(Fasting for healthy persons – acc. to Dr. med. Hellmut Lützner (MD[1]) and the association Ärztegesellschaft Heilfasten & Ernährung e.V.)
Already back in 1935, Dr. med. Otto Buchinger (MD), the father of modern fasting, emphasised the necessity of “preventive fasting”: “The so-called healthy person should fast! Annual, honest fasting will prevent ill health and lingering illness.” (Buchinger, Das Heilfasten)
The association Ärztegesellschaft Heilfasten & Ernährung e.V. defines the target group of persons who should practice fasting for healthy persons as follows (excerpt): “Someone who is healty, feels well, is fully functional and needs no medication. He/She must be mentally stable and fully capable to take decision.”
The term “fasting for healthy persons” refers to:
- short-time fasting
- carried out under their own personal responsibility
- with the purpose of improving their health
- and understood as a form of adult education(personal advancement)
Fasting for healthy persons pursues the following goals:
- new bodily, mental and spiritual experiences
- to discover the ability to feel well without food for a limited period of time
- to experience the positive effects of renunciation in today’s consumpterist societies
- to harness the strong impetus of fasting to change eating and nutritional habits after the fasting session
- to learn self-help methods for day-to-day life (short-time fasting to combat light infections)
Fasting for healthy persons is implemented in two ways: at home (while continuing to work) guided by a fasting coach or in a group at a dedicated location (hotel, pension), again guided by a fasting coach.
For a fasting seminar, the German Fasting Academy (dfa) recommends the following guidelines established by Dr. med. Hellmut Lützner (MD):
- At least one day to relief the body
- No solid food for a period of 5-10 days
- No drinks or tobacco
- In the beginning complete emptying of the bowels
- Calorie intake during the fasting session of at most 500 kcal per day
- At least 2-3 litres of water plus herbal tea per day
- Light physical activity and relaxation
- Bowel emptying during the fasting session
- Measures supporting the fasting process and the practitioners’ health status
- Ritual breaking of the fast
- Build-up days, 1/3 of the fasting time
- Transit to wholefood nutrition
Source: dfa and 40 years of experience by Dr. med. Hellmut Lützner (MD) in fasting and nutrition therapy
A simple introduction to fasting is intermittent fasting (short-time fasting). For more information, please contact our fasting academy. We also provide qualified coaching for this type of fasting. Intermittent fasting can be as short as half a day, but it can also be extended to up to 24 hrs (e.g. from 6 p.m. to 6 p.m. the following day).
[1] MD = Medical Doctor