Volume 3, Number 18: Fasting Safely
The Health Racquet
Volume 3
Number 18
Although true Biblical fasting is not primarily a physical discipline (see http://www.new-life.net/fasting.htmfor more information), it can have positive side-effects with regard to how your body reacts. According to Elson M. Haas, M.D., "detoxification is an important corrective and rejuvenative process in our cycle of nutrition. It is a time when we allow our cells and organs to breathe out, become current, and restore themselves." Even though this is far from the primary purpose of fasting, it can be a good way of detoxification.
Again according to Elson M. Haas, (whose views I do not entirely agree with) fasting can have several medical benefits:
1. minimizing the work the digestive organs have to do
2. liver gets a chance to clean up
3. stored or circulating chemicals are broken down
4. blood & lymph cells get a chance to catch up, repair themselves and get rid of waste
5. stored fat is used up-taken from http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1996
These are all great, but we need to keep our purpose for fasting on seeking God.
Although fasting does have good side-effects, it can also have some bad ones that you should be aware of coming into and out of fasting:
1. "Make sure you are medically able to fast before attempting it. Some brothers and sisters that I know can only do a one-day partial fast. They drink different types of juice, but take no food or other liquid. God knows and understands their medical condition and does not expect them to harm their "temple" (1 Corinthians 6:19) in order to be spiritual. There are no rigid standards about fasting in the Bible that say you must do this or that.
2. "Begin with short fasts and gradually move to larger periods of time if you desire. If you've never fasted before, you need to start slow. Don't start with a three day fast!
3. "Be prepared for some dizziness, headache, or nausea in the early going. Most of our bodies have never gone without food for longer than a few hours.
4. "Break a prolonged fast gradually with meals that are light and easy to digest. Trying to gorge yourself following a fast will only make you sick and will leave you with an unpleasant memory of fasting." -taken from http://www.new-life.net/fasting.htm
Fasting can be of enormous benefit spiritually and even has good physical side-effects, but we must also be careful that we do not harm our bodies beyond what they can stand. If you aren't medically able to fast totally but still want to fast, a partial fast is recommended.
To find out more about how to fast safely, please visit http://www.billbright.com/howtofast/fastsafely.html.
Another website you could visit: http://www.morningstarministries.com/fasting.html.
Volume 3
Number 18
Fasting from a Physical Point of View
By Allegra Tschappler
Although true Biblical fasting is not primarily a physical discipline (see http://www.new-life.net/fasting.htmfor more information), it can have positive side-effects with regard to how your body reacts. According to Elson M. Haas, M.D., "detoxification is an important corrective and rejuvenative process in our cycle of nutrition. It is a time when we allow our cells and organs to breathe out, become current, and restore themselves." Even though this is far from the primary purpose of fasting, it can be a good way of detoxification.
Again according to Elson M. Haas, (whose views I do not entirely agree with) fasting can have several medical benefits:
1. minimizing the work the digestive organs have to do
2. liver gets a chance to clean up
3. stored or circulating chemicals are broken down
4. blood & lymph cells get a chance to catch up, repair themselves and get rid of waste
5. stored fat is used up-taken from http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1996
These are all great, but we need to keep our purpose for fasting on seeking God.
Although fasting does have good side-effects, it can also have some bad ones that you should be aware of coming into and out of fasting:
1. "Make sure you are medically able to fast before attempting it. Some brothers and sisters that I know can only do a one-day partial fast. They drink different types of juice, but take no food or other liquid. God knows and understands their medical condition and does not expect them to harm their "temple" (1 Corinthians 6:19) in order to be spiritual. There are no rigid standards about fasting in the Bible that say you must do this or that.
2. "Begin with short fasts and gradually move to larger periods of time if you desire. If you've never fasted before, you need to start slow. Don't start with a three day fast!
3. "Be prepared for some dizziness, headache, or nausea in the early going. Most of our bodies have never gone without food for longer than a few hours.
4. "Break a prolonged fast gradually with meals that are light and easy to digest. Trying to gorge yourself following a fast will only make you sick and will leave you with an unpleasant memory of fasting." -taken from http://www.new-life.net/fasting.htm
Fasting can be of enormous benefit spiritually and even has good physical side-effects, but we must also be careful that we do not harm our bodies beyond what they can stand. If you aren't medically able to fast totally but still want to fast, a partial fast is recommended.
To find out more about how to fast safely, please visit http://www.billbright.com/howtofast/fastsafely.html.
Another website you could visit: http://www.morningstarministries.com/fasting.html.
posted by The Credo Chronicler at 6:55 AM
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