WHAT TO EAT AND WHAT NOT TO EAT
What to Eat Since the Suhur and Iftar meals are supposed to keep you fueled for the entire day, it’s important to ensure you eat the right food and drink. In general, you should choose foods that are rich in the following:
• Protein – Proteins take time to digest and stay longer in your stomach, and prevent you feeling hungry throughout your day. Proteins are also vital for building and repairing your body. Proteins include meat, chicken, eggs, cheese, yoghurt, and milk. Just make sure the meat and chicken is healthily cooked!
• Whole Grain carbohydrates – Carbohydrates are our main energy source, but we should choose whole grain carbohydrates such as brown bread, as they not only help with our digestion, but release energy slower than sugars. These include brown bread, wholegrain cereals and oats.
• Nuts – Nuts, like the above two, take longer to digest and make you feel full for longer. They’re also packed with protein and can be added as a topping to many foods.
• Fruits and hydrating vegetables – Fruits have a high water content, along with a
range of vitamins. It’s also Sunnah to have dates for Suhur. You can even opt for a
fruit smoothie! As for vegetables, choose those that have a higher water content,
such as cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.
• Liquids – You’re going to be without water for possibly fifteen hours or more. You’ll
need to drink as much water as you can drink, though you need to be careful which
liquids you choose, as sugary drinks and caffeine are bad for fasts (as explained on
the next two slides). Have water throughout the time between Iftar and Suhur.
What to avoid
There are some foods you should avoid if you want your fast to be easy.
• Avoid sugary foods and drinks, especially fizzy drinks. They release energy quickly, but then make you feel tired and drained throughout the day. Some fruit juices also tend to have a lot of added sugar. Fizzy drinks also make you feel bloated and full, depriving you of that well-needed food and water.
• Avoid fatty foods, as they just get stored up and add unnecessary weight. Your body first burns off carbohydrates and then fats. If you are eating fatty food, most likely it is just being stored as more fat!
• Avoid spicy foods. These may trigger off an upset stomach or even cause acid reflux and heartburn. It will be difficult treating these illnesses without being able to have medicine throughout the day.
• Avoid salty foods. Additional salt will create an imbalance in the water and salt concentration in your body, making you feel the need to have more water and therefore make you even more thirsty!
• Avoid caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic and makes you go to the washroom, making you lose the water you had drank earlier to store throughout your fast. As tempting as it may be (especially if you suffer from the withdrawal symptoms of not having your three cups of tea a day), avoid tea, coffee and energy drinks with caffeine if you want to avoid feeling dehydrated.
• Avoid overeating! Ramadan is for eating less, and the food is supposed to be a meal to keep you going for the day, not the week! You don’t need to make up for the meals you’ve missed out on, nor will your stomach be able to digest it! That would just contradict everything the fast stands for!
• Overeating can also lead to indigestion, heartburn and an upset bowel. It will lead to feeling bloated and a constant need to burp and offend your fellow Musallis during Tarawih!
• You will definitely feel hunger and thirst throughout the day, but it’s just important to reduce it as much as possible by eating correctly. This is why the reward is in hardship.
WHAT BREAKS AND INVALIDATES A FAST
Fasting is from dawn to sunset. However, if a person eats, drinks or has relations with their spouse at any time between those two points, their fast may break and become invalid. The following break the fast:
• Eating, drinking deliberately whilst being aware that you’re fasting. This also includes
• Swallowing toothpaste or mouthwash
• Swallowing blood from the gums if it’s more than the saliva it’s mixed with
• Swallowing leftover food in between your teeth if it’s the size of a small chickpea or bigger
• When medicine from a nasal spray passes down your throat
• Inhaling in medicine such as when using Asthma pump inhalers
• Swallowing water when gargling your mouth
• Inhaling smoke deliberately, such as when smoking or doing shisha
• Having relations with your spouse or being stimulated to ejaculate
• Vomiting a mouthful deliberately
• Deliberately swallowing a mouthful of vomit, even if you don’t take it out deliberately
• Having an endoscopy (being inspected by a camera passed down your food pipe)
• When a woman begins her menstruation or post-natal bleeding
The following will not break the fast:
• Eating, drinking or having relations with your spouse whilst forgetting that you’re fasting
• However, if you thought your fast broke, and then ate deliberately, your fast will now break
• To have nocturnal emission (a wet dream)
• Swallowing your own saliva or the wetness left in your mouth after rinsing it
• Ear drops
• Eye drops and Surma (Kuhl)
• Swallowing mucus from the throat or nose
• Inhaling smoke or dust unintentionally
• Using nicotine patches or applying external creams, or deodorants, makeup, oil etc.
• Injections, blood transfusions, dialysis and being put on a drip
• Blood test or cupping
• Using the Miswak or swallowing the built-up saliva from using the Miswak (though flavoured Miswaks will break the fast if the saliva is swallowed)
• Vomiting unintentionally, or less than a mouthful intentionally
• Swallowing vomit unintentionally if it’s a mouthful
The following will not break the fast either, but are Makruh and should be avoided:
• Chewing anything
• If you chew something that has a taste, like chewing gum, and the taste mixes with
the saliva, then swallowing the saliva will break your fast)
• Tasting food or drink without a need
• Gathering saliva and then swallowing it
• Brushing your teeth using toothpaste or using mouthwash (note that your fast breaks if you swallow either)
BY HUDA PRESS
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