Fasting - what to eat when you stop

Ashes

Ashes

Joined
Aug 2, 2002
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I'm being a lazy piece of crap by not researching this on my own, but I remember someone posted something about fasting on here not too long ago, and got a lot of responses, so I figure that some of you must know.

So, if you haven't eaten any actual food in a few days, what is safe to eat that won't make you sick? Right now anything I think of makes me feel sick to my stomach. I figured bland foods, like a "BRAT" diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) might work, but I don't eat simple carbs, so I don't think that would "agree" with my digestive system!

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. For now I'm still gonna stick to water. :(

~ashes
 
Depends on your stomach ;)
Every year my wife makes me fast for a week before easter. In fact I fast because she fasts and I guess she wouldn't feel great if I stuffed myself in the meantime. It's not a 100% fasting, we eat a few veggies at noon. The friday it is 100% fast.
Sunday morning we eat lamb, eggs, cheese, onion, etc ... All the heavy stuff. Never had a problem.
If you have a "sensitive" stomach, you might want to eat some low fat barbecued meat (like beef) and rice or something else that contains sugar. Fruits are generally acid, I wouldn't advice them. Even better, eat whatever you feel like eating, just go slow and don't eat too much at a time.
 
flava said:
Depends on your stomach ;)
Every year my wife makes me fast for a week before easter. In fact I fast because she fasts and I guess she wouldn't feel great if I stuffed myself in the meantime. It's not a 100% fasting, we eat a few veggies at noon. The friday it is 100% fast.
Sunday morning we eat lamb, eggs, cheese, onion, etc ... All the heavy stuff. Never had a problem.
If you have a "sensitive" stomach, you might want to eat some low fat barbecued meat (like beef) and rice or something else that contains sugar. Fruits are generally acid, I wouldn't advice them. Even better, eat whatever you feel like eating, just go slow and don't eat too much at a time.
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Thanks for the response! Nice to hear from someone who's done it before. I think my stomach is probably more sensitive than yours! I don't eat much meat anyway, so I'll have to avoid that. I'm afraid to eat sugar, and yeah, fruit will probably give me gas or something I don't need!

I read that melon is one of the easiest things to digest, as long as you eat it alone. Should I try that?

~ashes
 
Lets see. You don't eat simple carbs, you don't eat much meat, veggies give you gas, and you're leery of melon, and no sugar. I know - HAVE A BOWL OF DIRT! :D (sorry, couldn't resist!)
 
Maybe Gatorade? I know, it's simple carbs, but it's at least some calories and pretty easily digested.
A few times I've tried a liquid diet for a while and Gatorade got me through.
 
Ashes, what about Jello and fruits like grapes and peaches? Maybe Ginger Ale and a little bit of wheat crackers would help. Those Jello mold you can buy pre-made are good! :)
 
Here's a tip that kind of approaches your problem from another angle. Instead of picking what to eat, you might try to make it possible for you to eat whatever you want.

The way to do this is papaya enzyme (papain). It's what's called a 'proteolytic' (Gk=before breaking down, literally =first destroying) enzyme... your stomach uses it to form other enzymes in order to digest food properly. Much of the difficulty with the end of a fast is that when your body doesn't need all its fancy enzymes to break down proteins like the ones in meat, it quits making them. So it has a hell of a time dealing with complicated foods like meat and dairy for a little while. Then it straightens the chemistry out and you're ok. Papaya enzyme makes a good stopgap measure while your body readjusts.

I gave some to my Eastern Orthodox priest this year on Easter (Orthodox fast from meat, dairy, fish, wine, and oil for 50 days before Easter), and he said it was the first time he'd ever felt ok the next day. Most of the other people I offered it to said more or less the same. It might work for you, too; you can get it at any GNC, Walgreen's, probably even WalMart.

As a bonus, since the pills are just dried and compressed papaya flesh, they're delicious. :D

Edit: Oops, I rechecked my Greek, looks like it's protein- (proteo-), not before- (proto-) destroying. That is, papain breaks down protein directly. Still delicious and effective. See Supplement Watch.
 
MSCantrell, that sounds like something I will look into. Thanks for the info! :)

Cindy, good suggestions. I'm going to avoid things like fruit for a day or two though. I didn't eat last night, but I had a couple whole-grain Wasa crackers for breakfast with a cup of peppermint tea (which is supposed to be easy on your stomach) and I feel a little better. I was starting to feel kinda sick. I think I'll stick to brown rice or something tonight.

Thanks again for everyone's replies.

~ashes
 
I would suggest white rice with a little olive oil and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
 
You might try some kind of meal replacement or protein drink that will be easy to digest. If you think milk will tear you up, use water instead, but go with something like strawberry flavor-the vanillas and chocolates taste horrible with water, IMO. Maybe blend it up with a banana...
I wouldn't do the meal replacement/protein BAR thing unless you want to feel like you've got a piece of lead in your colon(though, conversely, too much acts as a laxative, which you probably don't want at this point either!).
 
A big bowl of ice cream is a great way to end a fast! You can accomplish more by not fasting and instead eating only foods that enhance Phase I and Phase II (cytochrome P450 reactions). Fasting only enhances Phase I, causing more release of nasty stuff in your system while not handling it with the food-dependant Phase II reactions. Sorry!
 
Ashes, try making a rice "congee". There are various recipes for it online, but basically you cook your rice with 3 or 4 (or up to 6) times the usual amount of water. Cook it until the rice is very soft. This is a common breakfast in parts of Asia and is healing and very easy to digest.

Jack
 
It's a shame you don't eat meat, as chicken soup seems to be good for just about everything, and even when I'm feeling sick as a dog, I can usually choke-down a bowl of chicken soup.
 
glockman99 said:
It's a shame you don't eat meat, as chicken soup seems to be good for just about everything, and even when I'm feeling sick as a dog, I can usually choke-down a bowl of chicken soup.
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I do eat meat, but not much red meat at all. I occasionally eat chicken and I try to have fish (only tuna or salmon) at least once a week. Even when fasting I drink "Very-low-sodium" chicken boullion, which I like because it tastes salty although there is almost no salt in it. Canned and packaged soups are very high in sodium, so I avoid those.

The rice thing could work, but that sounds like basically eating starch (something I can't do) which will convert almost immediately to blood sugar.

~ashes
 
Hi Ashes-

Why don't you just list ALL of the foods you're willing to eat and we'll just pick a few from the rather short list?

~ Blue Jays ~
 
During Ramadan (fasting month) most Muslims break the daily fast with something sweet and begin the fast with some high in protein.,
 
kamkazmoto said:
During Ramadan (fasting month) most Muslims break the daily fast with something sweet and begin the fast with some high in protein.,
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That's interesting. More along the lines of what I needed to know; thanks! :) Is there a physical reason for this? I will look it up, actually.

Blue Jays, I'm kinda looking for ideas, preferably from people who have done this or know how to do this.

Anyway, I'm now trying to eat small amounts of whole grains and cooked veggies, and a little fat-free cottage cheese for protein. Maybe I'll add fish today. That sounds okay, right? I also take a multi-vitamin and Omega-3 supplement. Am I missing anything? I don't want to pass out while carrying heavy boxes of knives at work!

~ashes
 
Ashes said:
That's interesting. More along the lines of what I needed to know; thanks! :) Is there a physical reason for this? I will look it up, actually.
~ashes
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I don't know that there is a particular reason for this but they (Indonesians in particular) eat it out of habit. Almost all the dishes that they use to break their daily fast are very sweet. Dried dates, sweetened coconut drinks and sweetened tapioca, like Boba drinks, are the most common. The meal before the fast is their normal breakfast, beef, chicken or fish. rice and/or noodles.

The Ramadan fast is a month long fast from sunrise to sunset and includes a prohibition on drinking water, smoking and thinking impure thoughts.
 
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