Many of the questions asked dealt with the manner of breaking the fast;
I suppose because I had been particular to warn my readers that this
was the one danger point in the proceeding. I told of my experience
with the milk diet, and I received many inquiries about this. My answer
was to refer the writers to Bernarr Macfadden's pamphlet on the milk
diet, as I took this diet under his direction and have nothing to
add to his instructions. I might say, however, that I was never able
to take the milk diet for any length of time but once, and that after
my first twelve-day fast. After my second fast it seemed to go wrong
with me, and I think the reason was that I did not begin it until a
week after breaking the fast, having got along on orange juice and
figs in the meantime. Also I tried on many occasions to take the milk
diet after a short fast of three or four days, and always the milk has
disagreed with me and poisoned me. I take this to mean that, in my own
case, at any rate, so much milk can only be absorbed when the tissues
are greatly reduced; and I have known others who have had the same
experience.
While I was down in Alabama, I took a twelve-day fast, and at the end
I was tempted by a delicious large Japanese persimmon, which had been
eyeing me from the pantry shelf during the whole twelve days. I ate
that persimmon--and I mention that it was thoroughly ripe; in spite
of which fact it doubled me up with the most alarming cramp--and in
consequence I do not recommend persimmons for fasters. I know a friend
who had a similar experience from the juice of one orange; but he was
a man with whom acid fruit has always disagreed. I know another man
who broke his fast on a Hamburg steak; and this also is not to be
recommended.
It has been my experience that immediately after a fast the stomach
is very weak, and can easily be upset; also the peristaltic muscles
are practically without power. It is, therefore, important to choose
foods which are readily digested, and also to continue to take the
enema daily until the muscles have been sufficiently built up to make
a natural movement possible. The thing to do is to take orange juice
or grape juice in small quantities for two or three days, and then go
gradually upon the milk diet, beginning with half a glass of warm milk
at a time. If the milk does not agree with you, you may begin carefully
to add baked potatoes and rice and gruels and broths, if you must; but
don't forget the enema.
People ask me in what diseases I recommend fasting. I recommend it for
all diseases of which I have ever heard, with the exception of one in
which I have heard of bad results--tuberculosis. Dr. Hazzard, in her
book, reports a case of the cure of this disease, but Mr. Macfadden
tells me that he has known of several cases of people who have lost
their weight and have not regained it. There is one cure quoted in the
appendix to this volume.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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