We all read in the kindergarten science book that the human body is about 60% made up of water. It is also very common to hear about the essentiality of water for the human body and health. Water fasting has multiple benefits, it is because: fasting
- Water is essential to flushing out wastes from our body.
- It helps the brain function.
- It is needed to produce saliva that breaks down food.
- Water prevents constipation and aids digestion, and
- Regulates body temperature.
It is because of the numerous health benefits of water on the human body that water fasting is practiced improving the body’s natural functions, which prevents several chronic diseases.
What is Water Fasting?
The practice of abstinence from food and water is known as fasting, which is part of various civilizations since olden times. In water fasting, people restrict intake of everything except water. Depending upon the procedure that you are following, a water fast can last between 24 to 72 hours.
Recently, water fasting has gained a lot of popularity amongst health practitioners, and people practice it due to the following reasons:
- Effective weight loss
- Water detoxing
- Religious and spiritual reasons
- Regulating blood pressure
What Happens to Your Body During Water Fasting?
People looking to manage the weight loss process often tend to extreme food starvation, which is not a healthy option at all. Instead, supervised fasting is something that has miraculous health effects. Once you are on the process, your body starts burning off the sugar circulating in your blood and stored in the muscles and liver for the first 24 to 28 hours.
However, the actual metabolic fast begins once the blood sugar is metabolized completely, which takes approximately 48 hours to 72 hours. After that, your body starts burning fats for fuel. At this point, ketones come into play that has an essential energy source for the body during such starvation.
Ketone bodies or ketones are produced by the liver during gluconeogenesis. It is the process that produces glucose for the body during starvation.
Overall, the process of water fasting provides an extensive, cellular level cleansing for the body, your blood pressure and blood sugar readings start normalizing, and you feel an overall sense of wellbeing. Indeed, water fasting has impeccable healing properties; however, the health lies in plant-based whole foods as you cannot continue it forever.
