Healing through nature has been essential to sustainable cultures everywhere for untold millennia. However, today's dominant materialist culture has all but turned health care in the U.S. into a dubious and corrupt industry. So, addressing root causes—as fasting does with its detoxification and complete rest—is ignored or attacked as dangerous, typically by those interests who see fasting as unprofitable.

De-pudge and de-sludge. Easy peasey, really. With fasting there is no action, just intention.

Fasting has been used from the beginning of time as the most effective, natural and basic form of tidiness for the body and mind. In our society we understand the concept of cleaning the car, the house and our clothes, but it is not commonplace to think of cleaning the inside of the body because we take it for granted that this happens automatically. But we do need to scrub it down, all the way to downtown.

Many people are learning the trick of curing their colds, headaches, nervous spells and other acute troubles by missing a few meals or taking a short fast. It is the simplest and the most efficient way of relieving the overloaded and "food-poisoned" system. You would be surprised to know how little food is actually required to keep the individual healthy.

Fasting as a remedy is fully in harmony with the "nature-cure" philosophy of the cause of disease. If the disease is created by an abnormal accumulation of toxins in the system, it stands to reason that fasting will help in their elimination from the system. The membranous linings of the stomach and intestine, which act as a sponge to absorb food materials, are then effectively "squeezed" to throw out the waste matter from the system.

It's all about keepin' it fresh. Pushing that reset button.

The body and palette get cleansed of chemicals and impurities, giving you a keener ability to fully taste foods and more fully enjoy the true flavors of simple foods. There are often many foods that hold less appeal after a fast, especially "dead" foods and ones full of chemicals (which you can clearly taste after a fast).

Free-flowing urination makes a cleanse worthwhile. To keep the rest free-flowing, consider a coffee enema. Using cooled coffee, put it into your enema bag or bottle and slowly put it into your bowel. But be warned: Never attempt to do a coffee enema with hot coffee, and definitely be sure to remove any large particles before proceeding (strain, strain, strain!).

When the bile duct empties, you will hear or feel squirting around your right rib cage. The royal flush. Surely fresh-brewed goodness in your cup.

The last component to attain that fresh-as-a-daisy feeling is chlorophyll. I like to think of it as nature's sunshine. Green plants use carbon dioxide in the air, water, and minerals from the soil and sunlight to produce food. This process is called photosynthesis—sunlight is actually absorbed by the green substance found in leaves called chlorophyll, the blood of the green plant.

Chlorophyll has many benefits. It is capable of neutralizing substances that cause cell mutations and strengthens the cell walls of the small intestine and colon. It has an exceptional deodorizing effect on your body and on the stools you have during a bowel movement. I drink my green drink the first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, because this helps to activate the colon and stimulates bowel movements.

Bottom line: Reset it and forget it.

Elizabeth Fournier