"However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” – Matthew 17:21
Fasting induces something known as "autophagy" – a Greek word meaning "self-eating," or "self-killing" – in which the cells recycle old proteins and "junk" to optimize overall performance. Beyond this health benefit, there are of course profound spiritual benefits to fasting.
It builds discipline and compounds the effects of prayer, which is why it is central to the Christian life (and all religions). In this episode, I’m with Way of Beauty regular Charlie Deist of anaturalmethod.com.
We discuss how the pattern of traditional abstinence, fasting and feasting matches, steadily more and more, recent developments in nutritional science. Tune in to find out what fasting does for the body on a cellular level, and why eating a high-fat diet generally lends itself to more frequent and intense fasting.
He refers to Josh Whiton and his site, joshwhiton.com; and PD Mangan of roguehealthandfitness.com, whose guide on intermittent fasting informs his perspective on fasting from a scientific perspective.
The image is an ancient fresco of the Irish monk from the 6th century, St Columbanus, from the Cathedral of Bobbio in Italy.
