Chapter 2 Some Notes on Fasting: The Fasting Cure by Upton Sinclair from archive.org

 

Chapter 2 Some Notes on Fasting: The Fasting Cure by Upton Sinclair from archive.org

SOME NOTES ON FASTING   In relation to the article, ** Perfect  Health," I received some six or eight  hundred letters from people who  either had fasted, or desired to fast  and sought for further information.  The letters showed a general uni-  formity which made clear to me that 1  had not been sufficiently explicit upon  several important points.   The question most commonly asked  was how long should one fast, and how  one should judge of the time to stop.  I personally have never taken a  ** complete fast," and so I hesitate in  recommending this to any one. I have  fasted twelve days on two occasions. In  both cases I broke my fast because I  found myself feeling weak and I     SOME NOTRB ON FA8TINO   wanted to be about a good deal. In  neither case was I hungry, although  hunger quickly returned. I was told  by Bernarr Macf adden, and by some of  his physicians, that they got their best  results from fasts of this length. I  would not advise a longer fast for any  of the commoner ailments, such as  stomach and intestinal trouble, head-  aches,

constipation, colds and sore  throat. Longer fasts it seems to me,  are for those who have really desperate  ailments, such deeply-rooted chronic  diseases as Bright's disease, cirrhosis  of the liver, rheumatism and cancer.   Of course if a person has started on  a fast and it is giving him no trouble,  there is no reason why it should not be  continued; but I do not in the least  believe in a man's setting before him-  self the goal of a forty or fifty days'  fast and making a ' * stunt ' ' out of it.   67     THE FA8TINQ CURB   I do not think of the fast as a thing to  be played with in that way. I do not  believe in fasting for the fun of it, or  out of curiosity. I do not advise peo-  ple to fast who have nothing the  matter with them, and I do not advise  the fast as a periodical or habitual  thing. A man who has to fast every  now and then is like a person who  should spend his time in sweeping rain  water out of his house, instead of  taking the trouble to repair his roof.  If you have to fast every now and then,  it is because the habits of your life  are wrong, more especially because you  are eating unwholesome foods. There  were several people who wrote me  asking about a fast, to whom my reply  was that they should simply adopt a  rational diet; that I believed their  troubles would all disappear without  the need of a fast.   •8     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   Several people asked me if it woula  not be better for them to eat very  lightly instead of fasting, or to con-  tent themselves with fasts of two or  three days at frequent intervals. My  reply to that is that I find it very much  harder to do that, because all the  trouble in the fast occurs during the  first two or three days. It is during  those days that you are hungry, and if  you begin to eat just when your hunger  is ceasing, you have wasted all your  efforts. In the same way, perhaps, it  might be a good thing to eat very  lightly of fruit, instead of taking an  absolute fast — the only trouble is that  I cannot do it. Again and again I  have tried, but always with the same  result : the light meals are just enough  to keep me ravenously hungry, and in-  evitably I find myself eating more and  more. And it does me no good to call     THB PASTING CUKB   myself names about this, I just do it,  and keep on doing it; I have finally  made up my mind that it is a fact of  my nature. I used to try these * * fruit  fasts " under Dr. Kellogg's advice.  I could live on nothing but fruit for  several days, but I would get so weak  that I could not stand up — iar weaker  than I have ever become on an out-and-  out fast.   One should drink all the water he  possibly can while fasting, only not  taking too much at a time. I take a  glass full every hour, at least; some-  times every half-hour. It is a good  plan to drink a great deal of water at  the outset, whenever meal time comes  around, and one thinks of the other  folks beginning to eat. I drink the  water cold, because it is less trouble,  but if there is any hot water about, I  prefer that. Hot water between meals   70     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   is an immensely valuable suggestion  which I owe to Dr. Salisbury.   One should take a bath every day  while fasting. I prefer a warm^bath  followed by a cold shower. Also one  should take a small enema. I find a  pint of cool water sufficient. I re-  ceived several letters from people who  were greatly disturbed because of con-  stipation during the fast. People  apparently do not realize that while  fasting there is very little to be  eliminated from the body. (Of course,  there are cases, especially of people  who have suffered from long continual  intestinal trouble, in which even after  three or four weeks the enema con-  tinues to bring away quantities of  dried and impacted faeces.)   Many of the questions asked dealt  with the manner of breaking the fast;  I suppose because I had been particu-   71     THE FASTING CURE   lar to warn my readers that this was  the one danger point in the proceeding.  I told of my experience with the milk  diet, and I received many inquiries  about this. My answer was to refer  the writers to Bernarr Macfadden's  pamphlet on the milk diet, as I took  this diet under his direction and have  nothing to add to his instructions. I  might say, however, that I was never  able to take the milk diet for any  length of time but once, and that after  my first twelve-day fast. After my  second fast it seemed to go wrong with  me, and I think the reason was that I  did not begin it until a week after  breaking the fast, having got along on  orange juice and figs in the meantime.  Also I tried on many occasions to take  the milk diet after a short fast of three  or four days, and always the milk has  disagreed with me and poisoned me.   72     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   I take this to mean that, in my own  case, at any rate, so much milk can  only be absorbed when the tissues are  greatly reduced; and I have known  others who have had the same experi-  ence.   While I was down in Alabama, I   took a twelve-day fast, and at the end   I was tempted by a delicious large   Japanese persimmon, which had been   eyeing me from the pantry shelf during   the whole twelve days. I ate that   persimmon — and I mention that it   was thoroughly ripe ; in spite of which   fact it doubled me up with the most   alarming cramp — and in consequence   I do not recommend persimmons for   fasters. I know a friend who had a   similar experience from the juice of one   orange; but he was a man with whom   acid fruit has always disagreed. I   know another man who broke his fast   73 F     THE FASTING CURE   on a Hamburg steak ; and this also is  not to be recommended.   It has been my experience that im-  mediately after a fast the stomach is  very weak, and can easily be upset;  also the peristaltic muscles are prac-  tically without power. It is, therefore,  important to choose foods which are  readily digested, and also to continue  to take the enema daily until the  muscles have been sufficiently built up  to make a natural movement possible.  The thing to do is to take orange juice  or grape juice in small quantities for  two or three days, and then go  gradually upon the milk diet, begin-  ning with half a glass of warm milk  at a time. If the milk does not agree  with you, you may begin carefully to  add baked potatoes and rice and gruels  and broths, if you must ; but don't for-  get the enema.   74     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   People ask me in what diseases I  recommend fasting. I recommend it  for all diseases of which I have ever  heard, with the exception of one in  which I have heard of bad results —  tuberculosis. Dr. Hazzard, in her  book, reports a case of the cure of this  disease, but Mr. Macfadden tells me  that he has known of several cases of  people who have lost their weight and  have not regained it. There is one  cure quoted in the appendix to this  volume.   The diseases for which fasting is  most obviously to be recommended are  all those of the stomach and intestines,  which any one can see are directly  caused by the presence of fermenting  and putrefying food in the system.  Next come all those complaints which  are caused by the poisons derived from  these foods in the blood and the elimi-   75     THE FASTING CURE   native organs ; such are headaches and  rheumatism, liver and kidney troubles,  and of course all skin diseases. Finally,  there are the fevers and infectious  diseases, which are caused by the in-  vasion of the organism by foreign  bacteria, which are enabled to secure a  lodgment because of the weakened and  impure condition of the blood-stream.  Such are the ' * colds ' ' and fevers. In  these latter cases nature tries to save  us, for there is immediately experi-  enced a disinclination on the part of  the sick person to take any sort of  food ; and there is no telling how many  people have been hurried out of life in  a few days or hours, because ignorant  relatives, nurses and physicians have  gathered at their bedside and implored  them to eat. I can look back upon a  time in my own experience when my  wife was ii the hospital with a slow   76     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   fever; they would bring her up three  square meals a day, consisting of lamb  chops, poached eggs on toast, cooked  vegetables, preserves and desserts ; and  the physician would stand by her bed-  side and say, in sepulchral tones, " If  you do not eat, you will die ! ' '   My friend, Mr. Arthur Brisbane,  wrote me a gravely disapproving letter  when he read that I was fasting. I  had Si long correspondence with him,  at the end of which he acknowledged  that there *' might be something in  it." ** Even dogs fast when they are  ill," he wrote; and I replied, " I look  forward to the time when human  beings may be as wise as dogs." I  read the other day an amusing story of  a man who made himself a reputation  for curing the diseases of the pampered  pets of our rich society ladies. They  would bring him their overfed dogs,   77     THE FASTING CURE   and he would shut them up in an old  brick-kiln, with a tub of water, and  leave them there to howl until they  were hoarse. In addition to the water  he would put in each cell a hunk of  stale bread, a piece of bacon rind, and  an old boot. He would go back at the  end of a few days, and if the bread  was eaten he would write to the fond  owner that the dog's recovery was  assured. He would go back in a few  more days, and if the bacon rind was  eaten would write that the dog was  nearly well. And at the end of  another week, he would go back, and if  the old boot was eaten he would write  to the owner that the dog was now com-  pletely restored to health.   Several people wrote me who were  in the last stages of some desperate  disease. Of course they had always  been consulting with physicians, and   78     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   the physicians had told them that my  article was "pure nonsense"; and  they would write me that they would  like to try to fast, but that they were  " too weak and too far gone to stand  it." There is no greater delusion  than that a person needs strength to  fast. The weaker you are from  disease, the more certain it is that you  need to fast, the more certain it is that  your body has not strength enough to  digest the food you are taking into it.  If you fast under those circumstances,  you will grow not weaker, but stronger.  In fact, my experience seems to indi-  cate that the people who have the least  trouble on the fast are the people who  are most in need of it. The system  which has been exhausted by the efforts  to digest the foods that are piled into  it, simply lies down with a sigh of  relief and goes to sleep.   79     THE FASTING CURB   The fast is Nature's remedy for all  diseases, and there are few exceptions  to the rule. When you feel sick, fast.  Do not wait until the next day, when  you will feel stronger, nor till the next  week, when you are going away into  the country, but stop eating at once.  Many of the people who wrote to me  were victims of our system of wage  slavery, who wrote me that they were  ill, but could not get even a few days'  release in which to fast. They wanted  to know if they could fast and at the  same time continue their work. Many  can do this, especially if the work is of  a clerical or routine sort. On my first  fast I could not have done any work,  because I was too weak. But on my  second fast I could have done anything  except very severe physical labour. I  have one friend who fasted eight days  for the first time, and who did all her   80     80ME NOTES ON FASTING   own housework and put up several gal-  lons of preserves on the last day. I  have received letters from a couple of  women who have fasted ten or twelve  days, and have done all their own  work. I know of one case of a young  girl who fasted thirty-three days and  worked all the time at a sanatorium,  and on the twenty-fourth day she  walked twenty miles.   Fasting and the Doctors.   A most discouraging circumstance  to me was the attitude of physicians,  as revealed in the correspondence that  came to me. Mostly I learned of this  attitude from the letters of patients  who quoted their physicians to me.  From the physicians themselves I  heard practically nothing. We have  some one hundred and forty thousand   81     THE FASTING CURE   regularly graduated ** medical men "  in this country, and they are all of  them presumably anxious to cure  disease. It would seem that an ex-  perience such as mine, narrated over  my own signature, and backed by  references to other cases, would have  awakened the interest of a good many  of these professional men.   Out of the six or eight hundred  letters that I have received, just two,  80 far as I can remember, were from  physicians; and out of the hundreds  of newspaper clippings which I re-  ceived, not a single one was from any  sort of medical journal. There was  one physician, in an out-of-the-way  town in Arkansas, who was really in-  terested, and who asked me to let him  print several thousand copies of the  article in the form of a pamphlet, to  be distributed among his patients.   82     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   One single mind, among all the hun-  dred and forty thousand, open to a  new truth 1   In the English Review for Novem-  ber, 1910, I find an article entitled  " Bone-setting and the Profession, by  Fairplay." It is a narrative of the  experience of the writer and some of  his friends with Osteopathy, being a  defence of that method of treatment  in cases of bruises and sprains. I  quote the following paragraph :   " Harvey's statement about the cir-  culation of the blood was met with  scorn by the doctors, who called him in  derision the* Circulator.' Simpson's  discovery of the use of chloroform was  scouted by them as incredible, some  even declared it to be ' impious,' and a  * defiance of the will of God.' Elliot-  son's use of the stethoscope called  forth the rage of the protected society   83     THE FASTING CURK   as a body : the Lancet described him as  a * pariah of the profession.' The  ignorant scorn and slander broke his  heart ; but to-day the stethoscope is in  constant use, and is recognized as one  of the most important aids to a correct  diagnosis."   It might also be of interest to quote  the note which one finds appended to  this remarkable article : * * The Editor  was amused to find that the Lancet re-  fused the advertisement of the above  article, thereby confirming what the  writer alleges against the ring."   Of course I realize what a difficult  matter it is for a medical man to face  these facts about the fast. Sometimes  it seems to me that we have no right to  expect their help at all, and that we  never will receive it. For we are  asking them to destroy themselves,  economically speaking. We do not   84     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   expect aid from eminent corporation  lawyers when we set out to overthrow  the rule of privilege in our country ; and  it must be equally difficult for a hard-  worked and not very highly paid phy-  sician to contemplate the triumph of  an idea, which would leave no place for  him in civilization. In an article con-  tributed to Physical Culture magazine  for January, 1910, I stated that in the  course of my search for health: I had  paid to physicians, surgeons, drug-  gists and sanatoriums not less than  fifteen thousand dollars in the last six  or eight years. In the last year, since  I have learned about the fast, I have  paid nothing at all; and the same  thing is true, perhaps on a smaller  scale, of every one who discovers the  fasting cure. As one man, who wrote  me a letter of enthusiastic gratitude,  expresses it : "I have spent over five   85     THE FASTING CURE   hundred dollars in the last ten years  trying to get well on medicines. It  cost me only thirty cents to use your  method, and for that thirty cents I  obtained relief a million-fold more  beneficial than from five hundred  dollars' worth of medicine."   Not so very long ago I saw a report  in some metropolitan newspaper to  the effect that the medical profession  was greatly alarmed over the decrease  in its revenues — it being estimated  that the income of the average physi-  cian to-day was less than half of what  it had been ten years ago. All this, I  think, is directly attributable to the  spread of knowledge concerning  natural methods in the treatment of  disease — and, more important yet, of  natural methods in the preservation  of health. Only the other day I was  talking with a friend who was a     SOME NOTES ON FASTING   teacher in a small college in the Middle  [West. There was a physician regu-  larly employed to attend the girl-  students, but several of the teachers  became interested in the fasting cure,  and whenever they learned of any ill-  ness they would go to the girl and start  her on a fast ; as a result, the physician  lost considerably more than half his  practice. In the same way, I myself  recently started several people in a  small town to fasting, and every time  I saw the local physician driving by  in his carriage I marvelled at the  courtesy and cordiality he displayed;  for before I had left that place I had  cured half a dozen of his permanent  customers — people to whom he had  been dispensing pills and powders  every few weeks for a dozen years.     87     THE HUMORS OF FASTING.   At the time of writing these words, it  has been just six months since I pub-  lished my first paper upon fasting,  and I am still getting letters about it  at the rate of half a dozen a day. The  tent which I inhabit is rapidly becom-  ing uninhabitable because of paste-  board boxes full of ** fasting-letters " ;  and the store-keeper who is so good as  to receive my telegrams over the  'phone, is growing quite expert at  taking down the symptoms of adven-  turers who get started and want to  know how to stop. I could make quite  a postage-stamp collection from these  letters — I had one from Spain and one  from India and one from Argentina  all in the same day. I am sure I