Fasting is not just a period when a believer refuses certain foods, it is only the outside of fasting. Fasting, first of all, is the time when a person turns to God with all his soul, devotes himself to spiritual work, prayer, humility.
Instruction manual
1
Lent in Orthodoxy always lasts 7 weeks and begins 49 days before Easter. During this time, the believer should refuse a number of products in the same way that Christ refused them when he fasted for 40 days in the wilderness.
2
Adhering to Lent should completely abandon products of animal origin - meat, milk, cheese, sour cream, eggs - and moderate the consumption of other foods. Fasting should eat as simple food as possible, if possible, do not use hot spices, sugar, salt and other flavor enhancers. Strong liquor is prohibited.
3
Fasting days are not equivalent in terms of food restrictions. The most strict are the first day of fasting and its last day, at which time it is necessary to completely refuse food.
4
Monday, Wednesday and Friday are dry days, only raw vegetables and fruits are allowed. Usually these days, believers make various salads for themselves, which are allowed to be flavored with lemon and honey, and you can also eat salted mushrooms.
5
Freeer days are Tuesday and Thursday. Fasting can eat hot dishes, usually these days they eat vegetable soups, stewed vegetables and baked apples.
6
On Saturday and Sunday, the church permits the use of food with oil, that is, with vegetable oil. Also on weekends it is allowed to fry lean pancakes and pancakes.
7
At the time of Lent there are two holidays in which fish are allowed to eat - Palm Sunday and the Annunciation.
8
To keep the post easier, you need to use some culinary tricks - cook soups as thick as possible and add more legumes to them, choose the right cereal for various dishes: for example, pumpkin will be much tastier with millet, and vegetables with rice. Even in fasting you can cook delicious desserts - honey jelly, baked apples with cinnamon, various jellies.
9
Fasting is possible only for healthy adults, children can lose important vitamins and minerals in fasting, the same applies to pregnant and lactating women. Fasting should not bring harm to the body, it should become a torment for it.
10
It is not enough just to stick to a diet in fasting, moderate food should direct a person’s thoughts towards spiritual improvement, this is the meaning of fasting.
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