Transcript of Episode 201: How to Block Fast
With Dr. Daniel Pompa and Meredith Dykstra
Meredith:
Hello everyone, and welcome to Cellular Healing TV. I'm your host, Meredith Dykstra. We have our resident cellular healing specialist, Dr. Dan Pompa on the line of course, and today we're going to do a short little episode that's going to be very specific because I know, Dr. Pompa, you get a lot of questions about this topic. Today we're going to delve into this very specifically, and we're going to be talking about block fasting today.
We get so many questions, and comments, and just wonderings about the strategy and the implementation, and what it looks like, and how often we should do it, and if we can have certain things while we're block fasting. A lot of people today talk about intermittent fasting, and it's become a huge hot topic in the health world today, but block fasting, there's a lot of miseducation, misinformation, fear surrounding it so today we're going to break down block fasting for you. I'm excited about this topic because it's really transformed my life.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I think I've had many requests for this show. We have a few shows on fasting. While we're doing it, you could actually pull them back up, but they were interviews with people, so what people wanted was hey, could you do one just on block fasting aka extended fast. Every question we get, right? Can I take my supplements during a fast? How do I break a fast? Who should fast? When not to? When's the best time? How long should I go? All of those questions are going to get answered on this one, so gosh, I hope I don't forget one question that somebody asked because here's the show. It's short, concise, and we're going to answer all your questions. That was really the request.
Let's start off with that right there. Who should fast, and maybe who should not fast? Well look, I think there are a lot of health challenges. I think you need an extended block fast. You should have a supervised practitioner that understands fasting and the things to look for. Let's say that right off the bat; however, most healthy people watching this could fast. Our bodies are set up to fast. I don't recommend pregnant women to fast, women that are nursing fast because, obviously, there needs to be a certain caloric intake to help that, although there's things in the literature talking about when women were forced to fast during pregnancy, and everything was fine.
All I'm saying is this: there's nothing that harnesses the body's innate intelligence more than fasting. The adjustment releases that innate intelligence, right? Misalignments can block the nerve flow from the brain to the organs, but I tell you, fasting harnesses the innate intelligence, meaning—here's what I mean. The intelligence in the body does the right things. It finds what we call homeostasis, perfect balance. It knows how much protein it needs. It knows how many minerals, nutrients because people always say—we hear well, how does your body get protein? How does your body get nutrients? It does.
It gets protein by taking all of your bad proteins, and muscles, and the bad stuff, all of the bad muscle fiber, the bad tissues, the bad proteins, breaking them down into amino acids, and it has its perfect protein from bad protein. The protein that keeps you from putting on healthy, good muscle. As a matter of fact, one of the strategies for extended fast is actually to gain muscle, so they know a month later—I challenged my son Isaac. He's a very skinny kid, three percent body fat type of kid. I said do a fast for five days and watch what happens a month from now. Sure enough, he was able to put on muscle, so that's one of the questions I always get. I'm underweight. I'm 90 pounds. I'm 100 pounds. Can I fast? Yes. Matter of fact, the body's that intelligent. If you are 90 pounds, your body will literally—you might lose four or five pounds, mostly water, and it will selectively pull the bad proteins. That's the only weight you lose.
After the fast you start to gain better muscle, better proteins, and you actually gain some weight. People who are overweight. Is it going to mess up my metabolism? Not at all. When it's done right, the body finds perfect metabolism, and as long as you eat healthy after a fast, you don't gain the weight back. I mean, you gain your normal three to five pounds back of glycogen and fluid. That's completely normal, so fasting, yes, for weight gain, for weight loss. It, of course, you'll understand this more as we go through the show, things like autoimmune, digestive problems. This is the real way to fix the gut in a microbiome. You're going to see why it affects so many different conditions.
Here's the best part: you're not treating any of them. All you're doing is bringing the body into this perfect homeostasis, and then the body figures it out. It detoxes perfectly, and it heals perfectly, so that's the art of fasting. One of the things that will answer our questions, because I know that you're thinking of them too because you get a lot of the questions, Meredith, but let me just give a review of why fasting does such amazing things in the body. I'll make it very simple. I'm not going to dig too deep into the science because this is a how-to show.
A few things happen. Number one, if you haven't heard the word autophagy yet, meaning that during fasts, your body gets rid of the bad stuff, like the bad proteins, the bad DNA, the bad mitochondria that keep us from being good, efficient fat burners and have good energy. All of the bad cells, the body gets rid of them. Bad white blood cells, the white blood cells that go around, they've lived almost too long, and they're hyper-reactive. They create food allergies, allergies, autoimmune. They overreact to things in your blood. They drive inflammation. I always say that most of the inflammation we have is driven by our own immune system cells. The body gets rid of them. That's part of the magic.
The second part, made more popular by a guy named by Valter Longo, who you and I are going to spend some time with, doing amazing research here, shows that the body gets rid of these cells. It raises up something called stem cells. We all know what those are, but those are the cells that help you make new white blood cells that aren't as reactive. He calls them more naive. They're like yeah, I see that protein, your thyroid antibody. I'm not reacting to that anymore. I see this. I'm not going to react to that. The immune system up here driving inflammation comes down to a normal level. These stem cells also are the ones that make the new muscle, the new protein. They're responsible for making the new, healthy tissue, so that's why we get the stem cell rise. This is kind of cool. You're going to hear this.
Longo's releasing a new book soon, and in some of his research that most people haven't heard about—you're hearing it here first. Five days, which is going to answer one of the questions, is being a perfect time, amount of time for people to fast. Some people arguably would do better with longer fasts, but five days. Ironically enough, he has a scientific reason for that; however, I always found that clinically, I said the magic happens day four. That's when you become this efficient fat burner. You transition. Your brain's using the ketones. You feel better. It takes three days to get there. I'd say if you can ride it out one more day to five days, that's the perfect amount of time. Longo's work showed it is because what he showed was that stem cell rise. You get the most dramatic rise day five into a fast, and by feeding on day six, he says it feeds these stem cells, these new ones, and you get the most out of them. There's some pretty cool stuff coming off his research.
He also talks about a 30 hour mark, so if you're doing fasting once or twice a week, if you make it over 30 hours, you also get a nice stem cell boost, so there's some little facts about how long should I fast. I would say for the average person, there's a really good number. At least five days, and refeed on day six, and we'll talk about how to do that here in a moment.
Let me finish with the benefits of fasting. We have the stem cells. We have the autophagy. You also have a reset of your DNA, so a lot of genes that have been turned on tend to get turned off. The bad ones that get turned on. They get turned off during a fast, so you kind of reset your epigenetics, your DNA, so you have an opportunity to turn off bad things. Also, your microbiome, your bacteria, they get reset, so this is another good opportunity to reset your microbiome and come out healthy.
I believe ancient cultures were forced into times of fasting, so to reset the DNA, to reset their microbiome, to develop new stem cells, new immune cells, new muscle cells. The problem with today is we're not being forced to fast, where our ancestors were, so it's literally a time to reset. You also have this hormone optimization that occurs. During a fast, your cells down regulate inflammation, and the receptors on the cells become very sensitive to hormones. That's a really good thing, so that works for conditions like thyroid, diabetes, and really every hormone starts to function better. I call it hormone optimization, as well as these growth hormone rises.
Again, on day five, according to Longo's work, you get the highest rise in growth hormone. Your body raises growth hormone to protect its muscle and its good tissue, so the only protein or muscle that you would lose is the bad stuff that enables you to build better. I know I get a lot of questions on that, but that's how intelligent the body is, so those are the benefits of fasting, and I answered a few of your questions in there. Meredith, let me turn it back to you because you have some questions, and then we can go into some different areas just to make sure all the questions get answered.
Meredith:
You talked a lot about the why. I'm echoing again, but can you talk a little bit about the how? We'll get into that, so five days seems to be magic for a block fast, or if you're doing the intermittent fasting, more than 30 hours you start to get those benefits. Let's say this show, I think it may be coming out in January. Somebody wants to start the new year off and kick it off with a block fast. They want to do five days. What if it's their first fast? What would you suggest them fasting on? Would you think they should go full-throttle with pure water? What about bone broth, or the probiotic whey water that we've talked about? What do you suggest for a first fast?
Dr. Pompa:
I think that's a great question. One of the things that we teach to the doctors is by putting someone in ketosis first, you're teaching their mitochondria, their cells to use fat for energy. The first three days of a water fast, or really any fast, the first three days is the hardest. Of course, you have cravings, but really, most of it is driven physiologically because your body's not used to using fat, so it wants you to eat sugar. You get these horrific cravings, but of course, because you're not using sugar, and you're not efficient at burning fat as an energy source, you have low energy the first three days. Remember, I said day four is the magic. That's when you become—day four you're going to become more efficient.
People who are really toxic, they still can have low energy because their cells are just so inflamed. That doesn’t mean they don't fast, but every fast they tend to get more efficient. The average, healthy person by day four, their brain turns on. They feel energy again. They typically do too much. They typically go out and exercise or work too hard, and then they can be run down. Day four that transition occurs. I think been in ketosis first -inaudible- the symptoms you would get those first three days, and it really does make a difference. That's, I think, a way to—do you have to do that? No, but does it make it easier? Absolutely yes. Did I answer that question?
Meredith:
Well, if you can be a little bit more specific though. Yes, being in ketosis prior to fasting definitely eases the process and the symptoms, but as far as a fasting liquid. Water? Bone broth? Whey water? What do you suggest, especially for a first timer?
Dr. Pompa:
I think that if you're fearful to fast, definitely do a whey water or a bone broth fast first, for sure. If you're not fearful, if you're like oh, I really want to do this -inaudible-, then go right for water. I think the greatest benefit is water fasting. I think that because you're offering the body nothing, you rely on the innate intelligence the most. No doubt, you get the most autophagy. No doubt, you challenge the mitochondria the most to use fat, but I think psychologically for some people, water fasting is the hardest. For me, I've done all of them. Bone broth and whey water, I believe, doing them I'm getting sick of the bone broth and the whey water, and I just yearn for something else. I don't want to do it anymore, so for me, water fasting is the easiest. It's psychologically hard for people. What about you? What do you think? You've done them all too.
Meredith:
I have, and when I first started with fasting, I started with a probiotic whey water because that just seemed the easiest, and it definitely is because you're getting the calories, and you're getting the milk sugar, so that helps to maintain your blood sugar. It's definitely the easiest fast, by far. It's typically suggested you can drink up to six bottles of the probiotic whey water each day, which you get from Beyond Organic, and you get it through Youngevity. We'll put a link in the show notes if you want to get those bottles of the whey water, so easiest for sure. Then, I gravitated to the bone broth fasting because I thought that was easier as well.
I was very intimidated by the water fasting, but the bone broth fast, after a couple of days, you get really sick of it. It can be kind of fatty, and it can be tough to go down. It can even be a little gaggy for some people after many days of it, so I finally did a water fast after having done the whey water and the bone broth for a while, and it was so much easier. I couldn't believe it. I had been so intimidated by it, and just the simplicity of it was amazing. It's the most healing thing I think I've ever done for my body is a water fast. I just did a short one a few weeks ago, and I'm going to do a longer one in January in the new year for 2018 to just have that reboot for the new year as well. It's an easier progression to it, if you just want to get your feet wet. Whey water, then bone broth, then move to the water.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, exactly. I think you're right. The whey water, you don’t get the down for the first three days because there's some lactose. Really, metabolically for people who have struggled the transition of using sugar constantly as their fuel source, which is not good. They struggle to transition to fat. That helps them. For me, I don't have that problem. I can transition to fat, so therefore water, just because I don't crave, feel getting sick. I even get sick of the whey water, so for me, the water is easiest, but you're right. I think that is a natural psychological transition the way you said it. I mean, eventually, dig in to the water fasting, and then here's a question we get all the time. What should I take? Can I do lemon in my water? Can I take supplements?
Meredith:
I was going to ask that too. Coffee? Or tea? Or even you have different vegetable juices. What are your thoughts on other liquids that may not -inaudible-?
Dr. Pompa:
I would say are the other two fat? They whey water, and the bone broth? I would say yes. You could do those things, but for water, no. You just want to do the water. The only two supplements that I would make a recommendation on is Restore because it's redox. It's not offering the body anything. Acacia is the same way. Acacia is another redox for the mitochondria, but that's it. No pills. Then, I'll make one more suggestion. This does help people. For the first three days, having some salt in your water really helps people because they just lose a lot of electrolytes. The body eventually balances that, so it's really the first three days where you're kind of balancing that it helps. I allow that.
Here's another tip. That sipping the warm, or the hot water in a thermos all day. It really helps people. I think that that's what people like about the bone broth. They have something warm. Do the same thing with water. The Chinese, actually, drink warm water. It curbs appetite. It helps if you're getting a little nauseous. It helps with that as well, so just in a thermos, put some warm water. Those are the basics before and during the fast. Can you think of anything else?
Meredith:
That's a great tip as well, especially in this cold season, having that thermos of something warm. Maybe that warm, salted water to sip on can be definitely very soothing. It's kind of a funny question to, but I've thought of this myself, so I think maybe other people have wondered as well. Sometimes with water fasting, I've done sparkling water, or maybe even some of the flavored sparkling waters. Would you think that would have any negative effect?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I find that sparkling water doesn't do good for people. It's too harsh on the digestion that you're trying to rest, so I know people say you don't get hydrated from sparkling water the same. I don't know that that's necessarily true, but there is a more irritating component to it for sure, so stick with clean, distilled water, or reverse osmosis water, or if you know your source of spring water, stick to a clean water.
Here's the other question we get all the time. How much water should I drink? Drink when you're thirsty. It sounds silly, but you have to understand, when you're fasting, you're innate intelligence is functioning so perfect, and it's so high tuned that you'll know when to drink water. Drink when you're thirsty. People that are trying to chug a lot of water during a fast are forcing the body. You're forcing the kidneys to work. Let the body direct it. Just listen.
Meredith:
Great. I get this all the time. For block fasting, how do you know when to stop the fast? Especially, what if you're feeling really good, but maybe you're many days into it and getting a little concerned? Where's that fine line there?
Dr. Pompa:
That's a great question. I think for most people who listen to this, again, go with Longo’s, Valter Longo’s thing of five days, right? It gives a nice—a minimum four, right, a minimum four, perfect number, if you will, five. Yeah. You’re right, Andrew. Andrew, I just called you Andrew, Meredith. There’s going to be people who might benefit from a longer fast, especially obese people, overweight people. They have a lot of supplies, and the body will use them.
Remember, not my last seminar, the one before. We had a gentleman there that was—he was obese, and he was on day 120 of just water, folks, 120. I’ve said this in past shows. The neat thing is by then every nutrition marker is balanced. Every inflammation marker is balanced. I think he was on five or eight medications. By that point, he was off of them all. His depression lifted. I mean, it was remarkable. You read about those things, but hearing him testify there was remarkable.
We had the discussion with him of when to break the fast, right? One of the key things is looking at your tongue. Folks, what to expect when you’re fasting, we’ve been throwing little things out there, but a white tongue you can expect. Again, the body does get rid of toxins. Bad breath you can expect. Smelly odor that just emanates from you, you can expect. Now, that’s not everyone. I don’t get that anymore, but most people will get that, right? The tongue can go from white to yellow to green, and I’ve even seen black, furry tongues.
Meredith:
Lovely, black, furry tongue.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, with extended fast. Here’s how cool the innate intelligence is. When the tongue turns back to pink, it’s time to quit. Now, that doesn’t mean you’re like—you’ve just detoxed every toxin out of your body. No. It just means the body knows its supplies are running short. Its electrolytes are dropping. Its nutrient supply is diminishing. His tongue, by the way, had already started turning pink.
Then here’s another cool thing to watch for. His hunger comes back, literally. All of a sudden, you’re like—you’re not hungry, believe me. By day four of a fast, you’re not hungry, nor does the hunger happen, but all of a sudden, boom, I’m hungry. Listen to your body, or what happens is you—your body odor starts going down. Your breath doesn’t stink. I mean, isn’t that cool? The body’s just stopping the detox, and here’s another one, very simple. The weight loss stops for two or three days. You’re pretty much ending your fast.
Those are the things, just some simple things that you can look at. Again, I don’t recommend anyone fasting that long without supervision, so I don’t want to go there. You need a supervised fast. Monitor those things and the electrolytes. I’m not recommending that for everybody, but to answer your question, that’s—I think it’s a cool example of how intelligent the body is in a fasting mode so really neat.
Meredith:
Do you know how long he actually went on that fast, that man?
Dr. Pompa:
Not long after that. Maybe it was 129. It was not long after because I had told him there that I think your body’s wrapping this thing up. I mean, he lost 100 pounds. I mean, it was pretty remarkable, and the cool thing is the gentleman who fasted the longest, gosh, it was 381 days, something like that.
Meredith:
Yeah. It was over a year. It’s amazing, Scottish man, right?
Dr. Pompa:
It was over year. Uh-huh. Yeah, exactly. He lost hundreds of pounds, and he kept it off. I think to this day he’s 180, 190-some pounds, but again, it was another situation where all of his nutritional markers went normal. His blood markers went normal. Everything normalized.
Fasting is a way to harness that intelligence. The body knows how to heal, and fasting gives it that time to focus all of its energy on healing. It’s getting rid of the bad cells, rising the stem cells. I mean, all those amazing things happen during a fast. It really is incredible.
Meredith:
Right. I get this a lot as well; how often can I block fast? Many people today, not because it’s cool and you and I included, of course, just because of the health benefits, that we intermittent fast almost on a daily basis, but block fasting, maybe we don’t want to do that too often. How often do you typically recommend that, every month or seasonally, once a year?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I mean, some people with certain health challenges, they benefit from a fast a month, whether it’s five days every month or five days every other month. Maybe it’s five days every quarter. We call it multiple block fast where we’re doing not very extended like we were just talking about, but these four or five day fasts.
Meredith:
Now, is that over the long term, like over a lifetime, or is that just a few years?
Dr. Pompa:
No. No, over a time of them getting their life back. Look, I think that if everybody healthy, everyone listening to this should fast at least once a year, right? I mean, the Hunza people, the Hunza, they fasted once a year. They called it starvation spring. It became a cultural thing. Thomas Seyfried, who wrote the book Cancer as a Metabolic Disease, talks about reducing cancer 95% by just one fast.
I think, no matter what, all of us should fast at least one time. Of course, January is an obvious great time. It starts out so easy to start something new after a fast. Your palate’s clean. You’re not craving sugar. Your addictions go, right? It’s magic. You can do anything after a fast.
However, I will say this, my favorite time to fast—although, I’m about to do a five-day fast, so I’m breaking what I’m saying. However, in the summer when you can go outside in the sun, it’s nice, right? Fasting in the summer or spring is easier than in the winter because you do get cold. Let’s talk about some of the things that you can expect. Expect to get cold. I mean, you just—it’s normal. Your body is pulling energy, and it’s using it for healing. It’s pretty normal to get a little cold, absolutely okay.
Meredith:
That’s where the warm water really helps too. If you’re doing the water fasting, just sipping on that heat feels really good.
Dr. Pompa:
Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. Expect to not have a bowel movement except maybe one, maybe day two, maybe day three. You hear things like people ought to know or have another bowel movement. That’s typically a toxic bowel movement. By the way, the gentleman that we were talking about…
Meredith:
I didn’t know that.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. The gentleman that we were talking about, 120 days, he actually—every 30 days he was having a black tar bowel movement. I mean, imagine. It was just coming out of him. Yeah. I mean, that’s pretty intense. I just had someone this week actually say, oddly enough, day six I had a bowel movement. He went seven days. Again, it’s typically not a normal bowel movement, so you shouldn’t have bowel movements but maybe one because you’re not eating. There’s no fiber. Anyways, that’s really normal.
What else can you expect? I said about the bad breath. The whites of your eyes will clear, for sure. You may get an area of your body that’s healing, and each fast, your body can focus on healing something else. Merily just did a five-day fast a couple months ago. In her hips, which were a problem—her hips were off, but they went away. The pain went away. She wasn’t having problems, but during the fast, she got that pain back in her hips. It was healing. The body was driving a healing response there. She’s had no problems since.
You may get one area that is pain, or I have this pain in here. A lot of times, it’s tumors shrinking, cysts shrinking, cells getting rid of—something healing. The body’s that intelligent that it will drive a healing response, and you could feel a symptom in one particular area. You might want to expect that. Expect, again, by day four or day five you have plenty of energy but rest. Use your energy for healing. People say can I exercise during it? After day four or day five, typically, you can exercise, but I’m under the belief you should let that energy be used for healing. If you’re a really healthy person, I think Longo in his work says you get such a growth hormone rise on day five that, if you’re going to exercise, that’s the day to do it, but for challenged and sick people, just use your energy for rest. There you are.
Meredith:
What about those people who get so—who feel so sick when they’re healing, just massive symptoms, very weak, maybe racing heart, just feel so terrible? Are they a good candidate? Should they stop the fast? Is that an indication that maybe it’s too much for their body at that point?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I mean, again, I think someone who’s really sick and challenged, that’s why you have a supervised fast. Of course, your practitioner can answer those questions for you and judge your specific situation because it’s different for everybody. One of the things I’ve seen, though, is, first of all, every fast -inaudible- people because the cells get better and better and better. Bad cells die. Good cells get stronger. Bad mitochondria die. Good mitochondria get more efficient at using fat as energy, etc., but toxic people -inaudible-. I mean, that’s why doing cellular detox while this process is going on—not while like taking pills because we don’t take pills during it but meaning that you’re doing it in the process of. You’re not just fasting. You’re doing the cellular work as well.
The point is, though, is that rest. I’ve watched enough people just not feel well, and they just rest. It’s a time for healing, and if you can get through it, your body got better. Even if you didn’t say, gosh, I didn’t have all the energy. People say that. They heard some of the past interviews. I’m like I didn’t get that. These people’s moles were falling off. They had plenty of energy. That wasn’t me. I was still energyless.
Listen, each fast you’ll get more efficient. Just curl up and ride it. Just let the body heal and do its thing.
Meredith:
Yeah. Since you mentioned TCD, I get this question a lot as well. If someone’s going through the True Cellular Detox program, when would be a good time within that program, even if maybe they’re just doing the 90-day program, to do a fast? Would that be in between the phases, maybe during one of the phases where they’re just taking a break from the supplements? Is there an ideal time for that?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I mean, I think any time after the prep phase, right? The prep phase is getting some cell function going, opening up downstream pathways. Any time after that I think is a great time. It even gives you time a month to switch your diet around. Then after that, there’s really no right or wrong time.
Meredith:
What do you think too about during the fast to maybe help the body out a little bit with removing the toxins? I know sometimes I try to add in dry brushing and maybe walking, Gentle Yoga. What about a colonic during a fast? What do you think? Would that be something good to do?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, great question. Look, again, the dry brushing, I think it’s fantastic. I think an Epsom salt bath can be helpful, but be careful with too hot of water. You don’t have the energy often times to adapt to real hot water. Coffee enemas, I would stick to the first three days, like the salt thing. Just let the body—let the innate intelligence roll. Just let it do its thing. Day four, day five, it’s just—you’re relying completely on the innate intelligence. Even a coffee enema can force the body to do something. Don’t force it, right, but the first three days, your body’s going through that adaptation. It might be a benefit to do it.
Meredith:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. What about children and the elderly? For those who are maybe just—those who are a little weaker or very young, how do you suggest incorporating fasting if they really need it?
Dr. Pompa:
In the United States, it’s not considered good practice to recommend a child to fast. However, my child fasted. He chose to. Simon fasted 12 days.
Meredith:
It has to be on their own volition, so to speak. They have to do that.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, -inaudible-. In Europe, it’s more—it’s okay. They fast kids more often, so there you have it. I mean, of course, kids were forced to fast when the culture didn’t have food, right? Kids were able to fast, but it’s not cultural in this country to fast children.
Meredith:
With their young growing bodies, would they be missing out on vitamins and minerals and maybe get some nutrient deficiencies if they’re fasting?
Dr. Pompa:
Innate intelligence says no. It figures it out, honestly. I mean, that would be the logical thought process that, oh, of course, they need—nah. There’s still plenty of bad proteins for it to eat, and it figures it out and balances it. Again, because it’s not cultural in this country, I would shy away from it.
Meredith:
Mm-hmm. Right. I guess this is the same for the elderly as well. Of course, they can fast, even if they’re weak?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, absolutely. You watch the elderly. When they start getting closer to that age, they’re fasting. I think at the seminar I showed a gentleman who was 146 years old. Remember [Gutman] or whatever? He wanted to die. He had been through six wives. He outlived his kids’ kids’ kids. I mean, that’s crazy right? I mean, it was like—this guy was like I don’t have any friends anymore. It’s like he’s ready to die.
What he did, he stopped eating. It allowed him to live longer. Then he would start eating again. The poor bastard kept fasting himself into living longer, but what happens in old age is they eat so little, right? I think I showed another woman who was 115, right, from Italy, and she was eating two eggs a day and some biscuits, right? It’s like they literally live longer because of—they automatically just lose appetite.
Meredith:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. The irony of that is very funny, great, great. All right, well, any other common questions, Dr. Pompa?
Dr. Pompa:
Oh, the most important of all. How do I break a fast?
Meredith:
Yes, of course, of course.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, right. Okay. Yeah. That’s a common question. Okay. How do I break the fast (slow and low)?
Here’s what I typically—just some guidelines. People love simple guidelines, right? Soft foods the first day, things like avocado. Steam your vegetables really good. Don’t eat raw, so don’t even eat salad. It’s a little harder to break down.
Meredith:
Blending them is helpful too, any of the veggies.
Dr. Pompa:
What’s that?
Meredith:
Blending them, like putting them in a blender, like a blended soup or stew.
Dr. Pompa:
Blending them, right, and the fermented veggies seems to do good too, right? It’s like they’re easier to digest. Fermented veggies, blended veggies, cooked, steamed veggies, avocado, some berries, I mean, all of those things are great. Oils, some avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, just little bits of oils to give you those fats, that’s a great first day. I would say this. Ladies, most of you, 500 calories first day back. Men about 800 calories so low calories, soft foods.
Day two, day two you can up that. Ladies go to 800, men maybe 1200. Just up your caloric uptake. You could now bring in some eggs into that, of course, all the same foods. Oh, we didn’t mention yogurts, right? That’s a good day one, some yogurt. Some fermented yogurt is perfect. Day two, you can bring in some seeds.
Meredith:
Smoothies.
Dr. Pompa:
I would stay away from nuts. What’s that?
Meredith:
Smoothies are great too.
Dr. Pompa:
Smoothies, yeah, still perfect on that but still no meat until the third day. The third day, then you can bring in—by the third day, you’re pretty much eating normal calories. Bringing in what you would normally eat, I would say. Just progress it along like that calorically and how you introduce the foods that are harder to digest, right? Don’t eat legumes the second day, big thing of grain or meat. Those things are a little harder to digest.
Meredith:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Very important to ease back in because you want to get all the benefits of the fast and feel good easing back into the food. I forgot this question too. This show is off the cuff for you guys, but we wanted to bring it to you. Are there better fasts for certain health conditions? We get that a lot. Especially with SIBO, there’s a lot of bone broth fasting talk with SIBO. I don’t know. Are there specific fasts that you would recommend for specific conditions?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I mean, I think when you’re dealing with autoimmune, I mean, I love the regular water fast. You get the most autophagy, so you’re getting rid of a lot of bad cells that are hyper-reacting, right? It really has a strong impact on the gut. I think bone broth fasting is still really healing for the gut, right? People that have inflamed guts, I think the collagen in there can be really healing for them. SIBO does really well with bone fasts. I wouldn’t do whey water with SIBO.
For more severe gut conditions, I would stick to broth or water. Yeah. I mean, I think that the more serious, sensitive person, water does best because they’re not reacting. Some of our very sensitive people react to even bone broth, right? The very sensitive do better on the water. Yeah. I mean, those are conditions that I think apply to very specific fasts, but SIBO does good with water as well.
Meredith:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We delve into bone broth fasting and whey water fasting I believe in Episode 76 and 77, if you want to check out any of those fasts where we really dive deeply into how to implement those. Then there have been some past episodes as well. If you go to podcast.drpompa.com and just search fasting in the tab, many different episodes have come up. We’ve interviewed Dr. Jason Fung who’s a fasting expert, some of the doctors who you coach. I know Dr. Derrick Dempsey, Dr. Don Clum. They have done extended water fasts. We’ve also delved into the ins and outs of long-term water fasting in those episodes if you want to check those out for more information.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is a definite how-to, right? I think it’s really important to get these questions answered, which many of these questions we hadn’t answered on those past shows, but those past shows will give you probably other bits of information that will bless you no doubt. I’ll say this just as a wrap-up. I’ll even speak for our group of doctors that are coached in cellular healing and detox. We could never help the people that we help if it weren’t for these block fasts, and I would say the same for the cellular detox. Putting it all together in a multi-therapeutic approach is magic. I mean, it really is, trusting the body’s innate intelligence. Remove the interference; the body will heal. Remove food and the body will heal.
The history of fasting, which we didn’t get into, I talked about it in my seminar. I went through study after study, but even the history alone, it is the oldest health modality known to man. It’s done by every religious practice. I mean, all the way back, as far as we can in the history in writing, it talks about fasting as a healing modality. I want to point this out. Not just physical but spiritual and emotional. They lift great depression, psychological problems. Fasting is amazing for all of it. That’s why fasting is mentioned more in the Bible than literally any other word. It is that common for a healing modality, so there you have it.
Meredith:
Yeah. Fasting is so, so powerful. Just on the spiritual end to, I know it’s amazing. If you’re going into this new year, if you’re seeking answers, if you’re seeking just guidance, or if you’re praying over a situation, it’s really incredible what fasting can do when you take that part out of our lives, food, which we think so much about. We’re spending so much time in the kitchen cooking and thinking about what we’re going to eat and then actually eating a meal. Food takes so much time up in our lives. It’s an amazing pleasure and joy that we get from this life, but when you remove it too, you have so much time to get quiet and think and really hear some answers if you’re seeking. It’s really, really powerful spiritually too just to bring it in your life as a regular practice.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s an amazing practice if you want to move something in somebody else’s life. As an example, I mean, biblically, it talks about that. My wife fasted for my son Daniel. I was only able to fast two days because I had a conference. I fasted two days, but my wife fasted five days. We have these people in Africa who pray for us, and they said, oh, you have to fast. Certain things you have to fast and pray, and the Bible talks about that, fast and pray. I even talked about that with Esther at my last seminar in the Bible. Fasting and praying, she did, and breakthrough, major breakthrough happened. It is a way. You fast for somebody, and I’m telling you, the ground can move.
Meredith:
That’s beautiful and beautiful way to end it. Thank you, Dr. Pompa, for your research, for just getting this information out on fasting. It’s changed my life so much, and so many people who watch this, the doctors, patients, who watch this and who are coached by those doctors, there’s really nothing like fasting to transform your life physically, mentally, spiritually. We encourage you to try it, to not be afraid but to be open. If you haven’t done a block fast before, just do it. Just try it. There’s no harm in trying it out, seeing what you do. Give us your feedback, your comments, woo, phone call. Let us know what your results are. Keep us posted. Thank you so much for walking—watching, and thank you, Dr. Pompa.
Dr. Pompa:
You got it.
Meredith:
All right, everybody, have a great weekend. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.
