Waste-ing Away

Will fasting and high colonics detoxify your body?

-Susan Crandell, BettyConfidential.com

I've always said I'll do anything for a story, and in fact I've rock-climbed, river-rafted, even competed in the Baja 1000 off-road race.  But the assignment that gave me pause – the one I nearly said no to -- was a SpaFinder article on the pros and cons of fasting.  Go four days without food?  Not bloody likely.

In the end I did it, participating in a juice fast at a Canadian spa that specializes in detox.  To my surprise, the fast wasn't a big deal.  Yes, I was hungry, but not debilitatingly so.  I sort of floated through the days, reading, taking gentle yoga classes, doing a little rowing on the lake my room overlooked.  In three and a half days, I lost three pounds, but within a week of eating normally, I'd returned to my original weight.

Weight loss is not the point; cleansing your system is. Proponents of fasting claim that it can cure or alleviate illnesses ranging from psoriasis to Crohn's disease.  The theory goes like this: Giving your gastrointestinal system a few days off allows it to devote itself full-time to removing toxins from your body.  Joel Fuhrman, M.D., author of Fasting and Eating for Health, has been prescribing fasts for more than 15 years.  “It allows the immune system to reset itself,” he says, helping with conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.  Eldon M. Haas, M.D., author of The New Detox Diet, has used fasting to wean patients off blood pressure and cholesterol meds.

To read more about fasting, click here.