Fasting refers to complete abstinence from food for a short or long period for a specific purpose. The word is derived from the old English, “feastan” which means to fast, observe, be strict.
Fasting is nature’s oldest, most effective and yet least expensive method of treating disease. It is recognized as the cornerstone of natural healing. The practice of fasting is one of the most ancient customs. It is followed in almost every religion.
The common cause of all diseases is the accumulation of waste and poisonous matter in the body which results from overeating. The majority of persons eat too much and follow sedentary occupations which do not permit sufficient and proper exercise for utilization of this large quantity of food. This surplus overburdens the digestive and assimilative organs and clogs up the sysytem with impurities or posions. Digestion and elimination become slow and the functional activity of the whole system gets deranged.
Fasting has several benefits – During a long fast, the body feads upon its reserves. Being deprived of needed nutrients. particularly of proteins and fats, it will burn and digest its own tissues by the process of autolysis or self-digestion. Fasting affords a physiological rest to the digestive, assimilative and protective organs. As a result, the digestion of food and the utilisation of nutrients is greatly improved after fasting. The fast also exerts a normalising, stabilising and rejuvenating effect on all the vital physiological, nervous and mental functions.