Fasting reduces rice consumption

When I was visiting a recreation center in Ohio, U.S., in 1992, I found something surprisingly new about America. There were many obese women and many children in each family. On average, I believe, every family had four to six little children. "How come modern American women can have more than two children, like those in developing countries?" I asked myself. In 1982, I stayed in New York State and I hardly saw any obese women.

Mansour Fakih (now a PhD holder from Massachusetts University) told me later why this happened. He said that those people had so many children "because they were Catholics". As we all know, Catholicism prohibits using birth control except for the rhythm method. As for the obesity, he said, that was because those people were poor people. Most poor people eat junk food such as hamburgers and fried chicken, which are very high in carbohydrates and cholesterol, which can cause obesity.

Now, here in Indonesia, fasting during the month of Ramadhan does not reduce the consumption of food among Moslems. Most Moslems fast not to be more modest in food consumption, or to feel the hunger experienced by the needy. They merely change the time of eating three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), instead they take only two meals, i.e. predawn breakfast and after sunset dinner. Actually, Islam teaches Moslems to fast to change the time of eating and, at the same time, reduce the amount of food consumed. In this way, some food would be saved during Ramadhan and could be used to help the needy.

I strongly agree with President B.J. Habibie that fasting on Mondays and Thursdays may reduce the people's consumption of rice. Because, as has been mentioned above, during Ramadhan Moslems should only eat two meals, meaning one meal can be saved, which is about 40 percent of a person's daily rice consumption.

As prophet Muhammad said in a hadith (traditions of the prophet), fasting is not only very good for one's health but also for one's intellectual capacity.

USEP FATHUDIN

Jakarta