The difference between these two practices is like night & day – An eating disorder degenerates the body further & Detoxification aids in the bodies regenerative process.
I feel I need to explain this because I’ve recently encountered individuals stating that they see no difference between someone with an eating disorder & with someone who is detoxifying their body.
The individual with an eating disorder generally has a toxic relationship with food & their body – often combined with trauma or other unseen issues…
The individual wishing to cleanse & to restore health seeks to ingest foods which can nourish, rebuild & heal…This individual also uses digestive rest as a tool for healing.
I suppose to the average person it may seem as if there is no difference between fasting / cleansing or someone with an eating disorder because what they observe without knowledge is the individual not eating – plain & simple…
Seeing someone not eat is a scary thing when we’ve been programmed to believe that the body will start “eating itself” if we abstain for food, & that we must maintain 3 meals a day – complete with the unhealthiest of foods such as meats & dairy…
It’s interesting to note that what truly matters & can render a fast of benefit or harmful to the body depends on what foods or liquids you choose to break the fast with & the days that follow. We call this the refeeding period.
After a period of fasting (absence from food) our bodies respond & react to every morsel of food…
The kind of food you reintroduce into the body after a period of not eating, is just as important, if not more important, than the actual fast itself….the food you break your fast with is what your body will now rebuild itself with, or degenerate itself … if the “fast breaking” food is not nourishing, healthy, hydrating or cleansing – such as fruits or fresh fruit juices, you can run into a world of trouble such as the individual with the eating disorder does.
Additionally, for a fast to be truly beneficial, it is ideal that the individual doing the fasting be properly prepared. Proper preparation involves the individual to have lived on only natural foods from the fruit and vegetable kingdom for some time. Fasting can become quite dangerous to those who eat mucus forming, toxic foods regularly – such as Meat, Dairy, Eggs, Grains, Processed or fast foods, etc. Generally, if an individual suffers with an eating disorder, their diets are not health promoting.
Note:
if you are a meat, milk, egg or heavy starch user, fasting can be very dangerous- it’s best to live for a period on a plant based diet before fasting… generally those who deal with eating disorders consume these toxic foods, which is part of the reason why they suffer with an eating disorder to begin with….
If you are going through periods of not eating (fasting) & afterwards reintroducing foods such as cookies, dairy products, meat, etc., your body responds positively or negatively to each morsel of food & seeing how those foods are acid /mucus forming , the body does not respond in a healthy way at all … Calcium loss will occur because acid forming foods cause the blood to draw calcium from our connective tissues to counteract or to buffer the acidity which results in symptoms overtime such as premature aging, wrinkles, varicose veins, saggy skin, bruising easily and even depression – why? Because calcium loss leads to Parathyroid weakness in the body… the damage becomes apparent overtime..
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Our diets, habits & food choices will reflect in our appearances overtime.
Added confusion lies during a healing crisis, or during elimination points during the detoxification process…When a healing crisis occurs, the body is letting go of toxins & “all of that which is not serving the body” to become healthy.
Most of us built our bodies up on wrong foods from childhood on, and our bodies are puffed up (mucus storage) & our muscles are not true muscles, they are a combination of water weight, stimulants, & cholesterol (fat) storage (mucus)…
During the detoxification process the body wants to eliminate these toxins if we allow it to so that it can slowly rebuild itself on the correct “health promoting” foods.
So please, understand that there is a world of difference between the individual with an eating disorder & the individual who is cleansing/fasting in order to rebuild their body with the correct foods. Please understand the world of difference between starving oneself (anorexia/eating disorders) and fasting/detoxification for healing purposes.
🌿Mariah –
“Heal Thy Self”
Healthy Self…