What Are the Benefits of Fasting?

In the United States the percentage of obese people is growing. Currently 35% of Americans are obese. Experts predict that soon 50% of the people in the U.S. will be obese. There are many reasons for this but there is one main reason. People eat too much food.


When looking for a car to drive, people want a car that is the most efficient at using gasoline. That way you can get a lot more miles out of each gallon that you put in. When it comes to eating, they want the opposite. They want a metabolism that is as fast as possible so they get the smallest amount of energy from the greatest amount of food.


So people want to put as much food into their mouth as they can. The cause of this is a lack of happiness so they are trying to get more happiness from eating. It is easier to fast for a short time than to try to eat less food all of the time. Many people have lost over 100 pounds just by fasting on weekends.


Some say that you should not fast if you do not change your diet after the fast. This is like saying that you should not bathe if you are just going to get dirty again. This is also a sure way of losing weight. If someone eats nothing for 3 weeks they are going to lose weight. This is just one benefit of fasting.


Another physical benefit is that while fasting (drinking only pure water), the body gets rid of toxins at a faster rate. Now some people say that the body cleanses itself everyday. This is true. But if the rate of toxins going into the body, is faster than the rate of toxins going out of the body, the toxins build up in the body. Holistic healers call it toxemia when there is a lot of toxins in the body. They say that toxemia is the cause of most health problems. The fast gives the body a chance to catch up on cleansing.


Intermittent fasting is when the fast is less than 24 hours. Many recommend this because you do not have to go without food for over a day. Another thing that fasting helps with is that you can get better sleep since you do not have any digestion going on. Also during a fast your digestive system gets a vacation.


Since many people do not have the best diet, they can have problems with their colon like constipation. During a fast, the colon gets a rest and vacation. After this rest, the colon will work better than it has in many years. The way that this whole thing works is that the body is always trying to heal itself and cleanse itself, but people prevent it from doing its job. Fasting gives the body a chance to do its job.


Also during the fast, you save time and money. You do not have to spend all this time shopping for food, preparing the food, eating the food and cleaning up afterwards. You also save the money that you would have spent on food. This goes back to the example of wanting a fast metabolism to so you can buy and eat as much food as possible. Many wise men have fasted like Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Muhammad and Pythagoras. They knew that fasting has immense benefits even though it is not easy to do. Here is an article that has quotes about fasting from 7 different medical doctors (MDs). See The Many Benefits of Fasting.


The author, Chuck Bluestein, was a chemist for the U.S. federal government. He believes in educating instead of medicating when it comes to health.


Article source: EzineArticles