Intermittent Fasting on the Ekadashi Day and the Role of Spiritual Nutrition

Abstract

Intermittent Fasting (IF) has been practiced for centuries with the belief of wellbeing getting restored. The so-called restoration of internal milieu by calorie free periods is believed in many religions. The Muslims practise the night-only-feeds of Ramzan, the Christians in a few selected days of a week and the Hindus fasting every fifteen days on the day of Ekadashi1. Ekadashi is a Sanskrit word, which literally means 'the eleventh'. It actually refers to the eleventh day of a fortnight and hence there are two such days in a lunar month. After the full calorie free day, there are certain prescribed foods and nutrients to be taken the next day of Dwadashi among which amla fruit and agathi keerai leaves are necessarily taken as a starter before actual full-fledged refeeding. There are a few specific ingredients in these foods which make them ideal to break a fasting session2. As these days are associated with the Hindu deities such nutrition can be designed as spiritual nutrition. Such additives to routine diet may help overcome the problems of refeeding. In this review we have attempted to define the scientific basis of fasting during Ekadashi and the reasoning behind the initial administration of agathi keerai leaves and amla fruits before the intake of routine diet on the following day.i.e. Dwadashi. We tried to look for scientific evidences behind such fortnightly fasting and the specialized feeds on the next day and kept them as objectives of this special review