Ramadan

“A time of feasting, not a time of fasting”

Ramadan is the time of the year, thirty days to be precise, where muslims claim that they fast from sunrise to sunset. This is done to be pious and follow the rules of their religion - Islam.

But the truth is that muslims buy and eat more food during ramadan than any other time of the year. The reality of these thirty days are as follows:

[1] Eat, eat, wake up and eat some more.

Muslims are not allowed to eat while the sun is up. But they can eat, as much as they want, from sunset to sunrise . . . and boy do they ever!

It is common for muslim families to make a giant breakfast, known as ‘Sehri’ eaten just before the sun rises. Then they prepare an even bigger dinner known as ‘Iftari’ to be consumed after the sun sets.

Keep in mind that eating is permitted after the sun sets, so they can eat as much and for as long as they want. Heck this feasting can go on until the early hours of the morning. They could even eat ‘all night long’.

Muslims also hold these Iftari’s at their homes and invite family and friends and have ‘showing off’ contests as to who can put on the biggest Iftari dinner. It becomes sort of a status symbol for them in their community.

[2] Say hello to diabetes

This behaviour has serious medical consequences:

When a human being starves himself, his body develops hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). The cells inside our bodies need sugar (glucose) to perform basic functions. Without glucose you can’t survive. So the body responds to starvation by producing its own glucose.

How? The liver can produce glucose for the body in states of starvation via a process known as gluconeogenesis.

Then once a muslim breaks his fast and eats a very large meal, he then goes into a state of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar). The human body deals with this by taking this excess sugar from the blood and placing it into our cells.

To do this you need insulin. Insulin comes from the pancreas. Therefore the pancreas has to work overtime to provide the sufficient amount of insulin to place this excess glucose into the cells. This excess of insulin in the blood is known as hyperinsulinemia.

So for the forty days of Ramadan, muslims go through a cycle of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia every day! Their body responds with a cycle of gluconeogenesis and hyperinsulinemia.

The long term effects of this rapid shift from gluconeogenesis to hyperinsulinemia and back again, include damage to the liver and pancreas. The most common consequence is the development of type 2 diabetes. Which can eventually lead to death.

[3] An insult to true fasting

In addition to the above, this bizarre practice of ramadan also causes depression, weight gain, other health problems such as gastro-esophageal reflux disease (acid reflux) and prenatal complications. Syncope causing car accidents and deaths have also been reported.

True fasting is something completely different. True fasting involves cleansing the body with liquids and gradually moving back into a regular diet.

Ramadan is an orgy of food, that is quite frankly an insult to the concept of true fasting. There is nothing 'holy' about this ridiculous nonsense.