Is there any truth to the statement ‘by the time the average North American male dies, he will have 10 lbs of undigested meat in his colon’? Is there a good basis for ‘fasting’ to ‘clean out’? I have been wondering this past week if eating 3 different protein sources(Fish, Chicken, beef) daily, for years, is best for the digestive system.
Hey, there, mowgli!
As alternatively minded as I am, I hate broad, sweeping, absolute statements like that. It all depends on your diet. If you’ve been eating high-fiber veggies along with the protein all of us BB types are famous for, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
If you tend to eat processed food, lots of meat and dairy (which is mucous forming) and very little in the way of green veggies, ala low-carb/Atkins, some thought/attention to this area of your health might be a good idea.
Seasonal fasting probably has some health benefits, even if it works against your body comp goals to some degree. It’s definitely a personal decision. You owe it to yourself to do some more study and research on the topic. There are a ton of books on fasting, juice fasting, cleansing, etc. From there it boils down to your priorities.
As an absolute minimum, I think most of the population would benefit by increasing green veggie carb intake or adding something like Sugar-free Metamucil to their diet/regimen.
While we are on this topic, TT, what are your thoughts on a liver and gall bladder cleanse? Also, does taking a metamucil type drink, effect absorbtion of supplements?
[quote]mowgli1959 wrote:
Is there any truth to the statement ‘by the time the average North American male dies, he will have 10 lbs of undigested meat in his colon’? Is there a good basis for ‘fasting’ to ‘clean out’? I have been wondering this past week if eating 3 different protein sources(Fish, Chicken, beef) daily, for years, is best for the digestive system.[/quote]
I typically see that statement, or some variation thereof coming from sickly looking vegans or crazy New Age hippies that want to give me a patchouli enema. Therefore, I’m pretty inclined to think its garbage.
We could examine a few of the scientific basics here–for one, what, did these men have a total annihilation of their microbial gut flora? Ten pounds of putrefying meat is ideal bacteria food. Combine with the healthy dosage of sugars that most Americans get and a nice, moist 37 degree incubator that is your intestine and, well, that ten pounds is not going to last very long. This, of course, assumes your own body cannot digest the meat–which, I cannot fathom why it wouldn’t be able to in the first place. I mean look at the Inuit–all they ever eat is seal meat, seal blubber and whale meat and blubber. Forget the fiber. And I cannot fathom them running around with an extra ten pounds of dead weight in their intestines. The thing is that the ten pounds makes a difference, at least on evolutionary timescales. The guy who couldn’t digest that meat was either going to wind up the dinner of some other mammal or wasn’t going to be able to run fast enough to catch his next meal because he’s hauling a small animal in his gut undigested.
Then there is the business of where this extra ten pounds resides. Yeah, your intestines are really, really long. Fine. But ten pounds of meat is, well, about 10 decent sized steaks worth of meat packed into a tube. Putrified, rotting meat, partially liquified–well, basically we’re talking about having ten undigested bratwurst permanently encased inside of you. You’d kind of notice that. See, with that sort of blockage you’re never going to take a dump. Everything is going to back up–the plumbing won’t work. And sure, that is what the freaks with the enema bags want you to believe so they can pump your ass full of liquid. But, the fact is, if you had that much blockage, you’d be turning green and admitted to the ER long before someone can pump you full of floral smelling cleansing fluid.
I think the people saying this are full of ten pounds of BS.
gigon, yes, definitely separate your supplements and fiber. I take my vitamins, EFAs and supps at 6:00am, noon, 6:00pm and midnight. If I take fiber, I’ll take it at 9:00am, 3:00pm and/or 9:00pm.
If I had gallstones, I would aggressively take advantage of gall bladder/liver flushes/cleanses. If I had health issues, took pharmaceutical drugs that affected liver function and or anabolics, once again, same thing.
I think the liver is vitally, critically important to health, considering all the many tasks for which it is responsible. Once again, if you have health issues, it definitely bears further research.
i believe that fasting on a low protein diet will downregulate protein enzymes, making it that much better for you when you return to the high protein diet. Ideally you would want to go on a maintenance calorie diet consisting of clean carbs and fats using a non catabolic routine because of the low levels of protein. realize that protein will still be in the diet, just not from the meat sources. sadly i have never followed this pattern even though i’m supposed to fast several times a year due to religios reasons.
My brother did a liver cleanse and it lowered his liver enzymes back to baseline. The only thing modern medicine does is to prescribe drugs or surgery. the natural way is never used. his doctor had no idea why his enzymes went back to normal. High fat diets put a stress on the liver. later pk
I fast once per day for eight to nine hours> It’s called sleeping!
Don’t listen to the over the top crowd who tell you that you have 4000 pounds of undigested meat in your colon.
Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, chicken, red meat, and all the other foods that God meant for you to consume. By the way Twinkies are not food! Sleep restfully for eight hours (that is your fasting time). Get up in the morning and do it all again…End of story.
Oh and don’t forget to train hard.
Take care,
Zeb
[quote]pkradgreek wrote:
My brother did a liver cleanse and it lowered his liver enzymes back to baseline. The only thing modern medicine does is to prescribe drugs or surgery. the natural way is never used. his doctor had no idea why his enzymes went back to normal. High fat diets put a stress on the liver. later pk[/quote]
What liver cleanse did your brother do? Was it the one where you drink a ton of lemon juice and olive oil before bed?
I was diagnosed with gallstones in January, and considered doing a cleanse, but they all sounded too hippy/new-agey for me. I was also put off by the claims that people were passing hundreds of liver/gall stones, it sounded like the 10lbs. of undigested meat, like it was just impossible for that much crap to fit in the body to begin with.
I’ve had pretty good luck tightening down the diet and supps. Added lots of stuff that helps the liver (E, choline/inositol, ALA, milk thistle, liv.52, taurine) and tightened my diet up all around, especially got on the ball with EFAs and got more greens in. Also got really serious about elimitating trans-fat.
I’ve been asymptomatic for months and when I had my bloodwork redone after 3 months my enzyme levels went from highly elevated to almost normal. The doc looked pretty surprised… Not perfect yet, but I’ve improved my diet and sups since. When I got the diagnosis they recommended surgery (and this wasn’t something that was debilitating, it was some abdominal pain at intervals of several weeks to months). I’m not sure they really believe in health when it comes down to it. But then, I’m probably the only patient they’ve had who has the will to make serious lifestyle changes.
Nick
if you wanna read into the biggest adversaries of this stuff then get books by Norman Walker, Paul and Patricia Bragg, Bernard Jensen, Richard Schulze, and go to herbdoc.com.
Walker died at 116. Paul Bragg at 95 from a swimming accident, but he looked 50ish. Patricia Bragg is probably 85 right now and she looks 50ish. Schulze says he cured himself of heart disease which both parents died from and md’s told him he would die from by 19. he’s in his 40’s now.
Walker has a book called Colon Health.
i mean advocates
As for the 10 lb claim… Total crap (okay, that WAS an intentional pun). The soft muscle of the colon would move it through, even if it WAS undigested. But if you’re dead-set on doing a cleanse, try going through a coloscopy prep. Gets the job done rather quickly…
Did you just watch Beverly Hills cop 2, mowgli? 
Anyway, I second ZEB and others who have said it is bunk, because it is. The only ways you would have so much undigested food in your bowel is if you just ate it a few hours ago, or if you have a blockage of some kind, extreme diverticulitis or embolism, etc. The point here is if you had problems digesting, you would have symptoms. I’m talking not taking a dump for a week and whatnot. “Cleansing your colon” has little in the way of health benefit, and seems to be mildly homoerotic.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
i think colon cleansing is really getting knocked unfairly here by people that have never tried it. let me tell you about my experiences. i am 27 years old, and i have had severe seasonal hay fever for the last 15 years. it had gotten so bad that i could take 3 claritins in one day and it wouldn’t even put a dent in my allergies (during summer).
so i read up on Stanley Burroughs version of colon cleansing called “The Master Cleanse” or the Lemonade Cleanse as some call it.
i went on it for 10 days and guess what? allergies completely disappeared. figure that one out. warning: the following info is not for the faint of heart… let me tell you, strange things are coming out of you DAYS after not eating any solid food. i don’t want to get graphic but look up “mucoid plaque” on the net for more info… it ain’t just an urban myth folks.
so anyways, after this lemonade cleanse i started hanging out with a bad seed, i.e. a friend that forcibly fed me fast food (i was desperately trying to gain weight for an indie film i was starring in so i was game). about a year after eating stuff i knew i wasn’t supposed to be eating the toxins or whatever you want to call them had filled up again in my colon and elsewhere and my allergies started creeping back up on me.
so i want on a 7 day cleanse of lemonade and bammo, bye bye allergies… i am eating clean now so they have shown no signs of returning.
in between these two cleanses i did a 17 day cleanse of nothing but fresh juices. that’s right folks, no eating for 17 days. yes bad for the body comp and i doubt i would do one that long again. incidentally it does wonders for fresh breath months after cleansing.
sorry for the long post but to sum up, it works. more noticeable for those with an ailment such as allergies although all can benefit from it (think better absorbed protein, nutrients, etc). and yes, you will lose muscle. the way i see it, if i live longer and more vibrantly, i can workout longer and better and receive more benefit from the foods i eat. and also, let me tell you, unceasing allergy sneezing attacks wreak havoc on your body as far as stress goes so it creates a horrible atmosphere for muscle growth.
to each his own.
by the way, i found the strict lemonade cleanse to have more benefit (as far as my allergies goes) then an assorted fresh juice cleanse. for more info on the lemonade cleanse, the full book is here:
Thank you all for your time. I did almost call it the ‘urban legend regarding undigested meat’, cause I was pretty sure it was bogus. Thank you for the the alternate viewpoints. It was nice to hear from you, Ms. Tampa. My diet is quite restrictive. It is hard at times to ensure getting enuff ‘greens’.
And Zeb/Incubator, I agree with you both as well. My concern was merely that there appears to be increasing incidence of colon cancer, is there a connection? Btw, Twinkies are nasty, Jos Louis’ rule… 
ProjectX… the lemonade fast sounds interesting. TY for the link, it was informative. And best of luck with the indie production. I hope it was a success for you.
the liver flush my brother did was with epsom salts, lemon juice and olive oil. some people say that the stones that come out during the flush are the actual salt and oil combined that you ingested. i think that if that was the case then your body is not properly digesting the oils or that statement is bogus because olive oil at 98’F is a liquid, not a solid. makes you wonder. (by the way i never read that, i just thought about it myself, if anyone can find a valid way to refute please do so so i can learn the proper way to analyze this particular situation.)
concerning the colon, i read that there is a duct that connets it to the liver inorder to detoxify substances in there. if this is truly the case then making sure the colon is running smoothly would work wonders for the liver as well. this is the reason that a lot of the liver flushes reccomend doing colon cleanses before the liver flush. also you need to fast for 3 days eating apples or some high fiber fruit to clean out the intestines as well as to build up the bile in the liver with the low fat diet.
laters pk
go to the store and pick up 10 pounds of meat. Imagine this being in your colon… no fvckin way!
Eat healthy and live healthy, and you’ll improve your chance of being healthy!
I have, in the past, tried fasting and other ‘cleansing’ programs to improve my health. I too experienced relief from allergies, and improvement in other health conditions. However, I no longer believe that the fasting, or the lemon drinks, or the enemas, were responsible for the improvements.
Why? Think about what people are NOT eating when they’re fasting or otherwise cleansing! It could well be that NOT eating refined, processed junk food, particularly the heated/refined/altered unhealthy fats, is what brings about the benefit. In fact, just like the allergy sufferer above, I was eating junk before I fasted. Any sort of change would have been an improvement.
I have gotten equally good health improvements by eliminating junk IN FAVOR OF “clean,” healthy food. What’s good about fasting is that it gets you to eliminate the bad stuff. It’s even better when you add good, healthy nutrition. No need weaken your body by fasting. No need to use any enemas.
Fasting/cleansing does have big disadvantages. You are starving the body of needed nutrients. Also, the digestive process operates with biological rhythms that get interrupted by fasting. Most people can avoid these disadvantages of fasting/cleansing, and still get all the benefits, by eating good food while eliminating junk.
people seem to be misinterpreting what the word FASTING means. Fasting is not starving! Fasting is not staying away from protein! Realize that only until recently in the industrialized world was meat a wide staple of diets. I’m not saying that it was non existant, just that it was not as prevelant and the well off were able to have it frequently. Would you rather kill your cow or have it make milk and calfs if you were poor? And if you think that 8 hours of no food in your mouth gives your intestines a break just because your blood sugar levels drop then you are mistaken. laters pk
[quote]mowgli1959 wrote:
Is there any truth to the statement ‘by the time the average North American male dies, he will have 10 lbs of undigested meat in his colon’?[/quote]
It’s based in a small little tiny kernel of truth. Most people have up to ten pounds of digested food and fecal matter in their intestinal tract on the average day. So it’s pretty likely that you’ll be in the same situation when you die.
Now, since your colon is part of your intestinal tract, and there could be as much as ten pounds without being noteworthy, and this digested food and fecal matter contains a certain amount of undigested meat – it only takes a LITTLE twisting to say there’s going to be ten pounds of undigested meat in your colon when you die.
But it still takes twisting. You can make all the excuses you want about how it doesn’t really take all that much twisting, twisted is still twisted and it’s not really the truth.