FASTING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4856, 22 July 1925, Page 4

FASTING.

HISTORY OF A FETISH. RELATION TO HEALTH. Very few people are aware that fasting originated, according to many authorities, in .the experience of its beneficial influence on health. The religious aspect was a much more complex and therefore later idea. To keep the body in subjection to the soul wag felt to be indispensable to spiritual progress, and with the lapse of time came the belief that abstinence from food was pleasing to the Deity. It became associated with rites and ceremonies, and finally was promulgated as a divine law. As such it held sway in Persia, Armenia, Asia Minor, and Palestine, and Hindus and Parsees, with their peculiar views of the relation between body and soul, carried fasting to an unnatural excels. In Egypt the mysytcries of Isis and Osiris demanded abstinence from food before initiation. 'Greece and Rome had their fast days, and the extraordinary feature in Semitis observance was that even the lower animals were obliged to fast along with their owners and shepherds. The law of Moses set apart one day only for the purpose of fasting. The founder of Christianity neither approved nor disapproved of fasting, but His followers in later centuries set up numerous laws about fasting, and set interdict and excommunication among the penalties, for neglect.

Modern interest in the subject centres chiefly in the relation between fasting and health, but it is highly significant that ancient religious practices are found to be conducive to physical well-being. Etymologically holiness and health .are one, the religious term referring to healthy, condition of the spirit and the other being confined to bodily soundness.

Reform in relation to diet lias frequently taken the direction of partial fasting. The no-breakfapt plan, which had a vogue for a time, is by no means extinct, and has the support of some authorities. Without going the length of matutinal abstinence the Frenchman contents himself with coffee and a roll —a very , modest repast in comparison with the Englishman's bacon and eggs and the American’s fruit, cereals, and meat. Habit makes it difficult for ordinary mortals to go without breakfast, but it is probable that many of us would have better health if we had no breakfast, although it might be the better part of discretion to eat less at each meal than to miss one altogether. To go entirely .without food until midday would hardly suit a wharf labourer -or a ploughman, and even those with lighter employment would find it using up their stores of protein and glycogen, as well as a little fat.

An eminent. American physical! declared that people in general ate a great deal more than was good for them, and he not only recommended the no-breakfast plan ,but also fasts of from four to eight weeks’ duration. Keith, of Edinburgh, treated many of his patients by short fasts, allowing them nothing but hot water to drink. A large body of medical opinion favours the practice of short fasts carried out under proper supervision.

From time to time people have undergone voluntary fasts either for the sake of money or notoriety, but in some cases with a view to the advancement of science. A prize of £2OO with the alternative of decent burial was offered in America to anyout who would fast for 40 dayjs. " A doctor took up the challenge and won the £2OO. Others have fasted for various periods, one woman puzzling the by holding out for 65 days and showing no ill effects beyond a loss of weight. In 1920 Terence McSwiney .Lord Mayor of Cork, kept up his hunger strike for 75 days and, then died.

The world is now being invited to undertake something less heroic. Dr. Carlson, head of the department of physiology in the University of Chicago, advises us to eat nothing foir fifteen days, and promises that at the' end of this fast we shall find ourselves new men. As a condescension to those who dearly love .their “witties” he is prepared to the fast to five days, but he insists- that it be done once or twice a year, and promises a longer life and a more vigorous life as our reward. This learned and enterprising physiologist proves his faith by his works, and has" experimented! not only on dogs, but bn human beings, including himself. Like the?- famous old vicar who “allured tQ brighter worlds and led the way,’’; he practised himself what he pleached to others. The tests wbyej 'eonducted under the most rigorous- conditions at the laboratory of the- university, and furniphed complete. scientific data bn the effects of fasting. The subjects, of the experiments 'were undqp careful observation, for months- before as= well as during and after-the fasting periods. The sum and' substance of' the report is thafj nothing but-good’ canr'cbme.from

occasional and well-regulated abstinence froto food.

The poor dogs Were kept without food for 4(1 days, and were surely more to be pitied than Mothre Hubbard’s famous pet. How much more cheerily they would have suffered the pangs of hunger had they known they were sufferers in the cause of science. In the absence of any such supporting consciousness, and in face of the fact that they had lost half their original weight, they had some compensation in seen finding themsclveis heavier than before the test, and enjoying marked improvement in general health. The next subject was a lady teacher, who with praiseworthy, devotion submitted herself to experiment. Her condition was examined every daj’ for a whole year before she took the test. She fasted for fifteen days, during which she lost 171 b, and became very emaciated. She continued -to study and teach throughout the whole experiment, and pulse and temperature remained normal. On the last day of the fast she ate an orange, and at once her feeling of weakness disappeared, and at the end of seven days after starvation she had picked up more than 171 b. After six months she was heavier than she had ever been, and felt herself complete rejuvenated.

When it came to Dr. Carlson’s turn to experiment on himself he resolved during a five days’ fast to compare his feelings of discomfort with the movements or contractions of his stomach when deprived s>l food. To do this he swallowed a tube, at the end of which w r as a small rubber balloon. The balloon was inflated with air, .and when the empty stomach contracted it pressed against the balloon, and the .air pressure at the end of the tube projecting from the professor’s mouth was accurately measured by assistants. The professor continued his lectures during the experiment period, but felt weak on the fourth and fifth days. He noted that the periods of strongest contractions in the stomach were also those of continuous and intense hunger. The hunger sensations never ceased entirely, and on the last day were accompanied by a peculiar burning sensation in the stomach. The aftei’ effects were splendid. Complete recovery took place on the second day aftei the fast, as if he had come back from a month's holiday in the mountains. . One ijatisfactory feature of these experiments is that they are conducted by scientists. The results tabulated were not mere subjective opinions or speculations, but objective, scientific records. The broad general inference to be drawn is that, without committing ourselves to even five days of fasting, an occasional short period of abstinence from food will rejuvenate us, increas weight and efficiency, and ina.il likelihood lentghen life. It will certainly be as good as a holiday, ■ with the . advantage of saving money.

There can be no doubt that multitudes of people eat too much, and the poor, jaded digestive organs never get a day off. As for a week-end for the stomach, it means only increased labour, double toil, and double trouble. If steam engines should slow down and cool down occasionally, surely the digestive organs should enjoy a similar privilege. We drive them too hard with our five or six meals a day, not to speak of the floods of tea and other liquids. A simpler life would be a healthier life, and this, added to an -occasional skipping of a meal or a day’s meals, would do us all a world of good.