Welcome to the Waterfasting.org article library by Dr Tallis Barker.
Here you’ll find expert resources on water fasting, healing protocols, case studies, recipes, spiritual reflections, and coaching advice. Whether you’re planning a short 3-day fast or a 40-day deep healing experience, these articles guide you step by step.
- How to break any water fast and manage refeeding (86-pages)
- BENEFITS OF WATER FASTING
- CHOOSING THE RIGHT FAST
- CASE REPORTS AND LONG-TERM FASTS
- BREAKING YOUR FAST: RECIPES AND TIPS
- CLIENT EXPERIENCES AND TESTIMONIALS
- HEALTH, FITNESS & IMMUNITY
- FASTING FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH
- OTHER FASTING METHODS (Dry Fasts, Juice, Intermittent)
- MISCELLANEOUS
- THE FASTING MIND PODCAST
BENEFITS OF WATER FASTING:
- Cleansing and detox: how water fasting works and why it benefits you
If you’re really serious about cleansing, the most powerful method is and always has been water fasting. Why? Because only through sustaining a zero caloric intake can you fully unlock the body’s healing metabolism. This takes place in two steps… - Overcoming addictions through water fasting
Water fasting is an extremely powerful tool to help overcome addictions caused by smoking, drinking and drugs in general, as well as any food addictions, such as those caused by sugar, salt, caffeine, chocolate and flavour enhancers. Unfortunately, the list is almost endless. On a physical level, addictive substances cause changes to your biochemistry… - A stronger immune system with water fasting
If you suffer from a weak immune system, water fasting is one of the best things you can do to strengthen it. Similarly, water fasting is one of the oldest and most effective methods to regain health if your immune system is facing an infection such the flu… - Self-healing through water fasting: more powerful than any pill
I became a convert to water fasting after experiencing firsthand the miraculous self-healing powers of the body. It happened many years ago on the last day of my first 7-day fast. For about a decade I had suffered from debilitating…
CHOOSING THE RIGHT FAST:
36 hours
water fast
3 days
water fast
7-10 days
water fast
14-40 days
extended healing fast
ONLINE COURSE
Complete a 3-day water fast
This video + pdf bundle provides you with all you need to know in order to safely, successfully and smoothly carry out your first 3-day water fast. If you already have a little experience, there are plenty of additional tips to help you go deeper into water fasting.
CASE REPORTS AND LONG-TERM FASTS:
- Healing SIBO (gut dysbiosis) with water fasting
This case report follows 3 people through extended water fasts as they heal from SIBO and gut dysbiosis, illustrating the factors which… - Healing from Long Covid with water fasting
This article presents two case reports documenting how an extended water fast can heal Long Covid (post-acute Covid-19 syndrome). Since late 2020, I have been approached by… - Healing ovarian cysts with water fasting
This case study documents a 21-day water fast to successfully heal ovarian cysts. Water fasts can also facilitate the healing of PCOM, PCOS and uterine fibroids.
BREAKING YOUR FAST: RECIPES AND TIPS:
- Comforting kitchari stew with cauliflower
This stew provides a comforting and delicious way to break fasts of up to 3 days. After longer fasts, it is perfect for reintroducing grains and legumes. Consisting of primarily mung beans and rice… - Summer smoothie to break a fast
A week ago I used this smoothie to break my 5 day dry fast with 2 day water fast introduction. Normally I prefer to break my fasts with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, but unfortunately orange season has long since past by this… Read more: Summer smoothie to break a fast - Pure and perfect tomato soup to break a fast
This recipe is always a favourite at the end of a fast: warming, comforting and nutritionally perfect, packed with a wide variety of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants (such as lycopene, beta-carotene, potassium, Vitamins C and K). It’s so well loved that I found myself with… Read more: Pure and perfect tomato soup to break a fast - Tasty, tangy sauerkraut soup
This is a tasty, tangy soup I enjoy especially after winter fasts – including the 7-day water fast I just finished yesterday. Before global trade overpowered local economies and foods, winter was always the time to eat preserved vegetables such as sauerkraut – especially in… Read more: Tasty, tangy sauerkraut soup - Go-to green smoothie recipe to break a fast
After any fast of more than a day or so, it’s important how you re-introduce food back into your diet. Oranges are a great way to break any fast, as the citrus content helps to provide a final element of detox as well as to… Read more: Go-to green smoothie recipe to break a fast
CLIENT EXPERIENCES AND TESTIMONIALS:
HEALTH, FITNESS & IMMUNITY:
- Healing from Long Covid with water fastingThis article presents two case reports documenting how an extended water fast can heal Long Covid (post-acute Covid-19 syndrome). Since late 2020, I have been approached by…
- Fasting against coronavirus (Covid-19): how to boost immunity and maximize health
For water fasting to heal Long Covid, please click on the link below for my more recent article:Healing from Long Covid with water fasting Written at the start of the pandemic, the extended article below argues that the best thing you can do to strengthen… Read more: Fasting against coronavirus (Covid-19): how to boost immunity and maximize health - Diets, fasts and healing injuries for runners
When most people think of diets or fasting, they usually have weight loss in mind. Even at the best of times this is a dubious practice. Changing the way you eat by reducing calories usually results in the body conserving energy and using calories more… Read more: Diets, fasts and healing injuries for runners - Pills, powders and potions: the reality of taking supplements while fasting
One question which persistently recurs on waterfasting.org is whether or not you should take supplements while water fasting. The majority of people want to know about vitamin supplements and, occasionally, even protein supplements. In this article I’ll deal with both, as well as other kinds… Read more: Pills, powders and potions: the reality of taking supplements while fasting - Fasting as a healing modality to treat cancer
This video features an interview with Dr. Valter Longo, who is one of the world’s leading researchers in the use of fasting as a healing modality to treat cancer. Although the preventative effects of fasting have been well known in relation to a number of… Read more: Fasting as a healing modality to treat cancer - Fasting as a means to improve athletic performance in endurance sports
I’m sitting down to write this having had breakfast for the first time in a week… Lately, I’ve been practising “intermittent fasting”, which revolves around lengthening the time between your last meal in the evening and your first meal the following day. It’s one of… Read more: Fasting as a means to improve athletic performance in endurance sports
Check out the webshop on waterfasting.org
The webshop offers downloadable fasting plans and guides to help make your water fast a success.
FASTING FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH:
- Physical and spiritual cleansing: from fear to love
Does the thought of water fasting frighten you? It’s completely natural to feel fear before and even during your first few water fasts. After all, unlike our ancestors, you’ve probably never gone without food for more than a few hours, let alone a few days. … Read more: Physical and spiritual cleansing: from fear to love - Facing your ego through water fasting
As important as any physical cleansing, water fasting also challenges you with emotional and spiritual blocks, bringing you face to face with your ego and fears. In a way, your journey through water fasting mirrors the entire spiritual path: both within each fast, as well… Read more: Facing your ego through water fasting - Deeper states of consciousness while fasting
One of my favourite things to ‘do’ while water fasting is to find a spot in nature and simply sit, doing nothing, just being, staring out into the environment, remaining present and aware. Quickly, I become one with myself and the world around me. Time… Read more: Deeper states of consciousness while fasting - Who am I?
Many spiritual traditions encourage you to ask the question: ‘Who am I?’ Perhaps most famously, Ramana Maharshi taught that this is all you need to do in order to experience your true self and enlightenment. Just keep asking yourself, honestly, from the depths of your… Read more: Who am I? - Spiritual fasting in Lent (or any other time)
25th February, 2020Tomorrow marks the beginning of what for many people is the most important time of the year in terms of spiritual fasting. For Christians, Lent constitutes the 40-day period prior to Easter, serving as a reminder of both Jesus’ 40-day fast in the… Read more: Spiritual fasting in Lent (or any other time)
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OTHER FASTING METHODS (Dry Fasts, Juice, Intermittent):
- Dry fast coaching
I now offer dry fast coaching (as well as water fast coaching). Quite simply, dry fasting is the most powerful form of cleansing and healing that exists… - Dry fasting: fact and fiction
The biggest hurdle to understanding dry fasting comes from the completely logical idea that if you’re not drinking, how can you flush out toxins? In fact… - Juice fasting
If you don’t feel ready to try out water fasting, then juice fasting is a great place to start. Otherwise known as a “juice diet”, it involves the elimination of solid food from your daily consumption. In other words, instead of eating and drinking, you… Read more: Juice fasting - Shankaprakshalana: intestinal wash as preparation
What on earth does an intestinal wash have to do with water fasting?In one sense, nothing. But… after you get over the shock of it :-), there are certainly good reasons to contemplate such a cleanse before undertaking a water fast, especially in the case… Read more: Shankaprakshalana: intestinal wash as preparation - Intermittent fasting
If a one-day water fast feels too frightening, beyond reach, that’s totally okay. Today in the modern world many people feel the same. Rather than pushing yourself into something you’re not ready for, intermittent fasting is a less extreme, more easily achievable goal – and… Read more: Intermittent fasting - 5 day dry fast with 2 day introductory water fast
ARTICLE SECTIONS: The following article outlines the experience of my first 5-day dry fast. I do not recommend such a long dry fast to anyone, unless they already have plenty of experience with both 7-day water fasts as well as 3-day dry fasts! Intro A… Read more: 5 day dry fast with 2 day introductory water fast - 3.5 / 4 day dry fast with introductory water fast
I’ve always approached dry fasting carefully. As a generally healthy person, I’ve never had any therapeutic need to jump into a radically long fast. Also, having experienced firsthand how much stronger the detox of dry fasting is compared to water fasting, I’ve always felt that… Read more: 3.5 / 4 day dry fast with introductory water fast - 2.5 day dry fast: dehydration as detox
This article describes my first experience of a 2.5-day dry fast. For more information about dry fasts in general click here, and for my experience with shorter 36-hour dry fasts click here. Dehydration as detox: the phrase came to mind soon after finishing my fast… Read more: 2.5 day dry fast: dehydration as detox
MISCELLANEOUS:
- Dry fasting and the Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei
One of the most extreme forms of fasting concerns the so-called Marathon Monks (gyoja) of Mt. Hiei, Japan. This article will describe the practice in full, but first it’s important to know that the fasting itself forms only one part of an almost superhuman seven-year… Read more: Dry fasting and the Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei - Telling friends and family about your fast (or not)
Whether or not to tell friends and family you’re fasting can often be a huge dilemma. Just this last week, several visitors to waterfasting.org have brought up the subject in some shape or form. It usually goes like this: “I can’t tell anyone I know… Read more: Telling friends and family about your fast (or not) - Enjoy the gift of food!
I’ll keep this short and sweet :-). If you want to enjoy the gift of food, if you really want to appreciate the taste of every bite you eat, there’s nothing better than a water fast. It’s only by taking away food for a while… Read more: Enjoy the gift of food! - Fasting in a time of lockdown
‘This is the perfect time to fast…’ I’ve heard this sentence, again and again, repeated verbatim by numerous clients since most of the world went into lockdown earlier this year as a result of Covid 19. Now that many of us are slowly returning to… Read more: Fasting in a time of lockdown
BUY COURSES OR PDF-S ONLINE
The 3-day water fast Online Course with distance coaching videos
Dealing with detox symptoms while water fasting
(40 pages)
Plan, Prepare
and Practice a 3-day
Water Fast
(100 pages)
Pdf Bundle:
The Complete 3 Day Water Fasting Plan
(140+ pages)
How to break any water fast and manage refeeding
(86-pages)
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
PERSONAL JOURNALS AND REFELCTIONS:
My 30-day water fast (2025)
This fast was all about ‘coming home’: a journey of deep healing and closure in which time stood beautifully still…
My 21-day water fast (2016)
The full journal of my first 21-day fast: one of the truly special events of my life. Even today, it remains as fresh in my memory as if it were yesterday…
THE FASTING MIND PODCAST:
How does water fasting lower blood pressure? – The Fasting Mind with Dr. Tallis Barker
This video explains how and why you can use water fasting to permanently reduce high blood pressure. Particular attention is given to those who take blood pressure medication, with the goal being to come off meds entirely through water fasting.
The post How does water fasting lower blood pressure? first appeared on Water Fast Coaching and Articles.
- How does water fasting lower blood pressure?
- Does water fasting cause muscle loss?
- Can fasting heal SIBO?
- Fasting Ketosis vs Keto Diets: Why They Are Not the Same
- Is water fasting safe?
- Water fasts versus juice fasts: how are they different, and what are the pros and cons of each?
- Water fasting for weight loss: does it work?
- Can I work during a water fast?
- Dry vs Water Fasts: how are they different in terms of cleansing, detox and healing?
- Does healing continue after a water fast?