Is fasting beneficial for health?
Photo: His Holiness Atmananda lingden.Place : Mangsebung, provinces number1, Nepal
Fasting is the common practice's in which people just avoid him/herself eating the cooked food, salt ,oil, alcohol, smoking and meat etc, for aday or more. Though the purpose for fasting maybe not be same, so here are some of them.
Religious beliefs:
Photo: mangsebung, Nepal
Most of people all around the world take fasting as their religious practices . Like almost 90% of the population of the Asian major religion like Hinduism, Muslims ,Buddhist, Kirat etc take fasting during the process of religious ceremonies. Some take fasting for one day, one week,a month or even ones in a week for whole life.
In some religion's like Buddhist, Hindu and Kirat, during the period of meditation they even stopped drinking the water to achieve the highest level of practitioner. Although its all about the Religious beliefs, we are not writing any negative comments against someone beliefs instead of it we will respect their optimistic nature. Cause it's the personal rights.
Health benefits:
Only few of them are practicing and avoiding food, fats and carbohydrate and processed foods for the health benefit. Although its not like of religious fasting but also, eventually it's the same process of avoiding food. Instead of processed food, they maintain their daily requirement taking fresh fruits and fruit juices. Drinks fresh water and avoid alcohol , non-veg and junk foods.
Other causes:
And this category is for those people who are not interested in fasting but are forced to take fasting due to peer pressure especially from family's and their numbers are very few.
What are the Advantages of fasting ?
Before going to disadvantages, let us see about their positive sides.
1.Fasting can reduces cancer risks:
Dr. Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at USC and lead developer of the Prolon fasting mimicking diet (FMD). While researching the impacts of fasting on longevity, Dr. Longo noticed starved cells would go into a protective state. And further, by inducing cells into this state, he observed that they were less prone to being damaged by chemotherapy. In turn, this allowed the cells (and the patient) to recover more quickly and have better treatment results. So not only may fasting help prevent and fight cancer itself, but it may also help boost the effectiveness of other cancer-fighting treatments.
2.Fasting Balances Blood Sugar Levels:
During fasting, your body gradually relies more on fat than on carbs for energy. In response, your insulin production decreases. If you have normally high blood sugar, intermittent fasting may help. It has been shown to reduce insulin resistance [1]. Basically, as your body becomes more sensitive to insulin, blood sugar becomes more stable, leading to fewer spikes and crashes.
3.Fasting Can Reduce Inflammation:
If you didn’t already know, chronic inflammation is tied to higher risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis. But these risks may be managed by diet. Research has shown that 1 month of daily 12-hour fasts [2] could be enough to lower levels of inflammatory markers in your body. This could help keep you in better overall health and comfort.
4.Fasting May Promote Brain Health:
Did you know that chronic inflammation is related to a decline in cognitive function [3]? Research indicates that reducing inflammation can improve cognitive brain function. So, related to the point above, if fasting fights inflammation then it also may have a protective effect on the brain.
5.Fasting Could Help Fight Depression:
In addition to brain function, fasting may also improve brain “feeling”. What I mean is, fasts have been shown to have an antidepressant effect . This is in part to its ability to make feel-good neurotransmitters (like serotonin and endogenous opioids) more available to your brain. Likewise, fasting and calorie restriction have been shown to relieve negative emotions like tension and anger, and boost feelings of euphoria .
This all are not about my own ideas but the results of so many scientists and their numerous researches.
Disadvantages of fasting:
There are fewer Disadvantages of fasting due to less concerned about health. We should know that our body needs energy and food is the main source of energy. Avoiding food and diets for long periods can cause many health risks. Fasting doesn’t meant for starving. We may suffer from dehydration due to lack of water. We may experience heartburn, fatigue ,headache, problems in digestion and even sleep disturbance due to starvation. So to avoid such problems we should maintain our basic nutrition by following the process of health benifits.
So instead of carrying anything in actions , we must have the basic ideas from reliable source. So if you are thinking for fasting please take advice from the seniors in your localities. And if you like my articles please leave a comment. Thank you !
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