Fast Plate: Christian Fasting

Every other fasting app starts a timer or hands you a devotional. None of them answers the question you actually have at the table. Can I eat this? Pick the fast you are keeping and type a food. The answer comes back in one of three states, and every answer names its reason. Allowed. Outside this fast. Or check the label — because canned beans and store bread genuinely depend on how they were made, and an app that guesses there is worse than one that says so. Food by food, not day by day. 248 foods are in the app, from produce and grains to beans, nuts, dairy, fish, meat, drinks, fats and condiments. Ten fasts are in the app: the Daniel Fast and its stricter form, vegetables and water, liquids only, water only, no-meat days, traditional fast days, strict fast days, the days oil and wine are permitted, and a sugar fast. The reason is the point. White bread is outside the Daniel Fast…