food and the body
What kinds of food are eaten while fasting?
Foods that are allowed
A fast does not always mean eating nothing. Many fasts allow certain foods believed to be pure, light, or fit for the sacred time. Fruits are common—bananas, apples, and citrus are eaten fresh or sometimes as juice. Dairy is central to many fasts: milk, yogurt, paneer, and ghee are used freely. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are eaten boiled or fried in ghee. Nuts like almonds and cashews are taken, often soaked. Milk-based sweets made with special flours are a regular part of the fast meal. Seeds like pumpkin or watermelon seeds are eaten. Honey is used as a sweetener instead of sugar.
Special flours and grains
Flours made from seeds, roots, and non-grain sources replace ordinary wheat and rice. Sabudana, made from tapioca pearls, is cooked with potatoes and peanuts into a mild porridge. Sama ke chawal, a millet-like grain, is prepared like rice. Kuttu and singhare ka atta are buckwheat and water chestnut flours used for breads, pancakes, and sweets. These give the meal substance while staying within the fasting rules. The belief is that these are lighter or less binding than daily grains, though the exact rule changes by tradition and by which god or time is being honored.
What is left out
Ordinary grains—wheat, rice, lentils—are avoided. Salt is often excluded or kept to a very little. Onion and garlic are not eaten. Many fasts skip eggs and meat. Some traditions avoid oil as well, or allow only ghee. Tea and coffee are usually not taken. The exact list changes by the fast, the region, the household, and which deity or occasion is being marked. One person's strict fast is looser in another home or another part of India.
Today
People living away from home often find creative ways to keep the custom. They adapt with what is locally available—using local fruits, buying flours online, or making do with what feels closest to the tradition. Some people follow the full rules; others simplify. Many young people keep the fasting days but eat more freely, or fast from one meal rather than all day. The tradition holds the framework, but life abroad shapes how strictly it is kept.