Is Fasting Uncomfortable?

The reason many people are so afraid of fasting and find the mere thought of it
so unpleasant is that when they skip even one meal they feel awful. They
assume fasting would be very uncomfortable. These individuals, who exhibit
uncomfortable signs early in the fast, are in greatest need of a fast. Headaches
and other discomforts brought on by not eating are signs that the body has
begun to withdraw from and detoxify waste products retained in body tissues.
When we delay eating or fast, these tissue stores of toxic waste are mobilized
for removal. Thus fasting is ―cleansing‖ of the internal system. These
detoxification symptoms usually do not occur in those who are in excellent
health, with a lower level of retained wastes. When one is prepared properly
with a low-fat, lowered-protein, natural, plant-centered diet prior to the fast,
these symptoms, which actually are nothing more than withdrawal symptoms
from a more rich diet, usually do not occur.

Fasting is not as uncomfortable as many would think. Hunger typically goes
away completely by the second day and the symptoms of withdrawal from food
and toxins typically end quickly, usually by the second day of the fast.
Interestingly, it has been noted by physicians conducting fasts for decades that
true hunger is a mouth and throat sensation, felt in the same spot that one
feels thirst. Gnawing in the stomach, stomach cramping, headaches, and
generalized weakness from not eating or skipping a meal or two are
experienced only by those who have been eating the standard American diet
with all its shortcomings (those most in need of a fast). Those who have been
consuming a healthier, low-fat, low-protein, plant-based diet for months prior
to the fast typically experience no such typical hunger pains when they fast.

Symptoms such as abdominal cramping and headaches, traditionally thought
of as hunger symptoms, are not really symptoms of hunger. The medical books
are obviously wrong here. These symptoms are experienced only by those
eating a diet far too rich and stressful for their own internal controls. These
symptoms are signs of withdrawal that indicate healing is beginning when the
body has the opportunity to rest from the continual intake of food.