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Benjamin Franklin once said, 'the best of all medicines are rest and fasting.'

Children intuitively know this: when the get sick, they often lose their appetites and sleep more than usual. And so do all animals in the wild. The first thing they do when they are sick or injured is to lie down, stop eating and allow the body to heal itself.

Our adult human bodies are the same'they have an incredible innate capacity for healing and longevity. And fasting gives them the opportunity to cleanse, nourish, rejuvenate and heal from the inside out. Fasting works so well because the body can direct more of its energy to health and healing when it is not digesting solid foods.

Over the past years, I've met 100s of people who have healed themselves from chronic or life threatening conditions through water and juice fasting alone. In the literature dedicated to natural health and healing there are thousands of similar stories.

But I recommend that you don't wait until you have a health crisis to begin fasting.

Instead you can make fasting a regular practice. A great maintenance program is to fast one day per week'this gives the body 50 rejuvenating days per year. Pick a day that suits you and start just for one week. I recommend drinking only water with lemon juice or vegetable juices during your fast.

If you begin the fast with your evening meal, fast the next day and then break the fast on the following morning you will have fasted for about 36 hours. This will give you body a much needed break from digesting food and will lead to increased health and vitality.

Break your fast with a light meal'perhaps a superfood smoothie or some fresh organic fruit.

I make my personal fasting days a complete fast from all consumption'on those days, I don't read, watch t.v., surf the internet, or buy anything.

Fasting is fantastic. But for any of us who have eaten a diet containing fried foods, meat products, dairy and breads (that's about all of us, I guess), fasting alone may not be enough to create and maintain radiant health. That's because these foods leave a rubbery-like coating in our digestive tracts called mucoid plaque. This dense plaque lodges on the walls of our intestines and prevents them from absorbing the nutrients in the foods we eat. Given enough time it can lead to chronic digestive problems, acidosis, constipation, diverticulitis, and even colon cancer.

Fasting either on juice or water does little to remove this plaque because it doesn't reach the innermost layers, where the plaque attaches to the intestinal walls.

That's why completing a high quality herbal internal cleanse is an important companion to fasting. A good cleanse supports the body to release this plaque through herbs that soften and break it up.

Combining an strong intestinal cleanse with a clean out of all major elimination organs is a great first step in anyone's radiant health program. A weak and congested liver, gallbladder, or kidneys can cause toxic and putrid waste to be absorbed into the rest of our system. If these organs are not working well the body dumps excess toxins into the blood in a last effort to purge them from the system. This can clog the heart, the lungs and the sinuses and lead to a chronic 'toxification' of the body.

On the other hand, when all elimination organs are working well, most people experience increased mental clarity, physical fitness, clearer vision, smooth digestion, radiant skin and more.

In my opinion the benefits far outweigh the costs. I've personally benefited greatly from internal organ cleansing and have recommended it to many people. One of them has given an inspirational summary of his experience that characterizes what is possible with a good internal cleanse.

'I see things coming out that look like from another planet and I can simply not believe that I have been hosting this stuff for so long, 52 years!

The cleanse has been of all the incredible things I have done in my life, one of the land mark changes in my life concerning food and the way I have been living up till now. It's part of a process of letting go of the past and being refreshed to the new, because internally and very physically I feel absolutely new.

I lost 13 kilos and am eating much cleaner than I have ever done before. When I look at bread for example, I know that it will create more plaque in my intestinal tract. The old lifestyle and old attitudes I have had about myself I see are very related to food. Everything is connected. Once the intestine is cleansed a new beginning can unfold.

And still after 50 days the plaque has not ceased to be released. It looks like I will do another 10 days! I will keep going with this fasting/cleansing until all is released.'

Visit my website to see which cleanse he completed.

At first fasting and cleansing can seem threatening or like a lot of work. I don't want to mislead you here'it does require discipline and some courage. But soon afterwards internal health simply becomes a priority. It might mean you stop going to certain restaurants, change your supermarket, drive farther for fresh organic produce, etc., but from there it only gets easier. Living in radiant health simply becomes your lifestyle.