Fasting: Types, Benefits, Intermittent Fasting, Juice Fasting
Fasting: An Abstinence
Fasting or
Food abstinence isn’t exactly a new idea; in fact it’s being practiced since thousands
of years as a method of inducing spiritual enlightenment as well as encouraging
and assisting physical ailment. Although fasting is still practiced as today’s
faiths, in one form or another, it is also experienced something of a
renaissance and has become very popular amongst individuals who want to lose
weight prefer to go for a less severe form called – intermittent fasting.
Types of Fasts
Fasting has a
number of purposes. One of them is religious that is believed to bring the
subject closer to God through the power of prayer and abstain from food, another
purpose is for them who don’t seem to be religious are taking up fasting for a
variety of reasons like : for weight loss, in order to detoxify body etc.
Detoxification fasting is also in vogue amongst the health conscious. Majority
tries to avail the benefits of fasting either one way or the other.
Different people with different needs undertake different types of fasts.
You also can choose one based on your requirement.
Some of the most common food abstinence or fasts are:
The Absolute Fast: An absolute fast is when one abstains from both
eating and drinking. Even water is not allowed on absolute fasts. This type is
not advisory for more than three days. It is mostly done for religious purposes
and not for health reasons. As being starved without hydration does not gain
any type of health.
The Normal Fast: In a normal fast,
one abstains from both eating and drinking, but water is not excluded. This is
also a kind of religious fasting mostly, but is sometimes advised for healthy
living too.
The Daniel Fast: The Daniel fast, as the name suggests, is a religious fast, where the
person who is fasting can eat fruits, vegetables and water. Some types like meat
and wine are not allowed.
The Partial Fast: The partial fast is a kind of
fast where one abstains from eating or drinking certain food items. Several
diet items based on choices are preferred. For instance people go with just
fruits or dry fruits although the day.
The Juice Fast: The juice fast, as the name
suggests is a fast where one only depends on juices of certain fruits and
vegetables. This type has gained immense popularity, especially among those
suffering from obesity. It is a great method of detoxification of body.
Water, Honey and Lemon Fast: The water, honey
and lemon fast is again a popular weight loss and detoxification fast. One is
supposed to survive on a diet of warm water with some lemon juice and honey
mixed in it. It is a great method of cleansing the body.
Instead of fasting for several days or even weeks at a time,
intermittent fasting is the practice of going without food for comparatively
short 24 hour periods, sometimes a little longer, once or twice each week and
on a regular basis, in this green tea is most preferred.
Juice Fasting For Beginners:
As the pressures in everyday life are getting
harder to manage and taking their toll from people’s health, a lot of them are
turning back to natural ways of healing the mind and body. One of the best and
most popular methods of holistic healing is fasting, which has been propounded
by almost all religions as being extremely beneficial both for the body and the
soul.
Many modern doctors and naturopaths advise their patients to try
fasting as a method of healing. Some of the most common types of fasts that
people undertake for health reasons are detox fasting, liquid fasting, fruit
fasting and juice fasting. Out of these fasting methods, the juice fast is
favored by a majority of people since it is easy to adhere and the body also
keeps getting enough nutrients to keep it working properly. Common side effects
of fasting like weakness and headaches can be kept at bay by a regular intake
of nutrient rich juices and water. This does not mean that you can be totally
spared of all the side effects of juice fasting, since fasting blood sugar is
definitely lower than your normal blood sugar when on regular diet.
Given below are some tips for juice fasting that will help you get maximum benefits from your fasting diet:
- Try
to drink only freshly squeezed juice from fresh fruits and vegetables.
Having a juicer is a definite advantage while on this type of fast. But if
can’t manage to have, then can prefer for juices available on stores. Try
to avoid packed juices that are processed and chemically preserved.
- Use organic fruits and vegetables for your
juice fasting recipes. In case you cannot find fresh organic fruits, then
try to get rid of the chemicals by peeling off the fruit or vegetable and
washing it thoroughly.
- One
should consume at least six to eight glasses of normal room temperature
water and at least two to four liters of fresh juice when on a juice
fasting diet.
- One
can avoid citrus fruits since they cause acidity on an empty stomach.
Drinking the juice of green fruits and vegetables is advised so that can
get the benefits of chlorophyll. Some of the most commonly
advised fruits and vegetables are apple, cranberry, pineapple, carrot,
celery, cabbage, kale, beetroot, spinach and other green vegetables. Try
to drink both fruit and vegetable juices. Can browse on internet for a number
of fasting recipes to make it more interesting and healthy.
A
properly conducted juice fast is one of the best methods of fasting
detoxification and weight loss. To get maximum benefits from juice fast,
consult a doctor or dietician.
Benefits of FASTING:
Intermittent fasting obviously results in reduced calorie
intakes, and not just over the duration of the fast but also over the entire
week. Reducing calorie intake will result in weight loss. Fasting intermittently
is an effective and easy way to achieve a slim and healthy body. Although
intermittent fasting helps in losing weight, it also offers extra health
benefits.
However, intermittent fasting isn’t the only method of
lowering calorie intake, there is also a method called calorie restriction.
Calorie restriction is the process of reducing daily calorie intake which is
around 25 to 30 percent below the normal need to maintain normal weight. It
also increases life expectancy.
There are some side effects too if not followed correctly.
Like: becoming extremely underweight, metabolism becomes much slower than normal
and hormone production can also be negatively affected as they can drop to dangerous
levels.
The same life extending benefits can be experienced by using intermittent
fasting without being effected by any side effects. The overriding feeling,
that food abstinence for complete 24 hours would be harsh. Today, more and more
individuals are turning to a specific type of fasting. Intermittent fasting
requires the participant to refrain from eating food and to drink only water
during the period of the fast, normally 24 hours. It sounds quite difficult,
and it can be at first, but 8 hours out of the 24 are spent in sleeping and the
remaining 16 hours can be divided between the time before and after night’s
sleep. In reality, you will never go a full day without eating at least one
meal.
Now the question arises is: WHAT TO EAT ON NON-FASTING DAYS?
On non fasting days one should have a normal diet full of all
nutrients essential for body. But it shouldn’t be over loaded with junk or high
calorie foods or over eaten. The regular diet food good for a healthy living
includes pulses, cereals, fruits, green veggies, and those rich in antioxidants
and detoxifying properties.
Using Intermittent Fasting Will Actually Liberate You!
We have already mentioned the health benefits of fasting above
but one thing that we haven’t touched on is the freedom that it gives you.
Strange, it may be but you would be surprised by the number of people who are
fearful of missing out meals. Fasting makes one to realize that digestive
system too wants relaxation from digesting heavy and highly loaded sugary
meals.
In short intermittent fasting helps you to lose weight easily,
experience additional health benefits, and gain a new freedom in life with
additional strength and confidence.
Let’s face it…dieting is absolute hell for most people! There
is an endless conveyor belt of shiny new ‘miracle’ diets screaming ‘try me’,
all promising the same amazing results. But here’s the truth…if all of these
diets or weight loss pills did what they promised for then why does the factories
continue to pump out one new dieting product every minute?
The simplest fact is if one really wants to have a healthy
living with fit body, and then should try for intermittent fasting lifestyle
and gain confidence as well as self control!
Does This Mean that Intermittent Fasting is the Miracle
Solution You Have Been Looking For?
In a word…nope! Over the course of many years I have seen
thousands of people have success with specific diets or weight loss methods but
the problem is always the same. Will the weight loss be sustainable? The simple
answer is…if you can’t see yourself following your program for 6 months or
beyond then no it isn’t.
Losing weight is about changing your lifestyle and will often
mean permanently changing what you eat and the way that you eat it and
combining this with regular exercise in order to keep the weight off, you may
not like it but not paying attention to these two is probably the reason why
you need to lose weight now!
Isn’t Fasting Just an Acceptable Way to Say Starving?
It is a common misconception that fasting means to starve.
Fasting has been used for years as a way of cleansing the body, gaining
spiritual strength and to a lesser extent maintaining a healthy body weight.
So get confidence to do food abstaining now to have a perfect
health with fit body and sharp mind.
What to eat during fasting Hindu:
On a day a
person fasts, he/she consumes a ‘Phalahar’, which literally means the
consumption of fruits only. The foods that are allowed include milk and its
related products like buttermilk, yoghurt, cottage cheese or paneer, homemade
butter (without any salt) and ghee. The person who is fasting can also eat
certain vegetables like sweet potato, colocasia (Arbi). One can also consume
sago or tapioca (otherwise known as sabudana), Amaranth (rajgeera), foxnuts, Water
Chestnut (singhara) and buckwheat. Though, all kinds of spices should be
avoided during this time; however, one can have black pepper, coriander, green
chilli, rock salt, fresh & dried ginger (sonth), clove, cardamom, and cumin
in all forms. The list is not limited to it and the person who observes fasts
can also consume lemon, dry fruits and nuts, sugar, rock sugar (mishri),
coconut and peanut.
What not to eat during fasting?
During the fast, one cannot have any form of grains, rice and
lentils, as they are considered ‘Anna’. Also, certain vegetables like
onion, garlic, and radish should be avoided as they are known to be heaty or Tamasic foods. Spices such as hing or Asafoetida, salt of all kinds except rock
salt, red chilli, fenugreek (methi), turmeric and any other seeds should be
avoided. It might come as a shock to you but jaggery is also avoided when a
person observes fast.
Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy.
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