Why The Athos Diet Changes How We Think About Food | Dr. Pete Patitsas

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

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