After Maslenitsa, many Christians will have to forget about delicious pancakes for as much as 48 days. That is how long Lent lasts. It is called the longest, strictest and most complex. After all, it provides for the rejection of your favorite meat, milk, eggs and other products of animal origin. You also have to forget about smoking, alcohol and carnal pleasures. But such unloading will only benefit. After all, this is a unique opportunity to cleanse the body and soul. About how to do it right and what kind of food should be in Lent, I found out estet-portal.com.
What is the essence of Great Lent
Great post – This is not a weight loss diet. Its main goal – physical and spiritual preparation for Easter. This forty-day period serves as a reminder that Christ spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness without food or drink in order to show his disciples how to overcome temptation. While fasting, a Christian also suffers and suffers, thus not forgetting the Holy Savior.
Lent begins seven weeks before Easter and is divided into four main parts:
1. Fourcost – lasts 40 days.
2. Lazarus Saturday – sixth Saturday of Lent.
3. The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem – sixth Sunday of Lent.
4. Holy Week – last fast week.
In Great Lent it is necessary to pray, confess and take communion. Also, this period provides for the cessation of smoking, foul language, carnal pleasures and food of animal origin.
Key Features of Lenten Nutrition
Food during Great Lent differs significantly from food on other days, primarily with food and strict rules. During this period, it is forbidden to use:
• meat;
• milk and dairy products;
• baking;
• chocolate;
• fast food;
• alcoholic beverages.
On fasting days only food of plant origin is allowed:
• vegetables and fruits;
• dried fruits;
• wholemeal bread;
• cereals on water without oil;
• beans and beans;
• mushrooms;
• nuts and seeds;
• honey, halvah;
• kissels, teas, compotes.
It is necessary to fast according to a special calendar. So, Great Lent begins on Clean Monday. On this day, you should refuse food. Only drinking water is allowed. On the remaining days of the first fasting week, except for Saturday and Sunday, one should adhere to a dry diet, that is, eat exclusively raw vegetables and fruits, sauerkraut, nuts, seeds and other foods that have not been thermally processed. As an exception, you can eat lean bread without the addition of sugar and vegetable oil. From drinking water, jelly and compote are allowed. In the future, dry eating falls on each following Monday, Wednesday and Friday of Great Lent.
Dry eating – a real test for a man. Therefore, on the recommendation of the church, it is necessary to ask for a blessing for observing such a diet.
Starting from the second week of Great Lent, food becomes more varied. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can include hot food in your diet, but without vegetable and butter. These are borscht, vegetable soups, cereals, mashed potatoes, pasta, stewed vegetables.
And on weekends you can eat dishes cooked in vegetable oil: carrot cutlets, fried potatoes, various salads. A glass of wine is also not forbidden, which will strengthen your strength.
The menu changes a bit during holidays. So, on Lazarus Saturday, fish caviar can be added to ordinary Lenten dishes, and on such holidays as the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, you can eat fish.
And as for the last week of Great Lent, it is especially strict. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it is necessary to adhere to a dry diet, on Maundy Thursday it is allowed to eat only hot food with butter. On Good Friday, nothing should be consumed until the shroud is taken out of the altar in the middle of the temple. After that, it is allowed to dine only with bread and water. On Passion Saturday, it is advisable to refrain from eating.
What Lent gives a person
Special meals for Lent – this is a huge benefit to the body. After all, getting rid of harmful fatty foods and including foods full of vitamins, minerals and fiber in your diet, you are thereby cleared of garbage in the form of toxins, cholesterol and animal protein waste. In addition, valuable elements found in vegetables, fruits, nuts and cereals have a positive effect on the functioning of all organs and systems. So, antioxidants normalize the functioning of the cardiovascular system and the musculoskeletal system, vitamin C strengthens the immune system, and iron, magnesium, silver and other minerals restore and regenerate body tissues, as well as improve the condition of the skin and nails and hair.
In addition to physical cleansing, a Christian also receives spiritual cleansing. He gets rid of temptation and bad habits.
Nutrition for Lent: recommendations from nutritionists
Despite the fact that fasting nutrition brings great benefits to the body, it still involves serious restrictions on foods and some lifestyle changes. But you can still survive this period as comfortably as possible if you replace the usual meat dishes with foods that contain a lot of protein: nuts, legumes, mushrooms, soybeans, avocados, buckwheat and other cereals. And the missing vitamins and minerals can be obtained from vegetables, fruits and juices.
And it is not at all necessary to limit yourself to monotonous dishes during Lent. You can eat a wide variety of foods. So, vegetable and cereal soups, beetroots, pickles are suitable as first courses. Ideal options for main courses are various cereals, potato dishes, lean cabbage rolls, as well as vegetable salads. Kissels, berries and fruits are suitable for dessert.
To keep Lent or not – this is a private matter for everyone. But it should be remembered that fasting is prohibited for small children, the elderly, pregnant and lactating women, people with diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases and gout, as well as those who are engaged in heavy physical labor and travel.
If you have no serious contraindications, feel free to start observing Great Lent. Just don't overeat. Moderate consumption of lean foods and liquids will cleanse and heal your body, and there will be no room for bad habits in your life.
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