Re: Diet for breaking a 10 day water fast

nothingbetter wrote: "anything but fruit and vegetables (juiced or raw or lightly steamed) with carbohydrates will risk refeeding syndrome and you'll get sick quickly, sometimes really sick - any kind of dense protein or fat will put a strain on your kidneys and you wont be able to digest it."

ok thats it, now i'm coming out of the closet lol :-)

back in my 20's i did a lot of experimenting. a few years after my no-carb total ketone burning insulin lesson (which was - correction - the pritkins diet) i went on a long water fast. i'd been doing a lot of 4-5 day fasts during the work week with diet coke (naughty, naughty) and gotten into a bad restrict/binge cycle.

this time i was determined to drink only water and take it one day at a time, no time plan. for some reason (probably becos my body was used to ketosis) i found it quite easy (in waves) to just keep going and each day rolled into the next surprisingly quickly until before i knew it i'd lasted 30 days! (way too light tho). when i broke the fast i broke all the rules and have kept quiet about it here, knowing all you fruit juice advocates would have a tissy fit ;-)

i chose to remain in ketosis after my fast (given my no-carb experience) until the digestive system was used to food again. my refeeding began with teensy bits of chicken. nothing happened! my stomach remained perfectly comfortable even more not being hungry anymore. i continued carefully, eating small portions of various no-carb foods throughout the day for 4 days and introduced low GI vegetable juices on the 5th. i experienced no gas whatsoever and no overexcited appetite.

what i did notice tho upon refeeding, was i became 'extremely' thirsty and found it hard to retain enough water to rehydrate. without carbs it took many weeks, but i never once felt sick - quite the contrary - or bloated, and my energy level shot up from day one of the refeed. the tiny portions without Sugar or fiber were accepted by the stomach effortlessly and went down like little pieces of pure joy. my lungs were so clear i felt like i could breath whole mountains. the bowels moved on the second day (which ...um... felt rather rude after so long :-) and i was literally bursting out of my skin with energy.

the world didn't have the net back then, so i kinda liken my experience to this:
http://www.sourcetext.com/sourcebook/essays/scotoma.html

and it looks like my low glycemic preference ever since has done me some favors too. i recently researched 'insulin inflammation' for my mothers cholesterol and whattayaknow it confirmed everything i've experienced over the years. go figure.