Don Tolman on whole foods, fasting and self-care

Don Tolman has been speaking on whole food nutrition and self-care for many years. I was first introduced to his work a few years ago and recently I’ve rediscovered his principles on nutrition, signature foods, ancient healing techniques and forgotten health practices.

He is an incredibly inspiring, loving and funny man with a wealth of information that has been collected over many years, from around the world, in and amongst many different cultures and from ancient information held within scrolls.

One of the practices he advocates is fasting. In 1995 he fasted on water only for 40 days. This was documented, supervised and filmed and has inspired many other to do the same. Don believes the human body has instincts to stop eating when illness strikes, just as animals do.

“When the body gets no rest from processing foods day after day, the digestive and cleansing systems are often subject to an uninterrupted workload. The body is often unable to rid itself of all these stored toxins, waste products, excess proteins and fat deposits. Fasting is necessary to give the digestive system a rest and more importantly to cleanse the body.” D. Tolman.

Here at Cleanse I have supervised many forms of fasting. Most people who are first embarking on fasting and cleansing should NOT fast on water alone and I personally have never done a water-only fast, however that is not to say that someone who is experienced should not consider it, under the right circumstances.

There are many types of fasting/cleansing regimes. They range from liquid or juice fasts in which no solid foods are consumed but fruit and vegetable juices are taken at regular intervals. I like to add green superfoods, such as spirulina, chlorella, wheat grass etc with these types of fasts to chelate heavy metals and other toxins out of the system. They also provide fibre and decrease the likelihood of detox reactions such as headaches and rashes. I find these cleanses work best in spring/summer when there is an abundance of tasty fruits and vegetables and the body doesn’t need to generate so much heat.

You don’t have to stop eating completely to begin the cleansing process. Our simple ‘beginners cleanse’ eliminates processed foods, sugars, alcohol, white carbs, meat products, fried foods and encourages whole foods, focusing on raw salads, blended green smoothies, lightly steamed vegetables and vegetable broths.

Check out one of Don Tolman’s Australian tour lectures. I guarantee you’ll learn a lot of valuable information and be entertained at the same time.