{"id":849843,"date":"2025-05-20T22:13:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T03:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/20\/for-muslims-with-eating-disorders-ramadan-fasting-can-present-health-and-spiritual-challenges\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T22:13:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T03:13:43","slug":"for-muslims-with-eating-disorders-ramadan-fasting-can-present-health-and-spiritual-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/20\/for-muslims-with-eating-disorders-ramadan-fasting-can-present-health-and-spiritual-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"For Muslims with eating disorders, Ramadan fasting can present health and spiritual challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(RNS) \u2014 Muslims around the world are celebrating Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and a time for spiritual reflection, humility and prayer. The holiday is marked by fasting from dawn to dusk for the 30 days, a spiritual observance required of Muslims as one of the five foundational pillars of Islam.<\/p>\n

For many, it is an act of devotion achieved through self-discipline. However, for Muslims living with or recovering from eating disorders, ritualized abstinence from food can pose serious mental and physical health challenges.<\/p>\n

About 9% of Americans<\/a> will struggle with an eating disorder in their lifetime, according to Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health research. Eating disorders are characterized by fraught relationships with food<\/a>, leading to behaviors like caloric restriction, adherence to specific \u201cfood rules,\u201d bingeing, purging and overexercising, among other disordered behaviors.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach has their own unique condition,\u201d said Dr. Rania Awaad<\/a>, director of Stanford University\u2019s Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology Lab. \u201cSo, there are some people who will never be triggered by Ramadan. For other people, (fasting) is a withholding that mimics what they may be doing in terms of restricting as part of their eating disorder. So, sometimes it\u2019s hard to distinguish.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dr. Rania Awaad. (Photo courtesy of Stanford University)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Awaad, who is also an ustadha or Islamic teacher, described Ramadan as \u201ca reflection month where people are meant to turn inwards, really assess a relationship with God, themselves and with their community. It\u2019s a month of taking stock of all that you have, and it\u2019s a month of gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

As such, Muslims with eating disorders face a difficult reality and risk when it comes to fasting. Could observing the beloved holiday worsen their illness?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a slippery slope,\u201d said Noor Mahmood, a 22-year-old Muslim woman in recovery from binge eating disorder.<\/p>\n

BED is the most common eating disorder in the United States, according<\/a> to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and 1.6% of adolescents<\/a> in the country are estimated to suffer from it. BED, like other eating disorders, can also lead to an increased risk<\/a> of physical and mental health comorbidities.<\/p>\n

Mahmood, a Columbus, Ohio, resident, recalled her disordered relationship with food beginning in seventh grade when a classmate started talking to her about weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember I was slightly bigger than her, and I don\u2019t know what just clicked in my brain, but I just didn\u2019t like that,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That marked the start of what would be a yearslong struggle with food, where Mahmood attached her sense of morality to her eating patterns, she said. As mental health was not a common topic of discussion in her household growing up, Mahmood herself did not at first understand the nature of her problem. Her dangerous eating patterns continued through middle school and into high school, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what it was or why it was happening,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that this was considered disordered behavior, and I don\u2019t think I brought it up to anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Noor Mahmood. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Eventually, Mahmood got professional help and acquired tools to help her to recover from BED, citing that learning to advocate for her needs made recovery possible. She\u2019s now working as a nursing assistant and studying toward a career in nursing.<\/p>\n

At the height of her disordered eating behaviors in high school, she said, she tried to lose weight during Ramadan. However, refocusing on Ramadan\u2019s spiritual meaning ultimately helped her curb such efforts in later years. The holiday now offers an opportunity to reinvigorate her faith by reflecting on what she may be struggling with and how to find support.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalking to God more through prayer and making dua (supplications) about it always helped me to remember the whole purpose,\u201d she said of Ramadan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As both a psychiatrist and observant Muslim, Awaad said the intersection of faith and mental health is important to consider for those determining the best way to observe the holiday for them personally. Moreover, her research<\/a> shows common misconceptions regarding mental health can discourage Muslims from seeking the care they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will incorrectly look at mental health issues as a spiritual failing of some sort, where they\u2019ll say, \u2018You shouldn\u2019t be depressed or have these issues if you\u2019re a person of faith because you should be able to pray them away,\u2019\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Exceptions from fasting are deemed acceptable for Muslims who are chronically or acutely ill, menstruating or pregnant, or elderly, among other health reasons. Awaad argues that these exemptions should extend to those struggling with or recovering from eating disorders and other mental health issues when fasting would be injurious to their well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to understand that there are exemptions from fasting because of health conditions,\u201d she said. \u201cMental health is not discriminated against in this. Serious mental health conditions are part and parcel of the exemptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when they are unable to fast, Muslims are encouraged to participate in Ramadan through helping others in need. This might mean donating to charitable causes, or zakat,\u00a0or preparing meals for others to break their fasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focus a lot on the person who can\u2019t (physically) fast, but Ramadan is a month of introspection and turning inward,\u201d Awaad said. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to be fasting to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mahmood, life in BED recovery and with Type 1 diabetes has meant that on occasion, she\u2019s had to use such fasting exemptions to preserve her health. Now several years into recovery, though, she is able to fast normally, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, it was hard to not make it all about food,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, it\u2019s about being humble enough to connect with God and work on that relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Reina Coulibaly
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RNS) \u2014 Muslims around the world are celebrating Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and a time for spiritual reflection, humility and prayer. The holiday is marked by fasting from dawn to dusk for the 30 days, a spiritual observance required of Muslims as one of the five foundational pillars of Islam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":849844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2985,106151],"tags":[9312,106150],"class_list":{"0":"post-849843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eating","8":"category-muslims","9":"tag-eating","10":"tag-muslims"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}