Page:Linda Hazzard - Fasting for the cure of disease.djvu/106

 in the habits of feeding. Hunger is an involuntary function of the system as much so as is the beating of the heart. It is not created by the individual, nor does it make its appearance at stated hours by exercise of the will. But appetite, its counterfeit, is easily called into being and may be made apparent at set times.

In diseased conditions hunger is absent; and, in the fast, appetite ordinarily disappears after the first few days. When the elimination of toxic products is complete, hunger, not appetite, returns. Hunger is normal, appetite abnormal. This distinction with a difference is most important considered in connection with the breaking of a fast. The question of the resumption of feeding does not lie for answer in the hands of either physician or patient. It rests with the law of hunger alone. During the fast and until hunger returns, food of any kind is an intruder, and all of the energy of the body is being directed through the organs of elimination towards the cleansing of the system from its self-manufactured poison. The coated tongue, the foul breath, are simple signs of the decomposition of excess food and of worn-out tissue. And, being signs of