Dur­ing this time of fast­ing, specif­i­cal­ly Ra­madan and Lent, it is a time of prayer, re­flec­tion and close­ness with God. When ob­serv­ing this time of fast­ing, main­tain­ing health is es­sen­tial, es­pe­cial­ly for women. To en­sure the nu­tri­tion­al and hor­mon­al needs are met across all stages of life, the key theme is bal­ance.

When fast­ing, it’s less about re­strict­ing and harm­ing the body as re­li­gious teach­ings al­low ex­emp­tions for ill­ness, preg­nan­cy, breast­feed­ing or men­stru­a­tion. Faith and health should be work­ing to­geth­er dur­ing this time. It’s about in­clud­ing bet­ter food com­bi­na­tions.

Lent usu­al­ly in­cludes par­tial fast­ing, where cer­tain foods, such as meat and sweets, are not con­sumed for 40 days be­fore East­er. Ra­madan is where fast­ing is com­plet­ed from dawn to sun­set, and in­cludes no food or drink con­sump­tion for about 29 to 30 days.

Dur­ing Ra­madan, women should fo­cus on bal­anc­ing their plate with high-qual­i­ty pro­tein op­tions such as lean meat, fish, beans, egg along with com­plex car­bo­hy­drates such as whole grain pro­vi­sions, healthy fats such as nuts, as well as fruits and veg­eta­bles. When eat­ing, this should be the main bal­ance. An ex­am­ple of a nu­tri­tious meal is pelau and coleslaw. It’s vi­tal to con­sume all food groups dai­ly with­in the hours of break­ing fast. Hy­dra­tion is an­oth­er fac­tor that is over­looked. To hy­drate the body, I would rec­om­mend in­clud­ing herbal tea, fruit in­fused wa­ter, co­conut wa­ter, and just drink­ing wa­ter. My pref­er­ence is herbal tea, specif­i­cal­ly iced tea, dur­ing the sum­mer days.

Dur­ing Lent, eat a va­ri­ety of foods through­out the day with dif­fer­ent food com­bi­na­tions and colours. Lim­it­ing fried, high-sug­ar foods that cause en­er­gy crash­es can be ben­e­fi­cial to your body’s health dur­ing this time. Lim­it­ing caf­feinat­ed bev­er­ages can al­so de­crease the chances of de­hy­dra­tion. Oth­er ways to hy­drate the body can in­clude con­sum­ing soups and hy­drat­ing fruits or veg­eta­bles. Some bal­anced meals can in­clude roti and veg­etable cho­ka in the morn­ing, snack­ing on a nu­tri­tious treat with a fresh fruit and low-sug­ar yo­gurt while bal­anc­ing lunch with mac­a­roni pie, stew fish or to­fu or beans and fresh sal­ad. Your meals can be ad­just­ed to suit your pref­er­ence.

Women’s bod­ies are more sen­si­tive than men’s, and we need to avoid ex­treme calo­rie re­stric­tions that can cause fa­tigue, mood fluc­tu­a­tions, ir­ri­tabil­i­ty, mood swings and men­stru­al cy­cle dis­rup­tions. Bal­anced meals help to main­tain hor­mon­al sta­bil­i­ty. Look out for these crit­i­cal signs and symp­toms that can in­di­cate that your fast­ing is do­ing more harm than good:

1) Se­vere dizzi­ness

2) Faint­ing

3) Vom­it­ing

4) Ab­dom­i­nal pain

5) Low blood sug­ar

When nour­ish­ing your bod­ies, re­mem­ber to stay hy­drat­ed, bal­ance the food groups and choose bet­ter com­bi­na­tions to im­prove your health dur­ing this time of fast­ing.

Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD al­so known as Di­di, is a reg­is­tered di­etit­ian nu­tri­tion­ist.

She is al­so the CEO of Di­di's Nu­tri­tion Con­sul­tan­cy didis­nu­tri­tion­con­sul­tan­cy.com