Fasting for Spiritual and Physical Cleansing, Not Weight Loss

I wasn’t aware fasting was used as a weight-loss plan until I read the “Intermittent Fasting” article on the Mindful Muscle blog. And, having read it, I found myself wanting to know more about supposed benefits and risks. My impression, from the article, was that outside of spiritual benefits, fasting was not an ideal method of weight loss.

Upon further research, what I found was contradictory. There were those who lauded fasting and those who emphatically denounced it. One aspect that appears to be universal—at least universal in the articles I delved through—is that no one actually prescribes it as a weight-loss method. Those who recommend fasting usually do so because of its supposed cleansing benefits, not because it was a guaranteed pound-shedder. To be honest, I find that a relief; the idea of not eating for a long period of time to lose weight just sounds too much like anorexia or starvation to me.

The Spiritual Side of Fasting

With the intent of centering oneself through fasting in a spiritual context, however, I can understand and appreciate the testimonies of practitioners. Depending on one’s religious or spiritual knowledge, many people have some familiarity of when fasting occurs today. Be it the fasting on Good Friday for many Christians, or the month of Ramadan for Muslims, it is still a prevalent practice in the religious realm. Its history is far reaching; ancient tribes, including Native Americans, would fast for a number of reasons, including penitence, fertility, and protection. (…fasting.html)

I read of one Christian man’s personal account of prayer and fasting as a means to finding answers from God. My first reaction, since the man also mentioned how historically fasting was often employed by Christians for answers, was that fasting for answers sounded a lot like a magic eight ball—hope you like the answer you get … and that it makes sense… But after thinking about it for awhile, and reading more and more how fasting is used a tool for centering oneself, I realized fasting and praying were more like remembering one’s goals, ethics, or hopes. It was a way to connect to higher thoughts and beliefs. As a Catholic, I practice fasting before mass and on days like Good Friday as a method to reflect upon Christ’s sacrifices and cleanse the soul, so to speak. I’d never thought to use fasting to find answers within myself, though I’m sure it isn’t just Christians who employ it for such purposes; there are also the accounts of less religious, more spiritually-oriented people using fasting as a means of centering themselves and focusing on higher thoughts.

A little more research revealed some nuances of spiritual fasting. For example, while Catholics may employ fasting as a reflective tool or to better empathize with the impoverished, the Eastern Orthodox may use fasting as a way to fight gluttony. Likewise, while the Jewish may use fasting as penance, Mormons may use it to pray for a special request. Buddhists and Hindus use fasting as a spiritual renewal of the mind—but this isn’t to say these benefits or tools don’t or can’t cross over into other religions. It was eye-opening, though, to see which religions emphasize what through fasting.

Fasting for Good Health

And while some would use the word “purification” to describe fasting, in terms of the mind and soul, it’s also the word used to describe the physical benefits of fasting—at least, if you’re a believer in the benefits of fasting. There is evidence that it can be both harmful and beneficial, depending on its length.

According to the studies I’ve read through, short-term fasting poses little threat unless one is already emaciated, on drugs, or pregnant. Short-term fasting is between twenty-four and thirty-six hours of abstaining from food. It seems that longer fasting (over several days) helps the body to cleanse itself of toxins. What I’ve gathered, however, is that there seems to be more advantage to shorter fasting periods with periods of caloric restriction; the lab results of Roy Walford and Richard Weindruch’s* studies point to this.

They performed tests on rodents, giving one group the all-access-buffet pass, the other group a restricted but still nutritive diet after hours of fasting. I think you can guess where this might be headed.

The rodents that fasted and were then given smaller portions of food than those rodents that ate whatever, whenever, had longer lives and less ailments. The researchers also had a group where adult rodents’ diets were changed from the unhealthy variety to the restricted and fasting diet. Problems like tumors or disease began to clear up and they, too, had longer lives than those that indulged their appetites.

If the improved longevity of rats’ lives doesn’t justify cutting out unnecessary treats in your life, there was another study, this time on humans, that shows how the food people eat can affect life expectancy.

In the late 19th century Sir Robert McCarrison** observed northern and southern Indians and their eating habits. He found the northern Indians looked healthier than the southern Indians and discovered the diet of the northerners was richer in vegetables and fruits, with less intake of meat, than the southerners.

Okay, I’m not done spouting rat studies just yet because McCarrison took what he saw in his human observations and put them to the test. He fed one group of rats the exact same diet of the northerners, the other the diet of the southerners. The “northern” rats were healthy, happy little rodents with low mortality. The southern rats? They developed diseases … and they turned on each other. Perhaps the key to peace among men—and rats—is more vegetables.

McCarrison even did a study comparing an Indian diet to a British diet (you know, tea, biscuits and marmalade, meat, that sort of thing). According to the results, the British will soon eat each other.

All joking aside, though, this study certainly is fascinating and is convincing if one wants proof that a more balanced and restricted (this is where the fasting comes into play) diet correlates to a longer life with less health problems. There are numerous other studies that prove fasting is healthy and leads to a longer life with less problems (for a good summary of these studies, go here: http://www.systemanorway.com/default.asp?iId=JLHLK).

On the flip side, however, there are those that believe by fasting, especially for too long, the body is being deprived of nutrients. This leaves the body vulnerable and susceptible to illness.

Fasting as a Diet Fad

There’s also the danger of doing it for the wrong reason. There are celebrities out there who have had fasting-diets and there are people who try it for themselves, hoping to end up with the same results. This is starvation, not fasting, because the incentive is to lose weight and lose it fast—fasting for more than three days will definitely lead to problems, including liver damage, anemia, and muscle breakdown to name just a few.

Conclusion

The incentive of the person fasting makes all the difference. When one’s goal is not to lose weight, but to gain clarity of mind or to improve the quality of one’s life, there are definitely going to be advantages. For the person whose incentive is, let’s say, shallow, though, I think the fasting-diet would be yet another disappointing fad.

Bearing this in mind, it’s hard for me to enthusiastically recommend fasting, despite being convinced that the studies on longevity and better quality of life are proof that what we eat and how often we eat affect us. If a person truly employs fasting in combination with healthy caloric restriction, I can find no fault. With our culture’s obsessive dieting trend, though, I would rather recommend fasting for its mental merits. But at least we know, while we fast, there are physical benefits being gained in addition to our spiritual cleansing!

* For more on Weindruch and Walford’s research, go here: http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=496
** For more on McCarrison’s research, go here: http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/2008/02/robert-mccarrison-straight-nutrition.html

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About Author

Maura Stackpoole is an advocate for yoga and other mindful practices, and is a graduate from Michigan State University. She is also the editor and publicist for Mindful Muscle (http://www.mindfulmuscle.com).

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