I have just spoken to someone who has read my last post Why Fast? And they were under the impression that you could still have a snack if you felt hungry on a Water Fast, as long as you didn’t have a meal, and they seemed surprised when I said no. I know this couple very well, and they know I am writing about them now, they just said “don’t use our names” OK Mr and Mrs Smith from London NW2 I won’t. They start there day the healthy way with a bowl of cereal, and they both have a spoonful of sugar and low fat milk, followed by 2 slices of white bread  toasted, with a margarine spread and marmalade, followed by white coffee and they both take 1 spoonful of sugar, and that is around 9am

By 11 to 11.30am they would have walked their dog, any now it’s time for their mid-morning snack and coffee. This would consist of a sandwich made with white sliced bread, margarine spread and sandwich filler from a jar, they come in a multitude of flavours. With their coffee with 1 spoonful of sugar, they would have 3 or 4 milk chocolate Hobnobs each, which are a popular biscuit here in the UK. This would set them up for their lunch, normally a pork pie with salad, shop bought low fat potato salad, and low fat coleslaw with low fat salad dressing over the rest, followed by coffee with 1 spoonful of sugar in each, and a couple of Hobnobs each.

After relaxing for about an hour, it would be out with the dog again for about an hour and back for afternoon tea. This time it would be a pot of tea for two but instead of 1 they both take 11/2 teaspoons of sugar, and they would finish off however many Hobnobs were left, and that would keep them going until their evening meal. Their evening meal is normally around 7pm, it usually consists of some sort of shop bought pie, always mashed potatoes and a couple of different vegetables with instant gravy, followed by a desert which is normally something shop bought. To finish off their day it’s normally tea and a sandwich before bed.

They consider this to be a very healthy diet, and couldn’t understand why the husband was told by his doctor he needed to make changes, as he was borderline diabetic. The recommended maxim amount of sugar an adult should consume a day is 7 teaspoons or 30 grams, and they use more than that on their cereal and in their coffee and tea, and their total daily intake would be around 25 spoons a day. For anyone on a similar diet fasting even for 24 hours would be torture, as their body would be screaming for sugar. These are people on a reasonable healthy modern diet, a large number of people who are not careful about what they eat, and drink can easily be consuming 40+ spoons of sugar a day, which would make any sort of fasting almost impossible.

Anyone can fast but to make it easier you have to be fat adapted first, meaning that you have to be able to use glucose or fat for fuel. The amounts of sugar hidden in processed food, and the amount of sugary drinks consumed, without taking into account any added sugar means most people are running on glucose all the time. To become fat adapted you need to cut sugar and processed carbs from your diet, which in turn stops the spikes in blood sugar, and reduces the amount of insulin in your bloodstream. This doesn’t happen overnight and can take several days, but once you start burning stored fat as energy, fasting becomes a lot easier, and you’re on the path to better health…