by Matthew Dearden

Created on: May 18, 2009   Last Updated: May 22, 2009

Fasting is a practice that has been in place since at least since Biblical Old Testament times. It was traditionally a religious exercise designed to refocus one's mind on God or to mourn the loss of something precious. We see many examples of fasting throughout Scripture. One of the more famous accounts is when Jesus himself fasted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. At the end of this time of fasting Jesus was tempted by the devil himself. The book of Matthew implies that along with being extremely hungry, Jesus was very weak and angels had to attend to him after the devil left.

The reason that fasting was used as a way to refocus is simple. People realize how weak and frail they are when they are hungry. There are few limitations humans have that are as powerful as hunger. Hunger makes us realize how weak we are. Fasting has always been a way to show people that they are weak before a god. Fasting worsens our physical condition to show our frailty.

To do it for any other reason is pointless. Stars today are making headlines with extreme fasting diets to lose weight, and these diets have become popular even among those of us who are "normal" people. Interestingly however, the point of fasting is, and has always been, to weaken us, and not to make us better. To use fasting as a tool for weight loss is running directly counter to everything we've learned the past 4,000 years.

Take a well-polished college-aged runner. I understand that not all of us aspire to run competitively but, regardless, we all esteem people like this highly. They are in good shape, they look good, and they get the dates. They aren't struggling day in and day out to keep their weight under control. They "have it made" in the fitness department and deep down we know that's what we desire as well.

But these guys also eat-and they eat a lot! Being a former college cross country runner myself, I know that dinners often consist of huge amounts of pasta and bread, salad, meat, and then even some dessert here and there. They eat well, they play hard, and they stay hard. Food is not their enemy but their friend. If they lacked food in their daily diet - if they fasted - they would no more be a competitive collegiate athlete than if they never ran. And we would surely never advocate that.

Proponents of fasting diets argue that fasting not only removes fat from the body but also cleanses the body of toxins. It certainly can have some affect on certain

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