Although Ramadan is known to be most celebrated by Muslims through a month of fasting, this annual observance is showing signs of being observed by many.
The final week of Ramadan has arrived. Muslims and others who have been observing the month have set themselves up to restrain themselves from all food and drink during the daylight hours depending on their physical, and mental, abilities to carry them through, according to Benchmark Reporter.
In order to prepare for a healthy fast, especially through years with scorching summers that have been seen this year, eating healthy has been proven to stay key.
Suhoor is the pre-dawn breakfast that has proven to aid those observing to successfully, and healthily, make it through the day. The Suhoor meal varies from place to place around the globe, but often is comprised of stewed fava beans.
Dieticians and nutritionists recommend that the Suhoor dishes be filled with protein, healthy fats and fibers. Fruits, smoothies and water in larger amounts than usual are also encouraged in order to keep hydrated and satiated.
But according to physiology, it says that our bodies cannot stay under energy releasing capacity of our food for over 16 hours. Instead, it shows that our body uses up all the glucose taken within 6-8 hours, then it starts to break down to glycogen. And after these burn off, the body starts to use stored fat to keep going.
Fasting does provide a good way to utilize extra stored fat and it also benefits your stomach, giving it a time to shrink and your intestine a chance to empty. Fasting also helps to cut out the habit of uncontrollable eating.
But Ramadan reaches beyond a physical fast. The tradition trains people to gain control over their entire behavior. Muslims are taught to clean out their bad habits through the hard work of fasting, which is said to ready them for the hard work that they really need to do internally.
Fasting is not easy in any capacity, but for Ramadan, even a good breakfast is not sufficient to prepare. Ramadan instead pushes people to change their behavior and that is the practical Islam teaching.
Ramadan also includes avoiding bad speech and bad actions in order to round out the fasting behavior. It is believed that if one doesn’t leave bad speech and bad actions behind, then fasting is not complete.
