Get in shape the healthy way by fasting and drinking lemon honey juice
08/05/2020 / By Skye Anderson / Comments
Get in shape the healthy way by fasting and drinking lemon honey juice

You may be familiar with fasting as one of the trendier methods for losing weight. After all, it wasn’t long ago that fasting diets became all the rage, and intermittent fasting became one of the most commercialized diet “fads.”

But fasting is more than just a fad: It is an ancient tradition and one of the oldest therapies in medicine. Doctors from the old days considered it an integral method of healing and disease prevention.

A brief history of fasting

Fasting is widely practiced in different religions and cultures as a means of cleansing and purifying the body and the spirit. Buddhists monks only ate in the morning and fasted until the next day, believing that it was the key to good health and living in comfort.

The early Christians fasted for a variety of reasons, such as for worship, confession, repentance, divine intervention and healing. Three types of biblical fasting are still practiced by Roman Catholics today: partial fasting, or abstinence from delicacies; complete fasting, also known as liquid fasting; and absolute fasting, which strictly means no solids or liquids.

Muslims, meanwhile, fast during the holy month of Ramadan as an act of worship and as a means of improving themselves and getting closer to Allah. Mature and healthy Muslims are encouraged to fast with breakfast as their sole meal for days on end not only to learn patience, but also to break bad habits.

While religions traditionally used fasting for spiritual practices, ancient civilizations used fasting for medicinal purposes. The earliest records of the use of fasting as a treatment date back to the time of the Ancient Greeks. Hippocrates, considered the “father of medicine,” often prescribed fasting to his patients because he believed it promoted the body’s natural healing abilities.

The German-Swiss physician, Paracelsus, the founder of medicinal chemistry and modern toxicology, also endorsed the benefits of fasting, even regarding it as the greatest remedy. Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the Ancient Indian healers were also using fasting as a treatment for major illnesses.

Can fasting really help you lose weight?

Since fasting — particularly, intermittent fasting — caught on as a diet trend, conflicting information has surfaced about it. Some reports vouch for the effectiveness of fasting as a weight loss approach, while others contradict those claims. But here’s what science has found about fasting and weight loss:

An article published in the Harvard Health Blog offers insight into how fasting can help you shed pounds. According to Dr. Monique Tello, a practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, the body quickly breaks down carbohydrates from foods into sugar molecules. These molecules are used by cells for energy. Sugar that isn’t utilized by cells is stored in fat cells.

The pancreas is responsible for producing insulin, a hormone that signals cells to absorb sugar from the blood. When you fast, your insulin levels go down because you don’t consume any carbohydrates. This triggers your fat cells to release stored sugar so your cells can use it as energy. As a result of this decrease in insulin levels, your body gradually starts to lose weight.

The goal of intermittent fasting is to reduce your insulin to the lowest levels possible long enough for your body to burn fat.

Short-term fasting with honey and lemon juice

When it comes to food-based natural remedies, you won’t find a pair that makes a more potent combo than honey and lemon.

Raw honey has carved a niche for itself in history as a natural medicine for all sorts of ailments. Over the years, scientists have found evidence of the many health benefits of raw honey, which include being an antioxidant and phytonutrient powerhouse, a powerful antibacterial and anti-fungal agent, a remedy that can speed up wound healing, a medicine for digestive issues and a natural cough suppressant.

Meanwhile, lemon, a popular citrus fruit, is an excellent source of vitamin C. This essential nutrient can boost your immune system, as well as your production of collagen, the protein that gives your skin elasticity. Lemon is also rich in antioxidants that can protect your cells from the damaging effects of free radicals. These antioxidants, together with the other active compounds in lemon, can also help lower your risk of life-threatening diseases, such as heart disease and cancer.

In a recent study, Indian researchers decided to find out the benefits of lemon and honey when combined with fasting. They recruited 50 healthy participants and looked at their lipid profiles and body weights after drinking lemon honey juice four times a day for four days while fasting.

The researchers found that lemon honey juice fasting led to a significant loss of weight, as well as reductions in the body mass indices, fat mass, free fat mass and total blood triglyceride levels of the participants. They also noticed that, when grouped and analyzed based on gender, the female participants had more consistent results than males.

These findings convinced the researchers that drinking lemon honey juice while fasting is an effective way of losing weight and improving the blood triglyceride levels of healthy people. They also noted that this type of fasting could be used to prevent obesity and hypertriglyceridemia, a condition linked to atherosclerosis.

Fasting is an age-old religious practice that offers plenty of health benefits. Besides helping to purify both body and spirit, fasting also improves health by supporting the body’s natural ability to heal and promoting the burning of fat. If you’re looking for a healthy and natural way to lose weight, try your luck with fasting. Research suggests that the beneficial properties of lemon and honey can enhance the effectiveness of this weight loss approach. But as with any type of diet, there is a proper way to do it. To get the best results, seek advice from a professional who can guide you on how to fast safely and effectively.

Sources:

TargetHealth.com

TheFastingMethod.com

Cru.org

Aljazeera.com

Academic.OUP.com 1

Academic.OUP.com 2

Healthline.com 1

Healthline.com 2

Hormone.org

OnlineLibrary.Wiley.com

Health.Harvard.edu

MedicalNewsToday.com

ScienceDirect.com

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