What can modern medicine learn from Orthodox fasting without reducing an ancient ascetical practice to another health intervention?
In this episode of the Orthodox Health Podcast, Dr. Pete Patitsas, emergency physician & author of The Athos Diet, joins Dr. Michael Christian & John to explore what the fasting traditions associated with Mt. Athos can teach us about food, health, discipline & the formation of the human person.
They discuss intermittent fasting, metabolic health, protein during Great Lent, shellfish, pea protein, tofu, fasting-compliant junk food, food addiction & the relationship between fasting & feasting.
But the conversation ultimately goes much deeper than nutrition:
- Why does Christianity use something as visceral as hunger to teach restraint?
- What happens when suffering is given a purpose?
- Can health optimization itself become disordered?
- And what does modern medicine miss when it isolates the physiological effects of fasting from the spiritual life in which those practices developed?
Dr. Pete also shares why he believes fasting teaches delayed gratification, how purpose once helped him get a frightened patient out of an overwhelmed emergency department, & why Orthodox fasting may have something important to offer a culture increasingly unable to resist its appetites.
Topics include:
The Athos Diet • Mt. Athos • Orthodox fasting • intermittent fasting • Great Lent • fasting protein • metabolic health • delayed gratification • food addiction • asceticism • purpose • nocebo • fasting & feasting
Chapters:
00:00 Coming Up
01:00 Orthodox Health Intro
02:29 The Athos Diet & Orthodox Health
07:13 You Can't Fast From Something You Don't Desire
12:59 What Is The Athos Diet?
20:48 Health, Responsibility & Purpose
27:39 What Can Mt. Athos Teach Modern Medicine?
33:24 Protein During the Orthodox Fast
39:33 Training, Duty & a Purpose-Driven Life
42:53 Suffering, Purpose & the Nocebo Effect
47:18 Fasting, Withdrawal & Food Addiction
52:22 Tofu, Shellfish & Protein Optimization
57:40 When Health Optimization Becomes an Obsession
1:03:05 Why Resisting Good Things Changes Us
1:08:38 Can Fasting Help Rebuild Culture?
1:13:18 Fasting, Feasting & the Bigger Picture
Connect with Dr. Pete & your copy of The Athos Diet: Before There Was Atkins, There Was Athos on TheAthosDiet.comThe Athos Diet YouTube Channel
Work with Dr. Mike
Signed Copies of Orthodoxy & The Medicine of the Future: OrthodoxHealth.com/book
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Intro & Outro Music: St. John of Chicago Orthodox Church Choir (Arkansas) - Please support their building fund by buying the whole album here
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