According to Orthodox tradition, it is believed that Lent before Easter cleanses the spirit and body, prepares a person for the greatest Christian holiday. But the official medicine is not so optimistic about the desire of the Orthodox to cleanse themselves by completely excluding everything "modest" from their diet for several weeks. In the spring, the body already lacks vitamins, and then a long strict fasting begins, during which you cannot eat dairy and meat products.
What is strict fasting
During Lent before Easter, food restrictions are very serious. They concern not only juicy meat chops and cakes with butter, but also from milk, eggs, fish, animal and vegetable oil. Vegetable oil can only be used to flavor food on weekends. On the rest of the week, you should eat exclusively plant foods, mainly porridge in the water and raw vegetables. This diet is supposed to be observed for more than a month - as much as 40 days.
The worst happens in the first week of fasting. At this time, only non-heat-treated foods and cold drinks (literally bread and water) are allowed. And all this after - "fat" and plentiful Maslenitsa, when the Orthodox allow themselves to overeat almost to the full. By itself, such a diet is fraught with the development of gastritis.
Initially, strict fasting was caused not so much by Christian motives as by elementary necessity. After a long winter in each peasant house, all food supplies were usually eaten. I had to eat very modestly in the spring. Some families lived almost from hand to mouth, eagerly awaiting the first harvests.
At the same time, our ancestors could somehow replenish the reserves of vitamins if the farm had laying hens or a dairy cow. With the advent of Christianity, the centuries-old "tradition" of forced spring fasting was artificially transformed into the form of the Great 40-day fast. But such a severe ordeal for the body causes serious damage to health.
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The harm of a forty-day fast
The main harm during fasting is the complete exclusion of proteins and fats from the diet. In fact, only carbohydrates are left to maintain life and obtain energy for a person. The fasting person has to sit on the strictest carbohydrate-vegetable diet for a long time. Any woman who has ever tried to lose weight with the help of the so-called "buckwheat" diet knows perfectly well how it ends: hair begins to fall out, nails exfoliate, the digestive system becomes completely upset.
Strict fasting has a similar effect on the body. The greatest load falls on the pancreas, which is forced to process some carbohydrates in excessive quantities. The result of this diet is increased cholesterol production. It leads to the formation of plaque in the blood vessels, which can lead to problems with the cardiovascular system.
The second dangerous enemy is the lack of fat and animal protein. Due to the deficiency of these important elements that are essential for metabolism, the body begins to "eat itself", borrowing protein from muscle tissue. Since such important elements as zinc, calcium, iron, sulfur, etc. do not come from the outside, the skin and hair become dry and thin. A deficiency of these substances can be observed in hermits and companions of the church, exhausting themselves for months with fasting. Their skin resembles the finest parchment, their hair is sparse and lifeless.
But even for ordinary lay people, fasting is not useful. At the end of it, the hair becomes very dull, brittle, problems with the nails and stomach begin, the skin acquires an earthy color and often begins to peel off. In women, even with such a strict diet, the opposite effect begins: due to the lack of animal protein and trace elements contained in meat and fish, an increased production of subcutaneous fat begins. The consequence of this is a set of extra pounds. And for a man, the imbalance of vitamins and metabolic disorders are not very good. Obesity and diabetes can be a consequence of religious zeal.
Therefore, if you are going to fast, coordinate this with your confessor so as not to harm your body.