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Therapeutic fasting offers a holistic approach to improving health that goes far beyond just weight loss. The positive effects make it a promising method for increasing your own well-being.
Therapeutic fasting is used by healthy people to start losing weight and for certain illnesses, writes the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) on its website. Lars Selig, certified dietitian and head of the nutrition team at Leipzig University Hospital (UKL), recommends fasting “according to Buchinger” in a recent communication, but if possible accompanied and not for too long.
Positive effects
For thousands of years, people have been regenerating their bodies by fasting for a while. In naturopathy, temporarily avoiding solid food is even recognized as an effective therapy. Modern medicine now also appreciates the positive effects of therapeutic fasting.
If practiced correctly, it can increase the well-being of patients and thereby influence their health.
Lars Selig, who is the therapeutic manager of the specialist area of nutritional medicine at the UKL, also sees it that way. As such, he recommends anyone interested to fast “according to Buchinger” and to seek expert advice.
Help with rheumatism
Buchinger’s therapeutic fasting is one of the most popular types of fasting. This method goes back to the military doctor Dr. Otto Buchinger (1878-1966), who suffered from severe rheumatism.
In order to cure the disease, he underwent a fasting treatment with a colleague at the beginning of the 20th century. He first reduced his intake of solid food and then stopped it completely. After a few days of consuming only water, tea, or broth, he gradually transitioned back to solid food. Based on his own experience, Buchinger developed a therapeutic fasting concept that is still valid today. Lars Selig appreciates it above all because of the structure on which it is based.
“If we look at fasting according to Buchinger, there are different phases: There is a preparation phase, a type of intervention phase and a final phase. And I think that’s also the secret of fasting, that you don’t just say from now on, I’m going to stop eating and just drink. This is the only way fasting can have its effect,” says the expert.
Metabolism is interrupted
For Buchinger, this effect was that the organism cleanses itself or even “purifies” itself during fasting – a term that Lars Selig would not use because he finds it misleading.
Slag, says the medical educator, is translated as toxins, which gives the impression that the human body can build up toxins and that these can be eliminated with a fast.
In fact, a fast causes the human metabolism to be interrupted. Experts use this break to make dietary changes or to prevent the body’s reactions caused by food. A classic example of this is rheumatoid arthritis, explains Lars Selig.
“There is inflammation in the body that is influenced by diet – for example, foods that contain omega 6 or omega 9 fatty acids. In such cases, a fasting cure means that the inflammation subsides and the body can regenerate.”
lose weight
A positive side effect is that fasting people can lose weight. This is because your body begins to draw on its reserves due to the reduced energy supply.
In order not to provoke a habituation effect or to prevent malnutrition, Selig advises not to fast for too long. Two to four weeks are ideal – the various phases are already taken into account. “In the intervention phase, you reduce the body to 250 to 500 calories per day. This is not permitted for a longer period of time.”
It is also not permissible for the dietician if children, young people or pregnant women are fasting. For them, the adequate supply of all essential nutrients is of particular importance for development. Even people with previous illnesses should not fast or only fast under supervision.
“We actually recommend that everyone who wants to fast that they get a medical examination beforehand and find someone to accompany them.” These can be doctors or specially trained fasting companions – “i.e. people who can recognize when in doubt if a fasting cure threatens to escalate.”
Lars Selig also advises those interested to ask themselves what they want to achieve by fasting. Anyone who just wants to lose weight won’t get very far, says the expert. In this case, it is better to have realistic goals and expectations. (ad)