Posted on 03/07/2011 8:27:50 AM PST by NYer
PORTSMOUTH, VA. (Catholic Online) - Dear Dr Denton: As the Lenten season unfolds, can you tell me the effects of fasting on my body?
Lent is my favorite spiritual time of the year. For me, it is a time of great joy. It cleanses my mind, body, and most importantly my soul. I have spent the past year building up toxins from the world I live in. Largely, it is the result of my own choices. I came off the holiday season and .presto, I was not quite as spry as I was in October when I was enjoying those little red rubies we call apples.
While Lent can be viewed as a season of sacrifice and doing without, I believe that it is the season of rebuilding and laying down a foundation that will help to direct our spiritual well being and perhaps our overall health.
What do I mean?
Prayer and fasting leads us to a deeper closeness to God and to peace and beauty within. Interestingly, fasting also gives our body a time to clean out the weight of a heavy year. Fasting on a purely physical level does have some significant and wonderful benefits.
Let´s just start with calorie reduction. In the US, the American food factory produces enough food to fill every citizen with 3800 calories per day. By the way, we only need approximately 2000 calories per day to sustain a normal sized person.
So, how does fasting play a role in our health and wellness?
The most profound way is in the calorie restriction. Studies performed on animals and humans where caloric intake had been restricted have shown that it leads to increased longevity (a longer life). Please understand that I am NOT speaking of extreme fasting.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
For the first time, something good coming from out of fasting.
A cross of ash is seen marked on the forehead of a Christian Maronite after attending a traditional Ash Monday service in Beirut March 7, 2011.
Try it for a week a few moons ago. The first three days are kinda rough - growling stomach and breaking the simple habit of shoving things in the pie hole. Then, BAM - clear head and plenty of energy. You’re allowed to drink as much water as you want. Coming off of it took several containers of prunes. Then, back to the real world.
The ultimate WMD (weapon of mass diarrhea) is a combination of cabbage kimchi, dried apricots and apple cider. You could blow Hoover Dam with that combination.
I bet, but that's not the idea. After seven days without food, your system is WAY empty. There's nothing in there to blow. The first food introduced needs to be soft and not spicy. Prunes are the miracle cure.
The two may have similar effects on body physiology and appearance but they are worlds apart spiritually and theologically. One is spiritual in nature, the other is purely physical.
The primary motivations behind dieting are usually exclusive of God and in some cases, vain and self-indulgent, i.e. the quest for greater beauty and attractiveness. Other times the motivations may be reasonable in and of themselves, such as the desire for improved health or the need to ward off a heart attack but they are focused on self and the important thing is the end; i.e. weight loss.
Fasting, on the other hand, is unconcerned with the physical side effects and the end is not weight loss. The principal and essential ingredient is self-denial. The war against the flesh; the establishment of command over one's senses and appetites. The imitation of Jesus and the following of the Lord's command to deny oneself, take up one's cross and follow Him. One's weight and appearance at the end of this process is irrelevant.
Jesus, prior to the start of his public ministry, went into the desert and fasted for 40 days and forty nights. He did not diet so he'd look good in his tunic.
In fasting, the intention is everything because God sees our hearts.
Orthodox Christian fasting is very similar to the Dr. Dean Ornish diet for the reversal of heart disease. Coincidence? LOL!
Excellent observations.
What’s-in-it-for-me-theology alert.
I feel sick, weak, and light-headed after six hours without food. At eight hours I will get cold sweats and then pass out. It doesn’t seem that this is a good thing. Can God really want this?
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
Of course not! Fasting and abstinence are personal choices. The Church asks us to give it a try on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday ... only 2 days out of the year!
Abstaining from meat, of course, has no significance to a vegetarian. Hence, the purpose behind this request is that of eliminating something we enjoy, on those two days. As for fasting, anyone can physically survive without their morning coffee or cup of tea for two days. It is question of self discipline.
I was a young teen when VCII ended. To this day, I still recall how the news media covered Friday Abstinence. My family was seated around the kitchen table, watching the news, when they announced the VCII had abandoned Friday abstinence and Catholics could now enjoy meat on Fridays. What was NOT SAID, was that the council approved this on condition that Catholics make some other form of personal sacrifice on Fridays. It wasn't until 40 years later that someone pointed this out to me. Still unwilling to believe I had been duped, I now, as an adult, revisited the documents from VCII and realized what the bishops had actually said. It was a humbling experience.
Essentially, ottbmare, choosing to fast and abstain, MUST come from the heart, not from an authoritarian decree. This is between you and your Savior. Consider what He endured for you on the cross then reflect on how much discomfort you experience by abstaining from coffee for one day or fasting from food from midnight until noon. As a Roman Catholic practicing my faith in a Maronite (Eastern) Catholic Church, Lent began today. A growling stomach and no coffee reminded me of that June morning 3 years ago when I was scheduled for surgery and could not eat anything after midnight. I was only allowed to drink water. The difference was that NOW, I had personally chosen to make this fast for the Love of my life, not a surgeon.
Wishing you a Blessed Lent!
Thank you for the kind advice. I have no trouble making sacrifices for my Savior, at this time of year or at any time. Giving up pleasant foods is pretty trivial; I don’t tend to eat much anyway and am rather thin. It just seems as though since the Lord apparently has allowed me to have a blood sugar problem, a total fast + syncope is probably not the ideal way to sacrifice.
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