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As Jesus fasted in the desert and resisted the temptations of the devil, his body is said to have undergone autophagy. In simple terms, this buzzword refers to the way cells clean and recycle damaged proteins when the body is deprived of food, which, along with a healthy body, prolongs life.
At least that’s what longevity influencers like Bryan Johnson think, for whom fasting is a key to maximizing your time on earth. Researchers are more skeptical, but in Johnson’s defense: Jesus actually appears to have a fairly toned upper body in many depictions. But from this perspective his short life must be seen as a catastrophic failure.
Until about ten years ago, I was thinking about religion, especially Islam, when I heard the word “fasting.” Since the 5:2 diet took hold, I think more about increased performance, a fit body, and powerful media men than about God. Through celebrities, tech people in Silicon Valley and social media, regular fasting has developed into a global popular movement that has also reached Sweden.
On social media Fasters proudly show how their bodies have become slimmer after just 30 hours, give tips on drinking apple cider vinegar to combat hunger and discuss whether it is better to break the fast with beef broth or avocado.
After 500 years of the Reformation, fasting is making a big comeback in our country, although not as a spiritual practice, but as a self-optimizing miracle cure. A contrast to this is the relatively unknown Easter fasting in Sweden. However, the approach itself to refraining from something does not have to be different from, for example, Fredrik Wikingsson’s fasting, which he reported on last year on Sveriges Radio. It’s the purpose that varies. The goal is not, like Wikingsson, to “cleanse the body of waste products” and fill the gap by recording four episodes of the “Alla mot alla” quiz every day. On the contrary, it is about abstinence opening the self to something beyond itself – perhaps even something as radical as death.
If the world order When we fall apart and the collective projects seem hopeless, our own bodies become one of the few areas over which we can still exercise some form of control. As long as you don’t get hit by a bus, you can add a few years to your life even if you spend a lot of your time at the gym.
But for those who are truly afraid of death, the Christian fast, which begins today, February 18, is a more hopeful alternative. It ends on Good Friday not with the crucifixion, but with the resurrection and the victory of life over death. Of course, there are no scientific guarantees for this, but that’s not true because skipping breakfast gives you a longer biological life. Ask Jesus. He fasted for a full 40 days and lived no older than 33.
Read more about intermittent fasting at DN. Read Emma Bouvin about abstinence and the best breakfast in Ramadan.
