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Dr. Shelton’s reference to the “finish fast” which means total fasting until the exhaustion of nutritive reserves or the elimination of toxaemia, is generally unlikely in the majority of today’s enervated and toxaemic population. The human body is so saturated with drugs and chemicals and pollutants from many extrinsic sources that it is unlikely that total elimination of these toxins would be achieved in one fast. This depends upon so many different factors including inheritance, the age and state of health of the individual, their own personal history and their habitual practices.

I well recall a case of a gentleman who had suffered very severe arsenical poisoning, so much so that his tongue was virtually black. He had a number of fasts over a period of 2 to 3 years before there was any dramatic difference in his condition.

Children and young people will usually respond very favourably to hygienic care, there is no substitute for youth and vitality, they may achieve this result.

Question No. 2: Would the sign of complete purification of the body be the ability to fast for days on end without suffering any detox symptoms?

Answer: Certainly not. Many people in a very poor state of health may fast for considerable number of days or even weeks without experiencing detox symptoms. How many times do we hear of a patient with terminal cancer suggest how healthy they were before the appearance of the terminal illness. They will often claim they haven’t even had a cold in 10 years.

Real health is rarely placid and the dynamics of health are such that the organism, every so often, may display considerable violence in its eliminative processes. As we repeatedly point out people will commonly mistake healthy actions for disease and attempt to stop them. As Dr. Shelton has pointed out many times, health is dynamic action, it is physiological. Disease is dynamic action but it is pathological.

If you consider a person who has inadvertently swallowed a virulent poison, if he is in good health his actions will be prompt and effective, he will probably vomit or have diarrhoea, it will not be mere nausea but a vigorous and total emptying of the stomach and bowels- the better the health the more decisive and complete will be the eliminative effort. Certainly a person in good health would have the ability to fast for days without suffering any unusual symptoms, but this in itself is not a sign of health.

Answer to Question 3: As we fast stored reserves are broken down to supply energy and it is probable, in fact it has been demonstrated, that drugs and chemicals, DDT etc., which are fat soluble, may have been deposited in the tissues, they will be released during the fasting, they will enter the blood, they will probably cause symptoms during their elimination. However, we must understand that this is a gradual process, that the body is not breaking down more than a few ounces of fat each day at the most, therefore the toxin is released into the blood very slowly and certainly not at a rate sufficient to injure the host. This action actually represents one of the purposes of fasting in the first place.

Answer to Question 4: There is some evidence that the body can regenerate pathology affecting the eyes, however, it is unlikely that such defects as myopia, astigmatism, hyperopia are likely to be corrected as a result of lifestyle. These are essentially structural defects and they are not pathological evolutions.

Answer to Question 5: I certainly believe that any person can get to a point of nutritional deplenishment through fasting and cleansing diet regimes and that they no longer obtain sufficient nutrients in general to restore depleted or impaired tissues. It goes without saying that the body needs materials with which to work. This is one of the reasons why the I.A.H.P. insists that fasting be done under proper close personal supervision of somebody educated, experienced and skilled in conducting fasts.

However, to make the broad claim that fasting and cleansing diet regimes deplete the body is nonsense. It depends on the nutritional reserves. Fasting is such a natural procedure and, as I have previously pointed out, in Nature it is almost as common as feeding. If Nature employed such a widespread procedure it is hardly likely that it is going to damage enzyme pathways and impair liver detoxification etc. The problem in our society is more over-nutrition than under-nutrition. When these people refer to essential amino acids they imply something special, there are only 8 or 9 of them and almost all protein foods, and certainly all natural foods, contain these essential amino acids. It is not as if they are rare and very difficult to obtain, they are abundant in our food supply. Apart from the proviso that the body has adequate materials with which to work, the rest of this claim is nonsense.

Answer to Question 6: Dr.Jeffrey Bland is well known in the nutritional field and, along with the journalist, Arthur Stanley, he has products to sell – vitamins, minerals, enzymes, food additives and so on. They are not interested in lifestyle, they are not interested in following natural instincts but in plying the body with isolated nutrients and products out of their natural context in a vain attempt to replenish the depleted organism’s nutritional reserves. They have the remedy mentality and are essentially marketeers of products.

If a person cannot obtain sufficient nutrients from the food that they eat, then the food does not contain these nutrients. If the nutrients are present the body will derive them, if it cannot, it certainly will not do so from supplements. This is well demonstrated in pernicious anaemia where the sufferer can assimilate B12 from foods; they cannot do it from supplements either. Obviously it is necessary for the organism to be supplied, in natural foods, with all of its necessary nutritional essentials. It the diet is deficient then problems will sooner or later occur, to believe otherwise is untenable. In point of fact the medical literature and the scientific literature supports the view that the immune system is potentiated by fasting. To refer merely to IgA levels, which are very difficult to measure because they fluctuate so markedly that rational conclusions cannot really be drawn.

A person well acquainted with the physiology of fasting will know that during the fast anabolism is retarded and catabolism is accelerated. These two aspects of metabolism are modified to facilitate the detoxifying process. IgA levels may diminish and healing will retard during the process but healing will accelerate after the conclusion (of detoxification) and with re-alimentation.

To refer to one parameter, i.e. IgA levels, and then draw the conclusion that this represents immune depletion is non-sequiter.

Answer to Question 7: I have never observed nor do I know of any instance where fasting, conducted under proper conditions, has had a deleterious effect on digestive function. Certainly pancreatic enzyme production does diminish during fasting, obviously because there is no substrate, i.e. food, to be digested. Why would the body continue to produce digestive enzymes, in usual quantities, when no food is being consumed, that is part of the process of conservation during fasting. Intestinal membrane healing slows during fasting, certainly because we have increased catabolic activity and somewhat reduced anabolic activity. This however does not refer to the efficiency of the healing but to the speed of the healing. On terminating the fast healing accelerates at a more than unusual rate.

The experience of hygienists and hygienic doctors fasting people with chronic digestive disturbances has been very positive.

Answer to Question 8: Systemic Candidiasis is a very serious illness. It is in fact life threatening. I have personally never seen a case. I have however encountered many people who come with the diagnosis of Systemic Candidiasis but, of course, simple pathology tests reveal that they do not have it. Candida is a fungus that affects almost everybody. It is usually localised either in the gut, urinary passages or other mucous membranes of the body, it is rarely systemic. Candida usually succeeds because of its vigorous competitive qualities. Normal bacterial flora can only be restored by a normal diet, which represents the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the avoidance of refined and processed carbohydrates; sugars and other nutrients, often of pharmaceutical origin, contribute to the evolution of Candida. Fasting may be a very valuable part of the recovery process but the most important thing is a proper diet and lifestyle.

Answer to Question 9: The fact that the body is fasting does not suggest that the colon is empty. I have seen people fast for several weeks taking colonic irrigations on a regular daily basis, a practice that I vigorously condemn, but nevertheless material will be removed from the bowel with each irrigation. There will always be plenty of nourishment for the commensal bacterial found in the gut. The eliminative material, from the body itself, will contribute to this.

Answer to Question 10: I do not recommend or condone the use of anti-fungal botanicals. However, I see no actual harm in such supplements as Acidophilus or Bifidus although I do not think they are necessary. These bacterial cultures have to arrive in the gut through the stomach where the highly acid gastric juice will render them relatively ineffective.

People who have gut problems do so from causes and these must be addressed. This does not mean to suggest that every person with digestive troubles and a long history of ulcers, gastritis, colitis, enteritis etc. are going to make a total recovery and have excellent digestion henceforward but with intelligent care they can make a reasonable, practical recovery.

Answer to Question 11: The excretion of significant quantities of abnormal bile into the digestive tract will usually contribute to belching and excessive gas production. This is a common observation of people with problems of the bilary tract and gall bladder.

Answer to Question 13: I am not aware of any research that indicates that eating a lot of raw fat from avocado, nuts, coconuts, seeds that may be incorporated in a vegan diet have deleterious effects. Cooked and processed fats are a problem. Their structure is changed and part of the fat may be converted into an overt poison. If fats are taken at all they should be uncooked. Oils that are heat treated should be avoided.

Answer to Question 14: I think if one is attempting to achieve a reversal of cardiovascular disease it is necessary to be absolutely ruthless about fat intake, however, I don’t think that this requirement is necessary for the normal vegan, fruitarian, raw foodist in good health.

Answer to Question 15: Referring to fasting as a physiological rest just relates to some of the processes of the body especially those of the gastro-intestinal tract. The term, physiological rest, implies also physical rest, mental rest, emotional rest and so on. Fasting should be looked upon as just an extreme form of rest, giving the body an opportunity to catch up on eliminative work and remedial processes. Certainly from the point of view of the usual environmental affronts to the body’s homeostasis, fasting is certainly restful.