Fasting is not Recommended for Weight Loss

Many people believe that keeping fast for a day in a week is healthy.  There is a gap of nearly ten hours between night meals and next day breakfast.  Our body gets used to this natural gap.  Our digestion system also takes rest during this time.  So there is no need for us to give rest to the digestion system especially for a whole day.  The food we eat is converted into glucose that works as a fuel for proper functioning of breathing, excretory systems, heart, kidney and lever functions.  If we fast for a full day, required amount of glucose may not be available for body functions.  Insulin and glucagons hormones control the level of glucose in blood.  Fasting affects this balancing act and thus health is also affected.  Ayurvedam encourages fasting.  But fasting does not mean not eating anything.  Making some changes in the food we take include lot of fruits in the daily diet is fasting according to Ayurvedam.   Harmful radicals are produced in our body.  Antioxidants in fruits destroy the harmful radicals.  So fruits should be given much importance during fasting.

It is better to reduce the quantity of food we take each day than to go for fasting to reduce body weight or for keeping healthy.  Making fruits a part of daily diet is better than to eat fruits one day in a week and take rice and vegetable on remaining six days.  People who fast should take balanced diet on all the remaining days otherwise there would be lot of problems.  According to Ayurvedam, small children, weak people, pregnant women and diabetic patients should not do fasting.

Frequent fasting is not good for health as it reduces immunity of the body and body becomes an address for infections.  Diseases like Tuberculosis may also attack.  Anemia, heart problems and respiratory problems may arise.  Function of brain may also be affected.  When a persons fasts for 24 hours, Ketone bodies and urea in body tissues release from blood and affect the body.  In obese people, fat dissolves and converts into cholesterol due to frequent fasting and there would be risk of heart attacks.  There fore fasting is not the solution to reduce body weight.  Body weight should be reduced gradually. People who want to reduce body weight should consume less fatty food and the quantity of food should also be reduced.