Known as ‘the father of fasting’, Dr Otto Buchinger dedicated much of his life to developing a ‘therapeutic fasting’ protocol after curing his own seemingly incurable ill health with a lengthy water fast in the 19th century. Realising that this was too extreme for most of his patients, he established a simpler fasting regime based around eating 250 kcals a day, with herb teas, honey and organic vegetable broths combined with enemas or other forms of colon cleansing, plus plenty of fresh air, outdoor walks and creative therapies such as painting and poetry reading.
Today, his legacy thrives under the dedicated guidance of his heirs, the third generation now caring for guests at two impressive wellness clinics, in Lake Constance, southern Germany and Marbella, southern Spain. I visited the original German clinic, about an hour’s drive from Zurich airport.
Fasting lies at the heart and soul of Buchinger’s method and is taken very seriously. Guests are only allowed to fast if they stay for a minimum of ten days. This allows both proper preparation time and the all-important ‘re-feeding’ days that follow.
