What Is Fasting

1. What Is Fasting?

There are many definitions of fasting and there are many misunderstandings about fasting.

The word “fasting” is derived from the Anglo Saxon language and means “firm” or “fixed,” the word being “faest,” and during these early periods the practice of abstaining from food during certain periods was referred to as fasting. Therefore, it was related to a person firmly withholding food.

From our standpoint, fasting refers to abstinence from food in the total sense. Commonly, and in many religious organizations, fasting refers to abstinence from certain prescribed foods.

In certain quarters, the common language usage is to refer to certain specific foods, and a person may be said to be on a “juice fast” when they are subsisting on juices. In actual fact, these are juice diets.

Fasting in the broad sense may be regarded as negative nutrition compelling the organism to subsist on nourishment that it has stored within itself.

For the purposes of this course, fasting means the voluntary and complete abstinence from all food except water while nutritional reserves remain adequate to sustain life and normal function.

1.1 Fasting vs. Starving

It is important also to make a clear distinction between fasting and starving.

The word “starve” is also derived from the old English word “steorfan” which means “pestilence,” “mortality.” Therefore, to starve is to die, and this is what will quickly happen if nutritional reserves are exhausted.

Therefore, we must fully understand that fasting represents a process of utilizing nutritional reserves while abstaining from eating. Conversely, starvation represents a state where the nutritional reserves have been exhausted and the organism’s vital tissues are rapidly being broken down.