Jack Goldstein's html book about his 42 day fast

[jts]

I don't know how to evaluate the following html book. I first read this book in the 1980s in hard cover form.

http://www.escapeallthesethings.com/FastingUC/

Here is the inspiring, controversial, true story of a man who was treated medically for six years for a debilitating disease, ulcerative colitis , which under standard medical care by qualified and respected physicians progressed to a point close to death. In the course of his six-year ordeal, Dr. Goldstein changed from a happy, successful, and confident man with everything to live for to a wasted, drug-infected, despairing man whose only hope, he was told, lay in agreeing to submit to one of the most radical and drastic operations known to medical science--a total colectomy, or complete removal of the large intestine and rectum. For the rest of his life he would be forced to wear a bag attached to his abdomen for the collection and elimination of waste.

At this point, tortured by the thought of becoming a physiologic cripple and even contemplating suicide, he was led to a natural way of life which incorporated fasting and a vegetarian diet that actually allowed his body to heal itself. Dr. Goldstein gives a detailed account of a six-week fast he undertook in a controlled environment and under the supervision of a doctor--which literally saved his life. He also records the day by-day physical and mental changes, which occurred, and describes his new way of life based on the principles of natural diet.

It is an amazing, almost unbelievable, story that offers hope and inspiration in addition to sound advice on how to achieve your natural radiant good health.

He tells the story of the events that led to the 42 day fast, then a diary of the fast itself and of the breaking of the fast, then life after the fast.

Perhaps the first question to ask about it (after reading it) is: Is it fact? Or is it fiction?

Should we give the author the benefit of the doubt that at least the narrative portion of it is fact?

Or is the whole story made up out of his imagination?

Why should it be thought strange that a fast lets the gut heal itself? To me that's common sense. In early 2000 for a brief time, everything I ate made me sick. Even a small amount of easy to digest food made me sick. So I quit eating for 4 days. After the 4 day fast, I could eat any amount of any kind of food without getting sick, and I stayed put. That was only a little Mickey Mouse 4 day fast, not 42 days. Give the gut half a chance and it heals itself. No big hairy deal.

The problem with accepting Jack Goldstein's story as an honest story is that it is contrary to doctrine. Challenging doctrine is probably not a good idea. We know what happened to Galileo when he challenged doctrine. Even now, doctors can go to jail for challenging doctrine.

For an illustration (even tho fiction) of what doctrine is about, see this movie clip.

9:12

http://youtu.be/OW9ij_k1m4Y

Doctors don't study fasting in medical school and don't use fasting in their practice (unless they are 'quacks'). They see fasting as starving. Fasting is contrary to doctrine. The paradigm that fasting is based on is contrary to doctrine.

If Jack Goldstein's story is true, then doctrine is false. If doctrine is true, then Jack Goldstein's story is false. False, meaning a lie, a fabrication, made up out of his imagination.

I look upon doctrine as theory, and not necessarily a very good one at that. When there is a conflict between theory and fact, what do you do? Either the theory is false or the fact is false.

I suspect that if the fact is really truly a fact and it's contrary to the theory, then the theory is false. Where did I go wrong? Maybe if the theory is elevated to the level of doctrine, it refutes hard fact, and in this case proves that Jack Goldstein's story is a work of fiction; I don't know.

-----------------

A little aside. Someone will find that Dr. Robert Gross, the doctor who supervised Jack Goldstein's fast, died of cancer of the pancreas and cancer of the brain. I accept this as fact, I would like to know how that happened and I tried to get a discussion going in another discussion group (not OL) to find out how Dr. Robert Gross got cancer. I think this is a very worthwhile subject to learn more about. I would want to avoid the mistakes he made. In the cases of the health failures of T.C. Fry and Krok, it seems to be a consequence of fruitarian doctrine, plus T.C. Fry got a bullet in the head at point blank range and that contributed to his health problems. But the fact that Dr. Robert Gross got cancer (as interesting as it is) has nothing to do with the question of whether Jack Goldstein's story is true.

[BaalChatzaf]

42 days! Jeebus Kryst, if he had gone another week he would have died. He clearly took fluids during this fast, else he would not have lasted 42 days.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[jts]

42 days! Jeebus Kryst, if he had gone another week he would have died. He clearly took fluids during this fast, else he would not have lasted 42 days.

Ba'al Chatzaf

The word 'fast' has become corrupt. It used to mean living on air and water and sleep and nothing else.

Now they speak of a "water fast" and a "juice fast". Why not call them a water diet and a juice diet? Muslims do a "30 day fast", which means a series of 30 12-hour fasts, probably with pigging out between fasts.

When I use the word 'fast', it means air and water and sleep and nothing else.

Probably not one person in a hundred knows the difference between fasting and starving. That's a guess based on yahoo answers and various websites and statements from ignorant doctors.

The difference between fasting and starving is during a fast the body is living on internal resources (fat etc.) and during starving the body has run out of resources. Before starvation begins, the body will let you know.

When bears hibernate all winter, they are fasting, not starving. Hibernation is a special kind of fast.

To estimate how long you could last on a fast and not get into starvation, do the following:

1. Figure out how much fat you have in pounds.

2. Figure out how much weight you lose per day on a fast.

3. Given #1 and #2, you can calculate roughly how long you could last without starving, assuming you have all the necessary reserve nutrients in liver and bone marrow etc.

Most people who are healthy and not overweight can go about 40 days. I know of a long distance runner (who was clearly not overweight) who went 42 days. Overweight people have the caloric reserves to go longer. Some people don't have the mineral etc. reserves to last as long as the fat lasts. I know a case of a man who started showing signs of mineral deficiency after only 10 days, and they took him off the fast and put him on the greenest veggies in Steve Solomon's garden. The greener the veggy, the richer it is in minerals.

Anyway, do you believe Jack Goldstein's story?

[BaalChatzaf]

42 days! Jeebus Kryst, if he had gone another week he would have died. He clearly took fluids during this fast, else he would not have lasted 42 days.

Ba'al Chatzaf

The word 'fast' has become corrupt. It used to mean living on air and water and sleep and nothing else.

Now they speak of a "water fast" and a "juice fast". Why not call them a water diet and a juice diet? Muslims do a "30 day fast", which means a series of 30 12-hour fasts, probably with pigging out between fasts.

When I use the word 'fast', it means air and water and sleep and nothing else.

Probably not one person in a hundred knows the difference between fasting and starving. That's a guess based on yahoo answers and various websites and statements from ignorant doctors.

The difference between fasting and starving is during a fast the body is living on internal resources (fat etc.) and during starving the body has run out of resources. Before starvation begins, the body will let you know.

When bears hibernate all winter, they are fasting, not starving. Hibernation is a special kind of fast.

To estimate how long you could last on a fast and not get into starvation, do the following:

1. Figure out how much fat you have in pounds.

2. Figure out how much weight you lose per day on a fast.

3. Given #1 and #2, you can calculate roughly how long you could last without starving, assuming you have all the necessary reserve nutrients in liver and bone marrow etc.

Most people who are healthy and not overweight can go about 40 days. I know of a long distance runner (who was clearly not overweight) who went 42 days. Overweight people have the caloric reserves to go longer. Some people don't have the mineral etc. reserves to last as long as the fat lasts. I know a case of a man who started showing signs of mineral deficiency after only 10 days, and they took him off the fast and put him on the greenest veggies in Steve Solomon's garden. The greener the veggy, the richer it is in minerals.

Anyway, do you believe Jack Goldstein's story?

The story he told was possible. I have no idea of whether it is true or not.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[jts]

The story he told was possible. I have no idea of whether it is true or not.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Did you read the book? If you did, then you know his story is contrary to doctrine. Is it possible that doctrine is false?