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Breaking the Fast

Breaking the Fast

The re-feeding period after fasting is crucial for the success of the fasting experience. In fasting centers, a common recommendation by supervising physicians is that the faster take half the time of the fast to ease back into eating. So if you fast 7 days, you should take another 3-4 day to break the fast. If you fast two weeks, you should take another week to break the fast. A conservative approach to re-introducing food and activity is in the best interest of all fasters at any age.

“If there are two mistakes that are commonly made after fasting, they are eating much too soon, and moving too much too soon.”

If there are two mistakes that are commonly made after fasting, they are eating too much too soon and moving too much too soon. Food needs to be gradually introduced after a period of fasting. Fasts are most successfully broken with a succession of diluted and full-strength fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and salads, raw and cooked vegan meals. Even if you fast, fasting will always be just a small part of your life. You will be eating 99% of your time and fasting only a very small percentage of your life. So what you do before and after the times that you fast is going to be the most significant part of your health and weight loss program.

Just remember that because of the elimination of all calories, and a natural starvation response that is enhanced after periods of severe calorie restriction, there can be significant reactive weight gain after a fast if healthy, low calorie-dense, low sodium, plant-based eating and lifestyle habits are not maintained. Briefly, there is a kind of ledger sheet, an internal recognition system that the body uses to match its calorie intake to its calorie output. If you’re restricting your intake of calories but burning a lot of calories in physical movement, the body will slow down resting metabolism to hold on to future calories more forcefully, and you can begin to gain weight on less and less food intake.

Since there are no calories coming in during a fast, increasing physical activity during a fast is not only potentially dangerous but can promote excessive reactive weight gain after the fast. Therefore, maintaining as much rest as possible is recommended during the fast, followed by a diet low in oil, refined sugar, animal products, and salt.

Since there are no calories coming in during a fast, increasing physical activity during a fast is not only potentially dangerous but can promote excessive reactive weight gain after the fast. Therefore, maintaining as much rest as possible is recommended during the fast, followed by a diet low in oil, refined sugar, animal products, and salt.

Physical activity should also be gradually introduced after fast. If you have been doing nothing but resting during an extensive fasting period, it is in your best interest to ease back gently into an ongoing exercise regimen. Doing too much too soon can cause undue physiological stress to the body, and even potentially provoke some unforeseen damage and disability.

Depending on the length of the fast, I typically recommend short periods of walking, swimming, or biking on a stationary bike, or even rebounding on a rebounder, just about 4-5 minutes at a time a few times a day, for the first few days after fasting. After this period, the activity can be extended several minutes a day over time until you’ve built up to about 30-45 minutes a day.

Being conservative in your eating and exercise activities after a fast will enhance any of the benefits you have achieved during the fasting process.

by Dr. Frank Sabatino, Health Director of Balance for Life Florida

Introduction to Water-only Fasting

Introduction to Water-only Fasting

By definition, water-only fasting means the abstinence from all food and liquids, except water, for some extended period of time. I myself have fasted thousands of people over the past 40 years for a wide variety of health concerns. Now I can appreciate that in our culture of gluttony and overeating, the idea of voluntarily abstaining from food-unless there is some enforced famine-may seem absurd and mind-blowing. Yet, there is an extensive body of evidence supporting the use of water-only fasting in a wide range of health problems including obesity.

There is an Extensive Body of Evidence Supporting the Use of Water-only Fasting in a Wide Range of Health Problems Including Obesity.

The loss of appetite and fasting are natural to all animals, including humans, in response to disease and stress. If you observe animals in the wild, or even your own house pets, you will notice that when they are injured or diseased they will often retire to a quiet and comfortable place, stop the intake of all food and continue drinking water only. When less energy is required for eating, digesting and procuring food, more energy is available for healing and repair.

The body has a deep rooted need for energy and the sugar that provides it. The way food, and the lack of food, is handled to meet this need speaks directly to the role of fasting in health, fat and weight loss. When food comes into the body, the sugar that it contains basically goes in 3 directions:

  • Bloodstream , to maintain adequate blood glucose
  • Liver, where it is stored as the starch, glycogen
  • Fat Cells, as long term energy storage

When you stop eating, the first thing that happens is that blood sugar levels begin to drop. This is a primary stress and threat to the body. The most significant blood sugar drop occurs in the first few days of fasting. As a result, the body begins to access the sugar that is stored in the liver to replenish the declining blood sugar level. However, the sugar reserve in the liver can only last for 24-36 hours, and if you fast longer than that, the body satisfies its blood sugar and energy needs with protein in our muscles, and fat in our fat cells.

There is more protein metabolism and lean muscle breakdown in the first few days of fasting, but within a few days protein loss begins to slow down as the body shifts to fat metabolism. So that by the end of the first week, the energy needs of the body are derived almost exclusively from fat. And the ketones produced by fat metabolism in the fast are used directly by the brain as primary source of energy  during extensive periods of fasting.  The loss of protein and the depletion of blood sugar is more comfortably regulated by insuring that the fasting person maintains maximum rest. If the person attempts too much activity on a fast, there will be more rapid muscle loss and blood sugar decline.

In fact, it is important to see fasting as a deep physiological resting process. In fasting, the body shifts from a typical phase of growth to a phase of energy conservation maintenance and repair. As evidence of this, the growth factor, Insulin-like growth factor (IGLF), which is abnormally increased  by eating refined foods and animal products, and can promote cancer and tumor growth in adults, is reduced during fasting. This reduction of IGLF, combined with the process of self-digestion, autophagy, that occurs during the fast, can even promote the reduction or elimination of tumors and growths.

Not only is fat an available energy reserve in the body, but it also serves as vehicle for the storage of waste and toxic fat-soluble chemicals that we are routinely exposed to. Every second of every day, the cells of the body are taking in nutrients and eliminating waste and by-products of routine metabolism. In addition to this internal toxemia (toxic debris in the bloodstream), there are a variety of chemical poisons that come into your body from the outside, e.g. pesticides, pollution, additives in foods, toxic foods, drugs that you’re taking etc., that also need to be eliminated from the body. Many of the environmental toxins, and even internal waste products, are able to be dissolved in fat. So not only do fat cells of the body provide a primary source of energy, but they also work like a garbage dump, hiding and storing our toxic load.

The energy that is harbored in the fasting process can also enhance the mobilization of waste from storage areas, and the removal of this waste through organs and tissues of elimination in a process of detoxification. The respiratory surface of the lungs and the skin are the largest organs of the body. So it is very common to see discharge, drainage and symptoms of elimination via these organs including mucous discharge, cysts, rashes and boils. In fasting, not only are the processes of detoxification and elimination enhanced, but the body also demonstrates an intelligent and very selective control over these processes.During fasting the body will utilize what it needs least to provide support for what it needs most. It needs heart, and lungs, and kidneys, and bowels etc., but it doesn’t need cysts, tumors, stones, and growths. So through autophagy, it will break down a tumor or a cyst, take from it what it can use to support the vital organs of the body, and eliminate the rest. That’s why we often see cysts, tumors, and stones break down and dissolve during fasting.

What makes fasting even more beneficial is that while many pathological conditions are improved, there is also significant fat and weight loss. In the early days of fasting, weight loss can be as much as 1-2 pounds a day. However, this weight loss will taper off to some degree as the fast ensues, often reducing to a half a pound a day in the latter stages of more extensive fasts. Typically, the more obese the individual is at the start, the more dramatic the initial weight loss is. I have had people lose 20 pounds in two weeks of fasting, and as much as 30 pounds or more in a month.

Fasting is not a mystical process. Although it has been used by a variety of spiritual traditions as a tool for introspective evaluation and spiritual growth, fasting is truly just a profoundly simple process of deep physiological rest.The goal is to harbor as much energy as possible for the healing work at hand. That means rest on every level, including all the senses. The more time spent being quiet, serene, and introspective the better.

Sometimes, only by slowing everything down and stepping back from the chaos and distractions around us, can we feel, question and change the patterns and choices of our lives. For this reason fasting is also a profound tool for creating a more mindful self-aware life, and resolving compulsive addictive behavior

Fasting promotes fat breakdown, detoxification, and repair like nothing else. It enhances the balance and function of the hormonal (endocrine) system, while significantly improving the metabolic efficiency of the liver and digestive systems, thereby promoting improved calorie use and fat loss across time. Fasting can be also be one of the most powerful approaches for resolving inflammation and the complications of autoimmune disease. The body-mind changes evoked by the fasting process make it one of the most efficient and powerful tools to jump start any new health program in general, and a significant and successful long term weight loss program in particular.

Balance for Life Florida…

is one of just a few places in the world, and the only oceanfront health retreat, where you can experience supervised water-only fasting.

please Call us at 1-(800)-663-9292 for program and reservation information, and see if you are a candidate for the profound benefits of water-only fasting.

Balance for Life Florida. com

By Dr. Frank Sabatino, Health Director of Balance for Life Florida.

Change Your Life Change Your Genes

Change Your Life Change Your Genes

Change Your Life, Change Your Genes

The Epigenetic Benefits of a Hygienic Lifestyle

Genes are the functional units of heredity comprised of spiraling sequences of DNA. According to the Human Genome Project, there are 20-25,000 genes contained in the chromosomes of every cell in the human body. Genes provide the blueprint that transcribes all the proteins that are necessary for the function of all body cells and systems as well as all of the traits of our physical and psychological identity.

Unfortunately, many people sell themselves short by feeling completely defined, limited and even imprisoned by the deck of genetic cards they were dealt at birth. So that you often hear people exclaim that because their parents or grandparents had diabetes, or heart disease or some form of cancer, etc. they would likely develop the same problems. Even worse is when people discover that they have some genetic construct, like BRCA genes in women that may predispose them to the development of breast cancer, that makes them feel like they have no choice but to opt for some medical intervention that can compromise their health or be coerced to surrender their vital body parts to surgical mutilation for fear of what “may” happen.

Genes

You Can Help Change Your Genetic Blueprint!

It is so important to realize that you do not have to feel handicapped by your trans-generational genetic hand-me-downs. Burgeoning research in the study of epigenetic effects strongly suggests that outside environmental factors and lifestyle choices can modify gene expression without changing the hardwired inherited sequence of DNA nucleotides that make up your genes. This provides a remarkable opportunity for hopeful positive change and is an exquisite example of how modern scientific observation of the integral sublime function of the body connects with and reinforces the profound ancient wisdom of Natural Hygiene.

Routine, healthy lifestyle choices, especially plant-based nutrition, stress management techniques and physical activity can dramatically alter how genes function and may reduce the deterioration and morbidity from heart disease, cancer, immune disorders, and depression while even slowing down the aging process. Conversely, risky lifestyle choices can ultimately promote similar disease and breakdown in different people regardless of their genetic backgrounds. An example of this is the growing pandemics of obesity, heart disease, colon and reproductive cancers in Japan, China and other parts of Asia that did not exist when the Asian populations were eating more of their ancestral plant-based diets. However as they continue to saturate their diets with more animal protein, saturated fat, dairy products and refined sugar similar to people in the US and other western nations, they continue to develop the same devastating chronic diseases as these western nations regardless of their obvious genetic differences from non- Asians living in the West.

Your genetic blueprint can predispose you to any number of positive and negative conditions and changes. But what you choose to do, and the environment that you create on a routine basis in your life, goes a long way to determining how your genetic background expresses itself and whether any of your negative predispositions become concrete outcomes.

You must know that you don’t have to drown in your own gene pool. It is so important to realize and embrace the power of personal choice. It is so important to free yourself from the genetic constraints and fears that may dominate your concerns and realize that your genetic foundation is a shimmering tapestry capable of profound modification and change.

Simple constructive lifestyle choices of plant-based nutrition, consistent exercise, and activities that promote psychological poise and stress management dramatically promote healthy gene expression and reduce the devastating causes and effects of disease and aging.

By Dr. Frank Sabatino

How Industrial Pollutants Promote the Growth of Fat Cells

How Industrial Pollutants Promote the Growth of Fat Cells

As important as plant-based eating, consistent activity, adequate sleep, and stress management are to weight control, any discussion of successful, healthful weight loss must include the negative impact of industrial toxins and pesticides on weight regulation.Remarkable research in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. suggests that the most overweight people are found in cities and areas with the greatest amounts of industrial and environmental pollution. In the U.S, the 10 cities with the most overweight people are connected either to the Mississippi River (the most polluted river in the U.S.) or in the case of West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia, are home to some of the top-20, mercury-polluting power plants in our nation.

While the lifestyles in these industrial waste areas may promote poor eating habits and sedentary behavior that contribute to weight gain, it has become more apparent that increased levels of industrial pollutants also contribute significantly to increased body fat and weight gain. Mines, refineries, and factories regularly produce toxic products for commercial sale and use on our food supply.

They also release a variety of industrial toxins (by-products of their operations) into the environment.Many of these toxic products, such as pesticides, are derived from fossil fuels (the same gas and oil reserves that are burned for our energy needs). Fossil fuels are made from a combination of the decaying bones of ancient animals, and decaying earth and vegetation over a long period of time. As a result, toxic products derived from the bodies of these long-ago animals can affect the function and hormonal systems of all mammals, including humans.

These “endocrine disruptors” can:

• compromise fertility and the reproductive cycle of mammals,• compromise adrenal and thyroid function• influence the creation of fat cells, and• promote reactive weight gain and obesity.

Furthermore, since industrial toxins and pesticides are derived from oily fossil fuel reserves, they are fat-soluble and so can be dissolved in fat and oil. So when the body is exposed to these chemicals it can dissolve and store them in fat cells and fat tissue. By storing these chemicals in fat tissue, they can be removed from general blood circulation, thereby reducing potential toxic effects on the brain, heart, liver, and kidneys. Therefore, since the body can protect itself by storing this toxicity in fat tissues, an increased exposure to these toxic chemicals may exaggerate the production of body fat.

In addition, pesticides and industrial toxins can signal and trigger dormant immature fat cells (pre-adipocytes) to grow into mature fat cells, increasing body fat and promoting weight gain. As a result, these toxic chemicals are now referred to as “obesogens,” chemicals that promote an increase in weight gain and obesity.

As fat cells grow, due to toxic stimulation, it is harder to keep weight down. Weight gain urges the detoxifying systems of the body to slow down and store more chemical toxins (“obesogens”) in the growing mass of available fat. As the body becomes fatter and more toxic, there may be an increase in inflammatory responses and additional toxic effects that overwhelm the body’s detoxification pathways even further.

Under this pressure, the body continues to try to minimize these fat-soluble toxins by making more body fat in which to store them, reinforcing an ongoing cycle of toxicity, fat, and weight gain.

Research has shown specific connections between a variety of toxic obesogens and specific health and weight-related conditions.

Navigating toxins

All of this highlights our need to consume as much organic produce as possible. Especially when you consider that there is significant pesticide contamination in conventionally grown fruits and vegetables, tap water, and baby foods. And when the Environmental Working Group, a watchdogorganization that monitors pesticide use in America, has detected pesticide residues in almost 70% of our produce (even after the produce has been washed and peeled) and also discovered that several popular brands of baby food were contaminated with fungicides and bug killers.

• I especially recommend eating ground plants, such as lettuce, deep greens, potatoes, celery, cucumbers, and berries as organically as possible, since these plants grow close to the ground and have short root systems (when they are sprayed with pesticides these chemicals can be taken up by the roots and concentrated in the cells of these plants).• Also, keep in mind that due to biological magnification, the pesticides in plants and grasses are even more significantly concentrated in the bodies of the animals that eat them; this strongly suggests that eating animal products can significantly increase your exposure to obesogens, and increase your risk of weight gain and obesity.

The good news is that there is a wide availability of organic plant foods at reasonable prices in a variety of conventional supermarkets and health food stores.

Furthermore, it is also important that the cleaning products for your home and beauty products for yourself be as green, clean, and devoid of toxic chemicals as possible.

It doesn’t pay to get overly stressed about the things you can’t change. However, you should take as many positive, proactive steps as possible to change what you can by consuming food and using personal products that are the least toxic and the most supportive for long-term health and weight regulation.

by Dr. Frank Sabatino