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Christians taking part in fasting and prayer exercises have been advised against consuming coffee and other heavily caffeinated drinks.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) gave the advise ahead of the commencement of its 2018 fasting and prayer exercise which commences on January 11, 2018.
While treating Frequently Asked Questions, the church said caffeinated drinks dehydrate the consumer quickly and that dehydration is dangerous during fasting.
The question was: “For those fasting in cold regions of the world, are they allowed to drink hot coffee?”.
The church, via its Twitter handle, answered: “Coffee dehydrates you extremely quickly, so does RedBull, any caffeinated drink dehydrates you highly e.g Coke.
“If you are in cold regions of the world, you can drink warm water, you can drink hot water. That’s if you are doing the regular breaking at 6pm. But if you are doing a dry fast, you can drink tea, you can drink hot chocolate. Please, any heavily caffeinated drink will dehydrate you, you need to be fueled. Multivitamin drinks would also be suggested for individuals that are doing long fasting as well”.
The church however warned members in cold regions not to abuse the need to warm themselves by drinking randomly.
“Because you are in a cold weather does not necessarily mean that you are allowed to just be drinking randomly, that’s just an excuse not to fast properly”
Below are the questions treated: