Fasting means to avoid eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset, at least that is what the Islamic meaning of fasting is. Bear in mind, fasting is done throughout the world, some because of scientific reasons, some as a part of diet plan i.e. intermittent fasting and some due to religious compulsions like Muslims do fasting in the holy month of Ramadan or Jews do Yom Kippur Fasting.
In Ramadan, Muslims fast for a whole month. Muslims who fast are restricted to eat or drink anything from sunrise to sunset. Its immense health benefits are backed by science and according to science, fasting is the most helpful way to maintain health.
It helps in losing fats and weight, prevents many diseases, gives enough time to the digestive system, improves insulin, improves hunger, improves eating patterns, improves brain function and, improves the immune system.
Benefits of fasting
Fasting is a safe way to lose weight. It controls the set number of hours of eating. It burns fats within a controlled number of hours. These fasting hours allow fats to burn more quickly than just a regular diet. When a fasting person eats in a set period of hours, the number of calories reduces, and metabolism boosts.
Moreover, fasting prevents many diseases like diabetes type 2, heart diseases, different types of cancers, and, neurodegenerative diseases. Fasting has positive effects on insulin sensitivity. It allows the body to tolerate sugar level or carbohydrates in a better way than the condition without fasting.
It is said that the person does not die of eating less but eating more can kill. In some of the cultures, people live longer because of their controlled diet. On the other hand, a strategy to look young is fasting.
Flaunting a lean physical body can also be accomplished with fasting. The younger the body is, the faster and efficient is the body’s metabolism. Eating less takes less to digest for the digestive system.
Fasting helps in boosting the production of proteins. In this way, brain functioning improves. It activates brain stem cells for converting into new neurons. Numerous other chemicals trigger and promote neural health. This production of proteins protects from brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Fasts also reduce radical damage and regulate inflammatory conditions in the body. it helps in halting the cancer cell formation. This is how the immune system gets improved by fasting.
Fast is the best source in the reduction of stress. Even an animal takes rest by avoiding food when it is sick. We human beings are only species in the world who do not stop eating or avoid food even in a sick condition.
Whereas, fasting also regulates the hormones in the body due to which the body feels hunger. Obese individuals do not receive the correct signals from the brain to stop eating further. The longer the fasting is, the more the body regulates itself to release correct hormones. If hormones work correctly, the body gets full quickly.
Ramadan is about to get started, so most importantly, the religious aspect of fasting is to feel for the impoverished ones who cannot even put a single meal on the table for their families and who starve due to no financial resources. It helps in experiencing real hunger. Apparently, the body feels weakness but it genuinely increases the health.
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