There is a beautiful concept in Tao practices called Wuwei. It means an effortless action that we try to manifest in everything we do. It means allowing things to happen rather than making them happen. It means aligning yourself with the natural world. It means going with the flow. This is the state of being achieved when we follow Nature. When we talk about food or fasting,(http://regenerativetraditions.com/tao-of-nature/) it is important to keep the concept of Wuwei in our minds. Fasting is not a panacea for all of our ailments. For example, it has been discovered that the application of fasting works better against bacterial infection than infections caused by the virus (https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)30972-2). Also, there are people who should not be fasting. Individuals, who are underweight or suffering from malnutrition, pregnant or lactating women, small children, etc. There is time for everything but to maintain balance, we have to understand the Yin and Yang side of things. It is very common, and we’ve done this ourselves, that people try to utilize fasting because of its amazing healing capacity but without paying attention to their unique circumstances. In the world of highly processed, industrialized food that is frequently devoid of any nutritional value, many, if not all of us, suffer from the depletion of micro or macronutrients. Introducing fasting in that state can and frequently does make things worse than before. Wuwei of fasting in our daily practice means that we achieve periods of rest from digestion in a natural and effortless way. Without the use of self-discipline. Without struggle and force. Just allowing it to happen. The first necessary step to achieve this is minimizing all the junk foods that not only fail to provide nutrition but also actively create deficiencies from which many of us suffer, sometimes being overweight at the same time. This needs to be corrected before making effortless fasting possible. When we stop eating things that have no place in Nature like sugar and artificial sweeteners, refined flours and oils and start consuming foods that are high in bioavailable macro- and micronutrients, high in energy and ability to produce the feelings of satiety, the miracle happens. We stop overeating because the body gets what it needs. As a matter of fact, we spontaneously end up eating less and it gives us more energy that lasts longer. This makes it possible to eat once or twice daily and be completely satiated and energetic. The next step is understanding the importance of nutrient density (concentration of nutrients in our food). What are the nutritionally dense foods? Ask our ancestors. What did we eat a thousand years ago? How about 10-15 thousand years ago? Animal products are the most nutrient-dense foods available to humans. It is not a very popular idea nowadays but only 50-60 years ago hardly anyone would question this statement. The further back in time we go the more obvious it becomes. For hundreds of thousands of years, especially glacial periods, animals were the only available source of nutrients for homo sapiens. So, what happened? Agriculture. Civilization. Industrialization. Marketing. One Big Disconnect. We are at the heights of our disconnect from Nature. Most of us have no idea where our food comes from. Most of us have no idea what it takes to obtain it. Most of us have no idea what real food is. We are told, and so we believe that animal fat makes us fat. We believe that high cholesterol is bad. We hope that we can out-exercise unnatural food choices to remain healthy and slim. All of this because we’ve never been forced to survive in the wild, to obtain food that will keep us alive, healthy and strong and most of us never had to grow or raise it ourselves. We’ve been domesticated, urbanized and industrialized. In modern times it is rare not to have some nutritional deficiencies. It could be because of the diminishing quality of our soil. It could be because we’re living in a world where foods have been severely commercialized and we no longer have a sense of what real food is. As a result, we end up consuming things that have nothing to do with nutrients and that do not provide the body with the basic ingredients it needs. What provides these ingredients? Everything we would find in the area where we live at the time before we had huge cities and supermarkets! Some veggies, maybe some fruits and nuts but first and foremost – animal products! Through research, our own experiences, experiences of many other people and experiences of countless generations of humans living in pre-civilized, pre-agriculture times, we realized the importance of animal-based foods for optimal health and wellbeing While for decades this approach has been the last on our mind (we were long term vegetarians!), the reality of the life of our ancestors and, most importantly, the results we’ve experienced could no longer be denied. We realized that we, being a product of civilization ourselves, could not understand the simplest and most obvious needs of our organism due to our disconnect from Nature and its ways. In a world of fake news and conflicting ideologies, it is easy to forget what it takes to produce food, how we have always been dependent on many other living beings, and how much our ideas are driven by the economy, politics, special interests or wishful thinking. To make a long story short, because we eat mostly highly nutritive foods, we don’t need to worry about counting calories, watching our weight or exercising to lose weight. A small amount of nutrient-dense food fills us up quickly, allowing us not to fill the stomach to more than ¾ of its capacity (which is what many old traditions recommend), feel satisfied, energetic and not hungry for a long time. Two, sometimes one meal a day is all we require, creating an effortless period of fasting between the meals (intermittent fasting). It is simple and quite agreeable once your body adjusts to not relying on a continuous supply of carbohydrates (it becomes fat-adapted). Remember, when we talk about nourishment and fasting it has nothing to do with self-discipline and asceticism. Quite the opposite. It is a normal consequence of proper, natural nutrition that creates the feeling of satiety which results in your body’s ability to function very well without constant eating. When we eat nutritionally dense foods, our body doesn’t crave nourishment for quite a long time allowing us to take a break from digestive processes and use the energy for recycling and a little cleanup. Simple, natural life and simple solutions are what interests us. When applied properly it becomes Wuwei. It becomes effortless action. ...
Tao of the Four Empties – the Empty Stomach.
The principle of the “empty stomach” has to do with the frequency, volume and timing of our food consumption. If we take a closer look at Nature, just like the ancient practitioners of Tao did, we will notice that it is quite common that animals will go through periods of hunger. It can be caused by the seasonality of certain foods, animal migratory patterns or simply the natural cycles of day and night, times of rest and gathering or hunting. In our “civilized” world, humans, if they can, try to practically eliminate these periods. What’s more important, we increase the frequency of our meals, sometimes up to 6-8 times a day! This is not a very natural pattern for Homo Sapiens. We evolved to rest from digestion on a regular basis. “This makes sense from a survival standpoint. If we do not eat, our bodies use our stored energy as fuel so that we can find more food. Humans have not evolved to require three meals a day, every day.” Excerpt From: Fung, Jason. “Complete Guide to Fasting.” Occasional fasting turns on a very important mechanism of autophagy – the regeneration and recycling of the cells that improves the efficiency and working of the entire system. It is a very “handy” tool for the body’s natural processes of detox and renewal. “fasting is the most time-honored and widespread healing tradition in the world. It has been practiced by virtually every culture and every religion on earth. Fasting is an ancient, time-tested tradition.” Excerpt From: Fung, Jason. “Complete Guide to Fasting.” Fasting is and has always been a part of natural cycles. There are many approaches to fasting but one of the simplest and at the same time the most efficient ways is what is known as intermittent fasting. It is done by simply limiting your “eating window” during the day to anywhere from two to ten hours of time when we consume food and leaving the rest of the day and night to fasting. For example, you eat between10 am and 6 pm and you fast between 6 pm and 10 am the following day. This gives your body 16 hours of rest and regeneration. Once our body and mind adapt, this rhythm is very easy to maintain indefinitely. Other forms of periodic fasting can include but are not limited to water or dry fasting once a week for 24-36 hours, longer 2-3 day fasts every few months, etc. Fasting can be utilized on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis depending on the individual needs and goals. The amount of food is another aspect of the “empty stomach” principle. There is an old Taoist and Yogic saying: “Eat only when you are hungry but stop before you’re full.” Overrating is often a result of food addiction, inappropriate food choice, boredom or habit. Once we start consuming natural, species-appropriate foods (check the “empty kitchen” article) our unnatural food cravings largely diminish and we start eating according to our body’s true needs. We cultivate an “empty stomach” to support recovery, healing, and overall vitality. ...
Life is complicated enough. Simplify what you can. Especially your daily habits. Healthy = Natural = Simple
Kids do it. Birds do it. Your dog and cat do it. Sometimes 40-50 times a day. Since we sit so much, we tend to forget how important it is to pandiculate – contract and extend the muscle or better yet – the entire muscle group as often as possible. This is how we can get rid of excessive tension accumulating in our body as a result of a lack of movement. Pandiculation resets the muscles to their neutral position, helping them to get back to their natural state and prepare the entire musculoskeletal system for movement. Contract and extend the entire body when you wake up, while in bed and continue to do it frequently throughout the day (especially if you have to sit a lot!) Various forms of meditation have a huge impact on our body and mind. Did you know that meditation reduces anxiety and stress, improves concentration and mood, decreases cortisol (stress hormone) levels, lowers blood pressure, slows down the heartbeat, increases the feeling of relaxation and raises the number of antibodies thus improving resistance to infections and inflammation? At the beginning or at the end of your day, create some time for quiet contemplation, simple meditation… Most animals in Nature do not eat all the time. Observe and imitate natural patterns in the wild by skipping a meal or two from time to time. Extend the time between meals and create an opportunity for your organism to activate its regenerative mechanisms. The body gets quickly adapted to a new meal frequency and it becomes a natural, everyday habit. By not eating for 16 hours (including sleep), we benefit by improving our cognitive functioning, lowering the inflammation, blood pressure and blood glucose levels and by a general improvement of metabolic processes of the body. Do not eat until you’re really hungry and when you are, drink some bone broth or a cup of herbal tea or coffee, extending the time of fasting. When you are ready for a meal, eat real, natural, unprocessed food, including lots of veggies, especially the fermented ones. Move your body. Sweat a little every day! Exercise and physical activity allow you not only to retain your strength and functionality but have a huge impact on your mood, memory, sleep quality, stress reduction and cognitive fitness. Take at least a short, intense walk. Run a few flights of stairs. Take the garbage out. Walk the dog a few blocks. Take every opportunity to train your thermoregulating mechanisms. Body conditioning that takes advantage of natural elements, exposing yourself gradually to cold or heat can improve your blood circulation and resistance to colds, activate your hidden energetic reserves and strengthen your immune system. Walk barefoot. Take a cool shower! It can be more efficient than a cup of coffee or a Red Bull! Make sure you create an optimal condition for natural, healthy sleep. People who experience problems with sleep tend to gain weight easily, are more prone to inflammation and depression. Proper sleep helps to ward off diabetes, prevents heart disease, increases fertility and sex drive, improves concentration and productivity, boosts immunity response and mental wellbeing. Sleep in a quiet, dark and well-aired room with no phone, iPad, computer etc. ...
“Constant grazing is not natural for humans. We should experience a feeling of being a little hungry EVERYDAY.” – Primal Tao
“There are, in fact, no species of animal, humans included, that have evolved to require three meals a day, every day.” excerpt from: “The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss.” by Jason Fung Many cultures included some forms of fasting in their spiritual practices. Christian, Muslim, Native American or Taoist, all of these traditions incorporated fasting practices into their way of living. While fasting might have a significant influence on our spirit it has an even more powerful effect on our body. Have we always understood intuitively that stopping to eat for some time benefits our body on so many levels? Have we subconsciously felt that our organism needs rest and opportunity to regenerate or was it just a simple and inevitable reality of living in the natural environment that made us continuously switch between the feasting and fasting mode? Regardless of why, the fact is that for most of our evolutionary history as a species, we were subjects to constant challenges in regards to having or not having enough food. This situation changed in the twentieth century. Perhaps for the first time ever, large populations of our planet have more food that they know what to do with. Our ability to produce food on the large, industrial scale has created an interesting situation when, on one hand, we are able to feed a lot of people, and on the other hand, we don’t know how to do it without making ourselves sick and miserable. For a couple of generations now, we’ve taken great care to make sure that we are constantly digesting something and never experience hunger. And as it turned out, this approach doesn’t serve us too well. The rates of obesity and so-called diseases of civilization spiral out of control and we still seem to have difficulty understanding the root causes of these problems. Fortunately, it seems that there is a renewed interest within the science community in looking closer at the impact of our lifestyle and some environmental influences as the real source of many of our ailments. One of the conclusions of these investigations is the appreciation of the value of fasting. In recent years many modalities of fasting have been developed and experimented with. Between the extended, multi-day fasts, skipping a meal or two, and various forms of intermittent fasting, everyone can find some approach that will suit their unique needs and personality. It is important to create opportunities in our life to mimic the natural events like the temporary absence of food and allow the body to deal with it and function the way it was designed. Cleansing, healing and regenerating. ...
The feeling of hunger and triggering autophagy.
In 2016 Yoshinori Ohsumi received the Nobel Prize for discovering the mechanisms of autophagy- the process of absorbing old, broken, malfunctioning cells and utilizing them for energy. Autophagy literally means self-eating. It is a body’s way of cleaning up and recycling of our cellular debris. The great news is that it is relatively easy to activate this process. Yes, you must have guessed it by now – it is turned on when we stop eating. It doesn’t happen immediately and it differs from individual to individual but it is something that has always been a part of human life and only recently and in some regions of the world we’ve created conditions where food is abundant and easily accessible all the time. Due to the lifestyle changes, our bodies do not quite know how to deal with the situation when we eat so frequently. What makes matters worse, for quite a long time now, eating multiple meals every day has been encouraged as something beneficial for our health and well-being! Well, not anymore. Many recent studies investigating the impact of intermittent and other types of fasting show the many benefits of creating a window of not eating and allowing the body to turn on the mechanism of self-repair and regeneration. Some of these benefits are: Lowering insulin levels Repairing or elimination of damaged cells Growth hormone stimulation Reduction of insulin resistance Lowering glucose levels. Once we realize the positive impact of calorie restriction/fasting practices, we begin to perceive the feeling of hunger in an entirely different light. Not only that it is OK to skip a meal or two occasionally. but it is something necessary to do even to maintain the basic functionality. Do not fear the feeling of hunger. Think about it as a signal that your body is doing some usually very needed cleaning up. (As long as the person is not undernourished). Another dimension of Primal Tao practice is paying attention to the quality of the fuel we provide our bodies with. There is a lot of confusion in the contemporary world as far as what we should be eating to remain healthy. Obviously, the current governmental suggestions don’t seem to be working too well, considering that we are in the midst of obesity epidemics. It seems appropriate to note what kinds of foods are consumed in the so-called “blue zones” known for extreme longevity and health of their inhabitants. It could also be informative to know what indigenous people eat and used to eat to sustain themselves calorically and maintain a high level of health and performance. When we take a closer look at what’s worked for us so far in the development of the human species, we notice a lot of diversity in macro and micronutrients selection, suggesting our ability to adapt to various environments and sources of energy. With many variables present, it is still easy to observe that the processing of all of these, sometimes very different natural foods is minimal (other than simply cooking, baking, or fermenting). They are eaten and prepared promptly and while still being fresh whenever possible. If the food is stored for later, it is usually dried or frozen. No artificial chemical components are added to it. Fillers, emulsifiers, preservatives etc are not used. This is a vital message for us to absorb and apply in our daily lives: WE NEED TO EAT REAL FOOD! Natural as much as possible. Fresh. Simple. Unprocessed. Sugar and all other sweeteners, white flour, artificial beverages, processed carbohydrates, genetically modified products, and pre-cooked ready-meals are not designed to comprise the bulk of the human diet. I know that many of you will say: WE HAVE NO TIME FOR FOOD PREPARATION! If it is true – you have to change something! You might as well say: we have no time for breathing! ...
