Fasting abstaining from alcohol and sweets

DAK survey on Lent: Germans abstain from alcohol and sweets

02/16/2015

Lent is not only a reason for many Germans to change their diet temporarily, but also the opportunity to specifically dispense with certain consumer goods. Body and mind can benefit from this temporary change in lifestyle.

From Ash Wednesday, the 40-day Christian Lent begins, which many people use for a targeted renouncement of certain luxury goods and consumer goods. Above all, the omission of alcohol and sweets is often self-imposed goal, so the result of a representative population survey by the Forsa Institute on behalf of DAK-health. All in all, more than one in two Germans have deliberately renounced certain semi-luxury foods or consumer goods for several weeks, according to the DAK.

Fasting in the rush hour generation particularly popular
According to the health insurance company, fasting is especially popular among the 30- to 44-year-olds. Nearly 70 percent of them would have had a personal Lent at least once. „Fasting is particularly popular in the so-called rush hour generation of 30- to 44-year-olds“, so the DAK expert Silke Willms. Have among them „68% of the respondents have already deliberately avoided, while in the age group over 60 years only 45%“, Willms continues. Overall, according to the DAK, 56 percent of Germans have already fasted at least once for several weeks. This corresponds to a slight increase compared to the survey result of a corresponding survey from the year 2012. About one in ten respondents have never fasted, but could imagine a good Lent, the message of the DAK on. For 32 percent of respondents, however, fasting is basically out of the question.

What are the Germans doing without during fasting??
The most common goal in fasting, according to the latest survey results, is the renunciation of alcohol. 70 percent of the respondents would most likely do without it, reports the DAK. Close behind were 64 percent of the sweets. The renunciation of meat, as it was traditionally intended in the Christian Lent, is, however, only for 41 percent of Germans a goal of fasting. About a third (27 percent) of Germans also calls the renouncement of cell phones, smartphones or the Internet as a fasting goal. Quitting smoking was the goal of fasting for 40 percent of respondents and 33 percent said they were most likely to abandon television. Even the renunciation of driving was named by at least 15 percent of respondents.

Health benefits of fasting
The health benefits of fasting, according to the DAK of the fasting „evaluated very differently depending on age and gender.“ In particular, the 30- to 44-year-olds and women would make sense of fasting from a health point of view. For men and in the age group of 45- to 59-year-olds, only every second think so. The DAK expert Willms emphasized that the filing of a personal Lent should always take place on his own conviction. „If it is my own wish, the chances of perseverance increase“, so Willms. „If successful, the self-efficacy experienced can also be transferred to other areas of life“, the expert continues.

Bavaria as a stronghold of fasting
According to the survey results of the DAK, Bavaria is the stronghold of fasting in Germany, while fasting is much less popular, especially in East Germany. If 61 percent of Bavarian interviewees stated that they had waived at least once for certain semi-luxury foods or consumer goods for several weeks, the figure was only 50 percent in the East. In total, the Forsa Institute interviewed 1,008 volunteers in the period from 2 to 6 February 2015. (Fp)

Picture: Rainer Sturm