Title : Chapter 2 Some Notes on Fasting: The Fasting Cure by Upton Sinclair from archive.org
link : 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
88
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