How to Finish Your Fast in a Healthy Way

Dr. Bill Bright

How to Fast

  1. Your Personal Guide to Fasting and Prayer
  2. Why You Should Fast
  3. How to Fast Safely
  4. How Long and What Type of Fast Is Right for You
  5. How to Prepare Yourself Spiritually and Physically
  6. How to Manage Your Schedule While Fasting
  7. Dealing With the Responses of Friends and Loved Ones
  8. How to Make Your Spiritual Experience the Best it Can Be
  9. How to Maintain Nutritional Balance and Health from Beginning to End
  10. What Physical Effects to Expect
  11. How to Finish Your Fast in a Healthy Way

All the experts agree that “breaking the fast” is the critical phase of fasting.

While your body is in the resting mode, your stomach shrinks and your intestines become idle. So, solid food must be re-introduced very slowly to avoid kidney failure or digestive distress. In fact, after a 40-day fast, you should make a careful transition for at least three days before returning to eating meats, fats or normal foods.

Further, if you end your fast gradually, the beneficial physical and spiritual effects will linger for days. But if you rush into solid foods, you may lose much of your deep sense of peace and experience physical problems such as diarrhea, sickness, fainting and frankly even death in some cases, due to shock.

Dr. Paul Bragg and his daughter Patricia have conducted fasting clinics for many years. Their book, The Miracle of Fasting, gives a specific daily food plan for breaking a 7-day fast that could be adapted and stretched out over several more days for a 40-day fast.

Breaking a Seven-Day Fast

5 p.m. as you end your 7th day of the fast

  • Peel four or five medium-sized tomatoes – cut them up, bring them to a boil and then turn off the heat. When they are cool enough to eat, have as many as you desire.

Morning of the 8th day

  • Salad of grated carrots and grated cabbage, with half an orange squeezed over it.
  • Bowl of steamed greens (spinach, Swiss chard or mustard greens) and peeled tomatoes. Bring the greens to a boil, then turn off the heat.
  • You may eat two slices of 100 percent whole-wheat bread, which has been toasted until it is thoroughly dry-this is called “Melba toast.” After it has been cooled, the toast should be so dry that it would powder if you squeezed it in the palm of your hand. As I have stated, this first food should be in the morning.
  • During the day, you may have all the distilled water you wish to drink.
  • For dinner, you may have a salad of grated carrots, chopped celery and cabbage, with orange juice for dressing. This salad will be followed by two cooked vegetables, one such as spinach, kale, chard or mustard greens, and one such as string beans, carrots, steamed celery, okra or squash. You may have two pieces of whole-grain “Melba toast.” These meals are not to contain oils of any kind.

Morning of the 9th day

  • You may have a dish of any kind of fresh fruit, such as banana, pineapple, orange, sliced grapefruit or sliced apples. You may sprinkle this with two tablespoonfuls of raw wheat germ, and sweeten it with honey, but not over one tablespoonful.
  • At noon you may have a salad of grated carrots, cabbage and celery, with one cooked vegetable and one slice of “Melba toast.”
  • At dinner you may have a salad dish of lettuce, watercress, parsley and tomatoes, and two cooked vegetables.

Most experts agree that breaking a fast with vegetables, either steamed or raw, is best. Your stomach is smaller now, so eat lightly. Stop before you feel full. Stay away from starches like pastas, potatoes, rice or bread (except for “Melba toast”) for at least a week. Also avoid meats, dairy products and any fats or oils for a week or more. Introduce them very slowly and in small amounts.

Extended fasts are not the only fasts which need to be ended with caution. Even a 3-day fast requires reasonable precautions. It is wise to start with a little soup – something thin and nourishing such as vegetable broth made from onion, celery, potatoes and carrots – and fresh fruits such as watermelon and cantaloupe.

In terms of resuming any sort of exercise routine, the advice is the same. Start out slowly, allowing time for your body to re-adjust to its usual regime.

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