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.
