by Rahman Majere

Created on: December 18, 2009

Can you imagine yourself fasting like a Muslim? In the fasting month, the Muslims wake up before dawn, eat a small meal and throughout the day, completely abstain from food and drink until dusk. One can easily imagine the thirst and hunger that this causes and it would be ridiculous to think that during the dusk meal, anyone who has fasted as such would purposely miss out this vital meal.

Yet almost everyone, Muslim or otherwise, routinely fast at night when they sleep. Let us put it into perspective. In between breakfast and lunch, there is typically an interval of about six hours and between lunch and dinner, that interval is about the same amount of time. Now consider that usually, the interval between dinner and the next day's breakfast is about ten to twelve hours! Even so, after fasting for such an extended period of time, many amongst us still choose to skip breakfast! Common excuses include a hectic lifestyle, desiring extra time for sleep and trying to lose weight and slim down. However, these reasons, especially the belief that cutting breakfast will help one to lose weight are totally misguided.

Did you know that whilst many Muslims slim down and moderate their body weight during their fasting month, some Muslims actually GAIN weight during the fasting month? What is the main difference between the two? It's simple. The 'slimmers' ate their pre-dawn meal whilst the weight gainers didn't. When the weight gainers break their fast at dusk, they've had essentially 24 hours of lack of food and drink to replenish with a single meal. Predictably, they will start to eat massive proportions of food and drink to compensate. Even the most disciplined oe people cannot ignore the hunger pangs because they are the body's way of warning the person that something is wrong.

Even worse, because the person has gone on for such a long time without sustenance, the body takes this as a sign that it should store up as much fats as possible to prepare itself should something similar happen. Something similar happens when the average person skips his breakfast and eats a massive lunch. The body interprets it as a sign to store fats. Furthermore the breakfast skipper will likely choose foods that are high in sugar to replenish his energy immediately and this in itself leads to a pattern of unhealthy eating habits.

Also, eating massive lunches as opposed to eating moderate breakfasts and lunches is inefficient in terms of getting the nutrients to your body. The human

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