I’ve been open to trying new things as long as I can remember and once I’ve seen the power of long-term fasting I’ve never looked back. It’s been a constant companion in my life for two decades, and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who would listen.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you how I stumbled upon it.
If you’ve read my article on High Processed Foods, you would know about my grandfather and his visits to the hospital.
But you don’t know the whole story.
Yet…
As soon as I was aware of myself and my surroundings I remember visiting my grandfather in the hospital. Every year he would be at the hospital for longer periods at least a couple of times. It was as natural as visiting with our other family and friends.
I realized his hospital stays weren’t a small thing when I overheard my grandparents talking one day. He had a doctor’s appointment again and there was another surgery planned.
That’s right, my grandfather was known by the doctors in my town as the most cut-up man. The surgery he had to have this time was a vascular transplantation, that required an open heart surgery. I was about ten years old and I remember my grandmother’s white face as he told her.
The other surgeries before that weren’t as dangerous. I remember him telling me about the removal of his gallstones, his prostate cancer, his lung tumors (there were multiple), and a couple of other things I forgot.
Could long-term fasting help with brain tumors?
Eight years later I was a witness to a similar conversation. This time I was on vacation with them. And this time my grandmother had enough. My grandfather had three tumors on his brain, each about half an inch across. When he survived the open heart surgery he was almost a decade younger. Now he would have brain surgery.
My grandmother didn’t say anything to him. The surgery would be in two months. She asked me to take her to the library and she was there for almost half a day. When she came home, there was a smug expression on her face.
That night at dinner she announced that she and my grandfather would be doing long-term fasting.
Starting the next day.
I can still see the expression on my grandfather’s face. He loved his food. Anything sweet, greasy, or salty. And now, my grandmother would be starving him.
Not just for a week but 42 days.
‘But how are you going to survive?’ I asked her bewildered, since my grandfather was still in shock.
‘Never you mind that,’ she told me, ‘your grandfather and I survived the Second World War and the famine that followed. I have no doubt we’ll survive this.’
And that was the end of it.
The next morning we went shopping. She bought a juicer, a bag full of different herbs to mix the teas they needed to drink, and 6 types of vegetables. Beats, carrots, black radish, root celery, and potatoes.
What does it take to thrive in long-term fasting?
When we came home the preparations began. That day she and my Grandfather only had light soup for lunch. My grandfather complained looking at my full plate, but it didn’t help.
She put me to work, weighing all the vegetables and peeling them. Then she pushed all of them through the juicer, the beats making it a bloody red liquid.
‘It doesn’t look that bad’, I thought when looking at it.
I liked beets and the other vegetables. Well, maybe not celery, but still, how bad could it be?
It was bad.
No joke.
It smelled horrible, probably from the celery. My grandfather was watching my reaction as I took a sip and made a face mirroring mine. I tried to stay positive, but it was really hard.
My grandmother wasn’t bothered by my face though. She made her decision and no amount of bad taste or smell was going to prevent her from stopping that surgery.
She ignored both of us and started mixing the teas. That night was their last dinner for the next 6 weeks. they both had a light fruit salad.
The next morning she cooked all the teas she needed. Each of them had six teas to drink. One cup a day except for the tea for kidneys. They needed to drink three cups a day of kedney tea. There was also sage tea they could drink as much as they wanted.
My grandfather had his first sip of the vegetable juice and looked at me frowning.
‘You did that on purpose’ he accused me.
I was baffled.
‘What?’ I asked him.
‘The face yesterday,’ he clarified.
‘You like it???’ I gaped and he nodded.
It wasn’t until much later that I discovered that cancer patients like the taste.
The first week of the long-term fasting
Not only did he love it, he claimed he wasn’t hungry after drinking it. I doubted it very much but he didn’t complain.
What he did complain about were the headaches.
Both of them had them.
They lasted for three days. My grandmother speculated it had something to do with coffee. They both drank coffee in the mornings and they gave it up during the long-term fasting.
Every day my grandmother would cook onion soup (without salt) that they ate for lunch, but only the liquid.
The first rule of long-term fasting – no solid foods.
Even a smoothy counted as solid food. All they were allowed to drink was the vegetable juice, the clear soup, and the teas throughout the day.
In the evenings they indulged themselves with freshly juiced apple juice. I’ve never seen my grandfather sip the juice with more pleasure.
After a week they got into a routine of the day.
- Juicing the vegetables in the morning for the vegetable juice,
- cooking the teas for the day,
- cooking the same onion soup for lunch,
- and juicing the apples for dinner.
Every day they would weigh themselves and they would lose 1,5 kg each.
But that was only in the first week, after that the dropping of the weight slowed.
After the morning ritual, they would go on a walk. They loved being outside. They weren’t as strong anymore and they tired easily, but they had way more energy than before.
They had more time too. No eating.
They spent almost all of the day outside either walking or tending the garden.
The difficulties of long-term fasting
But as the weeks progressed I noticed an agitation in both of them. Especially my grandfather. He was fed up with the teas, the vegetable juice, and the soup. The only thing that he would like to consume was the apple juice.
I also noticed the mood swings in them. One day they were positive, the next they could hardly wait for the day to end. Their spending their time outside was what helped the most.
What I found incredible was that they never complained about being hungry. My grandfather even described the feeling of lightness in his stomach and all the excess energy he now had that would usually be spent on digesting food.
My holidays ended so I didn’t get to see them as often, but every week I came by to see how they were. They looked so different. Their faces had fallen, and their usually tight skin was now almost hanging from them.
But other than that their faces looked radiant. After I spoke with my grandfather he told me that he was crossing off the days on his wall calendar. He even complained that his grandmother wouldn’t let him finish early.
They only had a week to go and he wanted to give up. I did the best I could to cheer him up, but I could see on his face that he was fed up with everything.
When long-term fasting is over
I didn’t have the chance to go visit them the last week but I was there the following week. There was this glow on my grandfather’s face that wasn’t there in the last few weeks.
My grandmother cooked us lunch, a proper one this time, and he told me that he had a doctor’s appointment two days ago.
I was on the edge of my seat. All this effort. Did it pay off?
The doctors did all the tests again and they were stunned. They even spoke among themselves if the previous diagnosis was wrong.
The tumor was gone. All three of them. He felt better than he did in a long time. In total, he lost 18 kilograms, and my grandmother lost 12 kilograms.
They had to buy all new clothes because none of the old ones fit them anymore.
My grandfather did say that he missed the light feeling in his stomach at times remembering his days of long-term fasting but added that he missed food even more.
Is long-term fasting worth it?
Both of my grandparents did what I never thought possible.
They persisted in long-term fasting for 42 days.
They did it without support from anyone outside our immediate family.
My grandfather’s brain tumor disappeared.
They felt twenty years younger.
Their food consumption changed after that. My grandmother started putting more emphasis on vegetable dishes.
When I asked my grandfather if he’d do it again he said:
‘Your grandmother saved me from another surgery, one I might never wake up from. It was difficult, I admit, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.’
It was enough for me.
This is how my journey with long-term fasting began. Soon I tried it for myself. But that’s a story for another time.
Until next week,
Ann
