Daniel Fast

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24 Aug 2021

Today, I learnt about Daniel Fasting. According to this research paper,

"The Daniel Fast is a widely utilized fast based on the Biblical book of Daniel. It involves a 21 day ad libitum food intake period, devoid of animal products and preservatives, and inclusive of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds."

Other fasting protocols like Alternate-Day Intermittent Fasting or Water-Only Fasting or Buchinger-style fasting amount to calorie restriction. In some of these fasts, we don't eat anything at all for an entire day. In contrast, in Daniel Fasting, we eat regular meals but restrict the ingredients to fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts & seeds — exactly what Whole Food Plant-Based guidelines asks us to do!

Origins of Daniel Fast

Daniel Chapter 1, Verses 8-16 (New International Version) explains:

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you."

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.

Wikipedia article on Daniel Fast explains:

… the diet consists only of vegetables and water. "Pulses" is used instead of "vegetables" in some translations. "Pulses" in this context is often taken as "food grown from seed", including fruit, vegetables or lentils.

Research on Daniel Fast

Dr Greger's short, 2-min videos below summarize the outcome of research in Tennessee on individuals who did Daniel Fasting for 21 days.

Overview article by Dr Greger: (2013) Biblical Daniel Fast Tested

(2012) Tightening the Bible Belt

(2 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "Researchers set out to replicate the Daniel Fast — the biblical nutrition trial outlined in Daniel 1:8-16."

(2012) Biblical Daniel Fast Put to the Test

(2 mins) Transcript. Dr Greger's summary: "Within a matter of weeks, participants placed on the vegan diet outlined by the prophet Daniel experienced improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin levels, insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein levels, a marker of inflammation within the body."

How is Daniel Fasting Practiced Today?

Daniel Fast: Sersie Blue and Gigi Carter offer support:

YouTube Channel: Daniel Fast: A Bridge to Healthy Living
Website: Daniel Fast for Healthy Living — check out Biography of Sersie and Carter.
Recipes: Daniel's Plate

Cookbooks: Amazon has many Daniel Fast Cookbooks! Here are a couple of popular ones:

The Ultimate Guide to the Daniel Fast (224 pages, 2010) by Kristen Feola.

The Daniel Fast (304 pages, 2010) by Susan Gregory.

Food Guidelines: Multiple websites have food guidelines, for example, this one, this one and this one.

Relationship with Whole Food Plant-Based: On the whole, Daniel Fast (DF) is almost identical to Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB). A big difference that I could identify was with respect to oils: allowed in DF but disallowed in WFPB; some DF websites encourage minimal usage of oils. Also, DF excludes tea, coffee, flours, leavened bread and sweeteners of any kind. All of these are considered part of WFPB; at the same time, those who follow WFPB strictly do remove coffee, flours and sweeteners (except dates & blackstrap molasses, the two healthy sweeteners recommended by Dr Greger). But teas are considered healthy in WFPB. Many Daniel Fast guidelines do allow herbal teas.

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