(Subtitle: “How on earth did I miss THIS story until now?”)
Fasting. According to the dictionary, “fasting” means “to abstain from food” or “to eat sparingly or abstain from some foods.”
People from many cultures and many faiths engage in fasting for various purposes. Religious fasts frequently involve a search for truth, awareness or a closer connection with God. The Bible speaks of various types of fasts and people who fasted for a wide range of reasons, some (Matthew 4) more righteous than others (Isaiah 58; Luke 5).
Notably, Christ warned against fasting for improper purposes and with inappropriate motives:
Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Matthew 6.16-18 (NASB)
The hunger strike, a variant on fasting, involves a person (or people) refusing to eat in order to influence another person, government or organization to take (or cease) some desired action. Generally speaking, hunger strikes involve a complete fast, with the strikers taking in only water (or water and vitamin supplements) for extended periods of time. The underlying idea is that people, governments and organizations would rather alter their ways than find themselves responsible for the death (by starvation) of innocent people. And if that doesn’t provide enough of an incentive, the threat of humiliation in the eyes of the world (Look at that regime! Letting innocent people protest themselves to death! What evil, bad people they are) may provide a helping hand. In addition, the hunger strike sheds “light” on and calls attention to the cause for which the hunger strikers fast.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Which brings us to the real point of this post: certain members of the Barking Moonbat Brigade (led, of course and as always, by Cindy “what if we gave a book signing and nobody came” Sheehan) have decided to undertake what they’re calling a “fast” in order to force the evil Darth W and his Stormtroopers of Slurpee to withdraw from Iraq immediately, leaving the war unfinished and their promises to the Iraqi people unfulfilled.
All very well and good. Anyone has the right to refuse food in support of a chosen cause – just as anyone has a right to an opinion (with the caveat that the “right to an opinion” doesn’t necessarily make that opinion right).
After reading the Code Pink “Fasting Tips” I realized two things:
First, I now understand why they’re calling it a “fast” rather than a hunger strike (here’s a hint: it’s going to have something to do with that dictionary definition I stated at the top of the post).
And second: by following their instructions, anyone can fast – without even getting hungry in the process.
All of the recommendations below come from the Code Pink Fasting Tips page. (As always, italicized editorial comments are mine).
1. Code Pink recommends either “juice fasts” (drinking only liquids – notice they don’t recommend anything so confining as sticking to, say, juice…) or “water fasts” (drinking only water) – though “you can modify the fast by periodically eating slices of avocado and banana, or doing what is feasible for you.” (Now you can fast by foregoing the Oreos and just eating the burrito and the coke, if that’s what’s feasible. Especially if you put the burrito in the blender first…)
2. Tips for people electing the “water only” fast include drinking “smart water” – Glaceau fitness water, which includes electrolytes and “crystalline fructose” (hmm..looks like sugar to me) and adding EmergenC powder (which includes vitamins, electrolytes and sugar) to regular water. (Water fasts – they’re not just for water anymore!)
3. Long term juice fasts can include drinks made from fruits and vegetables! Also, occasionally dilute juices with water – “especially those high in sugar” – to avoid dehydration. (Gotta get enough water with that sugar! You’re fasting, and you don’t want to get dried out!)
4. Those with health conditions (diabetes, hypoglycemia, etc) for whom fasting is contraindicated may want to just “eat slices of avocado and banana every few hours, add high quality vegetable source protein powder to juices, and add psyllium or another good bulking agent to juices twice a day to regulate blood sugar levels.” (Avocados and bananas have no calories, you know. It’s like eating nothing at all. And smoothie drinkers are fasters, too!)
5. “How do I end the fast?” (Uh, start eating again? Oh, wait – if you never stopped it’s kind of hard to start up again. This is a tough one, after all.)
6. Suggested liquids include:
• water (yeah, see above),
• fruit juices (Cindy Sheehan apparently enjoys Jamba Juices with protein powder. For the record, the ingredient/nutrition information is here. Note that the linked smoothie has 400-937 calories, depending upon the size you pick. Whatever will she do, wasting away on this kind of limited diet?), • self-made fruit or vegetable drinks (don’t forget the protein powder, and dilute those high-sugar juices…),
• herbal tea (ok, no snarky remark on this one, as long as you’re not adding sugar and milk to it),
• coconut water (aka coconut milk – 552 calories in a one-cup serving)
• vegetable broth (looks like dinner to me)
• barley green (green what?)
• wheat grass juice (very healthy. Also very nasty.)
Or you can always model yourself on Cindy Sheehan’s digital diary and substitute coffee with vanilla ice cream (or Jamba Juice with protein powder).
Remember – as long as you can suck it through a straw, it’s a liquid – and that means you’re fasting!
(Dr. Sanity offers a Moonbat Mocha Mousse Mirage cake for those whose blenders need an extra workout – useful it its original form for those of us who don’t feel the need to suck our dinners through a straw.)
I notice, too, that Code Pink tells fasters right up front to make sure everyone knows they’re fasting and why.
Heaven forbid all their suffering should go without notice. (By men.)
Linked to others discussing moonbat fasting at Michelle Malkin (How Moonbats Fast), Fullosseous Flap’s Dental Blog (Wow! What a Fast!) and Moonbattery (How to get fat on a hunger strike)
Cross-posted from The Random Yak