good for Weight Loss?

Fasting is great for weight loss. But, then again, that may not be a great primary reason to fast. I’ll explain.

First of all, there are much easier ways to lose weight. Faster isn’t always better.

Second, you will gain back some or most of the weight you lost--and that’s a good thing. Please note that the evidence shows most people do NOT gain the weight back from a modified fast such as the Flash Fast. However, in a water-only fast, for many days, or weeks, you will gain some weight back. I’ll explain that, too.

You have to understand that fasting is a two-part process.

There’s the first period where you aren’t eating. As discussed before, your body is breaking down old cell parts, tissues, and fat stores, and healthy cells are consuming dead cells for fuel and so that they don’t swamp the filtering organs like the kidneys.

But, there’s also the “refeeding” process. That’s where you give the body very healthy fuel, after your fast, to rebuild the broken-down tissues.

Because if “you are what you eat,” then you want to eat lots of the cleanest foods possible, that is, nutrient-dense, organic plant foods, including greens, vegetables, nuts and seeds, fruits, and legumes. And, if you eat animal products, eat very clean ones, and sparingly. Your key in the “refeeding” period, which is roughly half the period of time you were fasting, is to eat mostly or all plant-based whole foods, including some good fats.

So, one of the first parts of the body to break down is fat stores, especially belly fat, according to research literature cited by Longo. But, as you may know, fat cells don’t disappear.

They only shrink. So, if you go back to your old ways of eating, you can fairly easily rebuild those belly fat deposits.

You’ll have to end your fast with a commitment to eating mostly plant-based whole foods if you want the belly fat not to return.

Some people respond to the idea of fasting with this: “That’s a terrible idea because you’ll lose muscle mass!”

This seems to be a vestige of the protein-obsessed fitness industry, who thinks that (a) anything that builds muscle mass is good (not true!) and (b) anything that decreases muscle mass even to the smallest degree is bad (also not true!).

Remember, any muscle tissue that your body breaks down in the fasting process (a) needed to be broken down and metabolized anyway, which is hard on the kidneys but great for your stripped-down and rebuilt lean muscle, and (b) will be the first to be rebuilt, along with healthy organ tissue, like pancreas, kidney, or liver.

I recommend if you fast and you’re interested in weight loss, you should not weigh yourself every day or set a goal of how many pounds you want or expect to lose.

You’re going to lose how much you lose. And, in the “refeeding” process, you may gain a little bit of the weight back. (You need to.)

Just trust the process, don’t make weight loss the primary goal, and focus on the health benefits. If you want to use a scale, do it before you start, and after the “re-feeding” process that is about half the length of time you were fasting.

How Can I Get the Benefits of Fasting Without Actually Fasting?

Like Dr. Longo, I wouldn’t tell any first-time faster, someone who has never done a committed detoxification protocol or a long-term (4+ days) fast, to fast without dipping a toe in the water first. Here are several options to try something less extreme, first:

1. Do A Flash Fast for 3 Days

You’ll eat 650 calories a day, plus leafy greens and up to 2 servings of cooked or raw veggies or 1 serving of fruit, for a total of no more than 800 calories. With this method, you will achieve similar autophagic and ketotic health benefits that water fasting achieves.

You can do it very inexpensively at TheFlashFast.com, and after you order, make sure you also get on our Facebook page for support from our trained health coaches and other people doing the program. If you like the program, you can sign up for our Subscribe & Save program to do it monthly, every other month, or quarterly. The average weight loss has been 3.6 pounds.

2. Do Our 26-Day Detox Protocol

A second option, as I’ve mentioned, for a hard reboot of the body’s digestive system and a lot of breakdown of old material and elimination of chemicals in organs and fat deposits, our 26-day process is highly effective, based on the research and practice of the “greats” in the field of human detoxification.

For over two decades, I studied the clinical and research work in human detoxification of these great minds, including Dr. Max Gerson, Dr. Bernard Jensen, Dr. Ann Wigmore, and Dr. Richard Anderson, among others. Their best practices influenced my own 25-year dive into how the body purifies itself and how to optimize it, to be healthy in a toxic world. Those useful detox optimization practices all make an appearance in my 26-Day Detox as well, so I owe them all a great debt of gratitude.

3. Skip Lunch or Dinner Each Day For An Extended Period of Time

Another way to try out fasting, without going straight to a week or two with nothing but water is to eat only two meals and an approximately 100-calorie snack (like an apple or a small green smoothie).

And, this is my suggestion: significant evidence shows breakfast to be very important, especially as brain fuel if you work for a living or go to school. Children critically need breakfast, as this study⁴⁶ and others show. So, skip lunch or dinner rather than breakfast.

To keep the feeding window small, and give the body maximum time for autophagic and repair activities, consider eating breakfast at 9 am, and eating a large lunch at 2 pm. This enables you to feel comfortable, and never get too hungry, and if you need a piece of fruit or a salad as a snack, do that before 7 pm.

4. Do Alternate-Day Fasting

Another way to fast, as I’ve mentioned one of Mark Mattson’s Johns Hopkins studies previously, that dramatically helped asthma sufferers—you can fast one day a week, or even every other day for an extended period of time. In the Mattson study, participants achieved much better health cutting 80% of their calories every other day, for 8 weeks.

Ways to Optimize Cleansing

Any time you dramatically clean up your diet or stop eating, your body quickly recognizes better raw materials coming in, and it recognizes an opportunity where it doesn’t have to spend most of its energy digesting food. (Your body is a miracle. It wants to purify itself, it knows how, and it will do so, the very best it can, given a chance for even a few days!)

1. Infrared Sauna

Dr. Bryan Walsh is a naturopathic doctor and a detoxification practitioner. He feels that no one should undergo a fast without a sauna. I agree that it’s a great tool to increase throughput while you’re “cleaning house.” There is such a flood of chemicals and metabolic waste coming through; a daily sauna session would be more than helpful.

Having an infrared sauna at home is potentially one of the most useful things you can invest in for your health. Make sure it’s a low-EMF sauna using untreated cedar wood. (Cedar does not mold. And many saunas have high EMF, which is counterproductive to your goals.)

And if owning one isn’t an option, some spas let you pay for 30- to 45-minute sessions. I find that most saunas’ heaters do not get to over 150 degrees, and the scientific literature shows benefits at 150 degrees and higher. (For this reason, I have a sauna that gets to 170 degrees, with low-EMF, quick-to-heat tecaloy heaters.)

Fasting, or even a modified fast, will be optimized by daily sauna sessions. It’s one of several ways that I recommend you help your body out, moving junk out, rather than allowing it to recirculate through blood and organ systems.

The ashram I fasted at, for 7 to 12 days, four different times, did not have one, and wasn’t interested in investing in one. Dr. Alan Goldhamer, co-owner of True North Health Clinic in Santa Rosa, California, thinks that infrared sauna, like exercising or working your paid job, is more work than your body wants to do, as it focuses on cleansing.

So there are varied opinions, but I think the amount of heavy metals and chemicals in tests of sweat, after a sauna session, show what a good idea this practice is, when you’re focusing on cleaning house.

2. Coffee Enema

I think a coffee enema would be very helpful as a daily practice throughout a fast. (Another reason I don’t recommend the ashram I went to, is that they specifically forbid coffee enemas. They don’t want any potential messes in the residential bathrooms.)

The caffeine in the organic coffee implant in the colon is instantly taken up by the hemorrhoidal vein to the liver, dilating the liver bile ducts, and stimulating peristalsis, to release a lot of toxicity into the lower colon. This way a large quantity of toxicity quickly leaves the body, rather than recirculating over and over.

Palmitic acids from the coffee not only cause the production of as much as 800% more glutathione (the master antioxidant, with a major role in detoxifying) and many people doing coffee enemas report a positive, energetic mood, even euphoria, for some time after the procedure.

Our detoxers who do this optional but encouraged practice report quick and highly reliable relief from headaches, constipation, and many other symptoms of detoxing (called Herxheimer reactions).

This practice was pioneered by Max Gerson, MD, about 100 years ago, and I personally have used it with astonishing results in my own detoxification experiments and working with 13,000 detoxers, over two decades.

Dozens of holistic clinics around the world employ it, as well, especially for cancer patients to help eliminate tumors breaking down. (For example, this Swiss clinic of biological medicine I take my readers to each summer for a liver detox.)

As of this writing, mid-2019, I am in the process of creating two products I’m very excited about, which will be game-changers for those who, like me, have found bi-annual detoxing to be totally life-saving.

One is a squeeze bottle to make coffee enemas quick and easy, without the hanging bucket or bag that take 10 minutes to get the water or coffee implant in the rectum. The other product is a finely ground organic, unroasted green coffee, with added coconut husk charcoal, so you don’t have to brew coffee and get all the benefits. You can just put 2 tsp. of the mix into your water, in the squeeze bottle enema delivery system.

Unroasted green coffee is ideal, for the best nutrient density and caffeine, and adding charcoal is a great improvement, too, as it has no toxicity and binds to toxins to remove them safely from the body when you expel your coffee implant.

Make sure you’re subscribed to GreenSmoothieGirl.com online so you’ll know when these products are released.

If coffee enemas are a new concept to you, don’t worry—our 26-day detoxers get a how-to video from me, and they have great success with it.

I do not recommend coffee enemas as a daily practice—only while you are in a process to facilitate a high amount of toxic output through your organs of elimination. The rest of the time, you want peristalsis to move your bowels—and healthy peristalsis (or contraction of the colon’s musculature, moving waste through efficiently) results from a healthy, high-fiber, mostly plant-based diet.

Some people love coffee enemas so much that they become reliant on them after they complete their detox. While I’m not particularly concerned about the probiotics flushed out of that last 6 inches of your GI tract, by the water flush and then coffee implant—I think taking PreZymePro (live enzymes, prebiotics, and 15 different probiotic strains) for at least a month after completing a 26-day detox addresses that minor issue—I do think that you’re better off letting the body’s own digestive tract do the work most of the year when you’re hopefully eating clean, but not detoxing.

Most probiotics are dead by the time you take them. To test your brand of probiotics, open the capsule and sprinkle it on a small dish of room-temperature dairy milk. If 4 hours later, the milk is not thicker, tart, and lemony-tasting (cultured), then your probiotic brand, like most, is comprised of dead cultures not doing you any good.

Who Shouldn’t Fast?

People with renal (kidney) damage shouldn’t fast.
Pregnant and nursing mothers
Children (In fact, children shouldn’t do severely “time-restricted eating” or “intermittent fasting” that involves skipping breakfast, either, according to one study.)
People with significant diagnoses shouldn’t fast without recommendation and supervision by your functional medicine practitioner.
People with diabetes who must take insulin

Again, before attempting a water fast of more than a day, if that idea appeals to you, I’d start with the Flash Fast, our solution for those who’ve learned how powerful modified fasting can be, but aren’t sure what to eat, and could use some support.

(We also support a private Facebook page, where experienced and compassionate health coaches will answer your questions and help you, on your first Flash Fast and any others you may wish to do. You’ll also find the community helpful. Because you shouldn’t feel “alone” as you do something brave and new for your health!)

Obese people are most likely to fast, and I’ve read of some fasting for 8 weeks or more. Obesity itself presents an enormous risk of death, and extreme solutions, such as gastric bypass, are also very risky. So it stands to reason that these individuals have higher rates of complications when fasting.

But those with extreme fat stores are also storing more toxins, as fat attracts and holds chemical toxicity. Plus, folks struggling with obesity virtually always have a number of pre-existing conditions. So, all the risks of long-term fasting are much higher for people who are more than 60 pounds overweight.

They should be under medical supervision. Because while it may be tempting to think “go big or go home” with the long water fast, the risk of cardiac arrhythmia, renal damage, or hyperacidity is also higher. Thus, supervision becomes more important, and 3-day Flash Fasts may be much safer.

If you are going to attempt a water-only fast, it would be very wise to get off caffeine for a week beforehand. This way, you won’t be struggling with caffeine withdrawal (and resulting headaches and other symptoms for many) while also taking on the challenging of fasting.

What I Learned From Fasting

In my long water-only or juice-only fasts (7 to 20 days each), I learn and grow in many ways. As I strip down broken parts and bits of organs, fat stores, and muscles and tissues, a similar process occurs in me, emotionally and mentally.

I break down a bit, and rebuild.

And, this is why the spiritual seekers and mystics fast, for even longer periods of time than I do to allow spirit triumph over the body, for a time, and to bring the mortal body low, to humble it, so that only the spirit is strong.

For many, fasting is a way to humble oneself to be more capable of giving thanks and worshiping divinity.

For me, too, it’s my shield against living in a world where I have to breathe cadmium and arsenic in the air—and even occasionally, despite my significant efforts, eat genetically modified foods and refined foods with carcinogenic chemicals added. And drink water, sometimes with plastics or antibiotics or fluoride in it.

In my weakness, I also learn how strong I am. I discover that I can do hard things and that I can mentally overcome the weakness of the flesh.

Amazingly, while my most recent 7-day fast was the hardest, I think it was also the most emotionally cathartic.

I learned how my brain, deprived of fuel, affected the way I view others. I decided to observe it rather than judge it.

Basically, I was mad at everyone and everything, for two days, as energies and matter moved through me.

Adrenaline is increased in many who fast for several days, according to one piece of research⁴⁷. (This also explains why I had a resting heart rate of 78 when my normal is 55, and in the last few days of my fast, I felt my heart pounding in my chest.)

I was working on my laptop, and occasionally phone, and I found that things I would normally take in stride provoked a surprising amount of irritability and flashes of anger. It lasted two days, and then I woke up, peaceful, the last morning.

My awareness was heightened. I thought a lot about my weaknesses and addictions, and I stared at them without shaming myself. I was just observing.

I realized—without even tea, or chewing gum, to entertain my mouth and my senses—how many times, during any day, I do something to manipulate my energy, my anxiety, or my ability to rest.

It’s not like I’m taking depression meds, sleeping pills, painkillers, or street drugs.

But, I do drink coffee to power through an intense afternoon of work, and I do drink wine to lubricate a stressful social engagement with strangers.

I do jumping jacks next to my desk to ramp up my energy during the workday, and I play sports every morning not just because you’re supposed to break a sweat, for your health, but also for the adrenaline rush and endorphins I draft on, all day.

It is an interesting and useful exercise to fast for a week or two, where all these tactics are off the table. And, I have nothing to rely on except my mind.

In so doing, I find that my mind is strong enough to conquer difficulties. This is good to know, because if we know one thing about life, it’s that we will face serious challenges in the future.

The main thing I accomplish, then, when I fast, is strengthening my body and mind. I hope you’ve learned some useful things about the experience of fasting, and the benefits of doing a modified fast.

References are at the end of this book, linking you to the published research on the health benefits (and risks) of fasting and modified fasting. But first, these are my answers to the most common questions we are getting about Flash Fasting for 3 days.

FAQ’s About the GreenSmoothieGirl Flash Fast

Q: How often can I do the Flash Fast? Should I wait a certain amount of time before I do it again?

A: It is generally safe to do, even up to once a week. Dr. Longo recommends a modified fast monthly for people seeking weight loss, and quarterly for healthy people wanting a disease preventative.

Q: Briefly, what are the health benefits of modified fasting, in the published scientific literature?

A: Shifting the body into abdominal fat-burning mode; weight loss and control; killing damaged cells and replacing them with regenerated cells from stem cells; switching cells to anti-aging mode; improving skin inflammatory disorders; increasing stem cells and human growth hormone; rejuvenating the immune system; improving cognition and memory; preventing Alzheimers and other forms of dementia; slowing bone loss; increasing lifespan; decreasing tumors; reversing fatty liver; preventing cancer and reducing chemotherapy toxic side effects; reversing myelin sheath damage for multiple sclerosis sufferers; returning diabetics to normal insulin sensitivity and blood sugar stabilization; returning to normal blood pressure and getting off statins; decreasing asthma symptoms.

Q: When should I eat my 5 mini-meals?

A: Research shows that higher mortality is associated with skipping breakfast, and additional research shows many health benefits achieved by limiting the “feeding window” to 10-12 hours a day. So, start by eating one protein shake for breakfast (consider blending in greens, and half a banana with peel), and eat your remaining four mini-meals, spread out, in the following 12 hours later (or less) for best results.

Q: Can I make substitutions? (for nut allergies, etc)

A: Yes, if you are allergic to nuts, for instance, and cannot eat the bars, you can substitute an equivalent (150 cals) amount of organic, high quality (whole-food, plant based, not from isolates) protein, and vegetables or fruits.

We recommend more vegetables than fruits, to manage your blood sugar. We also use bone broth protein in one version of our Flash Fast, despite otherwise relying entirely on plant-based food as the research on modified fasting recommends.

Q: Isn’t Longo’s research on modified fasting using only plant-based foods?

A: Yes. If you want to follow what is known in the scientific literature (USC’s/Longo’s clinical trials on modified fasting put people on entirely plant-based foods), choose our 100% Plant Based version of the Flash Fast.

The other version contains some of our superfood plant-based protein blends, and some bone broth protein, as well. This is a slight deviation from what is known about how to achieve health benefits through modified fasting, and we will be compiling our own followup research.

I would choose our 100% Plant Based version if you are a committed vegan, and I would choose the Plant-Based + Bone Broth if you have digestive/gut issues.

Q: There’s been some media attention to many bone broth products containing high levels of toxicity. Should I be worried?

A: Testing shows most bone broth brands to contain heavy metals and insecticides. Mike Adams published a 2017 report proving many bone broth brands to be high in several heavy metals and insecticides and other -ides (pesticide, herbicide, fungicide). Adams later heavily redacted the piece, removing many of the brands whose high toxicity he had exposed in his original article, probably due to legal threats from those brands.

GreenSmoothieGirl Bone Broth Protein has been tested by 2 different third-party labs to be free of pollutants in these categories as well as other types of pollutants. I use it myself, despite being otherwise vegan, due to bone broth being so clearly (in the scientific evidence) healing for the gut and protective of skin and connective tissue.

Q: Can I add food if I'm really hungry?

A: Yes, you can add cooked or raw vegetables to your daily diet, but you don’t want to consume more than 800 calories. (You may wish to amplify your protein shakes with a handful of leafy greens.)

A: What if I don't want to lose weight?

Q: You are likely to lose a pound (or 2 or 3), when you eat only 650 to 800 calories per day, for 3 days. However, there are gut-healing benefits, and people who are underweight no matter what they eat have significant gut dysbiosis. So, they tend, through fasting, modified fasting, or a quality detox, to do some important gut healing, and get to a healthy weight afterward.

Q: Can I drink coffee? What about decaf?

A: We highly recommend that you drink NO caffeine not only during the Flash Fast, and also for 3 days in advance, to eliminate the “coffee withdrawal” effects (for some) before you start. Coffee is dehydrating and not conducive to the health benefit goals of the program. Decaf coffee still contains caffeine and is highly acidic, and both those properties compete with the goals of the program.

Q: Can I drink tea? And if so, what kind?

A: Yes, as long as it is caffeine-free and organic, you can drink unlimited quantities of herbal tea.

Q: Are there any fruits that are off limits?

A: No. However, if you add greens or thin-skinned fruits to your menu, always choose organic. With other vegetables and fruits, wash well before eating or blending into your shake.

Q: Should I continue taking my supplements while fasting?

A: You can continue to take any supplements and medications. Consult your doctor if you are taking prescription medications and want to do the Flash Fast, especially drugs for diabetes or heart disease.

Q: How will doing the Flash Fast impact my metabolism?

A: There is no evidence that your metabolism will be negatively affected by 3 days of Flash Fasting (or even by doing it twice in a row). On about the 4th or 5th day, you will feel less hungry, though, and your metabolism may slightly slow down, which is why we suggest doing one 3-day Flash Fast monthly, twice a month, or at the most, once a week if weight loss is a goal.

In fact, modified fasting shifts the body into a mode of burning fat in the abdominal area, and evidence shows this continues after returning to a normal diet, probably because of epigenetics, or genes “turned on” by the fasting process.

Q: What kind of food plan should I do after my FF to keep my health gains and weight loss?

A: Please sign up for Robyn’s FREE video masterclass here about how she lost 70 pounds and has kept it off for over 20 years, eating a whole-foods, 95%+ plant-based diet, without dieting or suffering. The 2 days after your Flash Fast are important “refeeding” days, where you want to avoid processed food and all but the cleanest animal proteins because you are rebuilding cells that were broken down in autophagy—so you want to have excellent raw materials to rebuild with.

A: Who shouldn’t do the FF?

Q: Stage IV cancer patients in cachexia or patients who are severely underweight should not do the FF. Pregnant women and mothers who are exclusively breastfeeding, or where breast milk is the primary source of calories, should not do any form of fasting. If you are medically fragile, have liver or kidney diseases, have an eating disorder, take medications, especially insulin for diabetes, or hypertensive drugs, or if you are over 70, please consult your trusted physician before undertaking any major change in diet.

Q: How much water should I use with my protein powder?

A: For the best flavor, we suggest 8 ounces of water. You can increase the water or blend ice into it if you wish.

Q: Won’t my body begin to metabolize muscle by eating a diet low in animal protein?

A: No, it’s a myth that the body metabolizes muscle. You would have to stop eating for a long time, for the body to begin to “self-eat” healthy muscle tissue. In fact, fasting makes you sensitive to insulin, and also puts the body into hyper-burn for fat, so you will lose mostly fat, and some dirty fluids in inflamed tissues. In autophagy and ketosis, the body first metabolizes broken parts, diseased tissues, growths, bacterial and viral colonies, and mutated cells—as well as fat stores.

Q: May I add the optional fruit (½ frozen ripe organic banana, with peel—cut off top and bottom) in 2 smoothies a day?

A: Yes! You may add up to 150 calories in fresh raw or steamed fruits and vegetables. This allows for one banana, and, for instance, a serving of steamed asparagus or carrots. You will be surprised that the banana peel does not change the flavor, and it adds resistant starch to your diet, which is filling, and is excellent prebiotic fiber for good gut health.

Q: May I add leafy greens to my protein powder to make a smoothie?

A: Yes! Leafy greens are extremely low in calories, nutrient-dense, and you can add them in unlimited amounts to your smoothies. Don’t let them go bad in your fridge while you’re doing the Flash Fast, throw them in the blender!

What does one serving of fruit look like?

A: 1 small fruit like a peach, banana, or apple, or 1 cup of cut-up fruit or fresh or frozen berries.

Q: What’s the difference between a detox and a fast?

A: Fasting generally means going without food. The Flash Fast is a modified fast, following what the published research shows you can eat and still achieve the weight loss and disease prevention and symptom reversal benefits.

Many programs claim to be “detoxes,” but the legitimate ones leverage scientific knowledge about the organs and systems of elimination, to draw out chemical and physical toxins to purify the body. Fasting and the Flash Fast modified fast have strong detoxification benefits as well.

Q: What can I do if I get cold?

A: If you have the bone broth protein, blending it in a cup of hot water makes a nice “hot cocoa.” You can also drink hot tea, or steam vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, or others you like.

Q: What should I do if I get shaky, weak, or lightheaded?

A: Drink extra water, drink half a cup to a cup of coconut water, or move up your next mini-meal, to eat it earlier! You can also add ¼ tsp of Real Salt or other unrefined salts, to a glass of water and drink it, up to twice a day, if your blood pressure is low.

Q: Can I have starchy vegetables or vegetables higher in sugars, such as potatoes, carrots, and beets?

A: Potatoes and sweet potatoes, no. You can have a one-cup serving of a vegetable like carrots or asparagus or cauliflower or broccoli, along with one small fruit like an apple, nectarine, or banana.

A: What happens if I go back to my regular diet after fasting? Will this have a similar effect on my body as yo-yo dieting does?

Q: The “refeeding” process after a fast is important because that’s when your body rebuilds the broken parts that were torn down and metabolized via “autophagy” while fasting (or in our case, “modified fasting”). So, eat mostly organic vegetables, starches, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and nuts and seeds.

Keep animal products to a minimum and only wild-caught, free-range, or grass-fed, if you must eat animal products and eggs. Don’t eat dairy products, processed food or stimulants, in the several days after the fast when you are “re-feeding.”

As for weight loss, even going back to the amount and quality you ate before, some published research shows that no weight gain happens after even 5 days of “modified fasting,” and people who do a modified fast for 3-5 days each month can lose up to 60 pounds in a year, even while not changing their diet the rest of the month!

Q: Can I exercise while on the Flash Fast?

Most can, and feel great. If your body tells you to slow down, be willing to listen to its cues, because as lots of garbage is thrown out, it has to go through a number of organs and systems of elimination, and sometimes that takes considerable energy.

For people who are already significantly weakened or who have high “toxic body burden,” it can even be uncomfortable as you cleanse quickly, and through neurological pathways and the digestive system. (Headaches, diarrhea, or fatigue happen for a very small minority.) Consequently, it is possible that you may have less energy leftover to work out. Consider a lighter workout during your few days of modified fasting.

Q: Why is the Flash Fast 3 days? Could you do it for longer? (For example, 5 days like Dr. Longo’s Fasting Mimicking Diet)

Our modified fast is 3 days. Dr. Longo’s company’s ProLon is 5 days. We have studied Dr. Longo’s research on what we call “modified fasting,” though we avoid using his trademarked term Fasting Mimicking Diet to describe our program. We do reference his and others’ published clinical research on the benefits of what we call “modified fasting.”

We bring consumers a shorter course of 3 days, with certified organic foods, far less packaging, and far less expense. Our program is 70% less expensive per diem than ProLon. We also like to encourage you to add vegetables and greens to your Flash Fast, whereas ProLon is 100% packaged food, and ingredients we do not understand and can’t find answers to, like a glycerine drink. We feel program participants can get results with both products, but we wanted to make a cost-effective, organic program made of simple superfood ingredients that leaves room to add fresh vegetables and fruits if you wish to.

If you wanted to do up to 6 days at a time, you could use two Flash Fasts. You may find it easier for an accelerated schedule of weight loss, for instance, to do our 3-day Flash Fast twice a month.

Q: What if you start your day with/or drink lemon water — can you still do this?

Yes, you can.

Q: Can you have celery? Celery juice?

Yes, and yes. Celery juice and celery are extremely low in calories, and fairly nutrient-dense. You can add it to your protocol.

Q: Will you see benefits from doing the Flash Fast one time? Or do you need to do it for 3 months, or monthly, for the benefits?

You will see benefits from doing the Flash Fast once. For those with weight to lose, and/or an interest in preventing disease and rebuilding diseased tissues (such as those with medical diagnoses, or those who have been through chemo or radiation), they may want to do it monthly. Doing it from monthly to quarterly is a great health preventative for virtually everyone.

Q: Is the Flash Fast safe for pregnant and breastfeeding women and older adults?

We do not recommend the Flash Fast for pregnant women or women in the first months of exclusive breastfeeding. It is fine for older adults, and the fact that you do eat some food makes achieving the benefits of fasting safer than eating no food for long periods of time. However, if elderly program participants have diabetes, heart disease, or other significant conditions or drug prescriptions, they should consult their physician before making any significant dietary changes.

Q: Is the Flash Fast good/safe to do while traveling?

Yes, it is safe and easy to do while traveling.

Q: Should you avoid alcohol while doing the Flash Fast?

Please avoid alcohol and caffeine while doing the Flash Fast. These will both dehydrate you, and alcohol will tax your liver, and we are trying to give your liver a break and dilate your ducts and vessels to “clean house” throughout your body while you eat less and your body is then able to focus its energy on tear-down and rebuilding tasks rather than daily maintenance.

Q: What are the ingredients of each product, and are they organic, kosher, vegan, etc.?

A: For the Flash Fast, you can choose 100% Plant Based, which is all vegan, or Plant Based Plus Bone Broth (for the gut health benefits). While the bone broth cannot be certified organic and is not vegan, the 100% Plant Based version of the Flash Fast is organic, kosher, and vegan. The following are the ingredients in each of our nutritionally balanced blends:

Organic Superfood Protein Meal Vanilla Kiss

Ingredients: Organic Plant Protein Blend (*Pea Protein, *Hemp Protein), Organic Superfood Blend (*Quinoa Powder, *Milled Chia Seeds, *Flaxseed Meal, *Fruit and Vegetable Blend (*Carrot, *Beet, *Spinach, *Tomato, *Broccoli, *Orange, *Apple, *Shiitake Mushroom, *Cherry, *Cranberry, *Blueberry, *Strawberry) *Tapioca Fiber, Valinna Flavor, *French Vanilla Flavor, *Stevia, Vitamin Blend (Vitamin C, Niacin, Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Vitamin A, Vitamin B12)

*organic ingredients

Organic Superfood Protein Meal Chocolate

Ingredients: Organic Plant Protein Blend (*Pea Protein, *Hemp Protein), Organic Superfood Blend (*Quinoa Powder, *Cocoa Powder, *Milled Chia Seeds, *Flaxseed Meal, *Cocoa Powder, *Fruit and Vegetable Blend (*Carrot, *Beet, *Spinach, *Tomato, *Broccoli, *Orange, *Apple, *Shiitake Mushroom, *Cherry, *Cranberry, *Blueberry, *Strawberry) Vanilla Flavor, Chocolate Flavor, *Stevia, Vitamin Blend (Vitamin C, Niacin, Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Vitamin A, Vitamin B12)

*organic ingredients

Grass Fed Bone Broth Protein Vanilla Shake

Ingredients: Grass-fed bone broth protein, natural vanilla flavor, monk fruit

Grass Fed Bone Broth Protein Chocolate Shake

Ingredients: Grass-fed bone broth protein, natural chocolate flavor, natural cocoa powder, monk fruit

Organic & Raw Sprouted Ground Flax Seed

Ingredients: Organic ground sprouted flaxseed

Green Smoothie BlendBar Superfood Bar (Certified Organic)

Ingredients: Dried Fruit Blend (*Dates, *Bananas [with *Rice Flour], *Raisins), *Cashews, *Tapioca Syrup, Fruit and Vegetable Blend (*Carrot Juice Powder, *Spinach Leaf, *Broccoli Sprout Powder, *Kale, *Acerola Powder [with *Tapioca Maltodextrin]), *Rice Protein, *Vanilla Extract, Sea Salt

*organic ingredients

Pink Smoothie BlendBar Superfood Bar (Certified Organic)

Ingredients: Dried Fruit Blend (*Dates, *Cranberries [with *Apple Juice Concentrate], *Goji Berries), *Cashews, *Tapioca Syrup, Fruit Blend (*Raspberries, *Acai Fruit, *Acerola Powder [with *Tapioca Maltodextrin]), *Rice Protein, *Natural Flavors, Citric Acid

*organic ingredients

Chocolate Dipped Smoothie BlendBar Superfood Bar (Certified Organic)

Ingredients: Dried Fruit Blend (*Raisins, *Bananas [with *Rice Flour], *Dates), *Cashews, *Dark Chocolate (*Coconut Palm Sugar, *Chocolate Liquor, *Cocoa Butter, *Cocoa Powder, Sunflower Lecithin),*Tapioca Syrup, Fruit and Vegetable Blend (*Carrot Juice Powder, *Spinach Leaf, *Broccoli Sprout Powder, *Kale, *Acerola Powder [with *Tapioca Maltodextrin]), *Pumpkin Seed Protein, *Vanilla Extract, Sea Salt

*organic ingredients

References

Longo, V. D., & Mattson, M. P. (2014). Fasting: molecular mechanisms and clinical applications. Cell metabolism, 19(2), 181–192. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2013.12.008. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3946160
Choi, I. Y., Piccio, L., Childress, P., Bollman, B., Ghosh, A., Brandhorst, S., … Longo, V. D. (2016). A Diet Mimicking Fasting Promotes Regeneration and Reduces Autoimmunity and Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms. Cell reports, 15(10), 2136–2146. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2016.05.009 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4899145
Cheng, C. W., Villani, V., Buono, R., Wei, M., Kumar, S., Yilmaz, O. H., … Longo, V. D. (2017). Fasting-Mimicking Diet Promotes Ngn3-Driven β-Cell Regeneration to Reverse Diabetes. Cell, 168(5), 775–788.e12. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.01.040. https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30130-7
Goldhamer, A et al. (2001). Medically Supervised Water-Only Fasting in the Treatment of Hypertension. Journal of Manipulative & Physiological Therapeutics, Volume 24, Issue 5, 335 - 339. https://www.jmptonline.org/article/S0161-4754(01)85575-5/fulltext
C Goldhamer, Alan & J Lisle, Douglas & Sultana, Peter & V Anderson, Scott & Parpia, Banoo & Hughes, Barry & Campbell, Thomas. (2002). Medically Supervised Water-Only Fasting in the Treatment of Borderline Hypertension. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.). 8. 643-50. 10.1089/107555302320825165. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/107555302320825165
Muller H, de Toledo FW, Resch KL. Fasting Followed by Vegetarian Diet in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review. (2001). Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE): Quality-assessed Reviews [Internet]. York (UK): Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (UK); 1995-. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK68524
Horne, B. D. et al. Usefulness of Routine Periodic Fasting to Lower Risk of Coronary Artery Disease in Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography. (2008). American Journal of Cardiology, Volume 102, Issue 7, 814 - 819.e1. https://www.ajconline.org/article/S0002-9149(08)00901-6/fulltext
Horne, B.D. et al. (2013). Randomized Cross-Over Trial of Short-Term Water-Only Fasting: Metabolic and Cardiovascular Consequences. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume 23, Issue 11, 1050 - 1057. https://www.nmcd-journal.com/article/S0939-4753(12)00257-8/fulltext
Li C, Ostermann T, Hardt M, Lüdtke R, Broecker-Preuss M, Dobos G, Michalsen A. (2013). Metabolic and Psychological Response to 7-Day Fasting in Obese Patients with and without Metabolic Syndrome. Forsch Komplementmed 2013;20:413-420. doi: 10.1159/000353672. https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/353672#
Schmidt S, Stange R, Lischka E, Kiehntopf M, Deufel T, Loth D, Uhlemann C. (2010). Unkontrollierte klinische Studie zur Wirksamkeit ambulanten Heilfastens bei Patienten mit Arthrose. Forsch Komplementmed 2010;17:87-94. doi: 10.1159/000285479. https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/285479
Andreas M, Chenying L, Katharina K, et al. In-Patient Treatment of Fibromyalgia: A Controlled Nonrandomized Comparison of Conventional Medicine versus Integrative Medicine including Fasting Therapy. (2013). Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2013, Article ID 908610. https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/908610/cta
Andreas M, Martin K., Rainer L, et al. (2006). Prolonged Fasting in Patients with Chronic Pain Syndromes Leads to Late Mood-Enhancement Not Related to Weight Loss and Fasting-Induced Leptin Depletion. Nutritional Neuroscience, 9:5-6, 195-200, DOI: 10.1080/10284150600929656 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10284150600929656
Andreas M, Barbara Hoffmann, Susanne Moebus, Markus Bäcker, Jost Langhorst, and Gustav J. Dobos. (2005). The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/acm.2005.11.601
Olsen, Brad. Modern Esoteric: Beyond Our Senses. CCC Publishing. 08/2017.
Fasting Across Religions. Retrieved from https://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2001/02/Fasting-Chart.aspx
Toxic Chemicals. Retrieved from https://www.nrdc.org/issues/toxic-chemicals
Fond, Guillaume & Macgregor, Alexandra & Leboyer, Marion & Michalsen, Andreas. (2013). Fasting in mood disorders: Neurobiology and effectiveness. A review of the literature. Psychiatry research. 209. 10.1016/j.psychres.2012.12.018. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165178112008153
Longo, Valter PhD. The Longevity Diet. Avery. 2018.
Wu, Suzanne. Fasting Triggers Stem Cell Regeneration of Damaged, Old Immune System. USC News. 06/2014. https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system
Openshaw, Robyn. 26-Day Detox. Robyn Openshaw/GreenSmoothieGirl.com. 12/2017.
Fitzgerald, Randall. The Hundred-Year Lie: How to Protect Yourself from the Chemicals That Are Destroying Your Health. Dutton. 2006.
Cheng, Chai-Wei. Prolonged Fasting Reduces IGF-1/PKA to Promote Hematopoietic-Stem-Cell-Based Regeneration and Reverse Immunosuppression. (2014). Cell Stem Cell. https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(14)00151-9
Collins, Nicholas. The Bone Marrow Protects and Optimizes Immunological Memory during Dietary Restriction. (2019). Cell. https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30849-9
Jordan, Stefan. Dietary Intake Regulates the Circulating Inflammatory Monocyte Pool. (2019). Cell. https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30850-5
Brandhorst S, Longo VD, Fasting and Caloric Restriction in Cancer Prevention and Treatment. Recent Results in Cancer Research. 10/2016. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27557543
Fung, Jason Dr. How to Fix Your Broken Metabolism by Doing the Exact Opposite. Intensive Dietary Management. https://idmprogram.com/fix-broken-metabolism
Cheng, Chia-Wei et al. Fasting-Mimicking Diet Promotes Ngn3-Driven β-Cell Regeneration to Reverse Diabetes. Cell. 02/2017. https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30130-7
Brandhorst, S. et al. A Periodic Diet that Mimics Fasting Promotes Multi-System Regeneration, Enhanced Cognitive Performance, and Healthspan. Cell Metabolism. 07/2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26094889
Wei, Min et al. Fasting-Mimicking Diet and Markers/Risk Factors for Aging, Diabetes, Cancer, and Cardiovascular Disease. Science Translational Medicine. 02/2017. http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/9/377/eaai8700
EJ, Masoro (2005) Overview of Caloric Restriction and Ageing. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15885745
Fung, Jason Dr. How to Fix Your Broken Metabolism by Doing the Exact Opposite. Intensive Dietary Management. https://idmprogram.com/fix-broken-metabolism
Amaravadi, R., Kimmelman, A. C., & White, E. (2016). Recent insights into the function of autophagy in cancer. Genes & development, 30(17), 1913–1930. doi:10.1101/gad.287524.116. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5066235
Willard, H.F., Greig, G.M., Powers, V., & Waye, J.S. (1987). Molecular organization and haplotype analysis of centromeric DNA from human chromosome 17: implications for linkage in neurofibromatosis. Genomics, 1 4, 368-73. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2896633
Li, Q. Liu, Y. Sun, M. (2017). Autophagy and Alzheimer’s Disease. Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, April 2017, Volume 37, Issue 3. doi:10.1007/s10571-016-0386-8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27260250
Bagherniya, Mohammad & E. Butler, Alexandra & Barreto, George & Sahebkar, Amirhossein. (2018). The effect of fasting or calorie restriction on autophagy induction: A review of the literature. Ageing Research Reviews. 47. 10.1016/j.arr.2018.08.004. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30172870
Martinez-Lopez, N., Tarabra, E., Toledo, M., Garcia-Macia, M., Sahu, S., Coletto, L., … Singh, R. (2017). System-wide Benefits of Intermeal Fasting by Autophagy. Cell metabolism, 26(6), 856–871.e5. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2017.09.020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5718973
Abelaira, H.M., Réus, G.Z., Neotti, M.V., & Quevedo, J. (2014). The role of mTOR in depression and antidepressant responses. Life sciences, 101 1-2, 10-4 . https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24582593
Merenlender Wagner, Avia & Malishkevich, A & Shemer, Z & Udawela, Madhara & Gibbons, Andrew & Scarr, E & Dean, Brian & Levine, J & Agam, G & Gozes, Illana. (2013). Autophagy has a key role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Molecular psychiatry. 20. 10.1038/mp.2013.174. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24365867
Germic, N., Frangez, Z., Yousefi, S., & Simon, H. (2019). Regulation of the innate immune system by autophagy: neutrophils, eosinophils, mast cells, NK cells. Cell Death & Differentiation, 26, 703-714. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41418-019-0295-8
Ives, L. (2018). Can the science of autophagy boost your health? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-44005092
Wells, Katie. My Experience with Water Fasting & Why I’ll Do It Again. Wellness Mama. 03/2018. https://wellnessmama.com/345549/water-fasting
Sugarman, Joe. Are There any Proven Benefits to Fasting? Johns Hopkins Health Review. 2016. http://www.johnshopkinshealthreview.com/issues/spring-summer-2016/articles/are-there-any-proven-benefits-to-fasting
Wu, Suzanne. Fasting Triggers Stem Cell Regeneration of Damaged, Old Immune System. USC News. 06/2014. https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system
Hartman, ML. et al. Augmented growth hormone (GH) secretory burst frequency and amplitude mediate enhanced GH secretion during a two-day fast in normal men. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 04/1992. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1548337
Johnson, James B. et al. Alternate Day Calorie Restriction Improves Clinical Findings and Reduces Markers of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Overweight Adults with Moderate Asthma. Free Radical Biology and Medicine. 03/2007. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089158490600801X?via%3Dihub
Grantham-McGregor, S. Can the Provision of Breakfast Benefit School Performance? Food and Nutrition Bulletin. 06/2005. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16075563
Zauner, C. Resting energy expenditure in short-term starvation is increased as a result of an increase in serum norepinephrine. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 06/2000. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10837292