Fasting

As a gym instructor and nutritionist, i totally endorse fasting under supervision. There is a thin line between fasting and starvation. Starvation leads to atrophy n wasting but fasting has been shown to induce autophagy, a process by which cells "clean up" cellular "garbage". Autophagy protects cells from excessive oxidative stress. Autophagy prevents cancerous growths, metabolic dysfunctions like obesity and diabetes. The three ways to Autophagy is fasting, low carb and exercise. Regarding the film, there was no need to show the Donner party. Starvation leads to low potassium thereby causing psychosis, whereas fasting prevents dementia. In fact, more emphasis shud have been on autophagy. More talks shud have been on the difference between starvation n fasting. Also important is that after fasting n weight loss regime one shud never forget to excrete the toxins with the use of high fiber foods.

The information was presented in a way to give the viewer dual sides of the story, without taking sides. I love the way the true stories of real people were juxtaposed against the scientific pros and cons of fasting. The filmmakers chose to present this information in a different way -- much better than a "fly on the wall" perspective. I prefer this over just running around with a camera filming folks. Viewers have a chance to hear actual issues, remedies, results and problems.

I didn't find the information confusing at all. In fact, I stopped halfway through and came back 1 hour later and picked right up where I left off. Also, the film is not a plug or advertisement for any fasting product or service. They quiet often remark how fasting is the the most free form of weightloss you can ever attempt.

After watching this documentary i immediately started my own fast. I lost 8 pounds (3.63 kilos) my first week.

Some of the "patient" contributors were a little out there like the lady on the documentary cover. So if you have an out there person their results or experience will also be Out there. These decisions need research, comparison & Logic :(

Fasting for healing is a great subject to tackle, it's too bad it was done so poorly in this documentary. The editing is extermely confusing, especially in the beginning, the message is often unclear (they talk about how fasting is dangerous for those with eating disorder but then a guy with an eating disorder says how much it helped him?). There are many people walking in slow motion for some reason, doing things that are not really related to the movie or what is being talked about. The main issue of this movie is simply bad editing. I was barly able to finish it and I only did because the topic is interesting to me.

While I'm quite familiar with the works of Drs. Longo and Panda -- very legit and well-respected scientists -- the journalism involved in this documentary was far from balanced.