Not
Eating:
Fasting & Hunger Strikes
|
Religious
Fasting |
Medical
Fasting |
Effects
of Fasting |
About
Protest Fasting |
Hunger
Strikes: current or notable
|
|
"How People
Fast" |
How
Long Can People Go Without Food
|
|
Sources
& Credits |
Fasting
Fasting
is the act of willingly abstaining
from some or all food and in
some cases drink, for a period
of time.
Fasting for
religious and spiritual reasons
has been a part of human custom
since pre-history. It is mentioned
in the Bible, in both the Old
and New Testament, in the Mahabharata,
in the Upanishads and in the
Qur'an.
Religious
Fasting
Bahá'í
faith
Main article: Nineteen Day Fast
In the Bahá'í
Faith, fasting is observed from
sunrise to sunset during the
Bahá'í month of
`Ala' (between March 2 through
March 20). Bahá'u'lláh
established the guidelines in
the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. It
is the complete abstaining from
both food and drink (including
abstaining from smoking). Observing
the fast is an individual obligation,
and is binding on all Bahá'ís
who have reached the age of
maturity (fifteen years).
Buddhism
Fasting Buddha
Buddhist monks and nuns following
the Vinaya rules commonly fast
each day after the noon meal,
though many orders today do
not enforce this fast.
Christianity
Fasting is a practice in several
Christian denominations or other
churches. Other Christian denominations
do not practice it because they
see it as a merely external
observance.
Biblical
accounts of fasting
Moses fasted for forty days
and forty nights while he was
on the mountain with God.
.
Jesus also warned against fasting
to gain favor from men. He warned
his followers that they should
fast in private, not letting
others know they were fasting
(Matthew 6:16–18). Jesus
fasted for forty days and forty
nights while in the wilderness,
prior to the three temptations
(Matthew 4:2, Luke 4:2).
Denominations and groups
Eastern Orthodox Church
For Orthodox Christians, there
are four fasting seasons, which
include Nativity, Great Lent,
Apostles' Fast and Dormition.
Fasting during these times refers
to abstention from animal products,
olive oil (or all oils, according
to some Orthodox traditions),
wine and spirits -- see Eastern
Orthodoxy (Fasting). However,
shellfish is allowed in some
traditions, though other kinds
of meat are not. Fasting can
take up a significant portion
of the calendar year. The idea
is not to suffer, but to use
the experience to come closer
to God, to realize one's excesses
and for alms giving. Fasting
without prayer and almsgiving
(donating the money saved to
a local charity, or directly
to the poor, depending on circumstances)
is considered useless or even
spiritually harmful by many
Latter-day Saints
Latter-day Saint fasting is
total abstinence from food and
water. Adherents are encouraged
to fast totally for twenty-four
hours (leaving out two meals)
once a month, and the first
Sunday of the month is usually
designated a Fast Sunday; many
Latter-day Saints who observe
the monthly fast begin the Saturday
before this day by not partaking
of the Saturday evening meal.
The money saved by not having
to purchase and prepare meals
is to be donated to the church
as a fast offering, which is
to be used to help people in
need. Sunday worship meetings
on Fast Sunday include opportunities
for church members to publicly
express thanks and to bear their
testimony of faith.
Roman Catholicism
Main article: Fasting and Abstinence
in the Roman Catholic Church
For Roman Catholics, fasting
is the reduction of one's intake
of food to one full meal (which
may contain meat) and two small
meals (known liturgically as
collations, taken in the morning
and the evening). Eating solid
food between meals is not permitted.
Fasting is required of the faithful
on specified days. Complete
abstinence is the avoidance
of meat for the entire day.
Partial abstinence prescribes
that meat be taken only once
during the course of the day.
Hinduism
Fasting is a very integral part
of the Hindu religion. Individuals
observe different kinds of fasts
based on personal beliefs and
local customs.
Methods of fasting also vary
widely and cover a broad spectrum.
If followed strictly, the person
fasting does not partake any
food or water from the previous
day's sunset until 48 minutes
after the following day's sunrise.
Fasting can also mean limiting
oneself to one meal during the
day and/or abstaining from eating
certain food types and/or eating
only certain food-types. In
any case, even if the fasting
Hindu is non-vegetarian, he/she
is not supposed to eat or even
touch any animal products (i.e.
meat, eggs) on a day of fasting.
Islam
In Islam, fasting
starts from fajr (dawn), until
maghrib (sunset) is observed
during the month of Ramadan.
Fasting in the month of Ramadan
is one of the Pillars of Islam,
and thus one of the most important
acts of Islamic worship. By
fasting, whether during Ramadan
or other times a Muslim draws
closer to his Lord by abandoning
the things he/she enjoys, such
as food and drink. This makes
the sincerity of his/her faith
and his/her devotion to Allah
(God) all the more evident.
The believer knows that Allah
will love him/her when he/she
is ready to abandon worldly
comforts for Allah's sake.
Allah informs
Muslims in the Qur'an that fasting
was prescribed for those before
them (i.e., the Jews and Christians)
and that by fasting Muslim gains
'taqwa', which can be described
as the care taken by a person
to do everything Allah has commanded
and to keep away from everything
that He has forbidden. Fasting
helps prevent many sins and
is a shield with which the Muslim
protects him/herself from jahannam
(hell).
Judaism
Observant Jews fast on
7 days during the Jewish calendar.
Five of these are considered
minor fast days, and on these
days fasting is observed from
sunrise to sunset. Fasting is
never permitted on Shabbat.
If a public fast falls on the
Sabbath, it is either delayed
until Sunday, or observed on
the Thursday before. The one
exception is Yom Kippur, which,
based on a verse in the Torah,
is observed even if it falls
on Shabbat.
On the two
major fast days, Jews fast from
sunset to sunset the next day.
The first major fast day of
the Jewish calendar is Yom Kippur.
It is also known as the Day
of Repentance, and is considered
the holiest day on the Jewish
calendar. The second major fast
day is Tisha B'Av, a 25-hour
fast that mourns the destruction
of the first and second Jewish
Temple, and other tragedies
that have befallen the Jewish
people.
Fasting in Jewish practice means
complete abstinence from all
food and drink, including water.
On the two major holidays it
is also forbidden to engage
in any sexual relations, wash
or bathe, and even wear leather
shoes. Partial or total exemptions
apply in many cases for those
who are ill, those for whom
fasting would pose a medical
risk, pregnant women, and nursing
mothers. Fasting despite an
exemption is prohibited, as
endangering one's life is against
a core principle of Judaism.
Medical
fasting
People can also fast for medical
reasons, and this has also been
an accepted practice for many
years.
One reason
that people fast for medical
reasons is for surgery or other
procedures that require anesthetic.
Because the presence of food
in a person's system can cause
complications when they are
anesthetized, medical personnel
strongly suggest that their
patients fast for several hours
before the procedure.
Another reason
that people fast for medical
reasons is for certain medical
tests. People are often asked
to fast so that a baseline can
be established.
A longer fast
for health reasons typically
lasts a week or longer and includes
some food intake, such as fruit
or vegetable juices (see detox
diet).
Recent studies
on mice show that fasting every
other day while eating double
the normal amount of food on
non-fasting days led to better
insulin control, neuronal resistance
to injury, and health indicators
similar to mice on calorie restricted
diets. This may mean that alternate-day
fasting is an alternative to
caloric restriction for life
extension. However, this result
may not apply to human physiology.
People who
feel they are near the end of
their life sometimes consciously
refuse food and/or water. The
term in the medical literature
is Patient refusal of nutrition
and hydration. Contrary to popular
impressions, published studies[2]
indicate that "within the
context of adequate palliative
care, the refusal of food and
fluids does not contribute to
suffering among the terminally
ill", and might actually
contribute to a comfortable
passage from life: "At
least for some persons, starvation
does correlate with reported
euphoria."
In homeopathic
medicine, fasting is seen as
a way of cleansing the body
of toxins, dead or diseased
tissues, and giving the gastro-intestinal
system a rest. Such fasts are
either water-only, or consist
of fruit and vegetable juices.
Some results have been achieved
while including fasting in the
treatment of some kinds of cancer,
autoimmune diseases, and allergies.
Physical
effects of fasting
When food is not eaten, the
body looks for other ways to
find energy, such as drawing
on glucose from the liver's
stored glycogen and fatty acids
from stored fat and eventually
moving on to vital protein tissues.
Body, brain and nerve tissue
depend on glucose for metabolism.
Once the glucose is significantly
used up, the body's metabolism
changes, producing ketone bodies
(acetoactate, hydroxy-butyrate,
and acetone). Even though this
transformation to an alternative
form of energy has been made,
some parts of the brain exclusively
need glucose, and protein is
still needed to produce it.
If body protein loss were to
continue, death will ensue.
After approximately
three days of fasting, feelings
of hunger usually become infrequent
or disappear altogether. According
to Herbert M. Shelton, a proponent
of Natural Hygiene, who over
a period of 45 years supervised
patients fasting on water only
for up to ninety days. Shelton
claimed the 'hunger' experienced
during the first three days
of a fast is "gastric irritation",
and not "true hunger",
which appears after all the
body's resources are used up
and when the fast must be broken
to avoid permanent and irreversible
organ damage.
Fasting
in literature
Franz Kafka's short story A
Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler
- 1922) describes a man who
fasts as a form of art or theater.
Hunger
Strikes
Political
fasts (today more commonly
known as the hunger strikes)
have been around since antiquity.
Fasting was used as a method
of protest and receiving justice
in pre-Christian Ireland, as
well as in India.
One of the
most famous people to go on
a political fast was Mohandas
Gandhi. Some people see a difference
between a hunger strike, a pure
political act, and fasting,
a political and religious act.
By fasting, they intend to take
some of the responsibility of
the problem in question.
Hunger strikes
have been used by personalities
all over the world, including
Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby
Sands, Cesar Chavez and Lanza
del Vasto (during the Algerian
War, Vatican II and the struggle
of the farmers of the Larzac
plateau).
In early 2003,
prior to the invasion of Iraq,
it became known that President
George W. Bush had pledged to
refrain from eating sweets while
American troops were in harm's
way. In June of that year, a
newspaper story carried an account
of Bush dining on peach melba
and lemon pound cake with European
Union leaders.[citation needed]
Today, hunger
strikes are often used by refugees
seeking political asylum.
A crossover
between the religious fast and
the political fast can be seen
in 40 Hour
Famine, an
event run annually by the Christian
relief organization World Vision
Australia, in which participants
fast for 40 hours to raise awareness
of world hunger and funds for
World Vision's relief efforts.
Each year the 40 Hour Famine
draws hundreds of thousands
of participants throughout the
Pacific Rim and beyond.
In India, the
tradition of political fasts
continue. Politicians participate
in short token fasts for gaining
media attention. But people's
movements in India, many organized
around Gandhi's doctrine of
non-violence and truth, continue
to use fasting as a means of
peaceful protest. Members of
the Narmada Bachao Andolan have
often employed this tool of
protest, with decreasing efficacy
Current
or Notable Public Fasts or Hunger
Strikes
Troops
Home Fast 2006
On July 4, 2006 we will launch
an historic hunger strike called
TROOPS HOME FAST in Washington,
D.C. in front of the White House.
While many Americans will be
expressing their patriotism
via barbeques and fireworks,
we'll be fasting in memory of
the dead and wounded, and calling
for the troops to come home
from Iraq. We're inviting people
around the world to show their
support for this open-ended
fast by fasting for at least
one day.
Guantánamo
Bay hunger strikes
(2005)
During the middle of 2005 the
detainees the United States
is holding at the Guantánamo
Bay Naval base, initiated two
hunger strikes.
The first hunger
strike ended on July 28, 2005,
when prison authorities agreed
to make concessions. According
to some accounts half a dozen
detainees were then close to
death. According to some accounts
so many detainees were being
forced to receive intravenous
rehydration that the prison's
well-equipped infirmary was
overwhelmed and detainees had
to be transferred to the Naval
hospital.
On December
30, 2005,the military reported
that there are eighty-four strikers
as of Christmas Day, forty-six
having joined that day.
On 9 February
2006, the New York Times reported
that hunger strikers were being
strapped into restraining chairs
for hours a day for force-feeding
and to prevent vomiting up the
food as attempts at suicide.
An officer said the number of
strikers peaked at 131 around
11 September. Reportedly there
was concern over the international
impact if a striker were to
die. Detainees' lawyers called
the methods brutal and inhumane,
and said other coercive methods
were used, such as being placed
in cold air-conditioned isolation
cells. The assistant secretary
of defense for health affairs
said it was a moral question:
allow suicide, or take steps
to preserve life. On 21 February
2006, the military commander
at Guantánamo conceded
that the authorities were using
restraining chairs as reported
earlier. (NY Times 22 February)
Read
more here.
Afghan
Refugees Hunger Strike in Nauru--2003
Australia's Flotillas
Of Hope Set Off For Nauru -
Flotillas of Hope today welcomed
the granting of refugee status
to 77 Afghan asylum seekers
currently detained on Nauru.
Nauru Has Become A Thorn In
The Side Of Oz Govt. and Images:
Flotilla Of Hope Departs From
NewCastle
Update: Hunger-Strikers
Reports are emerging that the
Australian Government has strong-armed
its Nauru counterpart to cancel
an independent medical team
assessment of the Afghani refugee
hunger-strikers detained indefinitely
on the tiny Pacific Island.
BREAKTHROUGH:
Afghani Refugees Call Of Hunger-Strike
on Nauru - Hunger strikers on
Nauru have called off their
hunger-strike after leaning
that their refugee status will
be reassessed.
The
1981 Irish Hunger Strike
Memorial to the
Irish Hunger Strikers
The hunger
strike was a campaign by Irish
republican prisoners in Northern
Ireland for the British government
to grant them political status.
It was a seminal event in modern
Irish history. It radicalised
nationalist politics, and was
the midwife to Sinn Féin
as a serious political force.
Read
more about it here.
Ceasar
Chavez and the United Farm Workers
Hunger Strike
In 1968 Chavez
goes on a 25-day hunger strike,
which attracts enormous national
attention. The fast reaffirms
his movement's belief in non-violence.
Senator Robert F. Kennedy (above
with Chavez) was a strong supporter
of the rights of farm workers.
Read
more here.
Gandhi's
Hunger Strikes
News of Mahatma
Gandhi's fast in protest against
modifications of the Indian
constitution was broadcast over
the airways to all corners of
the earth. Everywhere, the civilized
world waited for the outcome
of his hunger strike with anxiety
and compassion. Then finally
auspicious news arrived, the
Indian district of Randjah renounced
the changes proposed by the
British Governor in India and
so this respected leader broke
the fast which threatened to
cost him his life.
This was not
the first time that this Indian
leader resorted to a hunger
strike. This fast followed a
succession of hunger strikes
which allowed him to obtain
several victories for his nation
in its struggle for reforms
and freedoms. One needs to only
recall the hunger strike he
used when the Labour Party was
in power in Great Britain, forcing
Prime Minister McDonald to personally
intervene by telegram in the
name of Her Majesty pleading
the Indian leader who was opposing
the British colonial policies
to spare his life.
Read
more here.
British
suffragettes (1903-1910)
In the early 20th century suffragettes
frequently endured hunger strikes
in British prisons. Marion Dunlop
was the first in 1909. She was
released as the authorities
did not want her to become a
martyr. Other suffragettes in
prison also undertook hunger
strikes. The prison authorities
subjected them to force-feeding,
which they categorised as a
form of torture. Mary Clarke
and several others died as a
result of force-feeding.
"Forcible
feeding" of British suffragists,
engaged in hunger strikes in
British prisons, aroused great
sympathy for the women's movement
in both Britain and the United
States. "The sensation
is most painful," reported
a victim in 1909. "The
drums of the ears seem to be
bursting and there is a horrible
pain in the throat and breast.
The tube is pushed down twenty
inches; [it] must go below the
breastbone." The prisoners
were generally fed a solution
of milk and eggs.
Read
more here.
More
information
Tips for
Fasters
What types of fasts are there?
There are many different types
of fasting, but the two main
types that we're suggesting
people to do are juice and water
fasts. A juice fast consists
of only drinking liquids, and
a water fast consists of only
drinking water. If you are worried
about a particular health issue,
you can modify the fast by periodically
eating slices of avocado and
banana, or doing what is feasible
for you.
What do
I do before I fast?
The key to preparing for a fast
is staying hydrated. Drink a
lot of water the day before
you fast and when you eat your
final pre-fast meal, have normal
size portions and try to eat
carbohydrates like potatoes
or noodles instead of proteins
or fats. The carbohydrates bond
with the water that your body
will be able to "drink"
when you begin your fast.
Read
more here.
How
Long Can You Go Without Food?
Hunger strikes 101.
By Brendan I. Koerner Slate,
June 10, 2004
"Despondent over the injuries
he allegedly caused his stepdaughter
while setting his estranged
wife's house ablaze, Charles
Robert McNabb is on a hunger
strike at the Spokane County
Jail. He has lasted 123 days
so far, subsisting on water
and the occasional cup of coffee.
How long can a hunger striker
expect to survive?
Sixty days,
give or take, is the rule of
thumb, though results vary depending
on the faster's body fat and
striking strategy. Physiologists
generally agree that no human
being can survive losing more
than 40 percent of his body
mass—a threshold that
McNabb, stunningly, may already
have crossed, if reports of
his starting (180 pounds to
185 pounds) and current (around
100 pounds) weights are to be
believed.
Fasting becomes
dangerous after just three to
five days, at which point the
body begins breaking down fat
in order to produce energy.
When the liver is reduced to
breaking down fat (in lieu of
the usual glucose), it produces
ketone bodies, a toxic byproduct.
These can be excreted through
the urine, and a particular
variety known as acetone can
be expelled through the lungs.
(Acetone makes a person's breath
smell like pears.) Ketone bodies
can also be oxidized by the
brain in order to make the fuel
it needs. But when ketone bodies
become too numerous in the bloodstream,
they can cause ketoacidosis,
a potentially lethal condition
that afflicts some diabetics.
It's all downhill
after Week 3, or whenever weight
loss exceeds 18 percent of the
starting weight. The body tries
to compensate by slowing down
its metabolism, entering "starvation
mode." Still, once fat
stores are entirely depleted,
the body has no choice but to
mine the muscles and vital organs
for energy. The striker simply
wastes away as his body, quite
literally, consumes itself.
The 60-day
figure that is commonly quoted
as the absolute limit assumes
that the striker is a healthy
adult with approximately 24
pounds of fat on his or her
frame. Someone with a higher
fat content might be able to
last longer, since that person's
body could delay turning to
the vital organs for fuel.
Perhaps more
important, there are certain
tactics that hunger strikers
can use to prolong their protests—and
their agony. The Irish republicans
who fasted near Belfast in 1981,
including the famous Bobby Sands,
supplemented their all-fluid
diets with occasional spoonfuls
of salt. If they hadn't, their
bodies would have become too
depleted of this essential nutrient,
and their blood pressures would
have become dangerously low
at an early stage. (One of 10
prisoners who perished during
the hunger strike, Sands lasted
66 days.)
The most innovative
hunger strikers so far, however,
have been Turkish Marxists protesting
their country's shift from dormitory-style
prisons to Western-style cells.
Their fasts, which claimed an
inmate's life this past February,
are designed to keep the striker
alive as long as possible; some
of the strikers have lasted
longer than 300 days. Their
secret is to ingest salt, unrefined
sugar, and vitamins, which limit
weight loss to just a few ounces
per day.
According to
the Spokane Spokesman-Review,
McNabb did briefly interrupt
his hunger strike when he was
sent to a hospital for a mental
evaluation; there, for three
days, he did eat some food.
Still, by any objective measure,
his 123-day fast is astonishingly
long. Gandhi, perhaps history's
most famous hunger striker,
never fasted for more than 21
days."
|Sources
& Credits
Wikipedia
Fasting
Wikipedia
Hunger
Strikes
A Healthy
Fast is as Good as a Fresh Start
The
Buddhist Channel
Images:
CodePink's
Troops Home Fast
Nauru
Protest image and report
Ramadan
image
Gandhi
British
suffragette force feeding
Guantanamo
Cesar
Chavez with Robert F. Kennedy
Force
feeding victim in China
Woman
fasting with bowl of rice
Fasting
Buddha
The
Miracle of Fasting by Paul
Bragg
Irish
Hunger Strike poster
Irish
Hunger Strike monument
Stop
the Attack on our Health: Hunger
Strike
Australian
hunger strikers with mouths
taped in support of refugees
