Sunday, August 28th A Traditional and Scientific Look at Fasting

In Anishnaabeg culture, fall is traditionally a time of a special fast. In other cultures and spiritual traditions, too, fasting is used as a means of making people spiritually strong. The following is a brief overview of some of the information the Thunder Bay Public Library has available related to fasting.

According to Basil Johnston, an Ojibway Elder and writer, fasting was a means of overcoming fear while earning a vision. In his book Ojibway Heritage, he discusses how the vision would become a person’s life path, through which “a man found purpose and meaning to his life and to his being.”



Contemporary Ojibway writer, Richard Wagamese, also describes his four-day fast as an important milestone in his sobering empowerment journey in One Native Life. In 2008, this book was selected by the Globe & Mail as one of 100 Books of the Year. I recommend it to everybody.



As I mentioned, fasting is common in other spiritual traditions. Ramadan is one example. In Islamic tradition, fasting is one of the Five Pillars. The pillars are fundamental actions to live one’s life by to be a good Muslim. Fasting is thought to teach humility and thankfulness. If you would like to learn more, check out A Brief Guide to Islam: History, Faith and Politics: The Complete Introduction by Paul Grieve.


Another tradition that includes periodic fasts is Ayurveda, a branch of Hinduism. According to Dr. Vinod Verma’s book, Ayurveda: a Way of Life, fasting is recommended for inner cleansing and for learning self-control. The Ayurvedic variation recommends using a semi-fast, meaning the body isn’t completely without at least some juice.


Although the fasting practices of Islam, Ayurveda and the Ojibway differ in some details, it is interesting to see the similarities for the reasons for fasting. Fundamentally the goal of spiritual empowerment through physical restraint is very much the same. In Ojibway, Muslim and Ayurvedic tradition the fast was to make you spiritually strong, thankful for nourishment usually received, and to make your will strong against materialism. Interestingly, the three traditions have the fall as an important time of ceremony.

For more scientific writing relating to fasting, I recommend the following titles.

In Healthy at 100: the Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-lived Peoples, author John Robbins takes the reader on a journey to places like Okinawa and Abkhasia where people are noted to live to be well over 100 years old, even up to around 130 years old! One of the most telling differences between North Americans and the cultures of the longest lived, the author says, is the amount of calories consumed in a day. North Americans eat far too much, apparently.

Another author, David Stipp corroborates the correlation of caloric restriction and longevity. In his book The Youth Pill: Scientists at the Brink of an Anti-Aging Revolution, Stipp states that “one group of scientists estimated that if everyone reduced calorie intake by 30 percent at around age thirty, life expectancy would climb by nearly seven years.”


If you are interested in researching this topic more, the Thunder Bay Public Library’s Virtual Collection provides access to a number of health databases. Log on to read academic articles on fasting from the Health and Wellness Resource Center or the Health Reference Center Academic. You will need your library card number and PIN.

Chris Waite