All About Fasting

[OzRich]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

Crepes made from buckwheat flour are really good. Just put some buckwheat flour in a bowl, add an appropriate amount of gluten free baking powder, a bit of salt, oil, and enough rice milk to make the batter the consistency you want. You don't need eggs or anything else. In fact, you can probably leave out the baking powder if you want.

I've been making them almost every day, ever since your first post about buckwheat pancakes Laura.
With lemon and Canadian maple syrup (high in potassium) they're YUMMY !

 

[Helle]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

Crepes made from buckwheat flour are really good. Just put some buckwheat flour in a bowl, add an appropriate amount of gluten free baking powder, a bit of salt, oil, and enough rice milk to make the batter the consistency you want. You don't need eggs or anything else. In fact, you can probably leave out the baking powder if you want.

I've been making them almost every day, ever since your first post about buckwheat pancakes Laura.
With lemon and Canadian maple syrup (high in potassium) they're YUMMY !

Try them with blueberries too, or any berries for that matter :D

 

[Nathan]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

I wasn't aware that maple syrup was allowed, assuming you are following an anti-candida diet. I've read some people suggesting it, and others going against it. When in doubt, I usually avoid it.

 

[Laura]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

If you are on an anti-candida program, then you will want to avoid maple syrup and other concentrated carbs. But if you have completed the program, you can have it occasionally.

 

[theos]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet


I was watching an online video (can't find the link) about how the government subsidizes the foods that are bad for our health like cereals, soy, milk and corn. I thought, "Jeez, the government is evil. Agriculture is evil." I also thought of this article: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/144687-Origins-of-Agriculture-Did-Civilization-Arise-to-Deliver-a-Fix and how the "gods" taught humans agriculture. I've been reading about gluten and MSG and such but I don't know much about corn.

I found this article from: http://dogtorj.tripod.com/id110.html

Corn- The Toxic Grain (The primer)

13) I Understand why wheat and dairy cause food allergies but how can corn be a problem? Didn't the American Indian eat a lot of corn and do well on it?

That's a great question with good answers- and a very timely topic. In fact, Diane Sawyer just had a segment this morning on how pervasive corn is in our diet and she mentions how she tries to avoid corn. They did not really expound on why they felt it was so harmful (they needed me on there, LOL) but were instead focusing on the role it may play in obesity, which it does in a big way. Here is the link to the ABC broadcast- http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com:80/ver/256.0/popup/index.php?cl=6960848

The main reason that corn causes obesity is the lectins (antibody-sized proteins/glycoproteins) it contains directly stimulate fat production. Here is a great primer on lectins for you- http://www.krispin.com/lectin.html . As the article describes, these lectins can do a number of things when they attach to a tissue cell in our body. One of the reactions is for the cell to duplicate or hypertrophy, which is what fat cells do in response to corn lectins. The glaring example of this is how corn feeding cattle not only fattens them up but causes them to deposit fat directly into their muscle. Do you want fat in your muscle? Absolutely not. But we do this in order to tenderize the meat, don't we? And how do we accomplish this again? We do this by feeding them- and us- unnatural grains that contain these potentially proteins (lectins).

And corn itself is unnatural. In fact, it cannot even reproduce on its own anymore. If we don't plant corn, it disappears...forever (which is not a bad thing except that it may make a good fuel source). Another fun fact can be found by doing a search for "corn gluten meal". You will find that it is used as a natural herbicide. Hmmm... It kills other plants. Does anything that we eat that is known to be healthy do this? If we ground up meat, eggs, broccoli, and bananas we would call it "fertilizer", wouldn't we?

Corn is what they now call a "cultigen". It no longer resembles its ancestors. The origins of corn lie in Middle America. It was later cultivated by the American Indian but something interesting happened whenever corn was introduced into a new population- pellagra broke out. Pellagra is a niacin deficiency and sources like Wikipedia (incorrectly) state that it was because niacin was locked deeply in the early forms of the corn's kernel and unavailable for absorption. This latter fact is true but would only account for pellagra if corn was their only source of niacin, an important B complex. Here is the link to Wikipedia that discusses the origins of maize (corn)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize.

Some mistaken people think that people in Biblical days ate corn because the word "corn" is in the Bible. The fact is that "corn" means grain and that is why they called corn "corn". In Bible usage, corn referred to wheat and barley. And those two grains were safe and nutritious back then because man had not put his hand to them- yet. That was not done until the mid-400's AD, when the Northern Germanics blended "God's wheat" with two other plants (weeds) and created common wheat, the ancestor of what we now eat. This ushered in celiac disease which wiped many of them out with severe dysentery (IBS). This is historical fact. Why? Wheat was no longer pure in its generations and remains changed to this day. There are now "tares" among the wheat. And like corn, it has now been hybridized and genetically modified to death...our death.

The fact is that corn is the fourth food- along with gluten (wheat, barley, rye), dairy (casein) and soy- that can damage the villi of the small intestine and cause them to atrophy. These finger-like projections increase the surface area of the duodenum, jejunum and ileum, and are responsible for absorbing our B complex, along with our calcium, iron, iodine, C, and trace minerals (such as boron, magnesium, manganese, copper, zinc, and many others). So, pellagra broke out in these corn-eating populations because it caused celiac-like lesions in those groups just as gluten was doing in Western Europe after common wheat was first cultivated- and just soy was doing in Asia before they learned to ferment the stew out of it.

These four foods- wheat, cow's milk, soy and corn- were the major dietary mistakes made by groups on each of the main continents, with Africa being one of the only areas where they did just about everything right: Non-gluten grains and the right kind of milk from the what they refer to now as A2 cattle. Here is a link that discusses the second bad choice we made about dairy. The first mistake was jumping ship from goats to cows as the source of milk in the first place. The second blunder was choosing the wrong cow (A1 versus A2)- http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/news?article=1d81b30f-8bf3-4db3-b838-e5210fead0d9 .

Finally, corn is now being closely studied for its damaging neurological effects, especially in the autistic individual. Once again, certain lectins are capable of killing neurons. We know that gluten can do this in sensitized individuals so we really should not be surprised that corn lectins can do the same thing. High fructose corn syrup is also a neurotoxin. Soy also does this, aided by the neurotoxic amounts of the amino acid glutamate (the parent protein in MSG/monosodium glutamate) and staggering levels of estrogen it contains. Here is a link to some recent studies on the effects of corn on brain function- http://wurtmanlab.mit.edu/publications/pdf/171.pdf

I would suggest an Internet search for things like "dangers of corn", "corn allergies", "high fructose corn syrup", and "corn gluten meal". I think you'll agree: We should have left corn's ancestors alone in Middle America, just like we should have left soy in the ground in Asia, allowed wheat to remain unchanged, and kept tending our flocks rather than developing dairy herds.



I hope this helps,

John

*John, I'm assuming, is the "dogtorj" who runs this website. I haven't explored the entirety of it yet.

 

[mcb]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

Here are a few resources that have been helpful for me:
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan -- corn in the food supply
King Corn, a video documentary (_http://www.kingcorn.net/, or I found it at Netflix) -- corn in the food supply
The End of Overeating by David A. Kessler MD -- "food science" and how we are enticed to eat unhealthy food

 

[abstract]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

I've been thinking about fasting for a while, a few days ago i experimented by seeing how long i could go without doing anything but drink water, i eventually broke down and ate
candy...F$%#. I just only read the first few posts, but the few points laura brought up have got me motivated now. Screw it, i'm fasting!

The gluten issues are an important point, too. Thanks for mentioning this.


Must read more research first...

 

[Laura]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

I've been thinking about fasting for a while, a few days ago i experimented by seeing how long i could go without doing anything but drink water, i eventually broke down and ate
candy...F$%#. I just only read the first few posts, but the few points laura brought up have got me motivated now. Screw it, i'm fasting!

The gluten issues are an important point, too. Thanks for mentioning this.


Must read more research first...

I think that fasting is not the best answer to the problems most of us deal with nowadays. I learned the hard way on my last fast that when your toxicity is over a certain level, fasting can be dangerous. Best to do some gentle detoxing for about a year before undertaking a fast.

 

[abstract]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

think that fasting is not the best answer to the problems most of us deal with nowadays. I learned the hard way on my last fast that when your toxicity is over a certain level, fasting can be dangerous. Best to do some gentle detoxing for about a year before undertaking a fast.

I had an urge to sarcastically splurge out "oh thanks mommy for letting me know yet another thing that is dangerous". ;D

But rather, I shall constrain the recklessness of my youth and detox first. Thanks for telling me that before I go and do something incredibly stupid! But since we're on the subject,

and this is just a teeny little question because i'm a little curious, but not expecting a yes. Could one undertake fasting in an incremental style? Do people do that? Or is it moot point? :)

 

[Pierre]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

think that fasting is not the best answer to the problems most of us deal with nowadays. I learned the hard way on my last fast that when your toxicity is over a certain level, fasting can be dangerous. Best to do some gentle detoxing for about a year before undertaking a fast.

Could one undertake fasting in an incremental style?

There's a lot of different kinds of fastings. Some are very radical, some others are more incremental.

But it seems wiser to first detox enough and then consider undertaking fasting.

 

[Heaalih]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

For those who want to do a week of fasting, I can share here my experience.

In fact, I did a week of fasting and hiking... Hiking is stimulating muscles and permits to keep muscles mass. This is a fast with drinking a lot of water. Drinking and hiking help to drain the body. Moreover, the fast includes two or three purge with magnesium salt to clean the intestines and I finished with a colon cleansing.

Before the fast, there is two weeks of preparation. Stop meat, fish, then cheese... and finish with vegetables. To start eating again, it is also progressive during two weeks. Starting with uncooked sauerkraut seems to help the intestines to rebuild intestinal flora.

It was difficult the first three days, but after, better every day. The last day I felt good and regenerated. I was feeding myself with the odours of cooking in the village.

This fast was supervised by two wonderful persons, (Gertrud and Gisbert). I warmly recommend to meet them for those who live in France. They organise fast in groups, and share all the knowledge with humour they have learned since they started to study this subject. They take good care of the persons when they suffer from detoxing.

 

[Laura]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

think that fasting is not the best answer to the problems most of us deal with nowadays. I learned the hard way on my last fast that when your toxicity is over a certain level, fasting can be dangerous. Best to do some gentle detoxing for about a year before undertaking a fast.

I had an urge to sarcastically splurge out "oh thanks mommy for letting me know yet another thing that is dangerous". ;D

Good thing you didn't; I'm not your mommy and you are not a child.

But rather, I shall constrain the recklessness of my youth and detox first. Thanks for telling me that before I go and do something incredibly stupid!

You are welcome to try it. But then, what makes us different from monkeys is our ability to communicate what we learn with one another via symbols, including words. Anybody who cannot learn from the experiences of others isn't much better than a monkey.

Am I being sarcastic? No. Think about it.

He who has the will of a Lion doesn't have the fate of a mouse.

And will includes, first of all, mastery of the self/machine.

But since we're on the subject,

and this is just a teeny little question because i'm a little curious, but not expecting a yes. Could one undertake fasting in an incremental style? Do people do that? Or is it moot point? :)

There are all different kinds of regimens that are often called "fasts" but that is really a misnomer. A popular one in France that is frequently done in September when the grapes are in, is a "grape fast." You just eat nothing but grapes and drink purified water for however many days. I've done it, but knowing what I do now about detoxing heavy metals and other chemicals that need a fully functioning system to pull them out and keep the outflow going, I think I would stick to getting the diet lifestyle fixed and adapting oneself to it fully over a long period of time. Otherwise, it seems that people use fasts because they think it is a quick fix, they can fast, go back to their bad habits, and then fast again later to clear out, and back and forth. It doesn't work that way. That does a lot of damage to the body. It can take a couple of years to fully detox.

According to the research of Psyche:

In the U.S. alone...

AUTOIMMUNE, CANCER AND HEART DISEASE

Up to 40 million Americans suffer from autoimmune disease [Stephen Edelson MD and Deborah Mitchell, "What your Doctor May Not Tell You About Autoimmune Disorders"]. Of that number, about 75% are women, making it the fourth largest cause of disability in women.

[Psyche: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates up to 23.5 million Americans suffer from autoimmune disease and that the prevalence is rising. But we want to use Dr. Edelson's statistics]

Autoimmune disease is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in female children and women in all age groups up to 64 years of age.

Researchers have identified 80-100 different autoimmune diseases and suspect at least 40 additional diseases of having an autoimmune basis. These diseases are chronic and can be life-threatening.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates up to 9 million Americans have cancer and 22 million have heart disease.

MENTAL DISORDERS

[From http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml]

Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.

In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada for ages 15-44.

Mood disorders include major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder.

* Approximately 20.9 million American adults, or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year, have a mood disorder

Anxiety disorders include panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias (social phobia, agoraphobia, and specific phobia).

* Approximately 40 million American adults ages 18 and older, or about 18.1 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have an anxiety disorder.

TOXICS

We are exposed to 6 million pounds of mercury and the 2.5 billion pounds other toxic chemicals each year.

There are currently more than 80,000 chemicals in consumer goods, with little or no safety information about their impact on human health.

The average newborn baby has 287 known toxins in his or her umbilical cord blood, 217 of which are toxic to the brain and nervous system.

15 percent of American women of child-bearing age have toxic levels of mercury in their blood. That means that 15 percent of the 4 million children born in the United States each year, or 600,000 children, are exposed to toxic levels of mercury in the womb.

Then there are the 3,500 different chemicals that are added to our food, and the more than 3,000 chemicals found in our homes.

The average American consumes literally pounds of hormones, antibiotics, food chemicals, additives, artificial sweeteners, and MSG each year. Each one of these toxic chemicals has been shown to harm the brain.

On average we consume a gallon of neurotoxic pesticides and herbicides each year by eating conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. (That’s with people eating much less than the 8 to 10 servings generally recommended.) Notice that pesticides work because they are neurotoxic to pests—they attack the nervous system.

ANTIDEPRESSANTS

One in ten Americans today uses antidepressants, while more than eight million children are taking stimulants like Ritalin.

189 million prescriptions are written for depression, at a cost of $12 billion a year. The use of these drugs has tripled in the last decade, according to a report by the federal government. In 2006, spending on antidepressants soared by 130 percent.

60 percent of people quit their antidepressant regimen after a few months because of side effects such as weight gain, loss of sex drive, or worse.


A team of researchers that reported their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine took a critical look at all the studies done on antidepressants, both published and unpublished. [Turner EH et al. 2007. Selective publication of antidepressant trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. New England Journal of Medicine. 358: 252-260.]

The researchers had to search the FDA databases, call researchers, and track down hidden data under the Freedom of Information Act in order to access the unpublished studies.

After looking at 74 studies involving 12 drugs and over 12,000 people, they discovered that 37 of 38 trials with positive results were published, while only 14 of 36 negative studies were published. And those that showed negative results were published in a way that conveyed a positive outcome.

In short, we are experiencing an epidemic of toxicity caused illness/disease in our world thanks to the greed of pathologicals, at least.

 

[abstract]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

Good thing you didn't; I'm not your mommy and you are not a child.

Correct! I was joking, of course. :)

Am I being sarcastic? No. Think about it.

You hardly ever come off as sarcastic, laura. The advice of the forum is important to me.

Otherwise, it seems that people use fasts because they think it is a quick fix, they can fast, go back to their bad habits, and then fast again later to clear out, and back and forth. It doesn't work that way. That does a lot of damage to the body. It can take a couple of years to fully detox.

What I've learned from the mistakes of others is that there is no "quick fix" when it comes to this stuff, how can there be??? There are no shortcuts of course, you're the one who really showed me
that in your writings. Not that abstract is using empty flattery. You're the one who's been through all this, so if I don't take your advice about something when I know that you know more about it
than me...well, then I guess i'd be a monkey!!

Thank you for the research page, I needed a little reminder of how toxified our environment is. With all that, it's amazing I don't die in my sleep.

It can take a couple of years to fully detox

Makes perfect sense, how can there be a quick fix if this stuff has been accummalating for "X" number of years? If you cover the walls with mud and do it every day, it's going to take awhile to get it all off.
IF that analogy makes any sense.

 

[kannas]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

I've been studying the threads on candida and detox, and this thread going on to research about blood type and gluten intolerance. I didn't know about the corn either. Soy is hidden in many products! I cut out MSG many years ago.

Almost 12 years ago, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Even though I had researched this online and reading books, I always felt there was something else going on. This past summer, after more rounds of tests for anything and everything, the doctor stated that the fibromyalgia is still the culprit, shrugged his shoulders as what to do and prescribed Lyrica. I started taking that after swearing off of prescribed medicine for nearly six years. It helped at first, then I began getting severe headaches and I gained 20 pounds. This past November, I quit taking Lyrica, and went on a detox diet. I lost 20 pounds by the end of November. So did my husband. We both decided to change what we eat and how we eat. We both are doing research in many areas of nutrition including meat production and consumption (currently reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer). I've always suspected that there is some type of inflammation going on with me. And I have been zeroing in on gluten intolerance. I do not think, so far, it is candida. Instead of more tests and doctors for now, I am experimenting with my diet and seeing what is going on in reactions. Gluten intolerance is standing out like a sore thumb, and possibly milk products. I even suspect this could be the case for my husband also. After reading about milk, ugh, I do believe cheese (the last of milk products I've eaten) is out.

Anyway, upon my research for gluten intolerance as well as reading this thread and these two posts: http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=9796.msg75119#msg75119 Candida vs. Gluten Intolerance Symptoms, in the Candida- The Silent Epidemic thread; and http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=12491.msg89423#msg89423 Celiac symptoms, in the Buckwheat Sourdough Starters? thread, I have come across some links for gluten free. The recipes for some, though, include sugar, milk and corn. These would have to be substituted for. I am putting together my own health and cookbook so that I can easily keep a grocery list and recipes to use for healthy eating. I am definitely changing over to gluten and milk free.

Here are the links I've come across for gluten free (moderators, please fix if needed and sorry if there is a repeat):

_http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

_http://aglutenfreeguide.com/

_http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/

_http://gflinks.com/

_http://glutenfreemom.typepad.com/gluten_free_mom/

_http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/

_http://www.glutenfree.com/home.aspx

 

[Gaby]

Re: Fasting, Gluten, MSG, Soy, Blood Type Diet

Almost 12 years ago, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

The book "Beating and Treating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" by Rodger Murphree is very useful, he compiles a lot of the information and provides useful guidelines for several imbalances. It can be found here: http://store.drmurphreestore.com/patrandbefia.html

I'm glad to hear about your commitment.