The body is a tube and membrane structure containing millions of miles of microscopic tubes and many thousands of square feet of delicate membrane surfaces. The circulatory system is 60,000 miles long. The lungs contain 300 billion capillaries. The surface area of the colon is 2,200 square feet. People who eat the typical North American diet are not ingesting nutritious, health-giving food; instead, what enters the delicate tube and membrane structure is devitalized mucus-forming food, heavy proteins, cholesterol, and big sticky long-chain fat molecules. The body is denied the opportunity to heal because it must continually work at digestion and the daily cleanup of nutrition-stripped, processed foods.
Ingestion of mucus-forming foods clogs the body’s microscopic tubes and membranes. This allows cellular waste to build up in the lymphatic system, increasing the chance of illness. Fasting dissolves this internal mucus, allowing the body’s natural cleansing to occur. During fasting, it is common, for the nose and throat to pass sticky mucus, clogging the sinuses. Following your first meal after fasting, white strands of mucus may be found in the stool.
One of the factors in healing through fasting is the removal of cellular waste. Three to eight hundred billion of your cells are being replaced daily. Approximately one quarter of your cells are either dying, old or need to be replaced. Unless your body gets rid of the dying cells, it cannot build new ones. In the fasting state, the body scours for dead cells, damaged tissues, fatty deposits, tumors, abscesses, all of which are burned for fuel or expelled as waste. Fasting dissolves diseased cells in a systematic manner, leaving healthy tissue intact. For this reason, fasting intensifies healing and tired organs are repaired rapidly.
The butterfly is a magnificent example of catabolism (tearing down) and anabolism (building up). During metamorphosis, the butterfly’s muscles and organs dissolve into a thick, yellow solution. All internal structures are torn down and rebuilt. It emerges from the chrysalis a new creation. The miraculous aspect of metamorphosis is that it occurs while fasting. All the substances needed for rebuilding come from within.
During a fast, a metamorphosis occurs. The body undergoes a tearing down and rebuilding of damaged materials. There is a remarkable redistribution of nutrients in the fasting body. It hangs on to precious minerals and vitamins while catabolizing old tissue, toxins and inferior materials. The end result is a thorough cleansing of the tube, membrane and cellular structures. This process of cleansing and rebuilding has made fasting famous for its ability to rejuvenate, heal disease and give the body a more youthful tone.
