Heightened senses?

[Rainy-Day]

A while ago I experimented with fasting and I noticed that if you fast for a day, on the next day senses of smell and taste are noticeably heightened. I was thinking.. if you get a really expensive and rare tea, would it make sense to fast for a day or two in order to appreciate it fully? Anyone try that?

[tenuki]

Hmnn, you are serious about yer tea eh?

[aKnightWhoSaysNi]

I would never fast under any circumstance as long as I have access to food. Besides, hunger causes halitosis. The next time you are really hungry, try to smell your own breath and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[Rainy-Day]

Fasting causes (or, rather, multiplies) foul & smelly tongue coating but tongue scrapers can remove it easily. In fact they're not really necessary, you can just take a bit of salt and clean tongue with it (all of it including the root).

[Smells_Familiar]

I do two 24 hour fasts per week, from breakfast to break-fast, and I experience the same heightened sense of smell and taste as you. I think it's a great idea to enjoy a special tea at this time...but you may want to have something in your stomach b4 drinking. I learned that the hard way and became very nauseous once when breaking my fast with tea. I also seem to be extra sensitive to caffeine after fasting, even if just for one day.

[Rainy-Day]

Yes, definitely with most teas.. I'm thinking that with sencha it may be unnecessary, and with a good pai mutan or silver needles. Maybe some lighter chinese greens, as well. I always brew on the lighter side, if you brew a strong tea, even sencha might be too harsh!

2 fasts a week is quite a lot, I used to do 1 in fortnight (ekadasi) but I've gotten lazy. I sometimes did a full day, though, from dinner to breakfast the day after.

[Tead Off]

A while ago I experimented with fasting and I noticed that if you fast for a day, on the next day senses of smell and taste are noticeably heightened. I was thinking.. if you get a really expensive and rare tea, would it make sense to fast for a day or two in order to appreciate it fully? Anyone try that?

If you're really serious about tea, you'll give up food altogether!

[Chip]

... eating the leaves permitted?

[Rainy-Day]

Doh I thought at least Chip tried it!

[Chip]

Heh, I like fooood way too much to commit to fasting. Plus I get the jitters if I don't eat, a product of crazy fast metabolism.

Though it does not surprise me that tea and likely food tastes much better after fasting. The body wants you to feed the machine and thus heightened senses.

[Rainy-Day]

Chip, I half expected you to say "Sure, I fast 30 days before trying a decent pu-erh, don't everybody do that?!"

Yes, food definitely tastes better too. The tastiest food I've ever eaten was plain white rice, no spices or salt (!), with just fresh whipped butter, after a fast. It had this amazing subtle slightly nutty flavour.

But sense of smell is affected to a larger degree. I think it plays a bigger role in enjoyment of tea than sense of taste..

[Smells_Familiar]

Yes, definitely with most teas.. I'm thinking that with sencha it may be unnecessary, and with a good pai mutan or silver needles. Maybe some lighter chinese greens, as well. I always brew on the lighter side, if you brew a strong tea, even sencha might be too harsh!

actually, it was sencha that did me in, everybody's different

2 fasts a week is quite a lot, I used to do 1 in fortnight (ekadasi) but I've gotten lazy. I sometimes did a full day, though, from dinner to breakfast the day after.

I practice Intermittent Fasting for the health benefits and as a potential life extension tool (studies to back this up). It was either IF or Calorie Restriction and I believe IF is much easier for me plus research is showing it appears to potentially have even greater health benefits than CR. I used to fast every other day, but that didn't jive with my workout schedule and it was very difficult for me. IF twice weekly works perfectly for me and is quite easy. Also, I'm able to keep my weight where I want it and still gain muscle, and i feel great. Yay@! blah, blah, blah

[Rainy-Day]

I practice Intermittent Fasting for the health benefits and as a potential life extension tool (studies to back this up). It was either IF or Calorie Restriction and I believe IF is much easier for me plus research is showing it appears to potentially have even greater health benefits than CR. I used to fast every other day, but that didn't jive with my workout schedule and it was very difficult for me. IF twice weekly works perfectly for me and is quite easy. Also, I'm able to keep my weight where I want it and still gain muscle, and i feel great. Yay@! blah, blah, blah

If I fast a whole day I can't do anything on that day. Only read books and watch anime! I only need to eat 1-2 times a day, dinner and usually supper, too, so I guess CR is easier for me. I don't know about life extension but I feel like I can get more things done and generally feel better vs. eating 3 times a day.

I really want to do full day fasts once in 2 weeks as per yoga/ekadasi tradition, but I've been busy and lazy last couple of months..

Have you tried fasting full day and how does that feel vs. 24 hours?

[Smells_Familiar]

By full day do you mean wake up in the morning and not eat anything all day and go to bed, then eat breakfast the next morning? I actually started IF that way but I would start feeling super poopy by like 5pm or before. I realized that by doing it this way I was actually fasting for like 35 hours straight, more than a full day. What I do on my fasting days that works so well for me is wake up in the morning on fasting day and have a big, healthy breakfast and then do a water fast for the rest of the day. Once I start feeling like poop it's nearly time for bed anyway, so I crash. I wake up the next morning and eat a big break-fast, boom-24 hour fast.

how is it practiced in ekadasi tradition?

[Rainy-Day]

In Ekadasi, Yoga, and in Hinduism generally you fast a full day in the sense that you skip all 3 meals. Yes, it comes down to around 30+ hours total. The idea is to experience ~day with a clear system. If you have a breakfast, that food is going to be in the system pretty much for the whole day, and then you go to sleep.

The point is that you can't really do any work or do anything difficult during the day you fast. Then it's not that hard. But if you do work then it will be incredibly difficult and will do more harm than good.