Dry fasting vs. water fasting [asking for religious reasons]

Hello and greetings from day 5 of a water fast, I was always of the mind that there are no added benefits to dry fasting over water fasting and that in reality dry fasting longer than 24 hours is unsafe. I am a practicing Jew and have dry fasted for 25 hours every year plus a yearly summer daytime fast \[which unless I wake up at 3am where I live basically translates to a 24 hour fast\]. Jewish fasting forbids water. However, we do it not for health benefits but to aid in repentance. I guess to put it simply, that the discomfort of fasting is such that it aids one to reflect on their mis-takes in life and over the last year. Anyhow, today I decided to do some research into any benefit to dry fasting and some sources came up claiming that it has health benefits. **However, all the claimed health benefits were the same as water fasting. So my question, are there any health benefits to say daytime dry fasting that water fasting does not provide?** How do they differ? Again, I don't mean my question as a pro/against for dry fasting, I'm just genuinely curious as it gives me a chance to reflect on my religious practice.

Answer

I do not know the answer (I assume dry fasting is very bad for you). Mostly wanted to say that compared to (dry) religious fasting, a water fast is a breeze! Add caffeine and it gets even easier. I’ve never tried a 5 day fast though. . .

Answer

I don’t know about specific health benefits but I find dry-fasting a lot easier (but have to remind myself to take sips of water here and there). I suppose it’s because it’s what I’m used to as a Muslim.

I will add that whilst fasting has benefits, the main benefit/ point of a Muslim’s fast is building spiritual discipline and submitting to God. The main focus of Ramadan is the reconnection of the Quran (hence why Ramadan = the Month of the Quran). It’s like the reset & prep for the rest of the year. The benefit and purpose of fasting is to help us draw nearer to righteous - how? Because obtaining from food, water and other such matters during the fast is the easiest part. The real difficulty cames from avoiding obscenity, lying, vanity, anger, backbiting, conflict, falsehood etc. The means (avoiding food, drink, intercourse etc) is just the means to the goal. It keeps you aware of yourself- because certain behaviours (non-food/drink related) wjll break your fast.

And I agree with your friends- Ramadan is easily the most enjoyable time, ‘flowy’, spirtual of the year for me. Even with the fasting, the long nights, the cooking, working shift work etc.