Kruglova Natalya Andreevna, practicing dietitian, Member of the National Dietetic Association. She graduated from the Ivanovo Medical Academy, after which she specialized in dietetics at the Department of Dietology and Gastroenterology at the North-Western State Medical University. I.I. Mechnikov, St. Petersburg. Deals with issues of proper nutrition, effective and safe weight loss, nutrition for various diseases, including the digestive tract.

Fasting for a believer is a special time, a time of prayers and deep thoughts.

During this period, human nutrition also changes greatly, serious restrictions are imposed on it. With improperly organized nutrition in fasting, a deterioration in the general condition and even exacerbation of certain diseases is possible. On the other hand, fasting is a time of purification, including the physical one. Therefore, from the point of view of medicine, fasting is a completely reasonable event, only with the proviso that you need to approach it thoughtfully.

I’ll make a reservation right away that you can find out about the spiritual meaning of fasting by contacting your spiritual mentor. Here I want to consider the post from the point of view of a nutritionist.

Basic principles of proper nutrition in fasting

1. The main rule is the exclusion of all animal food: meat, fish, poultry, milk and dairy products, eggs. Respectively, the basis of the diet will be plant foods- grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, mushrooms.
2. Try not to suffer during fasting diet. Do not skip breakfast, do not forget about snacks.
3. In the absence of animal foods, which are rich in protein and contribute to a long feeling of satiety, frequent bouts of hunger are possible. During this period, there is a great temptation to overeat pastries and sweets. However, there is no question of any purification in this case. In order not to experience hunger, eat regularly, include in your daily diet foods rich in complex carbohydrates and containing vegetable protein - whole grains and legumes.
4. Particular attention during the period of fasting should be given soy products. There are a great many of them now - soy milk, tofu cheese, all this should be included in your diet.
5. Sometimes it's not as hard to start a post right as it is to end it. It would seem that everything is over, the bans have been lifted, you can eat forbidden foods. However, I want to warn you against overeating after fasting. Start Incorporating Animal Foods into Your Diet After Fasting Gradually and be sure to combine it with plant foods - vegetables and grain products.

Lenten menu for the week

MONDAY

Nutritionist comment: I want to start the lenten menu with a traditional breakfast in an unusual performance. Oatmeal contains complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, vegetable proteins, B vitamins. To maintain health, an adult should consume at least 400 g of vegetables daily (and preferably more). Unfortunately, few people can boast of such a diet. One way to enrich your menu with vegetables is light vegetable salads. These salads are “light” both in execution and in terms of calories. In addition to vegetable protein, lentils contain folic acid and iron. In the recipe for green beans, butter must be replaced with olive oil.

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

A month after the Apostolic Lent, the strict Dormition begins. This is one of four multi-day fasts of the year. It was established in honor of the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mother of God, knowing the day of her death and preparing to depart into eternal life, fasted and prayed constantly, despite the fact that she led a pure and righteous life, and there was absolutely no need for fasting. Ordinary believers, the weak and spiritually weak, are encouraged to resort to fasting more often, turning to the Lord for help in every sorrow and need.

The duration of the Dormition fast is short, and is only two weeks (from August 14 to 27). It ends with a feast). In terms of severity, the post corresponds.

How to eat during Dormition Fast?

During the fasting period, one should not quarrel and indulge in noisy entertainment. Eggs, dairy and meat products are excluded from the diet, and fish is allowed only on a holiday. It is also prescribed:

• dry eating was established on Monday, Wednesday and Friday;
• hot food without oil is allowed on Tuesday and Thursday.
• on Saturday and Sunday it is allowed to add vegetable oil and wine to the dishes.

The first day of fasting falls on the feast of the Origin of the Holy Trees of the Life-Giving Cross, established in Constantinople to rid the inhabitants of the city of diseases that arose there in the last month of summer and often developed into epidemics. On this day, from the royal treasury, located in the St. Sophia Cathedral, they carried out the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. People venerated the relic and received healing.

In churches on this day, the veneration of the Cross and the small consecration of water are performed. In addition to water, they consecrate the honey of the new harvest. From that day on, the Church blesses its use, so on August 14 they bake honey gingerbread, pies and buns with poppy seeds, make pancakes with poppy seeds and honey. The people called this holiday.

The Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos ends the fast. On the eve of the holiday, in all churches during the evening service for worship, a shroud with the image of the Mother of God is taken out of the altar. Until the burial rite, the Shroud is in the middle of the temple, then it is carried around the church in procession. On Assumption, if the holiday falls on Wednesday or Friday, it is allowed to eat fish, and breaking the fast in this case is postponed to the next day. If August 28 falls on other days of the week, then there is no fasting.

Today, fasting, in full accordance with the charter, is mainly observed by monks, and relaxations are allowed for the laity. It is worth noting that, despite the strictness, the Dormition Fast has long been considered the easiest and most enjoyable in Rus', because the Lenten table is based on young potatoes and various vegetables and mushrooms that have ripened by this time.

Dormition Fast: Nutrition Calendar for 2019

August 14 - Honey Savior	Wednesday	Dry eating - the consumption of unboiled plant foods is allowed: bread, raw fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, nuts and honey.
August 15	Thursday	Hot food without vegetable oil. You can cook lean porridge and soup, steam vegetables.
August 16	Friday	Dry eating - eating food of plant origin that is not amenable to heat treatment (bread, fresh, soaked or dried fruits and vegetables).
August 17	Saturday
August 18	Sunday	Hot food with butter is allowed. You can stew vegetables and mushrooms, add browned vegetables to lean soup or borscht, and treat yourself to a glass of wine in the evening.
August 19 - Transfiguration of the Lord	Monday	Fish and wine are allowed on this day. Therefore, be sure to cook fish and seafood dishes for yourself and your household.
August 20	Tuesday	Hot food without oil. A variety of soups and cereals are suitable without the addition of vegetable oil. You can cook millet porridge with pumpkin or potato dumplings.
August 21	Wednesday	Xerophagy. You can eat fresh fruits and vegetables, pickles, sauerkraut, pickled cucumbers, honey, nuts, dried fruits, seeds, gozinaki.
August 22	Thursday	Hot food without oil. On this day, you can cook semolina casserole with fruit, vegetable soup or lazy cabbage soup, garlic caviar.
August 23	Friday	Xerophagy. You can eat sprouted wheat or rye grains, bake potatoes with salt, make a salad of pumpkin and apples with honey.
24 August	Saturday	These days it is allowed to eat hot food with vegetable oil, drink wine.
25-th of August	Sunday
August, 26th	Monday	Xerophagy. You can bake potatoes, beets, pumpkins or carrots, make a salad of potatoes and beets or cabbage with prunes.
August 27	Tuesday	Hot food without oil is allowed.

It is important to remember that the purpose of bodily fasting and abstinence in food is to tame the sensuality of the flesh. Due to this, it will have less influence on the spiritual life of a person. However, one must fast wisely and judiciously, to the best of one's bodily strength. For the sick, infirm, pregnant women and children, the fast is allowed to be relaxed. Seriously ill people can eat dairy products, fish and meat during fasting, if necessary for health.

The system of posts has existed in the world for a very long time. On fasting days, a person should take care of his soul, first of all, cleanse himself both from the hardships of eating meat, and from bad thoughts, bad feelings and deeds.

Of course, the second aspect, from the point of view of true Christianity, is of greater and greater importance. But today I propose to talk about the physical aspect of fasting, namely, about the features of nutrition in fasting. What you can eat in the post, and what - you can’t. Are there any relaxations in the fasting calendar in terms of nutrition? What are the benefits of fasting for a normally eating person?

Let's start with the last one.

———————————————————-

Fasting food - what does it give our health?

What is the significance of the transition from meat to lean food , why is it important for the body in fasting?
Fasting in our understanding is a restriction, a refusal of something. In terms of nutrition, this is, first of all, the rejection of animal products. It is these products that give our taste buds maximum pleasure, but they also make our body work with constant "overload" ...

According to some studies, eating meat protein causes a constant detoxification in the body, a kind of self-poisoning! Therefore, when we give up meat dishes for a while, we begin to experience something like “withdrawal of drug addicts”.

At the biologist researcher Frolov Yu.A. . there is even a whole theory about it. In short, the body, drugged by a CONSTANT toxic release, when switching to natural food (in his studies - to raw food, we are talking about a raw food diet), as it were, “sobers up”. Toxic injection into our blood stops abruptly and the body begins to "depart" gradually from toxic shock ... All these are not verbose statements, but the results of a study of blood cells with various types of nutrition.

When eating a large amount of high-protein foods, such as meat, milk, cheeses, etc., the body does not have enough enzymes to completely digest it, as a result of which a process of constant decay occurs in the large intestine. This process not only causes distension (bursting) pain in the abdomen due to increased gas formation, but also causes the entry of decay products (toxins) into the bloodstream, which is a serious burden for the liver and kidneys, which neutralize these substances.
What can we say about bad cholesterol, which forms atherosclerotic plaques and deposits in blood vessels, with frequent use of fatty animal foods.

And due to the fact that we have undoubtedly become more satisfying and richer in life than our ancestors lived some 100 years ago, such products are found in our diet almost daily and more than once a day ..
It is from such an impact that our body rests during the days of Great Lent! And it is extremely beneficial for the health of all organs and systems! Therefore, do not deny your body a similar "diet" these days.

On the contrary, set yourself up for cleansing and lightness.

Such an attitude, as well as the realization that you are not “doing nonsense in splendid isolation”, but following the ancient Orthodox traditions together with thousands of other people at the same time, will give you the necessary determination and the necessary strength.
During fasting -

• cleansing of all body systems
• improves the functioning of internal organs
• improves immunity, improves general well-being

If this type of nutrition is new to you, then your health will not improve immediately, a probable crisis will pass within one to two weeks.

Seven weeks of Lent is quite a long time. If you have never restricted yourself in food, you may not need to fast all these days. As a test, start limiting your menu to Wednesdays and Fridays. Look at the reaction of the body - are there weaknesses and ailments these days?

If you are not feeling very well, return fish or dairy products to your diet. But still try to refuse meat for the entire time of fasting.

If you don't feel better, try to give up one thing - either meat or dairy products.

But, as a rule, one to two weeks is enough for the body to rebuild and your well-being will improve much over time.

There are serious diseases in which fasting food should be introduced with caution, as advised by doctors. For example, diabetes, or stomach problems.

Fasting food and a raw food diet - is it possible to combine?

Sometimes a person is inspired by the idea of ​​a lean diet and decides to switch not just to plant foods, but also to raw foods, without heat treatment. So to speak, to improve your health "in full", because so much tempting and interesting information is now being given out about the benefits of a raw food diet ...

Here, problems with the gastrointestinal tract can manifest themselves and become aggravated quite unexpectedly.

I am writing based on my personal experience - that's exactly what I had a year ago. I decided to combine fasting with the beginning of a raw food diet, and everything was done at once. Yesterday I still ate, relatively speaking, sausages in dough, and today I’m already sitting on apples alone ... Not really, I’ll tell you. After 2 weeks, the stomach began to hurt and "rebel" from such unceremonious treatment. And, before that, I didn’t even know where this very stomach is located!

Therefore, my sincere advice is to do everything gradually and in stages, not to get carried away. You can eat some vegetables and fruits raw (salads, snacks between meals), and some - in the form of cereals, oven-baked vegetables, etc.

Any freshly squeezed juices from any vegetables and fruits are very good - great food and drink in one, no problems with digestion, but only one solid vitamin and mineral benefit for the body!

Raw radish, turnip radish, and mushrooms in any form are heavy food for the stomach.

During fasting, it is better to eat small portions, but more often.

Drink a lot of pure raw water, but try to remove coffee and tea from the diet altogether - they drag along the habit of eating all this with candy-cookie-cake, etc.

Why do you need to drink a lot of water? For enhanced removal of toxins, which are inevitable when switching from a conventional meat-eating diet to a vegetarian diet. The body is being cleansed - help it get it all out!

Excellent drinks, except for water, are vitamin teas with raspberries, rose hips, and herbs.

And a special note -

Easter Holidays Ending Lent

When the fast ends, it is allowed to eat the so-called fast food. In practice, this means that you can eat everything, but it’s also festive, that is, it’s especially tasty, especially rich and “quite officially”. Here a person can seriously suffer if everything is understood literally and one day he sharply attacks such foods as fatty sweet cottage cheese (Easter), hearty muffins (Easter cakes). wine, eggs, etc. Even banal indigestion can be obtained!

Therefore, eat everything, but little by little, as if tasting. Believe me, even after tasting each dish from the festive table just a little bit, you run the risk of overeating for real. Just be careful with yourself and everything will be fine.

Nutrition during Lent is limited to plant foods - grains, vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and nuts. These are the permitted foods during fasting.
There are special days when you can eat fish and even red wine. There are special days when you can not even use vegetable oil, and on the most severe days - the first and last days of fasting, it is recommended not to eat any food at all.

If you are interested in strictly following the Orthodox traditional dietary recommendations on every day of fasting, you can use the special Fasting Calendar 2017, it shows all the restrictions and indulgences in the daily fasting diet.

If you want to benefit from these fasting days and weeks of restrictive eating, you need to clear out all the "loopholes" in your head about those foods that can technically be plant-based, but at the same time be extremely harmful. We are talking about various chips, crackers, pies, etc.

They should definitely be removed from the menu.
See how many delicious fruits, nuts, dried fruits you have at your disposal! Take the same dates - a complete set of healthy micro and macro elements, vitamins, tasty glucose and fructose balanced among themselves. They will help you not to become depressed about giving up ordinary sweets, cheer you up and prevent you from depleting the reserves of minerals and substances that are necessary and important for health.

An important rule of any post(and not only fasting!) - do not abuse it! Even the most beneficial and miraculous herbal product can have a negative impact on health if consumed in excess!
Treat food not as a source of unlimited pleasure, but as a kind of "fuel" for the body.

List of lean foods

1. Cereals. Any.
2. Vegetables and mushrooms. Also any.
3. Peas and all legumes.
4. Vegetable fats. We are talking about any vegetable oils.
5. Pickling products. From traditional cabbage to soaked grapes.
6. Greens in any form (fresh and dried) and any quantity.
7. Soy and soy products.
8. Bread and pasta.
9. Olives and olives.
10. Desserts are jam and jam, dark chocolate, marmalade, halva and gozinaki.
11. Any fruit. Both ours and exotic ones, including dried fruits (raisins, candied fruits, etc.)

Orthodox Lent 2017 - Daily Nutrition Calendar

The days of fasting, from the point of view of nutrition, are interpreted in different ways. There are especially strict fasting days - days on which it is not recommended to eat at all. This is the first and penultimate day of the 40-day fast. Below, in another version of the fasting calendar for 2018, these days are marked.

Some days it is recommended to eat, literally, “bread and water”. Apparently, this is the most stringent recommendation of all possible. For an ordinary person, it is quite enough to simply not consume any products containing animal food. The same bread must be made without eggs and butter.

The concept of “dry food” is also introduced - this is the consumption of bread, herbs, vegetables (raw or pickled), fruits and dried fruits, olives, honey, berry or fruit decoctions, kvass, herbal teas.

Here is a detailed calendar of fasting days in 2018 where every day has its own peculiarities of nutrition. You can follow exactly these recommendations if you want to more accurately reproduce Orthodox Christian traditions during this period.

Questions about individual products in the post

• Bread. Often fasting people, especially those belonging to the older generation, completely refuse bread, explaining this by the fact that there is butter and eggs ... Tell me, knowing the modern food industry, do you also think that butter and real chicken eggs were put in your loaf of bread? However, there is an alternative - now they produce a lot of bread. containing nothing of the kind by definition. They may well replace our usual bread, which, by the way, is not very useful anyway, and many advise us to refuse it altogether, regardless of the calendar ..
• Pasta. They contain only flour, water and salt. The composition should not contain egg powder. For lean nutrition - it's the most. Only here they will have to be flavored not with cream, but with sunflower or other vegetable oil.
• Varenniki, lean dumplings. If you like such dishes, it is quite possible to continue eating them in fasting with the appropriate changes: dough without eggs, filling - without butter, meat, cottage cheese. Replace with cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes and similar vegetable fillings.
• "Meat" products from soy. The idea itself is not bad. It seems that the rules are observed and the usual piece of sausage can be eaten .. But just think, due to which the usual taste of meat is achieved where the meat has never “spent the night”? Due to dyes, flavor enhancers and flavorings, in short, due to chemistry .. Is it worth it? Decide for yourself.
• Mayonnaise. Now they make the so-called "lean mayonnaise". Lenten means without eggs, which means they were replaced with something again and it is hardly something natural ...
• Lenten pastries and sweets. Yes, now you can find one in our stores or. It probably has a right to exist. But I would rather advise you to replace it with natural sweets - the same, dried fruits, halva, marmalade, gozinaki.

Balancing nutrition while fasting

How to balance your list of products during the fast, so as not to get health problems due to the lack of any substances?

Animal protein is replaced by vegetable protein. On some days you can also fish, but this is already an exception to the rule. The rest of the time - mushrooms, beans, peas, nuts, lentils.

iron deficiency in the absence of meat, it can be replenished with apples, buckwheat, bananas, cocoa.

Vitamins and minerals are perfectly absorbed from freshly prepared fruit and vegetable juices. Make it a rule to drink one glass of fresh juice a day, and you will not suffer from beriberi.

The main thing is the right attitude! Do not take everything too seriously and even tragically. Thousands and even millions of people on the globe for years do not eat meat, do not drink milk, and do not even boil or fry any of their food. To get any harm from such a diet, for example, the same vitamin B12 deficiency that raw foodists and vegans love to scare so much, you need to live on such a diet continuously for more than one year! We are definitely not in danger.

And only cheerfulness, harmony, excellent health, and even perhaps getting rid of some diseases “threaten” us.

Are you fasting this year 2017? What are you eating at this time? How do you feel in terms of spirit and health? In general, what do you think about the system of Orthodox fasting in terms of the health of the body?

Fasting is a strict prohibition or restriction on the consumption of food or only certain products, such as meat or dairy products.

Great Lent is the way to the Bright Feast of Great Easter through which a believer needs to go through, keeping himself in strictness. The ban is imposed not only on the use of food, but it is also forbidden to spend this time in fun and joy. Great Lent is one of the strictest fasts of the church calendar, it begins seven weeks before Easter and consists of forty days (Fourteen) and a week before Easter (Passion Week). Forty days is celebrated in honor of the fact that Jesus Christ fasted in the desert for forty days, and Holy Week is a memory of the life of Christ in the last days of his life, of His crucifixion and resurrection.

During Great Lent, it is not recommended for people to eat food of animal origin - meat, eggs, milk. However, it is allowed to eat fish, but only on the holidays of Palm Sunday and the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. Eating seafood such as squid, shrimp, mussels is not prohibited during Lent.

But, do not forget that Great Lent is not an Orthodox diet, and the purpose of fasting is not so much the cleansing of the stomach, but the cleansing of the human soul.

As for the meal, according to the Church Charter, there are some rules:

• During the first and last week of Great Lent, a particularly strict fast is observed.
• Meat and dairy products (butter, cheese, cottage cheese, milk), eggs are excluded. That is, all products of animal origin.
• You can eat only once a day, in the evening, however, on Saturdays and Sundays, food is allowed twice a day, at lunch and in the evening.
• On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, eating cold food, without vegetable oil. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, hot food without butter is allowed.
• On Saturdays and Sundays it is allowed to add vegetable oil to food, it is also allowed to use grape wine (except Saturday of Holy Week).
• On Good Friday (this is the last Friday of Great Lent), it is worth abstaining from food in general.
• On Saturday, many fasting people also abstain from food until Easter.

What foods are allowed to be consumed during fasting?

If it is reasonable to approach your diet during Lent, then, firstly, you will not have to starve, and secondly, even during strict fasting, food can be quite varied and balanced.

So, the main products allowed in the post:

• Black bread, cereal loaves.
• Cereals (oatmeal, buckwheat, rice, corn, wheat, barley)
• Salted and pickled vegetables, jam from berries and fruits.
• Mushrooms of various preparations.
• Legumes (beans, lentils, peas)
• Dried fruits, nuts, honey.
• Seasonal vegetables (potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, cabbage, radishes, etc.)
• Seasonal fruits (apples, bananas, grant, oranges, etc.)
• Fish is allowed to be consumed twice during the entire post. On the feast of the Annunciation (in 2016 it falls on April 7) and Palm Sunday (April 24, 2016)

Food calendar by day 2019.Menu.

The first week of fasting is the most strict. It is important to enter the post correctly, as well as to know personal contraindications.

1 Week
Monday	It is customary to abstain from food.
Tuesday	Black bread, water, kvass are allowed.
Wednesday	Dry eating, that is, food that is consumed raw, it can be various vegetables and fruits, as well as nuts and herbs. You are allowed to eat bread.
Thursday	Continued dry eating.
Friday	You can eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, vegetable oil on this day is prohibited. Cooking is not recommended, eat everything raw.
Saturday	Meals are the same as on Friday, it is allowed to drink grape juice.
Sunday	On this day, it is allowed to eat boiled food with vegetable oil. You can also drink a small amount of red wine, which should be natural, without the addition of alcohol.

Above, we described one week, how, according to all the rules and canons, fasting should be observed, this is more acceptable to monks, or to people who strictly observe all the prescriptions of the church. If you have decided to fast for the first time, then you should not take on excessive loads! It is possible, for example, the use of oil in food.

Here is a sample menu that you can take as a basis, adding or replacing certain dishes:

2 weeks
Monday	Breakfast	Oatmeal on the water. Tea.
	Dinner	Vermicelli soup. Potato cutlets. Apples. Coffee or tea.
	Dinner	Tea.
Tuesday	Breakfast	Rice porridge. Cucumber and tomato salad. Tea.
	Dinner	Vegetable soup. Vermicelli with mushroom sauce. Tea with jam.
	Dinner	Tea.
Wednesday	Breakfast
	Dinner	Solyanka vegetable. Cabbage salad. Compote.
	Dinner	Tea.
Thursday	Breakfast	Corn porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner
	Dinner
Friday	Breakfast	Barley porridge, cucumbers, tomatoes. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner
	Dinner	Buckwheat porridge. Tea.
Saturday	Breakfast	The vinaigrette. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Wheat porridge. Vegetables. Compote.
	Dinner
	This is the first parental Saturday during Lent. If possible, people go to the cemetery in order to visit their deceased relatives.
Sunday	Breakfast
	Dinner
	Dinner

3 weeks of fasting
Monday	Breakfast	Wheat porridge. Nuts. Tea.
	Dinner	Potato soup with buckwheat. Zrazy potato. Fruits. Coffee or tea.
	Dinner	Tea
Tuesday	Breakfast	Buckwheat porridge. Tea
	Dinner	Bean soup. Vermicelli with mushroom sauce. Tea with jam.
	Dinner	Tea
Wednesday	Breakfast	Rice porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Vegetable pickle. Cabbage salad. Compote.
	Dinner	Tea.
Thursday	Breakfast	Oatmeal porridge. Fruits. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Shchi from fresh cabbage. Vegetable Salad. Compote.
	Dinner	Mashed potatoes with eggplant caviar. Tea.
Friday	Breakfast	Barley porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Pea soup. Salad with vegetables. Compote.
	Dinner	Buckwheat porridge. Tea.
Saturday	Breakfast	Wheat porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Rassolnik. The vinaigrette. Vegetables. Compote.
	Dinner	Boiled vermicelli with lecho. Tea.
	Note: This is already the second parental Saturday during Lent. It is also necessary to go to the cemetery to pay tribute to your deceased relatives.
Sunday	Breakfast	Wheat porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Russian-Ukrainian borscht. Fried potato. Compote.
	Dinner	Rice porridge with onions and carrots. Tea.

4 weeks of fasting
Monday	Breakfast	Oatmeal porridge. Nuts. Tea.
	Dinner	Vegetable soup. Pea porridge. Nuts. Coffee or tea.
	Dinner	Tea
Tuesday	Breakfast	Barley porridge. Tea.
	Dinner	Soup with lentils. salted mushrooms. Tea with jam.
	Dinner	Tea
Wednesday	Breakfast	Rice porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Borscht is lean. Cucumber and tomato salad. Compote.
	Dinner	Tea.
Thursday	Breakfast	Rice porridge. Nuts. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Potato soup with beans. Vegetable Salad. Compote.
	Dinner	Mashed potatoes with eggplant caviar. Tea.
Friday	Breakfast	Oatmeal porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Potato soup with green peas. Salad with vegetables. Compote.
	Dinner	Corn porridge. Tea.
Saturday	Breakfast	Buckwheat porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Rassolnik. The vinaigrette. Compote.
	Dinner	Boiled vermicelli with mushroom sauce. Tea.
	Note: This Saturday will already be the third parental one.
Sunday	Breakfast	Oatmeal porridge. Tea or coffee.
	Dinner	Russian-Ukrainian borscht. Vegetable Salad. Compote.
	Dinner	Buckwheat porridge. with onions and carrots. Tea.

In the following fifth and sixth weeks fasting, you can repeat your menu, as in the second and third week.

The seventh (Holy Week) week of Great Lent is just as strict as the first.

The sixth Sunday of Great Lent falls on the celebration of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, or it is also called Palm Sunday. On this day, you can eat fish, food with butter, eat a little Cahors.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - dry food. Thursday you can eat warm food, but cooked without oil, and only once a day. On Friday, only bread and water. On Saturday, eating is prohibited.

And finally, Sunday, the end of the strictest fast falls on the celebration of Easter.

It is important to watch this video, for safety!

It is worth noting that if you decide to fast for the first time, it is recommended to talk with the priest and decide for yourself the measure of the severity of fasting, because you need to understand a very important truth that the main goal of fasting is not food restriction, but humility and repentance, prayer!

Start and end dates are different every year. They depend on the date of the celebration of Easter. The duration of Great Lent is 48 days. It begins on Monday, seven weeks before Easter, and ends on Saturday, before this great holiday. In 2020, it lasts from March 2 to April 18 (inclusive).

It consists of two parts - the Holy Forty Day (the first 6 weeks) and Holy Week (the last week - 6 days).

What you can eat in Lent: nutritional rules

Great Lent is the strictest. The main food products in this period are pickles and jams from vegetables and fruits, onions, carrots, cabbage, beets, legumes, apples, oranges, nuts, dried fruits.

The first week they adhere to a particularly strict fast. On the first day (Clean Monday), you must completely refrain from eating. Then, from Tuesday to Friday, you can eat bread, salt, raw fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, nuts, honey, drink water (dry eating is allowed), and on Saturday and Sunday - hot food with butter.

In the second to sixth weeks of fasting, dry eating is prescribed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, hot food without oil on Tuesday and Thursday, and hot food with oil on Saturday and Sunday.

During the period of Holy Week, they adhere to a strict fast. On all days of this week, dry eating is allowed, and on Friday you can’t eat food until the shroud is taken out.

On the church holiday of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos (April 7) (if it does not fall on Holy Week) and on Palm Sunday (7 days before Easter), you can eat fish. On Lazarus Saturday (before Palm Sunday), fish caviar is allowed.