As of: February 24, 2024, 8:00 a.m
By: Laura Hindelang
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During therapeutic fasting, solid food is avoided.
The focus of the treatment is vegetable broth.
This is easy to cook yourself using a simple recipe.
The 40-day period of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.
The temporary waiver is very popular with Germans, as shown by a representative
Forsa
survey commissioned by the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit.
Two thirds of those surveyed consider fasting to be useful from a health perspective.
Most people decide to cut out either luxury foods (alcohol, smoking) or unhealthy foods (sweets, meat) between Carnival and Easter.
One of the most popular fasting cures is therapeutic fasting according to Buchinger.
Solid food should be completely removed from the diet - but not for 40 days, but a maximum of a week.
The short-term complete abstinence is said to have many benefits for the body.
No more than 500 calories – this is how therapeutic fasting works
Therapeutic fasting has a tradition going back thousands of years and was originally practiced as a spiritual exercise.
Even today, fasting is still part of all world religions.
Lent between Carnival and Easter, for example, comes from Christianity.
However, the majority now fast less for religious reasons and more for health reasons.
Therapeutic fasting is recognized as an effective therapy for some illnesses, but healthy people also benefit from the effects, write the health insurance company AOK
and the
German Society for Nutrition,
among others
.
Modern therapeutic fasting according to Otto Buchinger
Modern therapeutic fasting goes back to the military doctor Otto Buchinger (1878–1966).
At just 40 years old, severe rheumatism is said to have made the doctor almost unable to move, reports the
Apotheker-Umschau
.
A strict fasting regimen is said to have reduced and almost ended his suffering.
“After 19 days I was thin, but I could move all my joints like a young man again,” quotes the
Pharmacy Review
from Buchinger’s notes.
Thousands of people then sought treatment from him in his therapeutic fasting clinic in Witzenhausen, Hesse.
According to Buchinger, therapeutic fasting also has a psychosocial and spiritual effect.
He therefore spoke of a “dietetics of the soul”.
Those fasting should devote themselves to beautiful things such as music, books, nature and meditation and avoid technical media consumption and daily stress.
Doctors recommend a duration of five to ten days for therapeutic fasting, plus a preparation day before and three days afterward to normalize eating behavior.
The day before you start fasting, the
German Nutrition Society
recommends a reduced calorie intake (around 1,000 calories).
You should also start avoiding stimulants such as coffee and nicotine.
To make your own broth for fasting, you don't need much more than a few different types of vegetables.
(Symbolic image) © Zoonar/Imago
On the first day of therapeutic fasting, an intestinal cleanse with Glauber's salt is traditionally carried out: To do this, 30 to 40 grams of Glauber's salt are dissolved in a liter of water and drunk within 20 minutes.
After another half hour, half a liter or a liter of water or unsweetened tea should follow.
Fasting soup recipe: Make your own vegetable broth for fasting
On the fasting days themselves you should not consume more than 500 calories.
The energy comes in the form of vegetable broth or juices.
According to the AOK health insurance company,
a typical fasting day consists
of:
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250 milliliters of vegetable broth
250 milliliters of fruit and vegetable juice (preferably freshly squeezed)
30 grams of honey
2.5 liters of water or herbal tea
No matter what you eat, everything should be freshly prepared and free of additives and preservatives.
It is therefore a good idea to cook the vegetable broth yourself.
The AOK,
among others, provides a simple recipe for this
.
For around 1.5 liters of broth you need:
100 grams of carrots or other vegetables such as fennel, parsnips, leeks
100 grams of mushrooms
2 onions
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 bunches of soup greens
1/2 bunch of parsley
1 bay leaf
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp virgin olive oil
Download the recipe for homemade vegetable broth for free as a PDF HERE.
Preparing vegetable broth for fasting
Clean vegetables and cut into small pieces.
Wash the soup greens, peel them and cut them into small pieces.
Peel and dice onions and garlic.
Wash the parsley, shake dry and chop finely.
Put all the ingredients in a large pot and pour about 1.5 liters of water over them.
Bring everything to the boil, then simmer over medium heat for about an hour.
Pour the vegetable broth through a sieve and collect.
The broth can be filled directly into sealable and sterile screw-top jars.
It will keep in the fridge for about a week.
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The first few days of fasting are usually the most strenuous.
You may have to deal with circulatory problems or headaches.
It should get easier from the fourth day onwards.
Often the feeling of exhilaration that is hoped for during fasting occurs, which, according to the
Pharmacy Review,
is due to a rising serotonin level.
Light exercise and an environment that is as stress-free as possible can help you stick to the fast better.
Juices are also allowed during therapeutic fasting, but you should prepare them yourself.
© HRSchulz/Imago
After the fasting cure, there are three build-up days in which you slowly increase the calories again.
While you should limit yourself to very light food (apples, potato soup) on the first day, you can
slowly reintegrate fiber and fats in the following days, according to the
German Nutrition Society .
Homemade vegetable broth - download the recipe
After a short registration, you can download the recipe for the homemade vegetable broth for free in the Merkur.de PDF library HERE.
Therapeutic fasting can activate the body’s self-healing powers
According to the
German Society for Nutrition,
therapeutic fasting is considered a clearly defined therapeutic approach for certain diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or metabolic syndrome.
Researchers have also found positive effects on other chronic pain and inflammation, migraines and multiple sclerosis, reports
Pharmacy Umschau
.
In addition, therapeutic fasting can help with high blood pressure and diet-related diseases.
Even for healthy people, temporarily abstaining from food is worthwhile.
According to Apotheker-Umschau
and
AOK,
medicine is
now aware of some of the advantages that a therapeutic fasting regimen can bring:
New brain cell formation
Normalization of insulin levels (counteracts cravings and fat storage)
Normalization of cholesterol and blood sugar levels
Autophagy (breakdown of damaged body cells)
Relief from joints and spine
Activation of the body's self-healing powers (initiate anti-inflammatory processes)
Change in metabolism and associated weight loss
Therapeutic fasting as a starting signal for a change in diet
Losing weight should not be the primary motivation for therapeutic fasting.
Anyone who resumes their normal diet after the treatment usually gains the pounds back just as quickly as they lost them.
However, fasting can act as the starting point for a long-term change in diet.
After abstaining from food, the food tastes more intense, which can encourage you to eat more consciously.
Temporary abstinence probably cannot erase all bad eating habits immediately, but it can make it easier to start a healthier lifestyle.
Therapeutic fasting is not equally suitable for everyone.
According to the Pharmacy Review
, anyone who is underweight or struggles with eating disorders should do
better
not fasting.
Avoiding food is also not suitable for children, pregnant women and people with gout or gallstones.
In general, it is advisable to only start a fast after consulting a doctor.
This is particularly true for people who suffer from a previous illness.