Has anyone here done water fasting before?

[everything]

The short fast thing probably explains the tongue coating in first 8-9 days.

Then it cleared up maybe reflecting your actual detox.

Yeah we could “remove” it easily with hydrogen peroxide brushing. “Covering” it with dye is pretty funny.

I haven’t seen a TCM doctor often, but the pulse check and tongue check are interesting “vital sign” checks. I doubt “modern science” has much info on the tongue correlation.

[ThomasK]

Wayne could be I have no idea. If you benefited from your teachers approach in a way you wanted to, more power to you.

I only know that lots of people benefit hugely from intermittent fasting or shorter fasts.

Every move in a better direction is alright with me. Maybe we will recognize fasting as health promoting again who knows

How was your teacher called and where located?

[ThomasK]

There are whole clinics of TCM so obviously there must be something to it, but I wonder what's just culture superiority promotion and what's actually useful

[Dmitri]

I only know that lots of people benefit hugely from intermittent fasting or shorter fasts.

Apparently the definition of "short" has a lot of nuance to it... Just saw this in my news feed this morning:
https://newsroom.heart.org/news/8-hour- ... ular-death

Anyway, why not just eat a little less, instead? Cut your portions by a quarter or a third?

[ThomasK]

'The study included approximately 20,000 adults in the U.S. with an average age of 49 years.'

'The study’s limitations included its reliance on self-reported dietary information, which may be affected by participant’s memory or recall and may not accurately assess typical eating patterns. Factors that may also play a role in health, outside of daily duration of eating and cause of death, were not included in the analysis.'

I don't think the study offers any convincing evidence. But I'm not a scientist. Dietary studies are hard as fuck to do right anyways. And the the results are dependent on so many different things.

Some people just find that eating nothing is easier than restricting your choice of food. Some people even combine short fasts, anywhere from 12 hours to 168 hours, with restricted re-feeding. Results vary as always, but the biggest factor seems to be adherence. What plan of action can you adhere to easiest over time. And that's different for many people.

You can also save a lot of time by not worrying about daily food intake. It's comforting to know you can just skip a meal or a few and not end up worse.

Something I've asked myself was re hunter gathering times. Was biodiversity and wild food (animal life) availability so high that you could hunt easily day after day and always be full? Or did you have to really search for food? Or maybe not every hunt / food gathering attempt was successfull?

Imo its also nice to experience what it's like to be really hungry. Just my curiosity.

You will freak out when I tell you about dry fasting .

[Dmitri]

the biggest factor seems to be adherence. What plan of action can you adhere to easiest over time. And that's different for many people.

Absolutely.

Re. hunter/gatherer times - dunno if animal availability was higher, but I've been watching the show 'Alone' with fascination - I think it providers a fairly close approximation of what it takes to survive in the wild.

As for "dry fasting" - that sounds quite dangerous.

[Giles]

Something I've asked myself was re hunter gathering times. Was biodiversity and wild food (animal life) availability so high that you could hunt easily day after day and always be full? Or did you have to really search for food? Or maybe not every hunt / food gathering attempt was successfull?

Certainly I'm no expert on this theme, but I've done a little reading over the years. Firstly it seems logical to say that basically it depends. All your options would probably have been true, depending on location of the band/tribe, on seasonal variations, on year to year (climate) variations, possibly on displacement by other competing bands/tribes or on many other factors, maybe sometimes just bad luck. If a group of people found and could stay in a location that was exceptionally fertile in terms of (edible) vegetation and huntable animals that ate this vegetation (or other animals), and an amenable climate, then you probably had it made. For a while at least. Some coastal locations with accessible littoral areas with a round-the-year supply of fish, shellfish, crustaceans, seabirds and their eggs etc. could have been pretty much paradise in terms of nutrition. But under circumstances, things could certainly get tough or be constantly tough.
One thing in our bodies proves that periods of hunger (i.e. involuntary 'fasting') and the need to cope with this was a major factor in long-term human existence and survival: we (still) have a gallbladder. This is a storage reservoir for bile, a crucial digestive fluid produced by the liver. (Ah, the liver, the ultimate multi-tasker!). Bile, which breaks down lipids, is steadily and slowly secreted by the liver and flows into the gall bladder, which stores it until it's needed. In modern, comfortable and well-fed society, most people don't actually need a gallbladder any more. If you get your three meals a day, every day, then we generally have enough bile being constantly secreted by the liver to aid digestion. That's why it's no big deal for someone to have their gallbladder removed - they can still digest their food pretty well. The true value of the gallbladder is when you haven't had any food, or not much food, for a longer period and then are able to eat a larger amount of food in one go, more specifically the fats contained within it. Without the quick release of a larger amount of bile into your gut it wouldn't be possible to digest this 'big delivery' efficiently, because not enough bile is available at the critical moment, and that might lead to major digestive problems. And if you throw it up again or get terrible gut cramps or diarrhea etc., then you're not making good use of the food that might save your life - maybe there won't be another opportunity for a while... So the fact that we are still born with a fully operational gallbladder would indicate that we all definitely needed it through at least the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, and probably the Neolithic too. Meaning many periods of hunger, famine, starvation where the gallbladder would at least help us survive, as long as the hunger didn't last too long.