The Oldest Cure in the World: Adventures in the Art and Science of Fasting

by Steve Hendricks

Overview

“An illuminating exploration of the rich and varied history—and myriad health benefits—of fasting.” —Wall Street Journal

When should we eat, and when shouldn’t we? The answers to these simple questions are not what you might expect. As Steve Hendricks shows in The Oldest Cure in the World, stop eating long enough, and you’ll set in motion cellular repairs that can slow aging and prevent and reverse diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Fasting has improved the lives of people with epilepsy, asthma, and arthritis, and has even protected patients from the worst of chemotherapy’s side effects.

But for such an elegant and effective treatment, fasting has had a surprisingly long and fraught history. From the earliest days of humanity and the Greek fathers of medicine through Christianity’s “fasting saints” and a 19th-century doctor whose stupendous 40-day fast on a New York City stage inaugurated the modern era of therapeutic fasting, Hendricks takes readers on a rich and comprehensive tour.

Threaded throughout are Hendricks’s own adventures in fasting, including a stay at a luxurious fasting clinic in Germany and in a more spartan one closer to home in Northern California. This is a playful, insightful, and persuasive exploration of our bodies and when we should—and should not—feed them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419748486
Publisher:	Abrams Press
Publication date:	12/19/2023
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	407,660
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Steve Hendricks is a freelance reporter and the author of two previous books, one of which, The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country, made several best-of-the-year lists. He has written for Harper’s, Outside, Slate, and the Washington Post and lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, a professor of family law, and his dog, a border collie cross.

Table of Contents

Prologue Criminal Quackery 1

Fasting for a cure

Chapter 1 Tanner's Folly 9

The birth of modern fasting

Chapter 2 "I forget I have four limbs" 27

Prehistory and the ancient East

Chapter 3 Christ's Athletes 42

The ancient West

Chapter 4 A Lesser Me 69

I fast to slim

Chapter 5 "The most complicated cage" 85

The Middle Ages and Renaissance

Chapter 6 "This cheap, simple, and vulgar remedy" 107

American doctors find the lost cure

Chapter 7 Arresting My Decline 126

I fast to heal

Chapter 8 "Refuse to be an invalid!" 140

Fasting blooms in America

Chapter 9 "Truth though the heavens fall" 164

America's foremost fasting doctor

Chapter 10 A Gentle Deprivation, 1 175

I fast at a German clinic

Chapter 11 "What's considered too difficult?" 204

The starts and stops of fasting research

Chapter 12 "A crazy idea with no relevance" 226

Fasting against cancer

Chapter 13 A Gentle Deprivation, 2 253

My German fast, continued

Chapter 14 What the Soviets Knew 283

The psychotherapeutic fast

Chapter 15 A Wine Country Abstention, 1 307

I fast at a California clinic

Chapter 16 You Are When You Eat 326

The how of time-restricted eating

Chapter 17 Wine Country Abstention, 2 356

My California fast, continued

Epilogue Moral Malpractice 377

Toward a future less benighted

Acknowledgments 381

Sources on Diet 383

Notes 385

Index 429

Editorial Reviews

A smart, narrative look at a very hot topic, offering a fascinating look at the science behind the counterintuitive concept of going without food for our health.”

The Next Big Idea Club

An illuminating exploration of the rich and varied history—and myriad health benefits—of fasting . . . Mr. Hendricks, a freelance reporter, is a deft stylist . . . and he excels at describing the experience of going without food . . .”

The Wall Street Journal

Fascinating . . . an important book.

Boulder Daily Camera

Few people know that science has shown fasting is a key that unlocks ancient restorative systems and mobilizes some of the body’s most powerful regenerative mechanisms. In The Oldest Cure in the World, Steve Hendricks proves to be a master of explaining the multitude of benefits that various kinds of fasting can unleash. Fasting is a core part of my integrative cardiology practice. This book is a must-read for those looking for a long healthspan.”

author of Your Whole Heart Solution Dr. Joel Kahn

07/04/2022

Fasting, long regarded as being “on the wrong side of respectability,” deserves serious consideration as a medical treatment, argues journalist Hendricks (The Unquiet Grave) in this thought-provoking survey. Hendricks writes that the practice has been shown to help with illnesses as varied as asthma, psoriasis, irritable bowel syndrome, and migraines. But it’s “simply too counterintuitive to think not eating could make you healthier,” and the medical community has yet to embrace it. That’s a mistake, Hendricks insists: it’s cheaper than drugs and has fewer side effects, and he touts it as an “astoundingly and variously useful” method that’s been hiding in plain sight for millennia. The author weaves a fascinating personal narrative (fasting helped his idiopathic hypersomnia) with a comprehensive history of the practice, from prehistoric humans who fasted from necessity up to modern-day clinics that use it. While enthusiastic, Hendricks is careful not to oversell fasting’s benefits (there’s much it “cannot do, no matter how many incautious boosters say otherwise”), and he pulls no punches when highlighting flaws in research, as with studies that emphasize “profit rather than health.” His levelheaded, irreverent approach and sharp reporting set the book apart. The result is a winning mix of captivating storytelling and fascinating science. Agent: Max Sinsheimer, Sinsheimer Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A literary gem, with fantastic lines scattered like laugh-bombs throughout its pages. . . . What’s especially joyful about this book is Steve’s insistence on getting the science right. He argues against unsupported claims no matter where they come from: vegans, keto promoters, you name it. He doesn’t overstate the power of fasting, noting that hype is one of the enemies of widespread acceptance by the scientific community. . . . Steve Hendricks is at least three things: a tenacious reporter, a brilliant and hilarious writer, and a truly good dude.

Plant Yourself Podcast Howard Jacobson

Hendricks’s book is a remarkable blend of authoritative history, illuminating science, and endearing storytelling. In The Oldest Cure in the World, Hendricks gives us the wonders of fasting—too long neglected by doctors and scientists, too often misunderstood by most of us, yet so potent a therapy—with marvelous clarity, page-turning crispness, and appealing humanity.”

Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee

Steve Hendricks set himself the Herculean task of weaving together the long history and deep science of fasting with his own revealing self-experiments—and has succeeded brilliantly in turning out a captivating tale. The Oldest Cure in the World is an engrossing tour de force and offers a bona fide strategy for slowing the aging process.”

New York Times–bestselling author of The Blu Dan Buettner

I was blown away by this book. . . . There is so much information in this book that I had never even remotely, possibly, even briefly heard of. It’s honestly mind blowing [and] a page turner. There were literally times my mouth dropped open. . . . Get the book, read it, read all of it.

The Intermittent Fasting Podcast Melanie Avalon

An illuminating exploration of the rich and varied history—and myriad health benefits—of fasting . . . Mr. Hendricks, a freelance reporter, is a deft stylist . . . and he excels at describing the experience of going without food . . .”
—The Wall Street Journal

“[A] thought-provoking survey . . . The author weaves a fascinating personal narrative . . . with a comprehensive history of the practice, from prehistoric humans who fasted from necessity up to modern-day clinics that use it. While enthusiastic, Hendricks is careful not to oversell fasting’s benefits . . . and he pulls no punches when highlighting flaws in research, as with studies that emphasize ‘profit rather than health.’ His levelheaded, irreverent approach and sharp reporting set the book apart. The result is a winning mix of captivating storytelling and fascinating science.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Hendricks’s book is a remarkable blend of authoritative history, illuminating science, and endearing storytelling. In The Oldest Cure in the World, Hendricks gives us the wonders of fasting—too long neglected by doctors and scientists, too often misunderstood by most of us, yet so potent a therapy—with marvelous clarity, page-turning crispness, and appealing humanity.”

—Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies

“Steve Hendricks set himself the Herculean task of weaving together the long history and deep science of fasting with his own revealing self-experiments—and has succeeded brilliantly in turning out a captivating tale. The Oldest Cure in the World is an engrossing tour de force and offers a bona fide strategy for slowing the aging process.”

—Dan Buettner, New York Times–bestselling author of The Blue Zones

“Few people know that science has shown fasting is a key that unlocks ancient restorative systems and mobilizes some of the body’s most powerful regenerative mechanisms. In The Oldest Cure in the World, Steve Hendricks proves to be a master of explaining the multitude of benefits that various kinds of fasting can unleash. Fasting is a core part of my integrative cardiology practice. This book is a must-read for those looking for a long healthspan.”

—Dr. Joel Kahn, author of Your Whole Heart Solution

“A smart, narrative look at a very hot topic, offering a fascinating look at the science behind the counterintuitive concept of going without food for our health.”
—The Next Big Idea Club

“I was blown away by this book. . . . There is so much information in this book that I had never even remotely, possibly, even briefly heard of. It’s honestly mind blowing [and] a page turner. There were literally times my mouth dropped open. . . . Get the book, read it, read all of it.”—Melanie Avalon, The Intermittent Fasting Podcast

“A literary gem, with fantastic lines scattered like laugh-bombs throughout its pages. . . . What’s especially joyful about this book is Steve’s insistence on getting the science right. He argues against unsupported claims no matter where they come from: vegans, keto promoters, you name it. He doesn’t overstate the power of fasting, noting that hype is one of the enemies of widespread acceptance by the scientific community. . . . Steve Hendricks is at least three things: a tenacious reporter, a brilliant and hilarious writer, and a truly good dude.”—Howard Jacobson, Plant Yourself Podcast

“Fascinating . . . an important book.”—Boulder Daily Camera

From the Publisher