Recently, I went to doctor and they needed a blood sample. A fasting blood sample. Normally this is done in the morning, so that you can have the blood taken soon after waking up. But, my appointment was pushed to 2pm, and I ended up having to skip breakfast and then lunch. I ended up not eating until 6pm that evening. Fasting is purposely avoiding food. And, there are many reasons why people do it….
Why do people fast?
Almost all major religions include fasting as a spiritual practice. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, and Muslims spend the month of Ramadan fasting from sunrise to sunset to strengthen spiritual connection to God and to sympathize with the poor. In Judaism, Yom Kippur is the day of atonement that also includes fasting. Other major religions, like Christianity, also practice fasting as a way to deepen the spiritual connection with God.
Others fast in protest, often called a “hunger strike.” Gandhi used hunger strikes throughout his involvement in India’s independence movement. Today, everyone from prisoners in California to immigration activists uses hunger strikes to protest injustice and draw attention to their cause.
Outside the spiritual and activism realms, people typically fast for two reasons: to detoxify the body and to lose weight.
Types of fasts
Fasting varies from the intermittent fasting, which involves incorporating a fasting day into your weekly diet to juice fasting or “cleanses” to water fasting. Intermittent fasting has been shown effective in helping people lose weight. However, those effects may not last. As with many other fad diets, research suggests the weight loss may be temporary. Water-only fasting means no food or liquids except water and can be very dangerous.
Does it work?
Fasting may be the fastest way to lose weight, but it’s likely water weight, and it’s very likely to come right back once you stop fasting. Plus, some research suggests that repeated “quick-fix” weight loss, or yo-yo dieting, may cause slowed metabolism and increased risk for heart attacks.
As for detoxifying, your kidneys and liver already do most of that every day. It’s their job. There is no evidence that fasting detoxifies the body any more than eating a healthy diet.
Fasting may also lead to some unpleasant side effects like nutrient deficiency, fatigue, dizziness, constipation, dehydration, gallstones, and cold intolerance.
On the flip side, other studies suggest that fasting may improve longevity.
So….fasting makes you lose weight…but it may be temporary. Fasting makes you live longer. Wait; no it doesn’t…. With all this conflicting information, how can you decide if fasting is right for you?
Here’s something else to consider: the psychology of fasting.
Those of you who read my diet soda blog know where I’m headed. If you are fasting to lose weight, you may be psychologically setting yourself up for disaster. Because eating food is way more complicated than filling your body’s gas tank; it is a multi-sensory, social, psychological experience. This may explain research that shows a correlation between “perceived deprivation” of food and binge eating behavior. In other words, simply feeling deprived of food or the ability to eat what you want when you want can be enough to trigger overeating. Which may lead to the type of yo-yo dieting that is linked to increased health risks.
And lastly, if you are considering a fast for health reasons, take a moment to think critically about the fasting industry, a growing part of the multi-billion dollar diet industry. Companies are making big bucks on your belief that you need to lose weight or cleanse your body. If you want to learn more about how fasting effects your body, bring it up at your next medical appointment at Campus Health Services. Or, if you want to talk to someone about your diet and weight, see our dietitian for a free consultation.
During my day of fasting for my doctor’s appointment, I felt cranky, slow, and irritable, and I came home and ate three peanut butter sandwiches as soon as I could eat again. People fast for different reasons, and people have been fasting for spiritual reasons way before our modern culture created the diet industry. Fasting can be spiritually and emotionally enlightening. But fasting to “fix” your body? That’s not a message I want to feed.
Every time I order food from a particular take out place, as soon as I hang up the phone I get an incoming call. An automated machine calling on behalf of my bank, reciting “We fear there may be fraudulent charges on your account […] Please contact our identity theft and fraud department immediately at …. “. Sometimes I even get a text with the same information. The most recent time, I received a call, text, and an email which even went so far as to inform me that my account had been put on hold (i.e. my card was useless) until I called them back to go over the most recent charges on my account. Every time this happens I have to call the bank, and listen to a stranger list the most recent purchases on my card- which of course always concludes with a report of the place I ordered food from and the amount charged.
When the very nice stranger on the phone asks me if this is my charge, all I hear them saying is “so- this extremely unhealthy carb full restaurant you ordered from AGAIN…you spent ____….Don’t you live alone? Geez how many people are you planning on feeding?” I feel embarrassed and called out by the universe for my eating choices and frustrated at the fact that I am forced to report them to a stranger. Even so, I have not yet had the guts to tell my bank that they can stop calling every time I order food from this place because yes, it’s always going to be me (I like to eat their food) so while I appreciate your concern and thorough job of protecting my identity, please stop asking me to answer for my food choices.
These interactions with my bank, although unintentionally and indirectly on their part, are a great example of food policing. I’m sure that many folks prone to food policing out there mean the best. Sometimes it’s good to catch ourselves though and ask – what good is food policing really doing?
If you’re concerned about a friend’s health, it will probably be much better received if you express those concerns in the context of health and caring for your friend instead of commenting on if they’re “going to eat all that”, asking them “if they need to eat that” and making comments such as “you sure don’t look like a vegetarian”. Food policing ourselves, i.e. making comments like “oh no, I don’t need anymore, I’m trying to be good” can have a similarly negative effect on those around us. Food policing may sometimes even sound like compliments such as “great job choosing that salad!”.
Unless a friend or partner has come to a plan of healthy eating or exercising on their own or at the suggestion of a doctor and specifically asked for your support, food policing may be more harmful than helpful. Hopefully you’ve been hearing a lot about eating disorders and how they affect college students over the course of this past week. Even if you think information about eating disorders seems a little too extreme to apply to you and your friends, we can all still be mindful of how our own food policing-whether directed at others or at ourselves in the presence of others- is affecting our friends and their body image.
If you’re genuinely concerned about a friend’s eating habits, make it a point to talk to them while they’re not in the middle of a meal or about to sit down to start eating. You may consider suggesting they make an appointment at Student Wellness to meet with a Clinical Nutrition Specialist or Nutrition Education Consultant on campus. They’re great folks who can help you, your friend, or a partner go over healthy meal planning and choices for them and their body. If you’d like to host a program on healthy body image or nutrition for your student group or hall, check out the health education and training services available at Student Wellness.
Are you a self-proclaimed “foodie”? If so, today is a special day for you. Today is National Food Day, a day dedicated to celebrating healthy, affordable and sustainable food.
The typical fast-food driven American diet has severe health implications such as increased risk for disease and premature death. Acknowledging these consequences, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) created the Food Day campaign just one year ago as a movement toward a better food system.
In only one year’s time Food Day has become viral, engaging all Americans to “eat real”! Food Day supporters believe that Americans of all ages, races, incomes and geographic locations should have the opportunity to select healthy dietary choices. Learn more about this movement by watching the food day video here:
http://www.foodday.org/eating_real