Alexis Cullerton, Chicago senior, says fasting is her answer for better health. Cullerton uses week-long fasts that gradually work her down from light solid foods to a day of only water. She says her usual stress aches and pains disappear and the fast energizes her mind and body.
To doctors who see fasting as an extreme diet, the authenticity of Cullerton's claim is up for debate. Cullerton, however, swears to the benefits of her fasts.
"By day three, I wake up on top of the world," she says. "I appreciate every sensation — even my pants sitting on my hips."
Plagued with headaches and muscle pain, Cullerton says she didn't want a medical solution that simply handed her more prescriptions. She wanted a way to get the junk out of her system without adding. She researched online, talked with a dietician, and eventually decided on her gradual detox fast because she considered it doable, yet also a challenge.
Cullerton's first fast didn't blow her away with energy. The increased oomph was there, but not in the monumental proportions she was hoping for. After a few more trials, however, she felt the difference. "It's so hard to explain, but something just takes over you, and suddenly there's this energy you never had before," she says.
December 3rd, 10 a.m.: I never knew it before this fast, but the Dillons on 23rd Street has a juice aisle that baffles. Really. I felt so dated picking up the OJ I came for that I grabbed a jug of mango-papaya. I hate to admit it, but I felt almost smug checking out. Eyeing the carts of anonymous shoppers in front and back of me, I felt certain I was the healthiest in the line.
11 a.m.: Back from the store and I'm getting a bit hungry. Two glasses of this mango-papaya juice, and I'll be ready for new-found energy.
For Darren Welch, Tonganoxie junior, fatigue wasn't a factor. Welch jumped into a 30-day all-water fast last summer. One day he was dining on Burrito King and the next it was liquids only. It was not what his research recommended, but he was too excited to start.
I am trying to stay objective; this trial has to keep some sort of journalistic base. For all I know I could be fidgety and exhausted by the end of the day. I've read that the first day is the worst when detoxifying.
Cullerton considers fatigue when she fasts. She uses her seven-day routine so she can continue to juggle class and two jobs.
Welch says a summer of feeling sluggish, sick and depressed left him needing a change. He searched the University's online health journals and became wrapped up in the detoxification studies he found. After reading that humans were the only mammals that didn't fast when ill, he was sold. Welch told himself he had to be 99 percent committed — just enough that if
things got bad, he wouldn't let his pride interfere.
He says his first few days of hunger pains were the worst; irritation and headaches came and went. But after five days something changed — he stopped thinking about food. Day 10 gave Welch a feeling hard to describe.
"I imagine taking a crap, running a mile, and drinking a Red Bull. That's the kind of refreshment and energy I got," he says.
December 3, 10:30 p.m.: I chugged juice throughout the day. I'm not one for deprivation and I'd like to somehow include fasting in that outlook. I wonder if I'm detracting from the possible detox healing benefits by constantly sipping on Minute Maid?
It's late and I should be hungry. This is my first day without solids since I was sick with the flu last year. Strang
last year. Strange,
but today wasn't so hard. I could actually feel every drop of the last glass of juice I drank on my tongue. Maybe I'm finally appreciating what I'm eating, instead of just taking whatever's in front of me.
Philip Stevens, a Tonganoxie physician for 48 years, says there's a name for what people feel while fasting: euphoria. Stevens says the body starts using up natural fats and tissues to replace the void of usual nutrients. Fasters become addicted to the sensations their bodies give out while trying to find new places to burn energy, he says.
Patricia Denning, internal medicine specialist at Watkins Health Center, says benefits people see from fasting are delusions of good health. Denning says she hasn't read any scientific literature or research attributing health benefits to fasting and what fasters really experience is simply a placebo effect.
Marty Glenn has a dietician's explanation for claims of increased energy and metabolism. He says weight loss accounts for boosts in energy. In other words, having less weight to drag around makes fasters feel a little bouncier. Glenn says this lighter, energy-filled perception leads to the mental
image of better health.
Dena Thomas, Hays freshman, says weight loss wasn't a factor in her fast. Thomas tried a 28-day juice fast over the summer to feel healthier and get rid of junk-food eating habits. She says her diet thinned down, but not her body. She didn't notice dropping a pound.
Thomas says she did experience slight headaches in the beginning,but they passed after a week. She noticed reduced tension in her head and shoulders soon after.
Stevens doesn't attribute that to the wonders of fasting.
"Dizziness, fatigue, headaches — those are all signs from your body that something's wrong," he says. "And what's wrong is that when you're fasting, your body starts eating itself."
December 4, 9:15 a.m.: Day two. I just woke up to the smell of the omelet my roommate is making. It's cold and gray outside, and a hot omelet sounds perfect. Maybe if I stuck it in the blender I could justify it as juice-like.
Time for the first glass of the day. Better pour this one tall; I'm starting to feel some real hunger pains. I highlighted some of the warnings HealthWorld gives to second-day juice fasters: headaches, irritability and fatigue. I'm trying to think energizing thoughts, but it's a steep walk
up the hill and I have no cheap cappuccino waiting for me at the top.
At the Merc, Sears endorses a four-day fast. He says he frequently recommends detoxification and advises his customers to change their mindset when fasting. Sears says to keep it simple and think of it as a feast, not a fast. You're feasting on juices and fasting on what's making you feel rundown, he says.
Glenn says although he's seen a rise in interest in fasting, he doubts many doctors currently recommend it.
"Most doctors are still pretty conservative and think what they learned in school is gospel," he says. "They'll tell you what they know — tangible numbers and statistics."
Why don't we know more? Denning says it's because no large corporations want to take the funding risk. The number of methods, plans and kinds of fasting create a barrier as well. With so many different ways to approach the research, even companies with the backing wouldn't know where to start, she says.
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