Fasting

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A glass of water on an empty plate

Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after complete digestion and absorption of a meal.[1] Metabolic changes in the fasting state begin after absorption of a meal (typically 3–5 hours after eating).

A

public demonstration for a given cause, in a practice known as a hunger strike
.

Health effects

See also:
Fasting and longevity

Alternate-day fasting (alternating between a 24-hour "fast day" when the person eats less than 25% of usual energy needs, followed by a 24-hour non-fasting "feast day" period) has been shown to improve

calorie restriction diet in people who are overweight, obese or have metabolic syndrome.[2][3][4][5]

A 2021 review found that moderate alternate-day fasting for two to six months was associated with reductions of body weight,

risk factors in overweight or obese adults.[6]

Medical application

See also:
Body cleansing, and Nothing by mouth

Fasting is almost always practiced prior to surgery or other procedures that require

baseline
can be established.

Mental health

In one review, fasting improved alertness, mood, and subjective feelings of well-being, possibly improving overall symptoms of depression, and boosting cognitive performance.[10]

Weight loss

Intermittent fasting

Main article: Intermittent fasting

There is little evidence to suggest that intermittent fasting for periods shorter than 24 hours is effective for sustained weight loss in obese adults.[11][12]

Prolonged fasting

See also: Ketogenic diet

Prolonged fasting (also called extended fasting or water fasting) involves periods of fasting above 24 hours, typically in the range of 5–20 days.

minerals are noted, which can lead to hyponatremia.[14] In some diet systems, these losses are offset with non-caloric electrolyte supplements, such as electrolyte beverages.[15] Typical observed weight loss under prolonged fasting averages at 0.9 kg per day during the first week and 0.3 kg per day by the third week.[14] In early fasting, during periods of high gluconeogenesis, roughly two-thirds of weight lost is lean muscle mass as opposed to fat.[13][16] After the gluconeogenic phase, however, the ratio of body fat lost to lean tissue lost becomes roughly 7:6.[16]

Longevity

There is no sound clinical evidence that fasting can promote longevity in humans.[17]

Adverse effects

Refeeding syndrome

Main article: Refeeding syndrome

malnourished, or metabolically stressed because of severe illness. When too much food or liquid nutrition supplement is eaten during the initial four to seven days following a malnutrition event, the production of glycogen, fat and protein in cells may cause low serum concentrations of potassium, magnesium and phosphate.[18][19] The electrolyte imbalance
may cause neurologic, pulmonary, cardiac, neuromuscular, and hematologic symptoms—many of which, if severe enough, may result in death.

Refeeding syndrome can occur when someone does not eat for several days at a time usually beginning after 4–5 days with no food.[20]

Gallstones

Main article: Gallstone

Fasting can increase the risk of developing gallstones for some people. This is thought to occur due to decreased gallbladder movement with no food to be digested, which can cause the bile to become over-concentrated with cholesterol, combined with the liver secreting extra cholesterol into bile as the body metabolizes fat during rapid weight loss, further exacerbating the situation.[21]

Political application

Fasting is often used to make a political statement, to

non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt, or to achieve a goal such as a policy change. A spiritual fast incorporates personal spiritual beliefs with the desire to express personal principles, sometimes in the context of social injustice.[22]

The political leader

Gandhi undertook several long fasts as political and social protests. Gandhi's fasts had a significant impact on the British Raj and the Indian population generally.[23]

In Northern Ireland in 1981, a prisoner, Bobby Sands, was part of the 1981 Irish hunger strike, protesting for better rights in prison.[24] Sands had just been elected to the British Parliament and died after 66 days of not eating. 100,000 people attended his funeral, and the strike ended only after nine other men died. In all, ten men survived without food for 46 to 73 days.

The American civil rights activist

César Chávez undertook several spiritual fasts, including a 25-day fast in 1968 promoting the principle of nonviolence and a fast of 'thanksgiving and hope' to prepare for pre-arranged civil disobedience by farm workers.[22][25] Chávez regarded a spiritual fast as "a personal spiritual transformation".[26] Other progressive campaigns have adopted the tactic.[27]

Religious views

Main article:
Fasting in religion

Fasting is practiced in various religions, and details of fasting practices differ.

Tisha B'av, Fast of Esther, Tzom Gedalia, the Seventeenth of Tamuz, the Tenth of Tevet, and Fast of the Firstborn are examples of fasting in Judaism.[28] Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av are 25-hour fasts in which observers abstain from consuming any food or liquid from sunset until nightfall the next day and include other restrictions. The fasts of Esther, Gedalia, Tamuz, and Tevet all last from dawn until nightfall and therefore length varies depending on the time of the year. The Fast of the Firstborn is not biblically mandated and can therefore be ended early in the case of a seudat mitzvah
.

Lent is a common period of fasting in Christianity. In the Catholic Church, the current practice of fast and abstinence is regulated by Canons 1250–1253 of the 1983 code.[29] They specify that all Fridays throughout the year, and the time of Lent are penitential times throughout the entire Church. All persons who have completed their fourteenth year are bound by the law of abstinence on all Fridays unless they are solemnities, and again on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting must be observed by those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. The precept to both fast and abstinence must be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. In addition to the fasts mentioned above, Catholics must also observe the Eucharistic Fast, which in the Latin Church involves taking nothing but water or medicine into the body for one hour before receiving the Eucharist[30].

Dormition Fast
).

Members of the

Mormons) generally abstain from food and drink for two consecutive meals in a 24-hour period on the first Sunday of each month and use the money they save for charity.[31]

Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan each year. The fast includes refraining from consuming any food or liquid from dawn until sunset. It is a religious obligation for all Muslims unless they are children or are physically unable to fast.

Fasting is a feature of

ascetic traditions in religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism
.

Brahma's Net Sutra may recommend that the laity fast "during the six days of fasting each month and the three months of fasting each year".[32]

Members of the

Nineteen Day Fast
from sunrise to sunset during March each year.

In alternative medicine

Although practitioners of alternative medicine promote "cleansing the body" through fasting,[33] (as though it were a diagnostic fast) the concept of "detoxification“ is a marketing myth with little scientific basis for its rationale or efficacy.[34][35]

During the early 20th century, fasting was promoted by alternative health writers such as

new thought movement.[36] Arnold Ehret's pseudoscientific Mucusless Diet Healing System espoused fasting.[37]

Linda Hazzard, a notable quack doctor, put her patients on such strict fasts that some of them died of starvation. She was responsible for the death of more than 40 patients under her care.[38][39]

In 1911, Upton Sinclair authored The Fasting Cure, which made sensational claims of fasting curing practically all diseases, including cancer and syphilis.[40] Sinclair states he recommended fasting for all diseases except tuberculosis.[41] Sinclair has been described as "the most credulous of faddists,"[42] and his book is considered an example of quackery.[43] In 1932, physician Morris Fishbein listed fasting as a fad diet and commented that "prolonged fasting is never necessary and invariably does harm".[44]

Types of fasting

Type by religion

Type by method

  • Electrolyte supplemented water fasting
  • Dry fasting
  • Juice fasting
  • Water fasting
  • Snake diet

Type by schedule

Source:[45]

  • Alternate day
  • Eat: stop: eat
  • Intermittent fasting
  • One Meal A Day (OMAD)/Warrior diet
  • Prolonged fasting
  • The 16/8 or 14/10
  • The 40-days and 40-nights
  • The 5:2

Type by motivation

See also

References

  1. ^ "fasting | Definition, Description, Types, Benefits, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
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  7. ^ "Do You Need to Starve Before Surgery?". Abcnews.go.com. 25 March 2009. Archived from the original on 8 February 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  8. ^ Norman, Dr (17 April 2003). "Fasting before surgery – Health & Wellbeing". Abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 29 May 2010. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  9. ^ "Anesthesia Information (full edition) | From Yes They're Fake!". Yestheyrefake.net. 1 January 1994. Archived from the original on 12 November 2010. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
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  15. ^ "Snake Diet—What It Is and Why It's Dangerous". Health. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
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  21. ^ "Dietary advice for patients with gallstones". Cambridge University Hospitals. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  22. ^ a b Garcia, M. (2007) The Gospel of Cesar Chavez: My Faith in Action Sheed & Ward Publishing p. 103
  23. JSTOR 44141630
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  24. ^ ON THIS DAY 1981: Violence erupts at Irish hunger strike protest Archived 17 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News
  25. ^ Shaw, R. (2008)Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the struggle for justice in the 21st century University of California Press, p.92
  26. ^ Espinosa, G. Garcia, M Mexican American Religions:Spirituality activism and culture(2008) Duke University Press, p 108
  27. ^ Shaw, R. (2008)Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the struggle for justice in the 21st century University of California Press, p.93
  28. ^ "History of the Fast". Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  29. The Holy See. Archived from the original
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  30. ^ CIC 1983, c. 919.
  31. ^ "The Law of the Fast" (PDF). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  32. ^ Brahma's Net Sutra, minor precept 30
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  34. ^ Porter, Sian (May 2016). "Detox diets" (PDF). British Dietetic Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 October 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2019. The whole idea of detox is nonsense. The body is a well-developed system that has its own built-in mechanisms to detoxify and remove waste and toxins. Our body constantly filters out, breaks down and excretes toxins and waste products like alcohol, medications, products of digestion, dead cells, chemicals from pollution and bacteria
  35. ^ David Gorski (23 May 2011). "Fashionably toxic". Science-Based Medicine. Archived from the original on 30 January 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  36. ^ a b Griffith, R. Marie. (2000). Apostles of Abstinence: Fasting and Masculinity during the Progressive Era. American Quarterly 52 (4): 599-638.
  37. ISBN 0-7236-7046-3
  38. ^ Hall, Harriett. (2016). "Natural Medicine, Starvation, and Murder: The Story of Linda Hazzard" Archived 1 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  39. ^ "Linda Hazzard: The “Starvation Doctor”" Archived 1 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  40. ^ Upton Sinclair, The Fasting Cure (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1911), p. 44.
  41. ^ Sinclair, The Fasting Cure, p. 44.
  42. ^ Walter Gratzer, Terrors of the Table: The Curious History of Nutrition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 201. ISBN 0-19-280661-0.
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  44. ^ Fishbein, Morris. (1932). Fads and Quackery in Healing: An Analysis of the Foibles of the Healing Cults. New York: Covici Friede. p. 253
  45. ^ "Intermittent Fasting: How It Works". Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved 23 August 2024.

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