Why have people been fasting for thousands of years?
What are the advantages of fasting?
What are the different types of fasting?
Does fasting really help you detoxify?
In History
Fasting, in the various forms that people have observed throughout history, has been known to have a beneficial effect on health. However in a religious context, it is primarily a technique for seeking proximity to God and the divine. It seems that every religion knew the practice of fasting in one form or another. In the archaic practices of Hinduism there were certain days of the year set aside for fasting by women, and others for men. In our day, the Brahmin caste in India still observes a complete abstinence from food and drink on the eleventh and twelfth days of every Hindu month.
Hippocrates (400 BCE), the mythical Greek “Father of Medicine,” seems to have prescribed total abstinence from food while a “disease” was on the increase, and especially at the critical period, and a spare diet on other occasions.
Fasting was also known to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. Similarly, the ancient scriptures of Persia advocate fasting and confirm its value as a means for spiritual purification. The Jews of the Old Testament were known to observe fasts on days of danger and misfortune and on several fixed days in their calendar, of which the best known to non-Jews is the fast of Yom Kippur. Jesus is said to have fasted forty days and nights before his final entry into Jerusalem.
The early Christians, most of whom observed the Mosaic Law, also fasted on the Day of Atonement. But with time, less emphasis was placed on exact adherence to the practices observed by Jesus, and the Lenten fast assumed a largely symbolic role, involving abstention from certain types of food only.
Muslims observe an annual fast, during the month of Ramadan. Between first light and sundown, adult Muslims in good health abstain from food, drink, cigarettes, and sex. The fast lasts for an entire lunar month of between 28 and 30 days. It is described in the Quran thus “so that you may attain taqwa or God-consciousness” and is another instrument for bringing believers closer to our natural state and for cleansing this state from the dross of any disobedience and corruption.
Fasting to Detoxify
In the strict dietary sense, fasting is the complete abstinence from all substances except pure water, in an environment of total rest. Juice fasting, a popular variation, is abstinence from all food and drink except water and fresh vegetable and fruit juices. A modified fast includes small amounts of solid food, usually raw fruits as well as raw and steamed vegetables.
Other types of fasts sometimes include brown rice fast, whereby only brown rice is eaten for a week, accompanied by water. Detoxification is the foremost argument presented by advocates of fasting.
Detoxification is a normal body process of eliminating or neutralising the toxins resulting from biochemical functions through the colon, liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph nodes, and skin. Fasting precipitates this process because, when food no longer enters the body, the latter turns to its fat reserves for energy.
When the fat reserves are used for energy during a fast, they release the stored chemicals from the fatty acids into the system and are then eliminated through the above mentioned organs.
Another benefit of fasting is the healing process it triggers. During a fast, energy is diverted away from the digestive system, since there is no food to mobilise it, towards the metabolism and immune system. This is one reason why animals stop eating when they are wounded, and the reason why we feel less hungry when we’re sick.
Fasting also triggers rapid weight loss. Once the body is in fasting mode, it becomes accustomed to go without food after a few days. After a fast, the stomach actually shrinks and is restored it to its normal size. People tend to be satisfied with less food after fasting, as the latter signals to your body that you’ve altered the way you eat.
