Is Fasting a Good Way to Detox your Body?

Fasting is often the first thing you think of when you hear spring detox or cleanse, but it is very different. When you fast you eat nothing and drink one thing.

Water, grape juice, orange juice, are all types of juice fasts. But they feature one food or drink and they are made to break some cycle. They may be short, like over a weekend, or long and involve the supervision of a medical practitioner.

A cleanse or detox, on the other hand, has you eating and drinking a variety of foods and it is the types of foods that make it a cleanse. It is also focused on detoxing your organs, mainly your liver, and you are taking in foods that will accomplish that end. A cleanse lasts at most 10 days.

A fast is a way to stop eating altogether and give the whole body a break to relax, rebuild and recover.

Fasting allows for a moderate stressor that activates your body to adapt to burning its own fat and also initiates detoxification and rejuvenation of your body and its cells.

These processes are referred to as metabolic flexibility and autophagy, respectively

A short fast may be just the thing to help you lead into a diet or a cleanse, or used to help the body focus on healing itself by stopping food intake for a short time, like during a fever.

A fast can be a cleansing fast, but that is rarer. Mainly, one ingests little and meditates in a focused way about what you eat and why, and think about how good your body is feeling. 

Some people are energized when they fast. They say that they feel like their body is like an engine that has been returned to factory specifications.

Others feel like they have been put in bed after a long illness. They are better but feel like they have gone through a long battle. They are weak but the sickness is gone.

This is how one SHOULD feel after a fast that is properly supported with detoxification of the toxins the fast actually releases. Otherwise, one can risk recirculating these toxins rather than eliminating them

People react differently, but all are glad they have gone through their fast or their detox. All feel they have made a step in the right direction with this metabolic reset.

Tommy Markov is a Functional Nutrition Professional and Wellness Educator with a Master’s in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine. He specializes in healing the person, not the condition. He is passionate about uncovering the root cause of his client’s ailments and incorporating an integrative mind-body approach.

Tommy’s knowledge of the interconnectedness of body systems helps him identify imbalances before they manifest into dysfunction and disease, allowing for an effective preventative approach.

Tommy has been working in the health and fitness industry since his 20’s, ranging from health clubs, hospitals, medical practices to currently founding his own thriving practice, Living Wellness Solutions, after overcoming his own health challenges.

Tommy has appeared as a guest and expert speaker on numerous podcasts, speaking events, as well as being a nutrition and supplement consultant. Most recently, Tommy became a proud partner of F.L.O.W. Wellness Center in Abington, Pennsylvania, where he incorporates Functional Medicine and Nutrition along with various other healing modalities and practitioners.