Before moving to 5 major health benefits of fasting, I would like to share which all major religions believe in fasting.
Buddhism: They refrain from eating after noon until the following morning.
Hinduism: They follow different pattern of fast. Shravan and Navratri are quite common. In most of the cases, water and fruits are permitted.
Jainism: They do upvas by avoiding food and water ranging from 1 to 9 days continuously.
Christianity: Their regular fast is done by abstaining from all food, both solid and liquid, except for water.
Islam: They refrain from both eating and drinking from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadan.
Whenever you are fasting under religious belief, you don’t have to expect weight loss or better health. You need to focus only on god, refraining from bad habits and taking part in charity. In return God will give you the result in the form of better health.
Here are the 5 major health benefits of fasting.
1. Promotes fat breakdown and weight loss
Do you know? Carbohydrates present in foods causes weight gain and increase in fats to a greater extent. This is because, carbs are broken down into glucose and stored as glycogen. If you are not involved into any physical activity then this glycogen level rises and will make you fat.
The first response of the body to fasting is break down of glucose. When the store of glucose is exhausted, ketosis begins. This is break down of fats to release energy.
2. Reduction in High blood Pressure
Cholesterol and Sodium (Salt) causes high blood pressure.
As mentioned in point 1, when store of glucose is exhausted then fats also reduces. It helps to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is clogging of arteries by fat particles.
3. Promotes Healthy diet
How many of you consume fruits daily? Of course your answer will be either “it depends on mood” or “it's availability in the fridge”. By skipping fruits, you are losing enough vitamins and minerals which is hardly available in the food you consume.
Fasting promotes desire for natural foods like water, fruits, milk and juices. As a result, fasting promote healthy lifestyle.
4. Boosts Immune system
Fast will cause white blood cells to break down during fasting, resulting in new ones to be built when the fast is broken, thus replacement of old damaged ones. Thus, strengthen the immune system.
5. May Help to Overcome Addictions
Addictions can come in all shapes and forms and fasting provides an excellent opportunity to ditch them.
Fasting teaches you self-restraint for most of the day, you will come to realize that forgoing your addiction all together may not be has hard as you think!
You might be a chain smoker, pan consumer or frequent tea taker. It helps how to overcome addiction.
I hope, now you are much more familiar regarding the health benefits of fasting. You can reach out to me in case of any clarification.
Please share this post by clicking below and let others know about its benefits.