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Comment by piyushpr134 | Hacker News Reader

This is not really a new thing. In India, fasting is a like a culture. More common with females though. Some of them fast like once every week. There are festivals which are based around fasting. Like Karvachauth, in which girls fast for their husbands etc (we are not very feminist yet). There are festivals during which people fast for straight 2-10 days! (chath, durga puja, somwari etc).

Even in Islam, during ramzaan people fast everyday for 30 days . They eat before dawn break and eat again after dusk.

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Note that in ramadaan they also don't drink any water during the day; and many who can afford to, flip their schedule to sleep through the day so they can eat at night.

Also, according to superfreakonomics, this wreaks havoc on gestating babies. Seems like all harm and no benefit fasting (which, perhaps is the idea - Jewish fasting on Yom Kippur is specifically spoused to be a soul-torture/soul-searching experience - both translations are valid - although it is often not experienced as either)

It's also worth noting that typically people gain weight during Ramadan. They eat way more, richer food as it's a time of celebration and dehydration from the day.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/07/cairo-the-...

Pregnant women are exempt from fasting during ramadan.

So are Jewish woman on Yom Kippur - but many of them still fast; enough to change date-of-birth distribution for Jews and health-of-newborns for Muslims.

Yup but that changed a lot these last years. Some women used to be "ashamed" of the fact that they couldn't fast like other people did, but now (with TV, more education, etc.) they know that Islam prohibits that (as it can endanger the baby) and it's bad for both them and their babies.

Orthodox, Coptic, and other pre-Great Schism Christians fast twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays), where fasting is defined as eating only vegetables and grains. In addition, there are various other periods of fasting throughout the year, such as the 40 days before Pascha (Easter) and Christmas.

The intent of the fast isn't for health reasons, although from my own anecdotal experience it does seem to have healthful effects, such as sharpening the mind. The rules aren't set in stone but are an ideal for the purpose of cultivating self-discipline and a humble awareness of our limitations. If a person fasts from food but "consumes" their neighbor (through anger, jealousy, etc.), then the whole point of the fast has been missed.

The recommended practice in Islam is actually to fast two days a week, in addition to the month of ramadan.

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