Wednesday, March 8, 2017

The Enormous Benefits of Fasting at Lent: How & Why





Did you know that the older you are, the more cancer cells there are right now lurking in your body?  The decay that we see as a whole when we age - less muscle, more aches and pains, poorer vision and teeth, etcetera etcetera - this decay is happening first on a cellular level.  Apoptosis is the technical term for programmed cell death. This is a good thing because our cells become old and junky - like food that has been sitting in the refrigerator for too long, it needs to be thrown away. Physical health problems and diseases can begin to develop in our bodies when the rotten food in the refrigerator is not thrown out.
The older we get, the more these bad cells accumulate.  The more bad cells we have, the faster we age and the greater our odds of getting sick.  We can assist in getting rid of these bad actors by encouraging autophagy  (which means self-eating).  The most effective way to promote autophagy is to fast.  Fasting is the absence of eating.  Our first meal of the day is called break-fast.  Most people go at least 8 hours a night without food, so in a sense we have all fasted.  However the most effective fasting lasts 24 hours (which is how long it takes to burn up most of the energy present in our liver and intestinal tract).  Fortunately  fasting is flexible - there is more than one way to go about it.  I will define fasting as going without any food, certain foods, or severely limiting calories for a specific period of time.  
The benefits of fasting are being rediscovered by science and health practitioners.  “The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recently went to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discoveries into the mechanisms of autophagy. .. His work has already led to a better understanding of diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's and type 2 diabetes.http://www.wired.co.uk/article/autophagy-cells-explained.  Pharmaceutical companies are trying to produce drugs that imitate autophagy, but the easiest and quickest way to get your cells to eat themselves is through not feeding them food.   Although the biological mechanics of autophagy  have not been previously well understood, the benefits of autophagy by fasting have been known for millennium.  Fasting is the original method of healing and is more than likely intuitively practiced by your pets and children when they are sick.  When I googled “testimonies of diseases cured by fasting” I got 380,000+ results.  If you are part of a religious community, you might be surprised at the stories people can tell you from their experiences fasting.  For example, a girlfriend of mine had been trying for many years to get pregnant.  She had a severe case of Endometriosis which is very painful and often prevents conception.  Her husband and her fasted and prayed for three days for her to get pregnant.  God answered their prayers; they got pregnant (3 times in the following years - all boys), and her endometriosis was cured - it never came back.
Many religions practice some form of fasting.  In the past decade the Mediterranean Diet has been touted as the best for health and longevity.  However, most of the studies proving its effectiveness have failed to mention that fasting plays an important role of life of these people.  It is possible that it is the fasting which has more health benefits than the diet. Three of the four original studies were conducted in Crete, Corfu in Greece, and Dalmatia in Croatia.  The researchers studied what the people ate, but they neglected to note the importance of the fast in their Greek Orthodox lives.  The Greek Orthodox calendar has numerous days for fasting. There are short term total fasts from all food and drink before communion and special feasts or holy days.  Lent and three other extended time periods during the year have partial fasts from meat and often from dairy products, olive oil, and wine - also the size or number of meals can be decreased during those times.   Partial fasting is also encouraged on Wednesdays, Fridays, and other special days.   This adds up to over half of the calendar year!  I think it’s safe to say we are all slackers in the fasting department compared to Greek Orthodox.  Not every church member participates in every fast, and exceptions are made for children, pregnant and nursing mothers, and people who do hard physical labor.  Abstaining from sex and worldly entertainment are included in the fasting.  Fasting is (or was in the 1960’s) a part of their community.  However, feasting and celebration with large groups of family and friends are also integral parts of their life and religion.  Both fasting and feasting are good gifts from a good God.
In the Western church, Lent is the best known time for fasting for Christians, and I think it is the best time for people to learn how to fast.  There are a couple of reasons for this: First our ancestors naturally ate a little less this time of year.  In farming societies, there is less food available at the end of February and March.  There is naturally less of the vegetables, grains, and meat that were harvested in summer and fall.  The second reason is it’s also a little warmer.  It is very difficult to fast when it is very cold outside - our bodies want to eat more to stay warm.  And even though much of the US is still quite cold at this time of year, it feels warm compared to December and January.  The third reason is that millions of other Christian are fasting around the world during Lent.
I remember back in my New Age days a saying - “There is no spiritual hitch-hiking.” This meant that just because people around you, for example, were meditating, it doesn’t mean you will reap their benefits if you are not meditating as much as they are.  However in Christianity, we do have spiritual hitch-hiking.  Jesus said when two or more are gathered in his name, he will be there too.  I think the Holy Spirit is more noticeably present in people who are fasting, and we can receive this blessing into our life.  So if you have never fasted, Lent is a great time to begin.  Even if you go to a church where Lent is not observed, some of your fellow parishioners are more than likely observing some form of the fast.
The easiest way to begin fasting it to extend your time of not eating.  If you usually finish your last meal at 8 pm and begin your first meal at 8 am, you are already fasting 12 hours a day. You could eat dinner an hour earlier and breakfast an hour later.  Then eat the same meals as usual, but without meat and sugar.  That is a fast day.  If you want to try going completely without food, start with the biblical day which is evening.  If you eat lunch - skip dinner and breakfast the next morning and eat again at lunch, that is a 24 hour fast.  Congratulations, it wasn’t that difficult was it?  I would encourage people new to fasting not to start a fast in the morning.  If you don’t eat for a full day and night, it is actually a 36 hour fast when you begin eating again which is more difficult.
Many of the medical studies on fasting actually allow 500-600 calories a day during a fast day.  When I do this, for example, I have a whey protein shake (120 calories) for breakfast.  Soup broth with a little meat and vegetables or two small baked potatoes with salt and vinegar for lunch and/or dinner add another 350 - 400 calories. If I get especially hungry, I can add another whey shake or a couple of nuts with salt for an afternoon snack or for a dessert after dinner.  The advantage of this method of fasting is that your hunger hormones (ghrelin) are programmed to increase at your usual eating times. So by putting something in your stomach at these times, you experience less hunger.
Children (girls under 16 and boys under 18), pregnant and nursing mothers, people who have physically demanding jobs, and severely sick and underweight individuals might prefer to try a few partial fast days during Lent.  A day without meat, sugar, and flour would be beneficial for health and for spiritual discipline.  Beans and rice are classic stand-ins for meat (and are the major foods gratefully consumed by most of the world’s citizens). Some people prefer liquid or juice fasting - although too much juice from fruit and sweet vegetables (carrots, beets) raise insulin levels and hunger.  I like bone marrow and vegetable broths during a fast, and these keep insulin levels lower.
So far I have discussed a little about the health benefits of fasting, but there are also spiritual benefits. Protestants have generally been negligent on the spiritual discipline of fasting.  In recent years, however, fasting has in Charismatic circles.  Fasting was not discouraged at the beginning of the reformation.  Even our esteemed teacher and prophet John Calvin promoted the benefits of fasting.  “A holy and lawful fast has three ends in view. We use it either to mortify and subdue the flesh, that it may not wanton, or to prepare the better for prayer and holy meditation; or to give evidence of humbling ourselves before God, when we would confess our guilt before him,” ( Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV, xii, 15).  I believe there are even more reason to fast than this.  Jesus told his disciples that they would fast when the bridegroom was gone (Matthew 9:15).  He also said “when you fast” not “if you fast.”  When we replace food and eating with bible study and prayer, we can reap a closer relationship with our Lord.  Two of the most significant spiritual events in my life (30 years apart) occurred during or right after three days of fasting. I wasn’t expecting these gifts from the Holy Spirit - and it actually took me a while to recognize what they were, but an increased sense of the presence of the Lord is often reported by people who fast.  Insights, the breaking of harmful bonds, and direction or clarity of vision can also come from fasting.
It is important to break a longer fast carefully.  It is natural to be hungry when breaking a very limited or no calorie fast.  You might eat an extra 100 to 300 calories for a meal or two following a fast, but don’t break a fast at a potluck or you might have trouble trying to stop eating.  As with anything, practice makes perfect.  Start with small fasting goals and slowly graduate to more difficult goals.  Some of the physical benefits you will experience from limited calorie fasts will be increased energy, less pain, and a sense of joy.  
Fasting is a great gift for a healthy body and a healthy spirit.   However, it is only been in the last week or so as I was thinking about writing this article that I realized the connection between some spiritual experiences I have had and fasting.  Now I am feeling joy and anticipating what good thing the Lord will do the next time I fast.   The health benefits of fasting are very good, but what I really look forward to are the spiritual benefits.



For more ways to encourage autophagy besides fasting read http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2016/03/11/autophagy.aspx



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