Recently, actor Chris Pratt gave the age-old Daniel Fast a popularity boost when he posted a now-expired Instagram story, saying, \u201cHi, Chris Pratt here. Day Three of the Daniel Fast, check it out. It\u2019s 21 days of prayer and fasting.\u201d<\/p>
Our social media feeds are plastered with articles and\nvideos about different diets and health regimens. We\u2019ve heard all about the\nketo diet, intermittent fasting, and of course, our tried-and-true plant-based\nlifestyle, but what\u2019s the Daniel Fast? Why does this diet include prayer as\npart of its protocol?<\/p>
The Daniel Fast originated from a story in the book of Daniel which is part of the Old Testament. In the story<\/a>, Daniel decides that he wouldn\u2019t take part in the rich, indulgent foods that surround him in the royal court and instead asks to be served, \u201cnothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink\u201d for ten days. Later, in chapter ten<\/a> of the book of Daniel, he takes up the fast again, this time for three weeks. Both instances were inspired by Daniel\u2019s desire to deepen his relationship with God in a trying time, and both led not only to better health, but increased knowledge and understanding as well<\/a>. <\/p> It\u2019s important to note here that no verse in the Bible\ninstructs us to follow the fast that Daniel undertook. However, Daniel\u2019s story\nacts as a powerful example of what can happen when you choose to eat simply and\nlive prayerfully and mindfully. <\/p> Here\u2019s a breakdown of the Daniel Fast:<\/strong><\/p> Broken down like that, the Daniel Fast seems to be a very\nhealthy, low-fat, plant-based diet, which has been shown to do the following,\nand much more:<\/p> And yet, it\u2019s easy to focus on the food element and\ncompletely disregard the spiritual factor. After all, even in this age of\ninformation and sensory overload, the simple topic of food still dominates. Cheerful\nrecipe videos populate our social media feeds, meal subscription packages turn\nevery one of us into proper home chefs, and new, modern restaurants pop up\nevery day, turning food into art. It\u2019s easy to turn even the Daniel Fast\u2014a diet\nplan designed to bring your focus to God\u2014into an obsessive hunt for the perfect\nnon-GMO, organic lettuce and a race to eight glasses of water per day.<\/p> In this age of plenty\u2014plenty of healthy food options, plenty\nof workout DVDs and fitness classes, and even plenty of TV shows and articles\nabout all of the above\u2014the Daniel Fast is a reminder that you need spiritual\nhealth, too. We believe spirituality and health go hand-in-hand. Many of us\ndon\u2019t like to eat healthy because our hearts are lacking a sense of purpose, and\nso the cycle to an unhealthy lifestyle begins.<\/p> If you\u2019re planning on giving the Daniel Fast a try, don\u2019t\nforget about the spirituality part. Because you\u2019re eating clean, healthy food,\nyour mind should be clear and ready to practice some mindfulness. If you\u2019re not\nsure how to pray, or if you don\u2019t have a relationship with God, here are a few\nideas that can get you there:<\/p> If you\u2019re looking for some inspiration for low-fat,\nplant-based recipes and spiritual encouragement, please visit the links below:<\/p> Recently, actor Chris Pratt gave the age-old Daniel Fast a popularity boost when he posted a now-expired Instagram story, saying, \u201cHi, Chris Pratt here. Day Three of the Daniel Fast, check it out. It\u2019s 21 days of prayer and fasting.\u201d Our social media feeds are plastered with articles and videos about different diets and health…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[561,8],"tags":[597,598,95],"thb-sponsors":[],"yst_prominent_words":[1938,741,791,802,804,679,760,1683,756,2299,1788,2657,697],"class_list":["post-14782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mindfulness","category-spiritual-health","tag-daniel-fast","tag-fasting","tag-spirituality-2","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"views":21835,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14782"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22380,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14782\/revisions\/22380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14782"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=14782"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Don\u2019t ignore the\n\u201cprayer\u201d part of the Daniel Fast<\/strong><\/h3>