Fasting Can Save Your Life by Herbert M. Shelton

Over the course of 30 years, Shelton conducted 25,000 fasts ranging from three days to over two months. In his book, Shelton gives anecdotal evidence of humans fasting for periods of 60 days or more and shows the practice has been known to cure a wide range of diseases such as epilepsy, typhoid fever, cataracts, and obesity.

For more than 10,000 years, fasting was used to alleviate human illness. As with animals, Shelton believed abstention from food is sometimes more beneficial than its consumption. Shelton viewed the purpose of fasting as a natural occurrence that generated healing and restorative benefits. Man, as part of the organic world, has many reasons to mimic such behavior and has done so throughout history-as is seen in various religious practices throughout the world. Shelton came to understand this behavior as a means of survival.

Both periods are considered to be vital aspects of the same process.Īs a child on his family's farm, Shelton observed animals abstain from food when upset, wounded, sick, or just simply not hungry. Shelton divided fasting into two distinct periods: eating and abstaining. Fasting works as a method of 'resetting' the body's metabolism and has a multitude of applications. Caloric restriction has been repeatedly shown to increase life span in animals, and researchers, such as David Sinclair of Harvard University, have discovered the cellular and genetic mechanisms that respond to such techniques.Īccording to Shelton, when someone is fasting, the energy typically going into eating and digestion is instead redirected to promote health and well-being. But modern science is now beginning to show that, in some instances, his theories were accurate. His beliefs were criticized during his time, and he even faced legal penalties for publishing his views. Shelton was writing before the advent of genetic theory and modern medicine. Shelton's book outlines the history of this practice and explains the following in detail: what is fasting, the purpose of fasting, how to fast successfully, intermittent fasting for healing, and the general benefits of fasting. The book's ideas run counter to the well-known conventional wisdom that those who are sick must eat to 'keep up their strength' and posits that fasting is a natural part of the rhythm of life. Shelton outlined his theory that fasting is a key component in promoting healing. In his 1934 book, The Science and Fine Art of Fasting, Herbert M.

Fasting Can Save Your Life by Herbert M. Shelton