What is a Fruit Only Fast?
A Fruit Only Fast is where you eat only fruit for a period of time. You can eat a variety of fruit (following the rules of food combination), but it is more detoxifying to eat one type of astringent fruit for 3, 10, 20, and even 40 days. Amazing results can occur from eating grapes alone, or oranges, or grapefruits. These are the more nourishing and astringent fruits that will yield the most detoxification.
Dr. Robert Morse has mentioned several times about how he has seen several types of cancers eliminated on 35, 70+ days on just grapes.
What is a Fruit Juice Fast?
Fruit Juice Fasting means eating no food and drinking only the juice of fresh fruits. This is a higher level of detoxification since the body will require only a small amount of digestive energy. Fruit Juice fasting is good for everyone wishing to detoxify, but will greatly help those with advanced health weaknesses.
A combination of fruits can be used, but combining the astringent fruits together will go deeper, faster. Grape and lime juice; grapefruit, orange, and lemon juice have been two of my personal favorites on my healing journey. I experienced a noticeable reduction of swollen lymph nodes in my armpit within 7 days using orange and lime juice.
What about Vegetable juice? Vegetables in general are builders and not cleaners like fruits are. Their role comes in more so after you have cleaned yourself out and are starting the process of regeneration. So yes, vegetable juices, especially green juice is extremely beneficial for your body and helps to build it back up.
In my personal experience I can tell you that the fruit juices will help detoxify you more so than green juices will. I’ve spent a few days drinking nothing but mandarin orange juice and started draining mucus from my sinuses – blowing my nose constantly. Then I had a “taste” for something less sweet, thinking that it would be a change and would still expel the mucus from my head, but after drinking some fresh, organic spinach and green apple juice, the runny nose stopped and I was no longer detoxifiying at the same speed.
My advise is to start with the fruit juice. If you are detoxing too fast or really have a taste for something more savory, dabble with a few leafy greens in your juice. It will still be alkalizing to your system, so still healing, but just not as detoxifying. Just keep in mind that detoxification is the key to reversing illnesses, then your body can regenerate itself.
What is the Master Cleanse?
The Master Cleanse is a detoxification method made popular by Stanley Burroughs. Also called the Lemonade diet, it combines water, lemon, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The book advises anywhere from 10 – 40 days and recommends fruit juice for a few days to transition back into eating a mainly raw food diet.
The maple syrup has natural occurring minerals and vitamins. Lemons and limes are the most astringent, detoxifying fruits, but would be unpleasant to eat; therefore, they are perfect for juicing and the Master Cleanse.
What is Dry Fasting?
Not widely practiced, but very effective is dry fasting. It involves not eating or drinking anything for short periods of time in order to kickstart the kidneys into filtering the acidic lymph in your body that is causing acidosis/disease.
Dry fasting is not for everyone. It is only recommended for people who have already been doing high fruit/raw foods, fruit fasting, or juice fasting for a period of time. Starting out with a short 12 hour dry fast is pretty doable. Then you can build up to 18, 24, and 36 hours, and maybe even 72 hours if you have really been on your fruits for while. Dr. Robert Morse has found that periods of 1-2 days at a time, at the most, are enough for most people to get the kidney’s functioning.
The ideal time to have prepared for a dry fast will vary widely, depending on your conditions and length of time eating alkalizing foods. I have personally performed two dry fasts, averaging about 18 -20 hours each. I didn’t feel bad at all, but didn’t want to do much. I had been doing a high fruit/raw food diet for about 2 months before attempting it and the amount of lymph that my kidneys kicked out via my urine (very cloudy) was amazing.
If you have at least a month or two of fruit-only or raw food time under your belt and would like to attempt a dry fast, start slow. Here’s how to attempt your first short dry fast:
- Go to bed with the intention of beginning the dry fast in the morning. Eating light with water fruits or fresh juice earlier in the day.
- Upon waking do not eat or drink anything for at least 4 hours (approximately lunch time) and check in with how your body feels. For most people this will equal to about 12 hours of dry fasting, including your sleep time. When you do eat PLEASE only eat water fruits or fresh pressed fruit juice.
- Check your urine. The next trip to the bathroom after your initial just-woke visit (so around mid morning or lunch time) will tell you if your kidneys were prompted to expel more lymph. Your urine should be cloudy (a sign that the lymph is coming out).
For the next attempt at dry fasting, maybe wait until mid-afternoon before eating – so approximately a 18 hour dry fast. And you can build from there. Dry fasting is an experiment to try if you are curious about how much lymph you can release while performing one. It isn’t necessary to detoxify your body – the fruits and raw food, and just getting your body alkaline will detoxify and clean the acids out.
What is a Water Fast?
The use of drinking only clean water without digesting any food at all is a centuries’ old healing and spiritual practice. Fasting is a natural process. We fast during the night and break it in the morning with break-fast. Jesus fasted famously for 40 days and 40 nights in the bible. Animals fast naturally during sickness, knowing instinctively that energy must be preserved to repair the body, not expending it through digestion.
A water fast involves drinking pure water (preferably, ionized, alkaline water) until the coating that develops on the tongue during the fast begins to go away. This is not the only signal that a water fast must end, but has been widely used by the Natural Hygenic doctors to indicate the healing phase is over.
Water fasting is perhaps the deepest level of fasting that you can undergo. However, it requires physical and mental rest while the body addresses weaknesses and therefore; cannot be done while working or performing even mildy demanding physical activity. It is not suitable for some individuals and does not work on all illnesses. A long-term water fast should be supervised by an experienced naturopathic doctor.
Although water fasting is powerful, it isn’t always necessary. With discipline and patience fruit juice fasting will achieve similar results without the loss of energy and can be undertaking while carrying on your typical routine. Short 2-3 day water fast can be performed without supervision and dispersed between fruit juice and fruit only fasts with great results.
What is a Raw Food Fast or Diet?
A raw food diet of fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables is a perfect balance of detoxifying and regenerative foods and has proven to be the best diet for my body after I have detoxified myself.
Raw food can be used a preparatory diet for a fruit only fast or fruit juice fast. It is a very safe, delicious way to slowly detoxify and rebuild the system. If you are not experiencing any illness or weakness or if your health concerns are minimal, this form of detoxification is best suited for you.
The basic outline of the diet includes fruit in the morning, salads in the afternoon or evening with small amounts of raw nuts, staying as close as possible to the basic prep of washing, cutting, and blending without overly complicated recipes.
Once you have healed your body and wish to venture beyond the basics there are many raw food restaurants and recipe books that include dehydrated foods (“cooked” below 85 or 105 degrees, depending on who you ask), raw breads, raw nut based desserts and so on, which are all very delicious. The creativity and possibilities are endless. However, you will find that the more “prepared” the food, even raw food, the less detoxifying and healing it is.