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Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiology context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolism status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after complete digestion and Nutrient of a meal. Metabolic changes in the fasting state begin after absorption of a meal (typically 3–5 hours after eating).
A diagnostic fast refers to prolonged fasting from 1–100 hours (depending on age), conducted under observation, to facilitate the investigation of a health complication (usually hypoglycemia). Many people may also fast as part of a medical procedure or a check-up, such as preceding a colonoscopy or surgery, or before certain medical tests. Intermittent fasting is a technique sometimes used for weight loss or other health benefits that incorporates regular fasting into a person's dietary schedule. Fasting may also be part of a religious ritual, often associated with specific scheduled fast days, as determined by the religion, or be applied as a public demonstration for a given cause, in a practice known as a hunger strike.
A 2021 review found that moderate alternate-day fasting for two to six months was associated with reductions of body weight, body mass index, and cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight or obese adults.
Refeeding syndrome can occur when someone does not eat for several days at a time usually beginning after 4–5 days with no food.
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.
In Northern Ireland in 1981, a prisoner, Bobby Sands, was part of the 1981 Irish hunger strike, protesting for better rights in prison. ON THIS DAY 1981: Violence erupts at Irish hunger strike protest , BBC News 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.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 Chávez regarded a spiritual fast as "a personal spiritual transformation".Espinosa, G. Garcia, M Mexican American Religions:Spirituality activism and culture(2008) Duke University Press, p 108 Other progressive campaigns have adopted the tactic.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
Yom Kippur, 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. 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. 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.
Eastern Orthodox Christians fast during specified fasting seasons of the year, which include not only the better-known Great Lent, but also fasts on every Wednesday and Friday (except on special holidays), together with extended fasting periods before Christmas (the Nativity Fast), after Easter (the Apostles' Fast) and in early August (the Dormition Fast).
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally abstain from food and drink for two consecutive meals in a 24-hour period, on the first Sunday of each month, and members are invited to donate the money they would have used for those meals to assist others in need (called a fast offering).
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.
Mahayana traditions that follow the 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".Brahma's Net Sutra, minor precept 30
Members of the Baháʼí Faith observe a Nineteen Day Fast from sunrise to sunset during March each year.
During the early 20th century, fasting was promoted by alternative health writers such as Hereward Carrington, Edward H. Dewey, Bernarr Macfadden, Frank McCoy, Edward Earle Purinton, Upton Sinclair and Wallace Wattles.Griffith, R. Marie. (2000). Apostles of Abstinence: Fasting and Masculinity during the Progressive Era. American Quarterly 52 (4): 599-638. All of these writers were either involved in the Orthopathy or new thought movement. Arnold Ehret's pseudoscientific Mucusless Diet Healing System espoused fasting.Kuske, Terrence T. (1983). Quackery and Fad Diets . In Elaine B. Feldman. Nutrition in the Middle and Later Years. John Wright & Sons. pp. 291-303.
Linda Hazzard, 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.Hall, Harriett. (2016). "Natural Medicine, Starvation, and Murder: The Story of Linda Hazzard" . Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 1 May 2019. "Linda Hazzard: The “Starvation Doctor”" . Retrieved 1 May 2019.
In 1911, Upton Sinclair authored The Fasting Cure, which made sensational claims of fasting curing practically all diseases, including cancer and syphilis.Upton Sinclair, The Fasting Cure (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1911), p. 44. Sinclair states he recommended fasting for all diseases except tuberculosis.Sinclair, The Fasting Cure, p. 44. Sinclair has been described as "the most credulous of faddists. In 1932, physician Morris Fishbein listed fasting as a fad diet and commented that "prolonged fasting is never necessary and invariably does harm".Fishbein, Morris. (1932). Fads and Quackery in Healing: An Analysis of the Foibles of the Healing Cults. New York: Covici Friede. p. 253
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