Читать книгу Fasting: The only introduction you’ll ever need онлайн

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Partial or total fasting has been used for thousands of years by many religions and cultures as a means of increasing spiritual awareness and religious observation. For example, in Islamic tradition the period of Ramadan is characterized by complete abstinence from food or water during daylight hours for a period of a month. In the Jewish religion a fast day (no food or water) occurs during the ‘Day of Atonement’ (Yom Kippur) and yeasted grain products are avoided during the feast of the Passover, while Christianity has its Lent period when consumption of animal products are restricted prior to Easter.

Biblical descriptions of lengthy fasts are common, with the emphasis on the heightened levels of spiritual awareness that they lead to, and texts also exist showing fasting to be part of pagan ritual, for instance in classical Greek tradition hundreds of years before the Christian era.ssss1

Fasting as a health enhancing method also dates back to prehistory, with records of the great physician Hippocrates employing fasts as part of his healing regime for many patients.