Benefits of Fasting
>> Tuesday, June 16, 2009 –
Food
Fasting is one of the better ways to achieve good health. It is recommended in Naturopathy and Ayurveda to fast once in a while for maintaining your health and recovering from various diseases. Fasting is an important ritual in many of the religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Islam and almost all religions.
How Fasting works
There are various theories on fasting. The most popular theory is, that the digestive system gets well deserved rest during the fasting. This gives the body time to detoxify itself. The toxins accumulated in the tissues are flushed out and the body is rejuvenated. Also, the body burns the existing fat accumulated inside our bodies and supplies the energy, which helps in reducing the body fat.
Another aspect of fasting is the mental aspect. We all have craving for food, and especially the salty food on routine basis. When we undertake fast we have to control our cravings and it increases will power and determination in other fields also. It becomes easier not to buckle under pressure and take decision as per our principles. This is the reason that so many religion emphasize the importance of fasting.
I my view, the environment also benefits from fasting. Just imagine that the whole world does fasting for one time a week, how much food and energy will be saved. Millions of hungry people can fed with that food.
Types of Fasting
Fasting can be done in a different number of ways depending of the purpose and goal.
How to Practice Fasting
For normal people fasting can be done once a week. I will suggest food fasting. It is very simple. Just take a day of the week when you want to do fasting. On that day, after you get up in the morning do water therapy. This will help in easier detoxification. Then through out the day do not eat any solid food. If you want you can take fruit juice. You may feel that you have headache, but that is due to detoxification. Having juice will make it disappear. In the night or evening take light dinner. When you think that you will practice fasting for 10 weeks on a particular day of the week, you will find that there are lot of parties falling on that day of the week. I have seen that myself :). That is your real test.
It is recommended to have a fasting once a week or fortnight.
I have also tried juice fasting, where in I even bought an expensive juicer. But it is very much time consuming and not a very practical solution for most people. Steve Pavlina has written a lot on Juice Feasting. You can read his experiences here.
Benefits of Fasting
Precautions
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How Fasting works
There are various theories on fasting. The most popular theory is, that the digestive system gets well deserved rest during the fasting. This gives the body time to detoxify itself. The toxins accumulated in the tissues are flushed out and the body is rejuvenated. Also, the body burns the existing fat accumulated inside our bodies and supplies the energy, which helps in reducing the body fat.
Another aspect of fasting is the mental aspect. We all have craving for food, and especially the salty food on routine basis. When we undertake fast we have to control our cravings and it increases will power and determination in other fields also. It becomes easier not to buckle under pressure and take decision as per our principles. This is the reason that so many religion emphasize the importance of fasting.
I my view, the environment also benefits from fasting. Just imagine that the whole world does fasting for one time a week, how much food and energy will be saved. Millions of hungry people can fed with that food.
Types of Fasting
Fasting can be done in a different number of ways depending of the purpose and goal.
- Complete Fasting where no food or water is taken for the period of fasting. This type of fasting is done more due to religious reasons. This type of fasting is more for spiritual progress.
- In second type, solid food is not taken for 8-10 hrs and only water or juice is taken. This type of fasting is good for detoxification of the body.
- Juice feasting or fasting is another type of fasting. Here the person takes freshly made fruit and vegetable juices for a prolonged period of time, which may range from 3 days to 3 months. No solid food is taken. I have read several reviews of this kind of fasting and it not only detoxifies but there are several beneficial effect on our thinking process also.
- Fruit fasting may not be purely fasting but here the diet is restricted to fruits only. The thinking is since fruits are raw food they are better than cooked and processed food and provide some benefits of the fasting for people who cannot do complete fasting.
How to Practice Fasting
For normal people fasting can be done once a week. I will suggest food fasting. It is very simple. Just take a day of the week when you want to do fasting. On that day, after you get up in the morning do water therapy. This will help in easier detoxification. Then through out the day do not eat any solid food. If you want you can take fruit juice. You may feel that you have headache, but that is due to detoxification. Having juice will make it disappear. In the night or evening take light dinner. When you think that you will practice fasting for 10 weeks on a particular day of the week, you will find that there are lot of parties falling on that day of the week. I have seen that myself :). That is your real test.
It is recommended to have a fasting once a week or fortnight.
I have also tried juice fasting, where in I even bought an expensive juicer. But it is very much time consuming and not a very practical solution for most people. Steve Pavlina has written a lot on Juice Feasting. You can read his experiences here.
Benefits of Fasting
- Increases determination.
- Reduces fat and obesity.
- Detoxification of the body happens. Provides rest to digestive system, kidney and liver. Brings a more youthful look if food is done once a week for one meal.
- Calms down the mind.
Precautions
- Those with weak bodies, or anemia should avoid fasts.
- If you have ulcers in the stomach then consult your doctor before undertaking the fast.
- If you are breaking the fast after a long time, take some liquid food like milk or juice first, then go to semi solid food like curd, boiled vegetables, and then gradually to cooked food.
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