How to fast correctly and what to eat. List of products allowed for consumption during fasting. What foods should you not eat during fasting?

For weight loss, a fasting diet is ideal, which includes meals with a limited menu of meat and animal products. The duration of the diet is determined by the person - you can fast for all seven weeks of Lent, or you can only fast partially. Such a refusal of meat, fish, milk and eggs has its own contraindications. Before deciding to go on a meatless diet, consult your doctor and nutritionist.

What is a Lenten Diet?

Vegetarian is a diet during fasting, which many perceive as advice for losing weight. Meals during this period are low-fat and low-calorie, therefore guaranteed to reduce weight. Vegetables, fruits, grains are plant-based foods during fasting that renew the body, establish optimal digestion, and speed up metabolism. Those who fast do not suffer from diseases of the heart, blood vessels, or experience problems with cholesterol. In a week, 2-7 kilograms of excess weight are lost. Fasting as a diet gives a lasting effect; excess weight does not return.

What can you eat while fasting?

The fasting diet includes restrictions on the foods you eat. Recommended ones include:

  • cereals;
  • vegetables, fruits, berries;
  • mushrooms;
  • nuts, dried fruits, candied fruits;
  • honey, jam, compotes;
  • pickles, pickled vegetables;
  • spices, seasonings, herbs;
  • legumes;
  • vegetable oil.

The fasting diet allows you to eat fish three times and caviar on the last day for the entire period of observance. For the rest of the period, the following menu is recommended:

  • on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – dietary cold dishes without oil;
  • Tuesday, Thursday - lean hot food without adding oil;
  • Saturday, Sunday – food with butter, you can drink a little wine;
  • several days from the church calendar you need to fast and eat in the evening; they fall on the first and last week.

What foods should you not eat during fasting?

For proper weight loss It is worth knowing that during fasting you cannot eat products of animal origin - meat, fish, eggs, animal fat and milk. Low-fat dairy products, chicken and seafood are also prohibited. The fasting diet does not recommend eating too much bread and potatoes - this will lead to excess weight gain. It is allowed to take wine only on holidays according to the calendar, plus there is an exemption for taking fish and caviar.

How to eat healthy while fasting

Simple and correct for weight loss includes fruit and vegetable dishes, about which you don’t need to think about how to cook. Sauerkraut, pickles, and mushroom preparations are ideal. Can be made boiled stews, use a grill, a double boiler, a multicooker. The daily fasting diet involves short heat treatment of foods to preserve vitamins and useful substances.

The most important Lenten dish is porridge - cook it in water, without butter. To improve the taste, add lean additives to the cereals - fried onions with mushrooms for a savory dish and nuts and raisins for a sweet dish. If it is difficult to give up animal protein for almost two months, buy “soy meat” or tofu - chop it, simmer in sauce and spices. The dish will replace meat products in value and taste, it will be easy to prepare.

Diet for Lent

Nutritionists claim that Lent and proper nutrition during it they help you lose weight. So that the diet during fasting for every day brings positive result, follow the rules of the methodology:

  1. Include in food soy products, legumes, nuts, seeds, cereals, products made from coarse flour.
  2. Pasta and potatoes should be eaten less frequently than other foods.
  3. Eat at least half a kilo of vegetables and fruits every day.
  4. Useful options are brown rice, millet, buckwheat, soybeans, lentils, dates, bananas, peanuts.
  5. To meet the body's need for vitamin B12 and iron, take complex dietary supplements.
  6. Clean water you need to drink at least 1.5 liters every day.
  7. Honey and delicious dried fruits can be eaten instead of sweets and sugar.
  8. Eat 4-5 times a day, follow your diet, chew your food thoroughly.
  9. Exit your diet carefully - do not overeat on meat or fried foods. Gradually increase the caloric content of food intake by 200 kcal per day.

Menu during fasting

To make your search easier the right recipes check out the menu lean diet for weight loss for a week. It includes three full meals a day. It does not include an afternoon snack and the portions are small. by day is presented in the table and looks like this:

Day/Meal

Monday

Rice porridge on water, berries, herbal tea

Vegetable puree soup with celery

Steamed vegetable stew fruit salad

Bread with eggplant caviar, dried fruits, chicory drink

Salad of fresh sweet peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, a little vegetable broth

Roasted pumpkin or turnip

Zucchini pancakes, tomato juice

Stuffed cabbage rolls with rice and carrots, herbal tea

Oatmeal with water or baked potatoes with lemon juice

Pancakes on a spoon of vegetable oil, which can be filled with jam

Lent is a time of spiritual cleansing. But it is unthinkable without cleansing the body. How to eat while fasting? What recipes should you include on the menu? And how can we help the body overcome this test without harmful consequences?

Food taboos

Dietary rules during Lent require one to abstain from fast food, that is, products of animal origin. It's about about any meat, eggs, milk, as well as products based on it: butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, various cheeses. Church canons allowed to eat fish on Annunciation Holy Mother of God(April 7) and Palm Sunday (April 9). And on Lazarus Saturday (April 8) you can indulge in some caviar.

Meals by day

How to eat during Lent 2017 by day? The first and final weeks are considered the most strict. These days they eat only vegetables, fruits and bread. On Good Friday you should refuse any food - this is a kind of cleansing of the body by fasting. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, cold food without oil is allowed, on Tuesdays and Thursdays - hot food, also without oil. And on Saturdays and Sundays you can add it to your dishes.

Food for good

To follow the nutritional rules of Lent and not harm your health, try to include as much vegetable protein in your menu as possible. First of all, these are legumes: beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, soybeans. A lot of protein is found in rice, oats, barley and buckwheat - prepare porridges and soups from them. Mushrooms, broccoli and garlic can boast protein reserves. Don't forget about nuts in all their variety, as well as sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Vitamins to help

What foods can you eat during fasting to get vitamins? All available vegetables, fruits and berries. For example, white cabbage You can put it in salads and soups, stew it with other vegetables and do express pickling. Seasonal apples, citrus fruits, grapes, bananas and frozen berries can also be included in the diet, like any dried fruit. And so that the benefits of fasting for the body do not turn into harm, take a suitable vitamin and mineral complex.

Life-giving drinks

Along with food during fasting important role drinks are playing. Give preference to black and green tea, fruit and berry juices, and homemade lemonades. On dry eating days, it is recommended not to drink coffee, compotes and juices. According to the method of preparation, they are considered decoctions, which contradicts the principles of dry eating. But on weekends, drinking Cahors church wine is allowed, of course, in moderation.

Let's hit the salads

Now let's talk in more detail about what they eat on dry eating days. Mainly dry food, cooked without heat or oil. This is where fresh ones come to the rescue. Shred 400 g of white cabbage, add salt, knead with your hands and press with a plate for 15 minutes. When the cabbage gives juice, add a handful of crushed nuts, green onions and parsley to taste. Beat half of the avocado into a liquid puree and pour over the salad. This clever dressing will make it richer and tastier. Delicious salad You can also prepare it from broccoli and cauliflower inflorescences: boil 150 g of each type of inflorescence in boiling water for 3 minutes, divide, place in a salad bowl. Add your favorite spices, chunks of avocado, and the familiar avocado dressing. They will also sound good in a salad. pumpkin seeds. Bon appetit!

Mushrooms in gold

Delicious and simple food during Lent can be baked in the oven. Cut 4 potatoes and 200 g of champignons (or any other mushrooms of your choice) into slices, add salt and sprinkle olive oil. Place them on foil in two layers, sprinkle green onions, cover with foil and place in the oven for 30 minutes at 200°C. For lovers of dressings, we suggest preparing an interesting sauce. Beat 2 peeled tomatoes with 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over the baked goodies - a hearty lean snack is ready.

Pea joy

How to eat properly during? Prepare different soups from vegetables, grains and beans. Soak ½ cup of peas in water overnight, then drain and boil until tender. Separately, sauté the onion with carrots and 300 g of fresh cabbage in vegetable oil. Place the roast with 2-3 diced potatoes into a pan with peas. At the very end, add salt, spices and a bunch of herbs. Rye toast toasted in a dry frying pan is the perfect complement to this soup.

Potato find

Recipes for hot food without oil are irreplaceable during Lent. Like, for example, lean cutlets. Pass 4 potatoes, 2 cups through a meat grinder walnuts and mix with 180 g oatmeal. Add a bunch of parsley and salt with spices to the minced meat. We make cutlets and, after rolling them in flour, bake for 15 minutes at 180°C. You can prepare a sauce for these cutlets. Stew the onion with 3 cloves of garlic in 50 ml of water, pour in a glass tomato juice and simmer for 5 minutes. Add sauce to the cutlets as desired and enjoy an unusual lunch.

Vegetable messages

will fit organically into Lenten menu vegetable cabbage rolls. Take 10-12 cabbage leaves, boil them in salted water and beat off the roots. Sauté 2 carrots into strips and an onion into cubes in oil. Mix them with 200 g of boiled rice, 4 chopped cloves of garlic and fill with filling cabbage leaves. We fold them into envelopes, pour a glass of boiling water with 1 tbsp. l. tomato paste and simmer until done. You can cook cabbage rolls in vegetable broth, and tomato sauce add only at the end. Add your favorite ones to the filling, and the cabbage rolls will become even tastier.

The Charter of the Church teaches what one should abstain from during fasting - “all those who fast piously must strictly observe the regulations on the quality of food, that is, abstain during fasting from certain foodstuffs [that is, food, food. - Ed.], not as from bad ones (let this not be), but as from indecent fasting and prohibited by the Church. The foodstuffs from which one must abstain during fasting are: meat, cheese, cow’s butter, milk, eggs, and sometimes fish, depending on the difference in the holy fasts.”

The rules of abstinence prescribed by the Church during the Nativity Fast are as strict as the Peter's Fast. In addition, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the Nativity Fast, the charter prohibits fish, wine and oil and it is allowed to eat food without oil (dry eating) only after Vespers. On other days - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday - it is allowed to eat food with vegetable oil. During the Nativity Fast, fish is allowed on Saturdays and Sundays and on great holidays, for example, on the Feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on temple holidays and on the days of great saints, if these days fall on Tuesday or Thursday. If holidays fall on Wednesday or Friday, then fasting is permitted only for wine and oil.

From December 20 to December 25 (old style), fasting intensifies, and on these days, even on Saturday and Sunday, fish are not blessed. Meanwhile, it is on these days that the civil New Year is celebrated, and we, Orthodox Christians, need to be especially concentrated so that by having fun, drinking wine and eating food we do not violate the strictness of fasting.

The Nativity fast is sometimes called cereal fasting. The mistress of the table at this time is porridge.

Porridge is one of the oldest dishes of humanity. There is an opinion that bread originated from porridge - thick, overcooked porridge was the prototype of unleavened flatbread. Gradually, the grains for such flatbread began to be crushed, and flour appeared, and with it unleavened bread.

In Rus', porridge was one of the most important dishes. However, porridge in Ancient Rus' They called not only cereal dishes, but in general all dishes cooked from chopped products. Ancient sources mention bread porridge, cooked from crackers, fish porridges, etc.

Porridge was cooked from millet, oats, barley, buckwheat and other cereals. The most revered porridge in Russia was buckwheat.

While we fast physically, at the same time we need to fast spiritually. “By fasting, brethren, physically, let us also fast spiritually, let us resolve every union of unrighteousness,” commands the Holy Church.
Physical fasting, without spiritual fasting, brings nothing to the salvation of the soul; on the contrary, it can be spiritually harmful if a person, abstaining from food, becomes imbued with the consciousness of his own superiority from the knowledge that he is fasting. True fasting is associated with prayer, repentance, abstinence from passions and vices, the eradication of evil deeds, forgiveness of insults, abstinence from married life, the exclusion of entertainment and entertainment events, and watching television. Fasting is not a goal, but a means - a means to humble your flesh and cleanse yourself of sins. Without prayer and repentance, fasting becomes just a diet.

The essence of fasting is expressed in the following church song: “Fasting from food, my soul, and not being cleansed from passions, we are in vain consoled by non-eating: for if fasting does not bring you correction, then you will be hated by God as false, and will become like evil demons, We never poison."

Most people either stop fasting halfway or misinterpret its meaning. All this forces those who want to fast to find as much information as possible about it. The purpose of religious fasting is spiritual purification and abstinence from worldly pleasures. For 40 days, a person disciplines his mind and body in order to grow spiritually and free himself from earthly habits. Nutrition during fasting is the first necessity. It may seem quite strict, especially for beginners. If you do not understand how to observe Lent, this material will tell you how to observe it correctly.

Starvation and physical exhaustion are not the purpose of fasting. If you correctly plan your nutrition schedule by day and week, you will be very surprised how varied and healthy lean foods can be.

List of permitted products

    Fruits:

    Grape

    Pomegranate

    Apples

    Cranberry

    Citrus fruits (lemons, oranges, tangerines, grapefruits)

All these fruits are eaten raw during Lent, and desserts and various snacks are also prepared with them. fresh salads and other dishes.

  • Dried fruits:
  • Pineapples
  • Bananas
  • Cherry
  • Pears
  • Dried apricots
  • Dates
  • Prunes
  • Apples

Dried fruits can not only be eaten during Lent, but they are necessary. During a limited diet, they will enrich the diet with valuable vitamins and strengthen the immune system. They can be combined with others Lenten dishes, cook compotes and jelly from them.

    Vegetables:

    Carrot

    Potato

    Beet

    Celery

    Sweet pepper

    Cabbage (white cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts)

  • Sauerkraut and pickled cucumbers are also welcome on the Lenten table.

    Green

    Parsley

    Basil

  • Lettuce

    Spinach

  • Sorrel

Champignons, oyster mushrooms and other types of mushrooms are rich in protein, which is sorely lacking during the fasting period. Mushrooms will be an excellent alternative to meat. You can use them to make delicious and healthy casseroles with vegetables, soups, pies, roasts and snacks. They are also convenient to combine with cereals and pancakes. Don't neglect mushrooms in your diet.

  • Legumes

Popular legumes: beans and peas will also become irreplaceable sources of protein during Lent. They are ideal for those losing weight, athletes and anyone involved in heavy physical labor. From legumes They prepare excellent mashed potatoes and dishes with vegetables. The menu of these products will be satisfying, healthy and at the same time simple. Sports nutrition During fasting, it must be accompanied by vegetable protein.

  • Cereals

Porridges such as rice, buckwheat, oatmeal and other cereals should become the basis of a lean diet. Except on days where it is recommended complete abstinence from food, porridge can be eaten every day during Lent. They should be cooked only in water, without oil. Upon request, various types cereals can be combined with each other and added vegetables, mushrooms, nuts and dried fruits. This diversifies the dietary menu.

  • Fish

You can eat fish only according to strict rules. During religious fasting, it is consumed on the day of the Annunciation and Palm Sunday.

    Drinks:

    Compote

  • Kissel

Animal milk is prohibited during fasting. However, almond milk, coconut milk, and soy milk are excellent substitutes.

The spring season is not rich in fresh vegetables, fruits and berries. You have to buy them in stores, or stock up on them in advance for fasting. Some preparations will be an excellent addition to the main menu:

    Beans (can be in tomato)

    Green peas

    Corn

    Lentils

Frozen vegetables, but especially berries and fruits, will come in handy in fast days. You can make wonderful tea treats from them.

    Sweets:

    Marmalade

    Lenten marshmallows

    Oatmeal Cookies

  • Kazinaki

    Dark chocolate (bitter only)

  • Lollipops

    Turkish delight

In addition to these products, you can include the following in your post:

    Nuts and seeds;

    Pasta (without eggs);

    Lenten sauces and dressings (soy, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, etc.);

    Lenten bread (Borodinsky, grain, capital);

    Unleavened bread and pita bread;

    Flour (rice, corn, oatmeal, buckwheat and coarse wheat);

    Seaweed.

During Lent, seafood (squid, shrimp) remains controversial. Some people believe that you should not eat such food during Lent. However, less conservative followers of fasting do not agree with this opinion and believe that seafood is acceptable on non-strict days.

What not to eat during Lent

    Meat (sausages, frankfurters, balyki, lard, etc.);

    Fish (except on non-strict days);

    Milk, cheese and any dairy products;

  • Alcohol (except on non-strict days);

    Sweets and baked goods containing butter, eggs and milk;

    Pork fat and meat broths;

    Fast food.

In addition, it is necessary to exclude spices that are too hot, salty, sour and heavy food stimulating an unhealthy appetite. This is everything that cannot be eaten during Lent.

Lent is considered the longest and most demanding season of the year. The first and last weeks before Easter are considered the toughest. Some lay people follow strict rules for eating.

It is advisable to spend Clean Monday (the first day of fasting) and Great Friday (the penultimate day) without food.

On other days, the consumption of permitted products follows the schedule:

Contraindications to fasting

The Orthodox Church does not force all Christians to observe strict fast. Before you comply dietary ration, it is important to consult your doctor. Pregnant and breastfeeding women can eat some prohibited foods during fasting.

The main contraindications to fasting are:

    Small and sick children;

    Elderly people burdened with physical ailments;

    People who have undergone surgery;

    People suffering from serious illnesses.

fast ,

Fasting exists in many religions and worldviews. Symbolically, it reflects many principles and performs more than one function, but formally it is reflected in the agreed restrictions imposed during this period on nutrition, behavior, and sometimes - appearance. And most often it is nutrition that is put at the forefront when it comes to fasting. It’s not surprising, because daily food is the key to our strength, health and well-being. Another thing is that we do not always correctly understand the benefits and harms of certain products, and we formulate a diet according to many, far from the most healthy habits. And fasting gives very specific recommendations, following which we get a chance to cleanse not only the soul, but also the body - who would refuse such an opportunity?

So we invite you to understand precisely the gastronomic aspect of fasting, leaving the spiritual ones to your discretion as deeply personal issues. But even this purely practical approach has many nuances regarding the set of permitted foods, time and other additional conditions for eating, which together make up proper nutrition during fasting. Therefore, eating properly during Lent does not mean simply forgetting about meat, but knowing what, when and how you can cook and eat in order to withstand this difficult test and at the same time not harm your health.

What is lean nutrition? Lenten and fast food
Let’s make it clear right away that we are considering the rules of nutrition during Christian, or even more precisely, Orthodox fasting. After all, fasting and similar ascetic practices are characteristic of Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and other religions, but it is impossible to adequately describe all their features within the framework of one article. Therefore, we will pay attention to the tradition that is closer to the numerical majority of our compatriots in the hope that adherents of other faiths will understand us correctly - as befits true believers. As for Orthodoxy, it understands fasting as abstinence (refusal or limitation) from food and drinks - all or only some, for a specified time. Observing physical fasting also helps to maintain spiritual and mental fasting, and ideally, to prepare for contact with the Almighty through Communion. But even if you are not yet ready for such deep internal work, fasting will not do you harm - only benefit.

During fasting, some foods are excluded from the diet, which are called modest foods, that is, not allowed during fasting. Roughly speaking, all food of animal origin belongs to the skormny, and if in more detail, this concept unites:

  • meat of animals and birds;
  • offal;
  • animal fat (lard, fat tail);
  • semi-finished products and any products containing meat and offal;
  • eggs;
  • butter;
  • dairy products;
  • fermented milk products;
  • fish on certain days of strict fasting;
  • confectionery and other dishes prepared using the listed ingredients.
Instead of these familiar, but not the most healthy, delicacies, you are allowed to fill your menu with other products. These are all edible plants and other food plant origin, and also not warm-blooded organisms. If you look at it, there is not so little food that fits into this framework. Here is her list:
  • vegetables;
  • fruits;
  • green;
  • mushrooms;
  • cereals and cereal flakes;
  • legumes;
  • nuts;
  • spices and herbs;
  • vegetable oils, with the exception of some days;
  • fish and seafood, except on some days;
  • honey;
  • salt.
And, of course, water and herbal infusions you can drink in any quantity. And if you consider how tasty shellfish, arthropods, vegetable stew, porridge with fruit and honey - it turns out that lean nutrition is really nothing. Add here nuts in honey and natural muesli, meringues, kozinaki and oatmeal cookies, and it’s possible that you won’t even remember about meat. True, some priests do not allow fasting people to eat candy and other sweets, regardless of their composition. But this prohibition relates more to moral than food asceticism. Therefore, whether to adhere to it or not is up to you. Do not forget that fasting is purely voluntary, otherwise all its benefits are nullified.

When should you follow the rules of fasting?
Orthodox fasting is observed several times a year, and each time has different durations and title. The longest and strictest is Lent, lasting 40 days. If you have never fasted before, you can start small and try eating according to the rules of fasting for one day, for example, on Wednesdays or Fridays. And check the schedule of longer food restrictions with church calendar. There you will also find instructions on the prohibitions and permissions provided for each specific Lenten period. They are different:

  • Strict fasting- This is a refusal of all foods and drinks, except clean water.
  • Xerophagy– this is the consumption of only products of plant origin in in kind, not cooked or even heated. Drinks are also served cold.
  • "Brewing Poison" allows you to cook plant foods, but prohibits filling it with oil.
  • "Eating boiled with oil" implies that you can not only cook/heat products of plant origin, but also flavor them with vegetable oil.
  • "Eating Fish" allows not only thermally processed plant foods seasoned with oil, but also fish and fish products in raw or boiled form.
The Church determines on which days certain nutritional rules should be followed. But, not being a perfectly disciplined parishioner, you can allow yourself to choose the degree of restrictions yourself. The main thing is that this desire is sincere and comes from the heart, and not the desire to lose weight, have a fasting day, or prove something to yourself and others. In this case, you risk causing stress to your body due to an unbalanced diet. Proper lean nutrition is not only restrictions, but also a verified schedule of prohibitions and permissions. After all, fasting, like any established tradition, has not random rules. They are consistent with the duration of the fast, the time of year and climatic features, and have periodic relaxations and reservations for people of different ages, lifestyle and health status.

Who should not fast?
Restrictions on food, like any drastic changes, are stressful for the body, especially if you are not used to denying yourself meat and oily dishes. On the one hand, such a shake-up will have a beneficial effect on the digestive, cardiovascular and immune system, therefore, the exclusion of heavy and generally any food is used as therapeutic fasting. The effectiveness of this method has been repeatedly proven by both alternative and traditional medicine, but it is used for a short time: one to three days, maximum – a week. Longer interruptions in supply nutrients(and in lean diet lacks primarily protein and fat) can produce reverse effect, especially for those who are not quite healthy and/or weak person. Therefore, the strictness of fasting is not the same, and some relaxations are allowed in such cases:

  1. For preschool and younger children school age fasting can be harmful. Their body is at the stage active formation when complete protein, vitamins and minerals are especially important. Therefore, do not deprive your child of meat and fish at all and/or replace some animal products with plant sources of protein: legumes, mushrooms, nuts, buckwheat. There should be enough of them to ensure the structure of bones, teeth, muscle tissue And nervous system. And in general, do not force your child to fast; let him make his own decision by watching you. Whether your child will want to follow your example depends on how wisely you eat during Lent.
  2. Pregnant and lactating women are allowed to eat eggs, fish and dairy products, without which their body will not cope with its responsible mission. They need to especially carefully monitor their well-being and listen to the doctor more attentively than to their confessor.
  3. Recovering patients, especially after injuries and wounds, should not reduce their diet - on the contrary, they need amino acids and fats to restore strength. At the same time, fasting can be turned into a spiritual and emotional channel, without overeating and exercising internal work, praying and helping others.
  4. Some types of disease are a direct contraindication to fasting. These are illnesses associated with metabolic processes, digestive and endocrine systems: anemia, gout, pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus etc.
  5. The first fast in your life in adulthood can be with minor concessions. They are selected depending on your health status and your goals, which are determined together with your doctor and/or priest. But since observing fasting is your conscious decision, then try not to do yourself any big favors and eat properly during fasting, as you should.
An example of proper lean nutrition
Eating properly during Lent means not allowing yourself too much, but from time to time adding variety to the list of allowed foods. What and when exactly? If you do not fall into any of the categories of people described in the previous paragraph, then according to the schedule, established by the church. Its specific calendar dates change a little from year to year, but in general the “schedule” remains unchanged. Here are his main postulates using the example of Lent:
  1. Fasting begins on Monday, or Clean Monday. On this day you cannot eat at all, you can only drink water.
  2. All subsequent Mondays during fasting will not be so strict, but not without restrictions: you can eat food once in the afternoon, adhering to dry eating (cold raw vegetables, fruits, greens without oil).
  3. Every Wednesday and Friday during fasting you should also follow a dry raw food diet, drink cool water and avoid even vegetable fats. On these days, unleavened bread is allowed.
  4. On Tuesday and Thursday you can indulge in hot dishes, boiled or steamed. True, you will have to enjoy them again only once a day (in the evening) and do without oil.
  5. Saturday and Sunday are the most pleasant days of fasting in terms of nutrition. Firstly, these days you can eat twice a day: morning and evening. Dishes can be boiled and seasoned with oil, and you can even drink grape wine for dinner.
  6. Friday and Saturday of the last week of Lent are exceptions to these general rules. IN Good Friday any food is prohibited, and on Holy Saturday you can extend your fast or take boiled food without oil and other seasonings.
  7. Twice during Lent you are allowed to treat yourself to fish: on Annunciation and Palm Sunday.
  8. Lazarus Saturday is an occasion to treat yourself to caviar, although eating fish on this day is not allowed.
  9. At the end of the fast, throughout the last week, you will have to limit yourself more strictly and adhere to dry eating.
These are the canonical rules of lean nutrition, but their observance requires high level self-discipline and a certain amount of habit. When fasting for the first time, you can adjust them slightly - for example, by increasing the number of meals. This will not break the fast if you keep it in essence, which is to choose simple, frugal and inexpensive foods and avoid snacking on "delicious" foods for pleasure.

How to eat deliciously during Lent
Some people mistakenly perceive fasting as a diet, best case scenario- health-improving, at worst - for weight loss. In both cases, when the true role of fasting is taken into account, and the restrictions are not supported by internal desire, it is quite difficult to endure the fast psychologically. Culinary experience and imagination come to the rescue, necessary to add variety to the daily menu. So what if vegetable salad and lean cabbage soup is already setting your teeth on edge, try using these tricks:

  1. In addition to sunflower and olive, use other vegetable oils: flaxseed, grape, sesame, etc.
  2. Eat a variety of cereals to help your bowel movements. Don’t forget about sauerkraut so as not to deprive your body of lactic acid, which has a beneficial effect on intestinal microflora.
  3. Explore exotic cuisines. For example, many Asian dishes contain tofu, sesame, and seaweed. And Ayurvedic cooking almost entirely meets the requirements of a lean diet.
  4. Use a fasting diet to increase your healthy products in your diet: for example, replace your usual bread with yeast-free bread, or even better, whole bread with bran.
  5. Use spices and look for new ways to prepare dishes. For example, a pinch of allspice in a salad improves digestion and promotes faster satiety, and instead of oil, fish can be fried in a dry non-stick pan, grilled or steamed.
Lenten food recipes
You can prepare a huge number of dishes without meat - perhaps you can’t even imagine the number of lean cooking recipes. Not only cold salads and appetizers, but also first, second, sweet dishes, and drinks are prepared from vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, and berries. Well, for example:
  • Vinaigrette. Take 4 potatoes, 2 pickles, 1 beet, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 100 grams sauerkraut, 1 teaspoon of mustard, a pinch of salt and sugar, vinegar. Boil potatoes, carrots and beets, peel and cut into small cubes. Chop the onion and cabbage, cut the cucumbers into cubes. Prepare a dressing from salt, sugar, mustard and a tablespoon of vinegar. Place all ingredients in a salad bowl, season and mix.
  • Lenten bean soup. Take 4 potatoes, 2 onions, 2 carrots, 1 cup beans, 4 walnuts, bay leaf, a pinch of salt and ground black pepper. Cook the beans until tender. Peel and cut the potatoes into cubes, place in a saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add bay leaf and salt. Peel and chop the onion and carrots, fry in a frying pan until soft. 5 minutes before the potatoes are ready, place the beans, carrots with onions and peppers in the pan, cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes. Add the peeled nut kernels and serve.
  • Fruit puffs. Take a package of puff pastry, 1 large apple, 1 kiwi, 1 pear, 100 grams of raspberries or other berries, 100 grams of sugar. Peel the fruits and cut them into small equal cubes. Roll out the dough and cut into 6 square pieces. Place fruits and berries on the dough, mixed or in parts, sprinkle with sugar. Fold the edges of the dough over to form small rolls. Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake the puff pastries for 15 minutes.
Thus, by observing the main principles of fasting - restraint, humility and modesty, you can make fasting not only correct, but also very tasty. The main thing is to focus your attention not on what you can’t do, but on what you can, that is, on the positive instead of the negative. They also say that the main thing during Lent is not to eat each other and yourself, that is, forget about vanity, nagging, pretensions and self-flagellation, devote time to spiritual and intellectual growth, communication with loved ones, useful deeds and good deeds. If you can do all this, then you will probably be able to eat correctly both during Lent and at other times.