How to Break a 24 Hour Fast
Follow These Fasting Instructions Carefully!
Your 24 hour fast can be from lunch to lunch or from dinner to dinner, as long as you abstain from all solid foods. This also means no fruit or vegetable juices! This is known as the absolute distilled water fast.
One exception to the 24 hour fast is to add 1-2 tsps. of Bragg Organic, Raw, Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar or fresh lemon juice to 3 of your 8 to 10 glasses of water. Optional: you may add raw honey or 100% maple syrup to taste and diabetics can use herb Stevia. This drink acts as a mucus and toxin desolver, plus makes the water more palatable. This helps flush debris out through the miracle natural body filters – the kidneys. They play a vital part in your fast. This is why it’s important during any fast to drink 8 to 10 glasses of pure distilled water.
I have told you how important it is to save the urine after a 24 hour fast. Just put it in a tightly sealed labeled bottle and let it settle for several weeks. You will see some cleansing proof with your own eyes – the poisons such as mucus, salt crystals and toxins – that have been flushed out of your body by your miracle-working kidneys.
Your Kidneys – The Miracle Organs
Just think of it – each of the 2 kidneys in your body have a million efficient filters. When the body is fasting, the kidneys step up their work of detoxification. All of the Vital Force and nervous energy of the body is now working overtime to cleanse and heal your body, because it’s not being used up in the laborious task of mastication, digestion, metabolism and elimination. You have no idea how powerful the Vital Force is in your body until you experience this great fasting body miracle renovation!
Some Discomfort is Normal When Cleansing
Remember that as long as there is any toxic waste in your circulation, you may feel some discomfort during your fast. Soon as the Vital Force flushes these poisons out through your kidneys, you will start to feel better.
Many times during a fast, old drugs that have been buried in your system for years are loosened up and flushed out of the body. Let me tell you of one of my greatest experiences when I first started fasting. Now, let’s go back to my early childhood diet. I was born and reared in Virginia and I was fed a typically greasy, starchy, fatty and sugary diet. My body was so filled with toxins as a child that I had every known childhood disease: mumps, measles, whooping cough . . . you name them and I had them! Along with these childhood miseries, I was given large amounts of a drug known as “Calomel” – and this drug was filled with quicksilver (mercury)!
A Swiss Doctor was My Human Angel
After I was restored to a good state of health at Dr. August Rollier’s Sanitarium in Leysen, Switzerland, I started my regular fasting program – which I am proud to say I have continued through all these wonderful years since then! I fasted one 24 hour period weekly and 4 times a year at 3 month intervals, I fasted from 7 to 10 days – always on a distilled water fast. After I had been on this fasting program for 5 years, it was during one of my 10 day fasts that a great miracle happened to me!
I was at my family’s old homestead in Virginia. On about the seventh day of a 10 day fast, I was out in a canoe on the river leisurely enjoying the sunshine and fresh air when suddenly, without warning, I doubled up with stomach cramps. I thought I would never be able to stand the pain! With great effort I got ashore and then it happened. I had a terrific bowel evacuation! At the end of this evacuation, I felt a heavy, cool sensation in my rectum and out passed 3 cup of quicksilver (mercury) from the toxic Calomel that I took in my childhood.
That experience marked a new day in my entire physical structure. From that day on I knew what superior health meant! My Vital Force was increased so greatly with my program of eating natural living foods, fasting, sunshine and exercise that all my body cells rejoiced with my new Energy Power! With fasting I eliminated the drugs that were given to me in my youth.
Keep Your Spirits and Morale High
Please understand, even when you take a 1 day fast you are cleansing and purifying your whole body. The very thought that you are building a painless, tireless and ageless body should be an incentive to keep your morale high during your fast. Don’t allow self-pity or negative thoughts to get in your mind when fasting.
Repeat these powerful affirmations when fasting:
- I have this day put my body in the hands of God and Mother Nature. I turn to the highest power for internal purification and rejuvenation of body and soul.
- Every minute that I fast I am flushing out the dangerous poisons that do great damage to my wonderful body. Every hour that I fast I become happier, cleaner, healthier and will have more energy and youthfulness.
- Hour by hour, my body is cleansing and purifying itself.
- When I fast I am using the same method for physical, mental and spiritual purification that Jesus and the greatest spiritual leaders have used throughout the ages.
- I am in complete control of my body during this fast. No false hunger pains will stop me from fasting! I will carry my fast through to a successful conclusion because I have total faith in God and Mother Nature!
Just remember, you must give instructions to all the body cells with your total mind (your computer) and heart. The thoughts you send to your body are going to be carried out by your cells. That is the reason I urge you to not discuss your fasting program with relatives or friends. Most would give you a negative reaction. Fasting is a personal matter and please keep it that way!
Keep Your Meals Healthy and Simple
When the toxins are passing out of your body and you feel some discomfort, just say to yourself . . . “This too will also pass.” Be strong-minded when you fast! Think of the wonderful results you are going to achieve by fasting. Rejoice that you have been led to this great easy-to-do natural cleansing and rejuvenation miracle.
At the end of each fast, the very first food that reaches your taste buds should be a raw coleslaw cabbage salad – a base of organic chopped cabbage, grated carrots and beets. For dressing use Bragg Dressings (see pages 268-269) or try fresh lemon or orange squeezed over salad. Salad acts as “nature’s broom,” it sweeps your intestines clean. It makes the muscles along the gastrointestinal tract work hard. If you want more food have a bowl of freshly stewed (or salt-free canned) organic tomatoes. Stewed tomatoes are not acid-forming except when prepared with white sugar. Or have delicious steamed organic greens – kale, chard, collard, spinach or beet tops with tomatoes, fresh garlic, Bragg Sprinkle and Kelp (page 268). Serve in bowls and over greens sprinkle Bragg Nutritional Yeast flakes, fresh garlic, spray of Bragg Liquid Aminos, 3 tsp Bragg Organic Vinegar and 2 tsp Bragg Organic Olive Oil. Try this – it’s delicious! Keep your meals as 1, 2, 3: simple, healthy and natural!
Please never break a fast with animal products such as meat, milk, cheese, butter, fish, and nuts or seeds. After a 24 or 36 hour fast, wait until second or third meal before you eat heavier foods and the beans, brown rice, potatoes, etc. Remember, we prefer you eat vegetarian proteins (page 237) – they are healthier! Please read and faithfully follow the important “Foods to Avoid List” (page 241) for your not-to-buy guide when shopping.
The Vegetarian Diet is Healthiest For You!
Vegetarians are healthier and live longer! If you must eat meat and fish, please don’t consume it more than 2 to 3 times weekly. Eat whole grain health breads – they are best lightly dry toasted into a melba-like toast so the starch is converted into what we call “blood sugar”. See page 89 for Patricia’s recipe on garlic toast. Sprinkle Bragg Nutritional Yeast Seasoning over salads, veggies, potatoes and soups. This gives your body B-vitamins for nerves and a healthier elimination.
Don’t Worry About Bowels During the Fast
One of the greatest worries most people who fast have during a fast lasting from 3 to 10 days is that their bowels may stop moving. You shouldn’t worry about bowel movements during a fast! Elimination adjusts itself shortly after each fast, so forget about bowel movements and think about the wonderful cleansing your body is experiencing. Mother Nature’s plumbing system works perfectly if you allow it to (but a few colonics and enemas are optional if desired and needed.) When the fast is over and you eat meals well-balanced in bulk, moisture, lubrication and drink 8 glasses of distilled water daily, your bowels will move better than ever! (page 138) Try to eat 60% to 70% raw foods in the form of organic salads, sprouts, fruits, veggies and their fresh juices.
Faithfully living The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle promotes a healthier colon and regular elimination. It’s ideal to add 1 tsp psyllium husk powder (see page 80) – hour after dinner – stir in herbal teas, juices, and when needed even pep drinks and Bragg Vinegar Drink – this works wonders!
Other miracles for regularity are prunes and 1-2 Tbsps crude blackstrap molasses in cup hot distilled water (it’s also healthy coffee substitute). Another miracle are flax seeds. I introduced them years ago and millions have benefitted. Soak 2 Tbsps flax seeds in cup distilled water for 3 hours (gets gel-like). Drink hour after dinner. Use as hot or cold drink, add honey or molasses if desired. Also grind 3 Tbsps flax seeds and sprinkle in foods, smoothies, etc. Flax seeds are nature’s richest source of Omega-3 essential oils for your heart health. They help repair cells and tissues, transport oxygen, satisfy hunger and help burn up excess body flab.
Good Elimination is Important For Health
It’s natural to squat to have bowel movements. It opens up anal area more directly. When on toilet, putting feet up 6 to 8 inches on waste basket or footstool gives same squatting effect. Now raise arms, stretch hands above head so the transverse colon can empty and roll out completely with ease. It’s important for you to drink 8 to 10 glasses pure water daily! (Read pages 138, 153-157, and after dinner meal take 1-2 psyllium husk veg. cap daily.)
Some fasting books recommend that you should have an enema or colonic daily during a fast. I feel enemas and colonics during fasts are optional and usually not needed – but if desired, then try them and then decide. The only time I suggest them is during extreme constipation, in an emergency or on advice of your health practitioner. When the bowel refuses to evacuate, or in illness, extreme gas or bloating; an enema of warm, distilled or purified water with 3 Tbsps of fresh lemon or aloe juice is strictly a temporary means to cleanse and move the bowels.
In comparing the enema to a powerful laxative, we would say that the enema is superior to the drug laxative – but it certainly has its own faults. If you continue to use enemas, laxatives or colonics over a long period of time, it will irritate your bowel and wash out important internal secretions (healthy intestinal flora or “friendly bacteria”) necessary for good bowel function. To replace the flora lost due to antibiotics, drugs, yeast infections, candidiasis or colon abuse, a 15 minute retention enema can be helpful. Use warm, distilled purified water, add 2-3 tsps acidophilus or aloe liquid or powder to enema bag.
During a fast, your body is having a rest! Since no food is being eaten, there might be only 1 or 2 bowel movements from your last meals before your fast. Your elimination system is now resting, best not to disturb it. The body has its own sanitation system within the bowel. Don’t worry, in most situations you don’t need enemas. When you have finished your fast and begin eating raw, healthy foods and living The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle, your eliminations will now be more regular.