Fasting for better Health

Have you ever tried fasting? I know many people do it for religious reasons. Many people tend to refrain from it also because they can't stay hungry for a whole day. But, apart from the religious reasons, there are scientific reasons also for holding fasts. Regular or weekly fasts are actually supposed to be really good for your system. If you are one who observes weekly fasts, you might have noticed that your body feels more livelier and you feel good. Your mood gets rejuvenated. This is just one of the effects of fasting.

Regular fasting is good for detoxifying your body. Not eating anything for a whole day helps your body to feel rested especially your digestive system and also helps your body to clean up the toxins and regulate the functioning of other organs of the body like liver, kidneys and other parts. The metabolic process also slows down apparently to give your body a little rest. So, rejuvenation also accompanies the fasting ritual. Other positive effects of fasting include improved immune system, efficient protein production, reduction in body temperature and improves the healing process of the body. So, you can also expect anti-aging effects from fasting too. Due to lack of proper nutrition, the body breaks down the fat reserves in the body so a controlled fasting routine would also help in weight loss. And, it also helps in increasing the life span of the person.

Thus, a weekly observed fast can help to clean your body and make it better. But, a prolonged fast is actually very harmful for the body and all the positive aspects would become negative actually. So, in case you are planning on a crash diet or anything, I would like to warn you that it would not actually help you in anyway. While observing fast, you need not starve your body completely. You can have fresh fruits, fruit juices and other nutritional liquids as they would also fulfill your nutritional  needs for the day. Eating and drinking light fruits and fruit juices will be good for your system. That would include citrus fruits, kiwi, avacado, figs, berries, cherries, litchi, apple, water melon and other light foods. You can also take fresh homemade soups made from spinach, cabbage, carrot, tomato and any other veggies you prefer. I would advise you to avoid heavy fruits and foods like bananas, dairy products, mango, papaya, dry fruits and nuts, any heavy vegetables like potato, chocolates and other junk food too. You should also avoid intake of salt and sugar. Choose a particular day in a week and make it a regular routine to avoid eating any solid food on that day. Some people observe fast by not eating anything in the day time and eating in the evening.