Fasting Is Not New

Fasting has been used as a healing modality throughout recorded history.
Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, and Hippocrates, for example, all recommended
fasting for various physical conditions.

Our species has survived on the earth for the last 400,000 years partially
because of the incomprehensible design of nature that enables us to survive
under various circumstances, including going without food for prolonged
periods of time. Built into our genetic code is the ability to instruct the body
exactly what to do to survive in a period of famine, food scarcity, or natural
disaster when food is unavailable for prolonged periods. Obviously, the body
functions normally for quite a long time when no food but only water is
ingested.

Extended religious fasts were frequently practiced by followers of far eastern
religions and in the early days of Christianity, especially during the Middle
Ages. Many of us have heard of individuals who have fasted for political
reasons. Mahatma Gandhi, for example, fasted 21 days to promote Hindu–
Moslem unity and mutual respect and tolerance between religions. Gandhi was
actually very familiar with the scientific and health-related literature regarding
fasting and even read the writings of and corresponded with Dr. Herbert
Shelton, who conducted more than thirty thousand fasts on his patients earlier
in this century.

Occasionally we hear of entombed miners, shipwrecked sailors, or stranded
aviators who are forced to go without food for weeks and weeks. People survive
for extended periods of time, until they are rescued, as long as they have
access to nonsalt water.

So fasting is not new. It has been practiced for religious, political, and health
reasons for thousands of years and has been recognized throughout recorded
history as having a curative effect on sickness and disease. Mark Twain wrote
in My Debut As a Literary Person (1889), ―A little starvation can really do more
for the average sick man than can the best of medicines and the best doctors. I
do not mean a restricted diet: I mean total abstinence from food . . .―

For more than ten thousand years fasting has been utilized to heal the sick.
Hippocrates regularly prescribed fasting for numerous conditions. The famous
Hippocratic Oath, familiar to every physician, admonishes us to ―First do no
harm,‖ recognizing that the most important foundation of healing the sick, even
today, is the remarkable recuperative power inherent in the human body. This
power of self-repair is beautifully witnessed during the fast.