Fasting is useful?

Fasting is practiced for many centuries. But whether it helps to lose weight and improve your health?
It would seem simple: do not choose any products or counting calories or cooking. Just put on the cross and the food sitting on the water and juices in anticipation of rapid weight loss and other health effects.


Here is a recent example - the actress Beyonce Knowles. For the starring role in "Dreamgirls," she was fed only water with lemon juice and cayenne pepper and lost 10 pounds.
But what about ordinary mortals? Let's see:
Effectively fasting for weight loss?
Does it for ischemic heart disease, hypertension, asthma, arthritis and autoimmune disorders?
Extends the life of a starving?
Finally, it is helpful if fasting for health?
People are starving and going hungry for many centuries, but these issues are still vigorously debated in medical circles.
Fasting for Weight LossIf you examine the arguments, it becomes clear that the majority of doctors believe that fasting - not the healthiest way to lose weight.
Fasting is attractive because it allows you to quickly lose weight. But it happens mainly due to fluid loss, not fat.
The fact that it is easy to leave, just as easily returned. Even proponents of fasting does not support the idea of ​​fasting for weight loss. Moreover, many nutritionists say directly that fasting will only aggravate the problem with weight.
Fasting slows down metabolism, so that later when you return to normal diet, body weight certainly increase. In addition, fasting for weight loss is dangerous to health. If a healthy person can easily refuse to eat for 1-2 days, then the people who are properly fed, suffer from kidney, liver, immune system or take medications, the effects of starvation can be unpredictable.
Fasting for weight loss distracts from what really makes it possible to lose weight. We must not starve, and limit fat intake, eat at least five fruits and vegetables a day, do not drink any liquids other than water, and daily walk of at least 30 minutes.
Fasting is often accompanied by enemas to cleanse the bowel, which is also dangerous: in the gastro-intestinal tract microflora is - good bacteria - which are in such gross interference could be affected.
Fasting in health purposes
Does fasting rid the body of harmful substances? On this question there is no unequivocal answer.
Some experts argue that the cathartic effect of fasting is not scientifically proven. The very question of biologically incorrect, as the body copes with the task of self-cleaning without special assistance. The natural center of such treatment - liver. Get rid of toxins and helps the lungs, intestines, kidneys, lymph nodes and skin.
Other experts strongly disagree. The body can not cope with the toxins in malnutrition, which holds the majority of the population.
The diet of modern man for the most part consists of products subjected to industrial processing, poor dietary fibers and antioxidants. Because of this, the cells of the body accumulates toxins that lead to the development of atherosclerosis, diabetes, disturbances of the nervous system and other organs. In the medical schools know this, even freshmen.
Along with the change of diet, starvation is a radical way to solve this problem. It allows the body to cleanse naturally. The refusal of food is not unusual - a man so hungry every night.
How does the removal of toxins from the body? Fasting for 1-2 days, starts the process of ketosis. This means that in the absence of carbohydrates coming from outside, the body begins to burn its own fat to provide energy needs.
A large amount of toxins that enter the body from the environment, it is accumulated in the adipose tissue.
Fasting for spiritual or religious grounds
If fasting to cleanse the body remains an issue, then as a means of religious and spiritual purification, it has been known for many centuries.
Almost all religious texts - the Bible to the Koran and the Upanishads - the adherents of their religion calls for periodic fasts for spiritual purification, repentance and preparation for union with God.
Fasting for medical reasons
As doctors, they unanimously consider fasting a very useful and even necessary if you have to surgery.
The body does not have to deal with digesting food, when under the influence of anesthesia and the need to maintain and regulate the breath of other processes.
Fasting also provides the reliability of the results of some medical tests. After a short abstinence before blood donation can provide more accurate data on the level of cholesterol and blood sugar.
Starvation as a method of treatment
Proponents of fasting claim that it can be used to cure many serious diseases, from arthritis and colitis to coronary heart disease and depression.
There is evidence that fasting, in conjunction with the general rehabilitation of the diet before and after it has cured lupus, arthritis and chronic skin diseases such as psoriasis and eczema. There have been cases of healing from diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, and hypotension. Fasting followed by a transition to a vegetarian diet significantly improves autoimmune diseases.
Some therapists believe that the short-term fasting helps to cope with stress and depression. They recommend to start with a few hours of abstinence, the hunger to learn to speak "no." Sometimes this is the first step to gaining control over their own lives. Then you can proceed to a more prolonged starvation.
Although from a medical point of view, the benefits of fasting is not proven to be a good reason why, in one form or another, this practice was used for therapeutic purposes in all countries for thousands of years.
Fasting has contraindications. If they do not exist and the disease can not be other forms of treatment can be temporarily refrain from eating for 4-5 days in a month. It activates the immune system. It is true that this method of healing to be effective, both before and after fasting need to eat properly. If you stick to a strict diet, the fasting is not necessary.
Contraindications:

- Pregnancy
- Muscle atrophy, malnutrition
- Arrhythmias
- Hepatitis B
- Renal failure
Prolonged fasting should always be done under medical supervision.
Fasting for the sake of prolonging life
Numerous studies have shown that those animals that consume fewer calories live longer. Conducted on a variety of live suschesvah - from worms to monkeys - these studies suggest that, if the animal is hungry or eats very moderately, it increases its shinsy relatives live longer.
Reduce the life of excess calories. If you do not want to grow old, eat healthy and regularly do not eat anything. More and more doctors recommend a short-term starvation diet as effective in a variety of cases.