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Can Fasting Save Your Life?
Discover how more than 25,000 patients who underwent water-only fasting at TrueNorth Health Center experienced results that were nothing short of phenomonal. Detailed explanations are presented about the different types of intermittent and prolonged fasts available along with how water-only fasting reverses metabolic disorders, hypertension, and obesity. Also addressed is the connection between eating highly processed foods and visceral fat to chronic disease and the importance of improving diet and lifestyle choices in order to maintain the benefits gained from fasting. Meticulously researched, this book shines a light on this amazing natural and successful approach to restoring and maintaining health.
184 pages, Hardcover
Published June 25, 2024
171 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 30, 2024
I’ve been learning from Dr Goldhamer for years, I’m so glad he finally wrote a book! This book is wealth of knowledge and a must read for everyone! ❤️🩹🙏🏻
January 13, 2025
This book is an incredibly useful and well-written resource, but for my personal needs, it had too much information I didn't find relevant at this time. The text is heavy with medical jargon, which might be a challenge for readers without a background in the field.
Interestingly, the information I was looking for—the reason I picked up the book—was tucked away in just a few pages at the very end. Nearly half of the book are references, glossary, index etc.
One of the highlights for me was the inclusion of real patient examples at the end of each chapter. These case studies brought the concepts to life and made the dense content more relatable.
I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to explore the effects of fasting on various diseases in depth. However, for someone seeking a quick overview or practical guidance, it might not be the most suitable choice.
Interestingly, the information I was looking for—the reason I picked up the book—was tucked away in just a few pages at the very end. Nearly half of the book are references, glossary, index etc.
One of the highlights for me was the inclusion of real patient examples at the end of each chapter. These case studies brought the concepts to life and made the dense content more relatable.
I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to explore the effects of fasting on various diseases in depth. However, for someone seeking a quick overview or practical guidance, it might not be the most suitable choice.
September 7, 2025
I do intermittent fasting, raw juice fasting, definitely feel the benefits , lighter spirit, sharper mind, more energy, but never dared to do 7 days water only fasting … to risky I thought … now it is definitely on my list of priorities! Just need to find trained Medical Doctor to monitor my fasting and refeeding periods…
August 3, 2024
An in-depth and well cited book that describes the science behind water only fasting. There are also case studies based on the forty years work of Dr. Alan Goldhamer at the TrueNorth Health Center. The most well researched and comprehensive look at inpatient extended fasting to date. Well worth reading.
January 21, 2026
Incredible book. Honestly I think this book is a must-read for just about anyone.
Fasting can save your life, but the amount of misinformation that you will find about it on the internet is absolutely mind-boggling. This book clears the air, showing us that long-term adherence to a whole-food plant-based diet free of added sugar, oil or salt should be the end goal for any fasting patient who hopes to avoid the leading causes of chronic disease and death, not the stereotypical keto/carnivore nonsense that is regurgitated all over the internet as if it were gospel.
It also makes it clear that fasting patients do not need to consume anything but the purest water possible during the fast, and that no salt or supplements of any kind are necessary or desirable, as the body of a healthy individual will have all the necessary resources for a prolonged fast, often including those lasting as long as 40 days (although rare cases do exist in recorded history of very overweight individuals fasting for nearly 300 days with largely positive health effects).
The authors of this book bring the experience of having accompanied over 20,000 patients over 40 years at the True North Health Center. Their data show that when fasting, the body selectively targets visceral fat, the harmful fat that leads to so many chronic diseases (not the least of which is cardiovascular disease) and binds to harmful toxins such as PCBs, dioxin and pesticides, over other adipose tissue, when choosing what to burn for energy, at a ratio of 3-to-1. They also present their finding that visceral fat continues to be oxidized after the re-feeding period and total lean mass returns to baseline at follow-up, meaning that fasting has little to no impact on muscle tissue when done according to their guidelines, which is, in my opinion, a GROUNDBREAKING piece of data.
The data they present in this book cannot be found in any other source, as it comes directly from their Center in Santa Rosa, California, which is one of the only water-only fasting treatment centers left in the world, in addition to being the largest.
Drs. Goldhamer and Myers lay down the protocols for anyone who is interested in learning how water-only fasting works and how it can most effectively be carried out to minimize potential risks, such as their re-feeding plan, and their recommendation to eat only raw fruits and vegetables in the two days leading up to the fast.
I just completed the fifth and final day of my first prolonged water-only fasting where I mostly adhered to the guidelines laid out in this book, and it went wonderfully. I will definitely be doing this again, and I am sure next time, as I commit to their principles more intently, the results will be even better.
As Dr. Goldhamer always points out, fasting is not a CURE, because cures simply do not exist for diseases that are caused by lifestyle issues. All the same, fasting is the only scientifically-proven rapid and effective way to reset your physiology and prepare for a new lifestyle of healthful living. Even for the most picky eaters who cannot stand eating their vegetables, fasting will make healthy food taste amazing, and in a very short period of time. Whether you maintain your new health status after the fast is completely up to you.
Fasting can save your life, but the amount of misinformation that you will find about it on the internet is absolutely mind-boggling. This book clears the air, showing us that long-term adherence to a whole-food plant-based diet free of added sugar, oil or salt should be the end goal for any fasting patient who hopes to avoid the leading causes of chronic disease and death, not the stereotypical keto/carnivore nonsense that is regurgitated all over the internet as if it were gospel.
It also makes it clear that fasting patients do not need to consume anything but the purest water possible during the fast, and that no salt or supplements of any kind are necessary or desirable, as the body of a healthy individual will have all the necessary resources for a prolonged fast, often including those lasting as long as 40 days (although rare cases do exist in recorded history of very overweight individuals fasting for nearly 300 days with largely positive health effects).
The authors of this book bring the experience of having accompanied over 20,000 patients over 40 years at the True North Health Center. Their data show that when fasting, the body selectively targets visceral fat, the harmful fat that leads to so many chronic diseases (not the least of which is cardiovascular disease) and binds to harmful toxins such as PCBs, dioxin and pesticides, over other adipose tissue, when choosing what to burn for energy, at a ratio of 3-to-1. They also present their finding that visceral fat continues to be oxidized after the re-feeding period and total lean mass returns to baseline at follow-up, meaning that fasting has little to no impact on muscle tissue when done according to their guidelines, which is, in my opinion, a GROUNDBREAKING piece of data.
The data they present in this book cannot be found in any other source, as it comes directly from their Center in Santa Rosa, California, which is one of the only water-only fasting treatment centers left in the world, in addition to being the largest.
Drs. Goldhamer and Myers lay down the protocols for anyone who is interested in learning how water-only fasting works and how it can most effectively be carried out to minimize potential risks, such as their re-feeding plan, and their recommendation to eat only raw fruits and vegetables in the two days leading up to the fast.
I just completed the fifth and final day of my first prolonged water-only fasting where I mostly adhered to the guidelines laid out in this book, and it went wonderfully. I will definitely be doing this again, and I am sure next time, as I commit to their principles more intently, the results will be even better.
As Dr. Goldhamer always points out, fasting is not a CURE, because cures simply do not exist for diseases that are caused by lifestyle issues. All the same, fasting is the only scientifically-proven rapid and effective way to reset your physiology and prepare for a new lifestyle of healthful living. Even for the most picky eaters who cannot stand eating their vegetables, fasting will make healthy food taste amazing, and in a very short period of time. Whether you maintain your new health status after the fast is completely up to you.
January 15, 2026
I'm currently doing intermittent fasting, so I thought this book on longer fasts would be an interesting read. It started off well enough, talking about the history of fasting in different cultures and how well humans had adapted to periods of fasting. There was also a nod to different types of fasting, including intermittent fasting.
I started to get a little concerned about the number of times I was hearing "True North". Large portions of this book were little more than adverts for the author's "True North Health Centre" or talking about "research" conducted by the "True North Foundation". I was also worried by the fact that the authors claim that proper peer-reviewed research is impossible, given the nature of their work. Indeed the book is light on statistics and heavy on case studies and anecdotal evidence.
When more details about their methodology was revealed, if left me wondering if the fasting did any good at all. The "refeeding" protocol seemed to be a very strict vegan diet with no added salts, oils or sugars (their "SOS diet"). They also avoid processed food, which seems sensible. They talked about how patients continued to lose weight and improve their health for months after the fast if they kept to the diet. Well, no wonder! If I could stick to a diet like that I'm in no doubt I would be losing weight. There was never a control group involved who did the diet but not the fasting. The fact that such a diet is either going to be very difficult to stick to or require you to spend an inordinate of time on food preparation is never mentioned.
The things I liked about this book were that it pointed out that processed food is bad and we are being overprescribed drugs when there are other, perhaps cheaper, ways to stay healthy. Unfortunately, those parts were written as opinion with little research to back it up. There is not enough here for me to be able to recommend this as a useful read to anybody who wants to be healthier. You can cut down on processed food and eat more vegetables to get most of the benefits and you should talk to your doctor (as the book itself recommends) if you want to start any kind of fasting regime. Don't bother with this book.
I started to get a little concerned about the number of times I was hearing "True North". Large portions of this book were little more than adverts for the author's "True North Health Centre" or talking about "research" conducted by the "True North Foundation". I was also worried by the fact that the authors claim that proper peer-reviewed research is impossible, given the nature of their work. Indeed the book is light on statistics and heavy on case studies and anecdotal evidence.
When more details about their methodology was revealed, if left me wondering if the fasting did any good at all. The "refeeding" protocol seemed to be a very strict vegan diet with no added salts, oils or sugars (their "SOS diet"). They also avoid processed food, which seems sensible. They talked about how patients continued to lose weight and improve their health for months after the fast if they kept to the diet. Well, no wonder! If I could stick to a diet like that I'm in no doubt I would be losing weight. There was never a control group involved who did the diet but not the fasting. The fact that such a diet is either going to be very difficult to stick to or require you to spend an inordinate of time on food preparation is never mentioned.
The things I liked about this book were that it pointed out that processed food is bad and we are being overprescribed drugs when there are other, perhaps cheaper, ways to stay healthy. Unfortunately, those parts were written as opinion with little research to back it up. There is not enough here for me to be able to recommend this as a useful read to anybody who wants to be healthier. You can cut down on processed food and eat more vegetables to get most of the benefits and you should talk to your doctor (as the book itself recommends) if you want to start any kind of fasting regime. Don't bother with this book.
March 16, 2026
I Love Intermittent Fasting. Been doing it off/on for years and now more into it as I get older, as it helps with Pre/Menopause. I've tried all day (24 hour fasting before, but feel I get migraines, even when I drink a lot of water, so for now I'll just stick to my Intermittent Fasting. 14:10 or 16:8 .. I do Intermittent Fasting for weight loss, improving Acid Reflux, maintaining sugar levels, gutt health (reducing inflammation) and better sleep. I learned from this book more medical stuff with water only Fasting for days, maybe I'd try again when I'm older and retired/not as active. * Crazy how skin diseases and other diseases heal from long periods of water only fasting
December 7, 2025
acercamiento al ayuno
Información suficiente para tomar decisiones muy importante si haces ayuno.
Contiene descripción de algunos casos donde se ha encontrado beneficio directo aparte del tema de sobrepeso. Cosas de microbiota entre otras cosas
Reitero si haces ayuno o quieres iniciar es buen punto de partida a
Información suficiente para tomar decisiones muy importante si haces ayuno.
Contiene descripción de algunos casos donde se ha encontrado beneficio directo aparte del tema de sobrepeso. Cosas de microbiota entre otras cosas
Reitero si haces ayuno o quieres iniciar es buen punto de partida a
September 21, 2025
Great book!!!
I am going to be recommending this book to my precious sister, two friends and several work mates. Excited to incorporate many of the suggestions. Thanks for the hard work!!•
I am going to be recommending this book to my precious sister, two friends and several work mates. Excited to incorporate many of the suggestions. Thanks for the hard work!!•
July 29, 2024
Si vous n'avez pas leur de la vérité... True eye opener
The plain truth, easy to read and understand. Il faut parfois ramer à contre courant pour aller dans la bonne direction.
The plain truth, easy to read and understand. Il faut parfois ramer à contre courant pour aller dans la bonne direction.
October 17, 2024
Good content but a bit of a slog
September 29, 2025
Excellent Read
The book is very detailed about what you can get from water-fasting. It helps you to understand how save it is to use it toward health.
The book is very detailed about what you can get from water-fasting. It helps you to understand how save it is to use it toward health.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews