THE FASTING CURE: The Easiest and Cheapest Method to Get Super Fit Kindle Edition

Are you barely able to crawl on two sticks? Suffering from dropsy, pleurisy or nervous collapse? Are you seized by grippe even in the summer? Maybe a born neurastheniac, a physical wreck from dissipation. Never fear - fasting can cure it. Are you underweight? Gain 35lbs in six days by just not eating anything - just drinking water while simultaneously transforming into an athlete!Learn the secret of playing tennis with a punctured lung, how to overcome softening of the spine, and the dreaded autointoxication! Our good old friend Upton Sinclair, author of the classic The Jungle (which forever changed the food industry), blasts away his credibility with this book of two of his published articles which sincerely say they offer the key to "PERFECT health" yeah he doesn't mess around, not just good health mind you - but PERFECT.Welcome to 1910, when there are no antibiotics, no easy blood work, no real understanding of diseases. When being underweight was relatively common and surviving until adulthood was brag worthy.It's clear though that Upton Sinclair even in 1910 was well aware of a connection between health / mood / diet. He had tried several different diets, had been vegetarian for four years, had ended his fast with a milk diet, and had tried the beef and beef broth diet. He had gone to trendy Sanatoriums which at the time were part hospital part country club to rest and recuperate. Diet and exercise seemed to be at the forethought of his mind. For Upton Sinclair good health would lead to exercise - not the other way around.He says, "...I have never heard of any harm resulting from it." (fasting) -- Well my poor dear Upton, before your death you no doubt read about "Dr." Linda Hazzard (she had no medical training or higher education) who you quote and recommend several times in your book unfortunately she turned out to be a serial killer. Her work is detailed in a book called Starvation Heights (it's pretty grizzly, I also believe there are some YouTube videos and documentaries about her lovely establishment). He was called out in the press as a sensationalist and unscrupulous for his hocking of 'natures perfect cure all'. And he did mean it as a cure all.Upton Sinclair seems to start a fast because of GI trouble, of which he is not entirely clear but sounds a bit like IBS which he calls dyspepsia- possibly a food allergy or parasite. He generally seems to improve but after losing a little weight and improving he goes on a 'milk fast' and declares he gains an amazing amount of weight and muscle. This going rapidly down in weight then zagging back up dramatically makes him feel like it's highly successful. To someone in the 21st century, I can only say... oh dear.If Mr. Sinclair had stopped at using himself as an example and wrote an objective letter of reason, something along the lines of -- 'maybe this is good for dyspepsia' he could be forgiven -- but he double downs in outlandish manner saying it's Nature's Perfect cure and naming all sorts of illnesses, cirrhosis of liver, any sort of cancer, broken bones, deformed bones, sore throats, etc. but then he claims not only does it heal but imparts athleticism, a point he makes with each example. Like the man with the hole in his lung and a drainage tube, "vigorously plays tennis".This is an interesting look at 1910 and disease and the progress we've made as a society - and also not made. There are still people out huckstering and saying they have the one diet for perfect health and making really outrageous claims.But, did fasting actually help Sinclair with his dyspepsia? I think it probably did. And I think fasting whether a water fast or intermittent probably has its place in many ailments, but his books is certainly not a how-to guide or a promising book of anecdotes of reliable stories, it is however a window back a century to see how people were connecting health / food / exercise. If you were writing an essay about, "how has American viewpoints about diet and exercise evolved in the last 100 years" it would definitely be a good read.

A for content, D for formatting.This is not really a book, but rather several articles about fasting by Upton Sinclair, and selected reader responses along with letters asking for Sinclair's help re. fasting, by readers. Also included is a poignant letter (a short slice of life story in itself) and answers to a kind of survey Sinclair sent to some of the folks he helped.Sinclair was both very deeply interested in fasting due to his own issues and later because he realized how important it could be to the ill. He read, corresponded with the few doctors who utilized fasting as part of their practices and acquired information where ever possible and disseminated it through his 2 articles and to the many people who daily asked him for help via the mail because of them. (I think he said he got anywhere from one letter to a dozen per day for years).Sinclair's opinions and thoughts at the time of the compilation are interspersed throughout the material.I found the book very useful, well written and friendly. Sinclair's attitude (and positive approach vis-a-vis all the negative or non responsiveness from the medical community) instilled a grateful feeling in me. His words encouraged me to go on with a fast that I was bordering on stopping (up to this point I'd not read very much on the topic).If you're interested in or planning a fast, get this book. It is not scientific, it is better. It is well researched considering the means in 1915-ish, and very believable. (As to a scientific study, I haven't found any). If this book doesn't encourage you to fast, nothing will.As to the formatting on the Kin- dle. This paragraph serves as an example of the kind of formatting Chapter 2 errors most if not all pages cont- ain. It's very bad. It contains a TOC of sorts, but it does not work as it should. It's too hard to expl- ain what exactly it does do. The book is readable, so if you're in a hur Part2 ry to get it, go for it. Otherwise, the paper version is much better.

The Fasting Cure is a reprint of two articles written by Upton Sinclair in 1910 for Cosmopolitan Magazine magazine about his personal experience and championing of fasting as a natural cure-all. Sinclair was exceedingly open-minded towards advances in holistic medicine - he was a customer and advocate of John Harvey Kellogg's infamous Battle Creek Sanitarium - not surprising for a man who also experimented with telepathy and even built his own whites-only socialist utopia (it burned down under mysterious circumstances after just one year). Far from a medical treatise, the majority of The Fasting Cure is comprised of Sinclair's anecdotal experiences experimenting with fasting as a cure for his own physical ailments, and success stories from people who successfully followed his example. In between the reader letters and Sinclair-centric testimonial he briefly tackles the "science" behind fasting as a cure-all in very basic terms - bacteria in the gut causes all forms of illness, apparently - with the occasional name-drop of medical pioneers like Kellogg. Slightly reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's experimentation with LSD, The Fasting Cure is a great example of how some of our greatest literary minds were shaped by their innovative and adventurous embrace of fringe ideas and theories. An interesting read, but you might want to seek medical advice from a physician before contemplating a sixty or ninety day fast to treat your colon cancer.

This book was written in 1911. It is not a book to read as a first introduction to fasting because some of the information would now be shown to be inaccurate or unnecessary. It is impressive that over 100 years ago he was more intuitively onto something that carried out in a healthy way can help a lot of people. There is increasing evidence for the benefits of fasting for many, but not everyone. A little knowledge can be dangerous. This book points out the importance of breaking the fast with the right food or liquid. A painful mistake I made in ignorance on my first fast.All in all I quite enjoyed this book in admiration, but I would not rely upon it for educating me if I intended to take up a fast. Maybe something written more recently that has the benefit of recent scientific knowledge.

The quality copy of the original 1911's book is amazingly clear and a good representation of the original book inside.A fascinating look on what this author found that the medical fraternity( w, i.e. closed mindsets to their training tunnel visions). It has not changed much in attitude from then to now. The letters from individuals to the author are full of prasie for Fasting and curing all sorts of health issues. That is, remember, back in the early 1900's and still today the health systems has not fully recognising the benefits and views it still today as a 'fashion fad'

Firstly let me say that this is written in Victorian times, which makes the writing quintessentially charming and not like anything else.I’m a seasoned faster and I love this book, it’s a real tonic!

A great modern reprint of Sinclair's classic work on fasting. I believe it should be read in conjunction with the two books Kate McCarthy has published on the subject.

Really good read