Use Fasting to Reset the Digestive System
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2022. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter! Stefan Burns YouTube.
Fasting for an extended length of time can quickly heal the gut, balance the microbiome, and improve digestion, and as a result fasting can be used to help overcome many health problems such as obesity, inflammatory diseases and conditions, a malfunctioning metabolism, and poor sleep.
Abstaining from food for a significant period of time heals the lining of the digestive system, reduces stress on the immune system, and resets the microbiome by increasing symbiotic microorganism diversity while simultaneously eliminating sugar-loving and disease-causing pathogens through nutrient starvation.
Performing a 1 to 2 day fast after consuming a nutrient dense and fiber-rich meal is a powerful method of healing not only the digestive system but can be used to correct many common health and wellness ailments.
When the digestive system is functioning properly and the microbiome living within is healthy the metabolism is increased and stabilized which provides abundant consistent energy, sleep is deep and restful, bathroom visits are dependable, skin clears up, and a thin waist line becomes possible. Through it’s selective evolutionary pressures on the microbiome (one of the main production centers of neurotransmitters in the body) fasting also has the capability of improving mental health. A healthy gut produces the neurotransmitters we need for proper cognitive function at the right ratios required for optimal wellness. Fasting therefore can be used to help with depression, anxiety, and even neurodegenerative mental disorders.
In this article we discuss the following:
How to improve gut health with fasting and 48-hour fasting
What microorganisms inhabit the gut and characteristics of an unhealthy microbiome
Tissues of the digestive system
How drinking herbal teas while fasting helps
A 48-hour fast action plan
Practicing gut health mindfulness
With proper planning and the right structure, a 48-hour fast is a short enough time period to be accomplished without great stress and is a great way to experience all the amazing benefits of fasting for yourself.
If you’re completely new to fasting, I recommend you read this article and my article titled Fasting for Beginners. After reading both you’ll have a good handle on what fasting is, how it is beneficial to health, and how to perform it safely. In addition to these resources, Chapter 8 of the Holistic Gut Health Guide is entirely devoted to fasting and how it can be used to improve gut health.
Together the digestive system and microbiome are the foundation of health from which everything else is dependent on.
The Holistic Gut Health Guide contains all the information you need to identify and understand the gastrointestinal and microbiome problems you may have while also providing you the most effective natural methods you can use to heal your gut. No gut health problems are unsolvable, give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.
Some of the information in the Holistic Gut Health Guide isn’t common knowledge but when implemented it is highly effective in healing the gut and shifting the microbiome towards symbiosis. Give yourself every possible advantage along your gut health journey by reading an implementing the advice shared in the Holistic Gut Health Guide.
Improve Gut Health with Fasting
Restoring the digestive system back to a state of normal functioning will liberate you of digestive woes everyone has experienced at some point, which include brutal stomach aches, intense bloating, waves of nausea, or even running-to-the-bathroom trips. Poor gut health places a huge energy drain not only on health but on life as a whole as it’s hard to deal with anything else when dealing with a gut flareup.
From my personal experience in healing my gut, I have found fasting to be an absolute gamechanger and the quickest way to heal an ailing digestive system. Once all the organs of the digestive system are healed and functioning normally, fasting does not need to be done as frequently.
Healing my gut was a ten year health journey that led me to research the cutting edge of metabolic and microbiome science as well as study the ancient wisdom of herbalism. Tempered with ample personal experience, I discovered that most people need to reexamine their relationship with food, not only what they eat, but when and how often they eat. The body has two metabolic operating systems which are vastly different in how they function; eating places you into an anabolic state of growth and inflammation, whereas fasting places you into a catabolic state or repair and healing. Both are useful and necessary states of the body but they must stay in balance to one another.
Changing the food you eat doesn’t matter much if fundamentally the reason why you’re experiencing any number of health problems is because the body needs to go catabolic in order to heal and repair at a cellular level. Until then, staying anabolic will only exacerbate any health issues that exist. Only by going catabolic and by spending sufficient sufficient time catabolic in the protective state of cellular cleanup and repair known as autophagy will certain health issues resolve and then a more normal eating schedule can be resumed.
Making the changes necessary to incorporate fasting into your everyday life is far less risky than doing nothing at all. Never letting anabolism and catabolism enter into unbalanced territory is the real key to staying healthy and fit over the long term, and I’ve developed a simple dietary framework known as the FoodFast Method to make living this balanced lifestyle easy. The FoodFast Method teaches you when it’s best to eat and when it’s best not to eat, and it also offers guidance on what foods are best in terms of nutrition, gut health, and the microbiome.
The 48 Hour Fast
The first reaction many people have to the suggestion of a two day fast is “You’re telling me I can’t eat for 48 hours? I won’t do that, it’s crazy!”
In western culture fasting is rarely done, and going without food for more than a few hours is uncommon. If unaccustomed to fasting, long lengths of time away from food leave most with stomach convulsions, intense hunger, and maybe a side dish of hangry.
It’s best to ease into new health modalities. whether it be fasting, keto, vegetarian, etc. Going all in often leads to going all out shortly later, so my advice is if you’re completely new to fasting, then completing 2-3 introductory 24-hour fasts is recommended over starting right off with a 48-hour fast. A 24-hour fast is logistically and psychologically much easier to complete successfully, will help reset and heal the gut noticeably, and will provide you valuable experience on how to identify and control food cravings. Now that my gut is healthy, a 24 hour fast is my favorite way of gently nudging my gut health back to balance if disrupted for some reason.
If you are ready for a full 48 hour fast, the process is simple. You don’t consume any calories from food or drinks for 48 hours. Water of course is allowed, as are natural zero calories beverages such as black coffee or tea. Using artificial sugars are a strict no-go, more on that below. I recommend only drinking pure spring water during fasts as natural electrolytes will be present without the chemical contamination that tap water has. Drinking tea is also okay during a fast and in many ways is actually beneficial. For those with inefficient metabolisms, drinking green tea while fasting is a very effective way to reduce appetite while increasing the metabolism of body fat. Green tea fasting is the most powerful form of fasting that i’ve discovered. Herbal teas are also very useful, for example dandelion and chamomile are herbs both great at normalizing digestive function and a 1:1 herbal tea blend of dandelion and chamomile is a great way to expedite the gut healing process during a fast. More on that below.
I recommend starting fasts 24 hours or longer after a 6 pm dinner. With this schedule, the first 10-14 hours will be easily accomplished with a full stomach during the evening and then during sleep. Breakfast is easy to skip if one drinks plenty of water and keeps moving, and skipping breakfast is something everyone has done before. It’s during the afternoon when the real challenge of having not eaten appears, as it’s a natural lazy point in the day. For a 24 hour or longer fast, a quick walk, 15 minute nap, or cup of green tea fixes any dip in energy experienced.
If you’re performing hard mental or physical work during a fast it will be more difficult as energy demands will be higher. In this context a fast is not recommended unless safeguards are put in place and fat metabolism is already strong and well established. Fasting is a profound healing tool, but in its own way it is a unique stressor to the body, especially if never experienced before. Respect the process and don’t overutilize your energy reserves. One thing that fasting teaches is how to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Periods of time spent in both sympathetic (go go go activity) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) states are needed for optimal wellness. Fasting is a great tool to use to help deeply relax.
With a fast that starts at 6 pm if lunch is eaten at noon the next day then that marks the end of a 18-hour intermittent fast. Waiting to eat until dinner at 6 pm would be a 24 hour fast or the halfway point for a 48-hour fast. At 24 hours into a fast the body is burning body fat for energy while extracting the final nutrients available from the digestive system. The quality of the last meal eaten is very important for this reason.
After 24-hours energy levels may begin to dip. Others report experiencing a surge in energy due to their unique physiology. To be successful in fasting for a full two days, cruise control must be maintained. On day 2 the goal is to avoid the traffic jams of life, simply skipping breakfast and lunch again, relaxing when possible, and eating your first refeed meal at 6 pm for dinner. Staying grounded in the present moment is they key to successfully completing a fast and it’s all worth it in the end because you’ll feel significantly better and also because the refeed meal will be one of the best of your life.
By the end of a 48-hour fast there should very little to nothing left in your gut. No fresh food means the microbiome has to scavenge and work extra hard to survive in a low resource environment. Fasting has all these amazing health benefits partly because of the selective evolutionary pressure it applies to the microbiome. Microorganisms that depend on sugar die off while hardier microorganisms that can process more difficult nutrients like fiber survive in greater proportions. There are many ways to cleanse the microbiome, and fasting is one of the easiest and most powerful.
What Microorganisms Inhabit the Gut?
There are three types of organisms that make up the microbiome: symbiotic, commensal, and pathogenic. Pathobionts are a subsection of commensal organisms which lean pathogenic.
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Symbiotic microbes work with us, and the relationship between host (us) and microbe is beneficial to both parties. Symbiotic microbes will provide nutrients and/or energy in exchange for shelter and food. The microbes which primarily digest indigestible fiber are symbiotic, in the process releasing short chain fatty acids in the colon for our metabolic use. Symbiotic microorganisms also help by breaking down nutrients into pieces small enough to be transported into the body across the gut-blood barrier. The cellular mechanisms of the body are unable to transport and use nutrients that haven’t been broken down sufficiently, so microorganisms that assist in fully digesting food down to the smallest parts possible is advantageous to the host.
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Commensal microbes coexist with us without harming us. They’re like your friendly neighbors you never talk too. They assist in the breakdown of food but more for their benefit than yours. The issue with commensal microbes is when they start to overpopulate the small intestine, a condition known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which has many health complications such as gas and inconsistent gut motility. Additionally, when commensal microorganisms reach populations that are too large, they begin out-competing helpful microorganisms though the power of numbers, reducing the nutrients you uptake while further growing their population in size. If this trend isn’t stopped, commensal microorganisms can evolve into pathobionts.
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Pathobionts are commensal organism that can cause harm under certain circumstances. A good example of commensal that turn into pathobionts are those who form biofilm colonies. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms that are difficult to dislodge due to the protections they have been built up around them. Biofilms have a hard time forming on mucous layers, which is one reason why sufficient and consistent digestive mucous production is important, and if mucous coatings are thin then pathobionts will form biofilms directly on the surface of human epithelial cells, causing inflammation and a strong immune response. The immune system has a difficult time breaking apart biofilms as they typically lie outside the body and in the digestive system. As a defense mechanism biofilms that are disrupted release harmful chemicals. Pathobiont biofilms are hard to readily identify and treat, but are usually a contributing factor in gut health problems, especially unexpected gut health flare-ups.
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Pathogenic microbes are harmful to health. When their populations are low, their detrimental effects on health are negligible, and the immune system keeps them actively under check, but when the gut is inflamed and epithelial tight-junctions are eroded and unhealthy processed foods are the norm, then the perfect environment for pathogenic microbes is created. Pathogenic microbes aren’t content gnawing on a thread of fiber, they seek out quick energy, and under the conditions of a fast when energy is scarce, pathogenic bacteria are the first to go. This die-off reaction can cause symptoms like fatigue, headache, and stomach pain, and this is something to be aware of when performing fasts longer than 24 hours. Selecting against pathogenic microbes is highly desirable for long term health and wellness, and if a large pathogenic microorganism population exists in the gut, a die off reaction will occur during fasting which may cause symptoms. During a fast keeping the kidneys and liver stress free by limiting the chemicals or medications that are used is best (examples being alcohol, NSAIDS, or prescription drugs).
An Unhealthy Microbiome
With an unhealthy gut, beneficial microorganisms are in short supply, commensal populations are large and unruly, and pathogenic microorganisms exist unchallenged. This type of microbiome is one that preferentially craves sweets, fried foods, and excess salt, and after having its demands met produces metabolic waste products known as endotoxins that leads to symptoms of brain fog, unstable energy levels, and fat gain.
How to Restore Healthy Gut Flora
The pathogens that contribute to you feeling awful are not helpful in any way (besides bringing awareness to the problem that exists), and a primary objective in transitioning from a diseased digestive system to healthy gut is to restore the microbiome to a state of symbiotic balance. Fasting is effective at doing this as fasts longer than 24 hours eliminate microbial overgrowth and assist in the removal of biofilms as protective mucous layers are restored. A 48-hour fast will wipe out a lot of pathogenic microorganisms, and if you don’t feel them what they need afterwards then their populations will stay low. With reduced nutrients available some of the symbiotic microorganisms will not survive either (we’re talking about trillions of microorganisms dying), but with a healthy refeed meal symbiotic microorganism populations quickly rebound and will have evolved to be more resilient to future periods of resource scarcity.
After a few 24 and 48-hour fasts with healthy eating in-between the composition of the microbiome will be radically different and the digestive system will have healed tremendously. The secret with fasting is to be extremely discretionary with what enters into the body. Limiting intake to just water (and herbal teas), air, and sunshine makes for the best effect. No diet soda, no chewing gum, and limit the black coffee.
Now let’s discuss artificial sugars. Artificial sugars have an undesirable effect on your microbiome by eroding mucosal linings. Artificial sugars reach the deep recesses of the gut by eroding protective viscoelastic mucus lining, creating an energy-rich pathway for commensal and pathogenic microorganisms to get into direct contact with now unprotected epithelial cells. Once directly on these cell membranes pathobionts create their biofilm strongholds. Biofilms are resistant to probiotic and antibiotic treatments and are often the source of unexplainable reoccurring gut problems. Pathobiont biofilms are very tough to dislodge, and the double whammy of consuming artificial sugars is that they are toxic to many other microorganisms. For these reasons never consume artificial sugars, especially during a fast.
Gut Health and Microbiome Basics Video Short Course
by Stefan Burns
Cells of the Digestive System
Epithelium cells are the barrier of the digestive system that separate the contents of the gut from the bloodstream. Epithelium cells are on the front line every minute, allowing nutrients to pass through them to enter the bloodstream but blocking entry to microorganisms, nutrients too large for easy transport, or toxins.
If all things are functioning normally the epithelium regenerates completely every 5 days. Therefore, 20% of the epithelium is regenerated daily. When fasting, autophagy (cellular cleanup and repair) increases and healthy cell turnover of the intestinal epithelium quickens now that it is no longer being setback by the active digestion of food.
A two day fast is enough time for about 40% or more of the epithelium to completely regenerate in a low-inflammation environment.
The human digestive tract
When the digestive barrier and mucosal lining are fully regenerated and the tight-junctions between cells are strong, then when normal inflammation from digestive returns, the responsibilities of the immune system are decreased compared to when excess inflammation is present. With greatly reduced numbers of microorganism invaders and undigested food particles entering into the blood stream, the immune system can regenerate after a period of overactivity and stress, taking the time it needs to heal. The immune system requires certain components in sufficient amounts to function properly, and micronutrients such as zinc, vitamin D, and vitamin C are critically important for normal immune function. When under stress, the greater demands of the immune system can cause nutrient deficiencies to occur which then place stress on other areas of the body. Healing the digestive system, diversifying the microbiome, and improving diet can help remediate or even eliminate diseases of the immune system.
Fasting for Auto-Immune Diseases
For those who suffer from auto-immune issues, fasting can be a major breakthrough in recovering from their condition. The digestive system is the main patrol ground of the immune system, it’s where the most interactions between the human body and the outside world occur on the microscopic level. A cross-wired immune system that attacks itself is increasingly being found to result from a dysfunctional and diseased gut environment. Auto-immunity and the microbiome are intricately linked.
After thousands of years of gut health education from wise ancients like Greek philosopher Hippocrates, the collective consciousness is now beginning to understand the huge importance of the digestive system for overall health and wellness.
Simultaneously the importance of the microbiome is being better understood by the general public. The impact of the microbiome passed from mother to child during birth has lifelong health implications. A healthy birth from a healthy mom results in a healthy baby and future adult. If microbiome inoculation that occurs during birthing is disrupted, such as during a caesarian section, then that child is more likely to experience a range of undesirable health outcomes such as asthma, auto-immunes, troublesome weight-gain, and more. Thankfully the microbiome is simply a collection of microorganisms that is relatively easy to manipulate once you have the tools to do so. Fasting is the most powerful of those microbiome altering tools, and therefore it’s also one of the most powerful tools for people looking for relief from their auto-immune issues.
Autophagy & Apoptosis
We’ve touched on autophagy already and now we’ll go more in-depth.
Autophagy is the protective state that the body goes into when nutrients are scarce. Autophagy increases the recycling of malfunctioning cellular components, helps old cells die peacefully, and promotes the regeneration of new cells in their place. The longer a fast goes for and the scarcer nutrients become, the deeper into autophagy the body goes. 16 hour intermittent fasting boosts autophagic processes throughout the body noticeably, whereas 24-72 hour fasts increase autophagy to a much greater degree, and for an even more profound regenerative healing effect, fasting for a week or longer can work miracles. Many “incurable” diseases and severe auto-immune issues have been cured through multi-week fasts under medical supervision at fasting clinics worldwide.
Autophagy is also incredibly important in the fight against cancer. Cancer cannot be cured until the autophagic system can be deployed to destroy the cancer cells plaguing the body. In the case of cancer, fasting-induced autophagy has been shown to protect healthy cells from chemotherapy treatments while increasing the effectiveness of the chemotherapy on cancer cells.
Autophagy is clearly a very useful process that thankfully is encoded into human DNA. It has to, we wouldn’t be able to live otherwise because without rate limiters reactions in the body would spiral out of control and life simply wouldn’t be able to sustain itself.
Autophagy is difficult in its own way though. Autophagy increases as available nutrients and energy decreases. To go into autophagy means to dive into nutrient and energy scarcity. If purposefully utilizing the power of autophagy for deep cellular healing and renewal, be mindful and listen to the needs of your body. Recording how you feel and any observations you make in a health journal is highly recommended.
If you want to learn more about extended-length fasting, I highly recommend you watch an amazing documentary, The Science of Fasting.
Drink Herbal Teas while Fasting
As touched on earlier, one way to greatly increase the efficacy and safety of fasting is to drinking herbal teas throughout the fast. This can be green tea, or herbal teas like a 1:1:1 blend of dandelion root, chamomile flowers, and peppermint leaves.
Green Tea for Fasting
Green tea fasting is one of the easiest types of fasting I’ve experienced. Drinking 2-3 cups of green tea (zero additives) everyday during a fast reduces appetite and increases fat oxidation. Energy levels are more stable throughout the fast when drinking green tea, and the amino acid L-theanine found in green tea promotes a sense of calm and relaxation.
Pique Tea sells a wide selection of organic teas in their unique “tea crystal” format. Tea crystals readily dissolve in hot or cold water and are super convenient for on-the-go use.
Use the code WILDFREEORGANIC for 5% off at checkout
Mountain Rose Herbs has a wide selection of organic green teas that are perfect for use in green tea fasting. I prefer their pearl jasmine green tea for its flavor and extra flavonoids.
Steep the leaves in 170 F (75 C) water for 3-5 minutes and enjoy!
Herbal Teas for Fasting
Green tea is an excellent beverage to drink while fasting, and so are herbal teas in general. For example a dandelion root, chamomile flower, and peppermint leaf herbal tea has the following benefits for the digestive system:
Reduces inflammation of the digestive system from the stomach to the large intestine.
Exerts beneficial antimicrobial pressures on pathogenic microorganisms while promoting the growth of helpful symbiotic microorganisms.
Increases the production of digestive enzymes and restores beneficial mucous linings.
Strengthens epithelial tight junctions thanks to flavonoids like apigenin.
Restores normal gut motility (the transit of food through the system).
Boosts fat metabolism which reduces energy lulls from improper digestion or from the fasting process itself
Another herbal tea that would be very helpful to drink during a fast would be a ginger, elderberry, and ginseng tea. Endless combinations exist, and drinking a new tea in the place of breakfast, lunch, and dinner helps to keep the fasting process exciting which has clear benefits.
Mountain Rose Herbs carries a huge assortment of organic herbs perfect for those interested in adding herbal remedies to their fasting and gut health protocol. Next to fasting drinking herbal teas are the next best thing you can do to improve your gut heath. Again the introductory herbal tea I recommend is a 1:1 blend of dandelion root, chamomile flowers, and peppermint simply because its so effective.
Meal Recommendation for Breaking your Fast
Next to the action of actually completing a fast, refeeding after the fast is the second most important part of the gut healing process. The body and microbiome are longing for food so feed yourself and your microbiome only with the best. The body is uniquely poised to use the new influx of nutrients for the proliferation of new healthy cells, and the greater the quality of the the refeed meal the greater the healing effect that will be experienced overall. Make no food mistakes*!
Refeed meals also influence the composition of the microbiome that will soon rebound in population, as bacteria double in as little as twenty minutes under ideal conditions. A meal which is undesirable to pathogenic bacteria but loved by healthy symbiotic bacteria like lactobacillus and bifidobacterial is ideal. Raw and fermented foods harbor their own healthy microbiome populations and assist in the digestion of the first reintroduced meal while also diversifying the surviving microbiome.
The foods that make up a refeed meal and its size depends on the length of fast completed. A 48 hour fast for example should be broken with a high-fat content meal as it’s likely that the first stages of ketogenesis is being experienced and to eat a sugar-heavy meal would cause quick metabolic and blood glucose changes which wouldn’t be beneficial. Fiber is another beneficial nutrient to select for in refeed meals as fiber influences the microbiome beneficially and is transformed into short chain fatty-acids in the colon which benefits fat metabolism.
*Note - Pesticides are to avoided at all costs as they erode the lining of the digestive system and function similarly to antibiotics. Eat organic non-gmo foods to reduce your exposure to dangerous pesticides like glyphosate.
Post Fast Salad:
2 Cups Mixed Greens
1/2 cucumber, sliced
1 Tbsp raw pumpkin seeds
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil
Drizzle raw honey
Drink - GT’s Raw Kombucha
The meal above is great as a first refeed meal after a 24 to 48-hour fast because it is easy to prepare, completely raw, and will supercharge the regenerative effects of the fast. Having a salad shifts the microbiome favorably, and the addition of a fermented food helps to diversify it further. The body will absorb every nutrient possible from this meal. A fast is a period of low sugar intake, so only drink a quarter of the kombucha in order to limit the amount of quick sugars ingested.
When a salad and kombucha are combined as a meal, the mother (microbiome) of the kombucha begins attaching to and breaking down the raw foods of the salad right away, improving digestion as compared to if the salad was eaten only by itself. The cucumber and pumpkin seeds go great on a salad, adding nutrient and flavor variety to the meal, while both having antimicrobial and anti-parasitic benefits. Parasite infections can also be a huge source of gut health issues.
Pro Tip - Take a piperine supplement with your refeed meals to further improve the digestion of the meal. Piperine is derived from black pepper and it one of the most gut-helpful phytochemicals known, improving digestion and enhancing the bioavailability of other nutrients. Nootropics Depot sells a 10mg piperine supplement which you can take 1-3 of with a meal, or if you want to keep it 100% natural simply crack extra black pepper onto your plate.
In my introductory FoodFast Method article I have many more pre-fast and refeed meal suggestions that are worth checking out. Eating the right food after a fast is very important and don’t underestimate the important of a refeed meal in helping the gut to heal as quickly as possible. Fasting to fix gut health issues but continuing to eat poor quality foods in-between will only make limited progress. Best progress will be making in resetting the gut with fasting when equal attention is paid to both fasting and feeding.
My Personal Experience with Fasting
Ever since grade school I noticed I had an unruly digestive system which manifested in various ways, and as I entered into the world of strength-training and bodybuilding in my twenties, I increased my food intake in order to build muscle, which placed even more stress on my digestive system. I did begin improving my diet dramatically during this time, increasing my consumption of whole and unprocessed foods, but this did not provide all the relief I was hoping for.
The only way things were going to turn around was if I provided my digestive system an extended break from the stress and rigors of digestion, and once I stumbled upon fasting my gut health began to quickly take a turn for the better. Some health issues take a long time to heal, but thankfully most of the tissues of the gut turns over so quickly that once the right solution is found the digestive system can be healed quite rapidly. It took me many years to figure out what I needed to do to heal my gut simply because almost no one, from my gastroenterologist to discussion online, was examining the situation from a broad enough vantage point. That’s the still mostly the case it seems, though awareness on natural healing methods for the gut like fasting and herbal teas is increasing.
After some periods of daily intermittent fasting and a few longer 24, 48, and 72 hour fasts, I quickly learned which foods were best for my body, what foods I was intolerant to, and what foods I needed to 100% avoid. Fasting gave me control over food and sugar cravings and eventually eliminated them as I began to crave more vegetables. Healing my gut shifted my microbiome to the point where it could actually process fiber and other plant materials without creating excess gas and flatulence, a serious problem for me before.
Quickly into my discovery of fasting for gut health, I noticed a few things always happen at the end of long fasts:
First, the digestion of vegetables improves. Desperate for energy, the microbiome and digestive system is happy to work together to fully break down tougher to digest foods such as lightly cooked or raw vegetables. A 48-hour fast improves microbiome balance and diversity, and the newly evolved microbiome helps to breakdown and process fiber and other complex plant-based nutrients that before may have been difficult.
Second, fat metabolism improves noticeably. After a period of fasting, energy dips throughout the day are filled in faster by a metabolism that is able to quickly switch to fat burning, whether from short-chain fatty acids produced by microorganisms digesting starches and fiber in the colon, or from body fat stores. A 48 hour fast takes the body right to the edge of ketosis, a metabolic state where only fatty acids and amino acids are used to fuel the body in the absence of carbs, and visiting ketosis regularly, even if just for a few hours, is good for the development of a strong metabolism.
Third, the gut is very thankful for the break in digestion with every fast. When eating a regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner day 24/7, it’s easy to overwork and stress the digestive system, which leads to chronic gut inflammation. To use a quote from Yoda as inspiration:
“Chronic gut stress leads to leaky gut, leaky gut leads to IBS, IBS leads to gut disease”
Humans evolved in conditions of ever changing nutrient availability. In conditions of resource scarcity, the body most regenerate to stay alive. During autophagy, epithelial tight junctions heal rapidly, solving many of the problems of leaky gut, IBS, and SIBO. Healing intestinal tight junctions helps to reduce systemic inflammation of the body and overtime can reset food intolerances and allergies. I have experienced this myself, having fully eliminated a fructose, gluten, and dairy intolerance that my body knew I had but my brain refused to recognize for many years.
Having practiced the FoodFast Method for a few years now, I have a lot of experience with how different diets may affect a fast.
Other Fasting Lessons Learned
Before I was a vegetarian, fasting was relatively easy because meat protein takes a long time to digest, and I consumed a lot of meat protein (>2 grams per kg daily). That said, my gut health significantly improved after transitioning into a vegetarian diet because it caused me to eat way more vegetables and living foods. With a vegetarian diet, fasting can be more difficult if fat metabolism isn’t well developed, so consuming a diet abundant in healthy fats from sources such as avocado, nuts, and seeds will maintain and improve fat metabolism in-between fasts, in turn making the fasting process easier.
For most people going vegetarian will be a big benefit for gut health for more reasons than I can discuss in this article, but care must be taken to not go too high-carb and to stick away from junk food and sweets that are technically vegetarian but really shouldn’t even be characterized as food.
Ready to try a 48 hour fast? Here’s the Action Plan
Below is a step by step guide to help you safely and easily accomplish a 48-hour fast so you may experience the powerful healing effects of fasting for yourself and with the least amount of stress and complications.
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Starting before the fast begin drinking more water. Less food intake means you’ll need to drink more to intake the same amount of water, so drinking sufficient water beforehand will be prepare you to be successful and not become dehydrated. Water quality is very important, I recommend only drinking spring water, reverse osmosis water is okay too.
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After a full dinner it’s easy to put the snacking and cravings aside, so in my opinion it’s the perfect time to start a fast. Eat your last meal before the fast as an early 6pm dinner. The meal eaten before a fast should be hearty and nutrient rich with plenty of fiber, a vegetable grain bowl with avocado being an excellent option. Go to sleep around 10 pm and after a full eight hours of sleep you’ll be well rested and ready to attack the day while already being one quarter of the way into the 48-hour fast.
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Once you’ve waken up, you now have to make it to bedtime again without eating. Listen to your body, keep drinking water or herbal tea, and flow with your energy levels. About 16 hours into the fast you’ll have exhausted all quick sources of glycogen (carbohydrate) energy sources for your body and will be burning body fat in greater amounts. The food in your digestive system is also still providing a slowly dwindling stream of nutrients and energy for your body to run on, that’s why the couple of meals before a fast are so important.
If you feel sluggish and hungry while working, change what you’re doing find a different way to stimulate yourself. Going outside into nature is always highly refreshing and keeps a fast on track. Stay active but don’t overexert yourself, drink something lightly caffeinated like green tea if experiencing an energy slump, or simply take a short nap if tiredness really sets in. Don’t reach for the food unless it’s absolutely necessary! You should never feel bad about breaking a fast if you truly need too.
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Once you’re comfortably in cruise control, look at your future schedule and plan around the chaos of the everyday. Building order and structure into your routine allows you to persevere and stay on track in case of unexpected events happening.
If at any point you experience extreme dizziness, loss of vision, or other troubling signs of low blood sugar, end your fast with a small healthy snack like apple slices with almond butter. Be happy with the progress you made and prepare to try again for a longer attempt when better prepared. Every fast completed better prepares you for the next.
For safety I recommend having a small healthy meal prepared and ready at all times during a fast so the fast can be broken with a healthy meal and not with whatever is most immediately available.
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Once you’ve finished your fast of whatever duration, reintroduce food back into your system. I would not recommend eating a huge meal after a fast; start simple! Bone broth, steamed veggies, a salad, or soup are all good choices. The longer the fast the longer the food reintroduction period should be. Buy the food needed for the first couple refeed meals the day before you end the fast so you’re prepared even if you have to break the fast early. Eat the freshest food possible for the refeed meals.
To track how long I’ve been fasting, I use the app ZERO (found on iTunes and the Google Play Store). It can be used to track mood and how you feel throughout the fast, and you can keep a record of your fasts to compare to each other. Very useful!
You Successfully Completed a 48 Hour Fast!
Congratulations, you’ve finished your first 48 hour fast! I’m sure you experienced positive gut health changes from the beginning to the end of the fast.
I developed the FoodFast Method to make it easy to incorporate fasting into one’s lifestyle at the right frequency for optimal health and wellness. I wish I had discovered the FoodFast Method when I first began healing my gut and microbiome because it would have saved me years of gut health suffering, but I am grateful I experienced what I did because that is what led me to develop the method that others can now use. Now that I’ve been following the FoodFast method intuitively for a few years now, I can confidently say that it’s the single most effective way of keeping the gut healthy that I know of.
“Practicing a lifestyle centered around wellness does not have a singular end destination, but rather is an ever evolving journey. Be open to all health possibilities and trust your instincts.”
Practice Gut Health Mindfulness
During any fast or health experiment, be observant! Pay attention to everything you experience. At any given time ask yourself “How does my body feel, what emotions am I experiencing, and what is my current state of mind?” If you’re going to be your own doctor, then you need to play the role of the observant scientist.
Only with careful observation will the truth of what’s happening in your body be fully realized.
Because fasting severely restricts what enters into the body, used correctly it can be used as a diagnostic tool that by its own right is powerfully transformative.
If you read all the way here then it’s clear to me that you’re ready to do what it takes to finally restore your digestive system and gut microbiome back to healthy and optimal function.
I wrote the Holistic Gut Health Guide to help you accomplish exactly this! It contains all the information that you need to understand the gastrointestinal system, gut-brain axis, and microbiome in-depth, and the Holistic Gut Health Guide also educates you on the natural methods you can holistically use together like fasting and herbalism to transform your health from the inside out.
I’m so excited to be able to help you along your gut health and overall wellness journey with the Holistic Gut Health Guide! Please contact me with any questions you have and wishing you the best.
IMPORTANT - Please only attempt a fast if you are ready, physically and mentally, to go through a period of no food consumption. If this will be dangerous to you, please do not attempt this.
References:
Correction to Lancet Infectious Diseases 2020; published online April 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S1473-3099(20)30064-5. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20(7):e148.
Suez J, Korem T, Zeevi D, et al. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature. 2014;514(7521):181-6.
Harpaz D, Yeo LP, Cecchini F, et al. Measuring Artificial Sweeteners Toxicity Using a Bioluminescent Bacterial Panel. Molecules. 2018;23(10)
De luca F, Shoenfeld Y. The microbiome in autoimmune diseases. Clin Exp Immunol. 2019;195(1):74-85.
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