Ramadan And The Power Of Fasting

Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN & Amy Coates, RHN, BSc.

In the Islamic community, Ramadan is a month of fasting with a spiritual and ritualistic bent. During Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, fasting begins with each sunrise, and no food or water is taken the entire day until after sundown. In the Quran, Muslims, or devotees, are told, “fasting is prescribed for you so that you may fear Allah.”

But you do not have to be religiously devoted to fast. In fact, fasting is almost universal among human beings, and is even gently encouraged by the changing seasons as food and food variety becomes less abundant when the weather shifts. Our bodies, in fact, are equipped for fasting and in a world, at least a Western World, where food is nearly too plentiful, and far less healthy than ever before, fasting provides a necessary and healthy break.  And while fasting is very beneficial for your body, if it is too extreme, a natural detox diet is the next best thing.

During a short, healthy fast, like the one provided by the Islamic tradition in the month of Ramadan, your body uses the extra energy not lost on food to regenerate and eliminate. The regeneration is done to cells, tissues, and organs that have been too busy working to have time for general maintenance. Elimination refers to your body's ability to focus on removing unprocessed food that is rotting in the stomach and intestine, or old fecal matter that is clinging to the walls of the bowels, as well as dead cells, dead tissues, and malformed cells and tissues that might be hanging out in different places in your body.

During fasting, when your body realizes that it is time to live off of stored nutrients, the first thing it will want to get rid of is what it doesn’t need anymore. This means that it will attack and eliminate all the old, dead stuff, providing you with cleansing, healing and regeneration.

It is important to remember that fasting is not the same as starving. When you are starving, your body has broken down all the dead tissue, and all of the non-essential muscle tissue, and is now living on what is left of fat reserves. Starving is unhealthy, and no fasting or cleansing diet should ever take you there.

During a fast, you might be drinking lemon water, vegetable juice, or just taking your time during a week long water fast. You may also do a fast in the form of a mono diet, in which you eat only one type of fruit or vegetable for a day, a week, or a month. The point is, with fasting you are not depriving your body of much needed nutrients for long periods of time, you are simply delivering nutrients in a highly digestible, high-potency form, or you are providing your body with hydration while it works to break down old dead food and tissue for elimination.

Perhaps it is because fasting is so innate and healthy that almost all religious traditions prescribe a period of fasting. Even nature, because of changing seasons and the fluctuations in food availability, encourages fasting and mono-diets. When done right, fasting is not unhealthy and it provides cleansing, regeneration, rejuvenation, and health.

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