The Daniel Fast: A 21-Day Guide for January

The announcement goes up in the church bulletin the first Sunday of January: twenty-one days, the Daniel Fast, everyone welcome. By Monday you have a grocery list, three recipe blogs open and a vague sense that you are about to go vegan for Jesus.

The food is the part everyone writes about. But the fast is named after a book, and most people keeping it never read that book. This guide covers both: what the Daniel Fast is and where it comes from, the January 2027 dates, the food in a few sentences, what the research actually measured, and a 21-day plan that puts Daniel himself back at the centre, about four minutes a day.

What the Daniel Fast is, and the two passages it comes from

The Daniel Fast is a partial fast. Instead of going without food, you go without certain foods for a set time, most often 21 days, while giving more of yourself to prayer and Scripture. It takes its name from two moments in the book of Daniel.

The ten days. Daniel is a young exile in Babylon, chosen to serve in the king’s court. “But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine” (Daniel 1:8, NIV). He asks the guard, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink” (1:12). At the end, he and his friends “looked healthier and better nourished” (1:15). Notice the motive in the text. Daniel is not chasing health. He is refusing to be shaped by the king’s table.

The three weeks. Years later, Daniel writes: “At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over” (Daniel 10:2–3, NIV). This is where the 21 days come from. It is a fast of mourning and seeking God, not a menu.

The modern food rules are a later convention built on those verses. Daniel did not write a list of allowed foods. Churches did, and they differ. Researchers who studied the fast note that it is “most commonly partaken for 21 days, although fasts of 10 and 40 days have also been observed.”

January 2027: when to start and when it ends

Many churches begin the year with a 21-day fast. January 1, 2027 falls on a Friday, so the three common starts land like this. Churches pick their own dates, so follow yours.

What people eat, and who should talk to a doctor first

This is not a diet, and it is not a detox or a cleanse. But since the food is the question everyone asks: many churches ask for plant foods and water, and no meat, dairy, sweeteners or alcohol. The researchers who studied it describe a version that also leaves out processed foods, white flour and caffeine. Whether coffee is allowed is the most common question, and churches differ. Daniel 10 does not mention it. In the study described below, participants said giving up caffeine was the hardest part for their mental health.

Please talk to your doctor before changing how you eat if you have diabetes, are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a history of an eating disorder, take medicines that need to be taken with food, or are under a doctor’s care for anything else. That list of exclusions comes from Harvard Health Publishing (Richard Joseph, MD, 2022), writing about a different kind of fast, time-restricted eating. It is a fair list of who should ask first here too. A partial fast is gentler than a full one, but it is still harder than it looks, which is why the spiritual disciplines guide suggests not starting with fasting. A ten-day first fast, like Daniel 1, is a perfectly good fast.

What the research actually measured

The Daniel Fast has been studied, a little. In a 2010 study at the University of Memphis, published in Lipids in Health and Disease, 43 adults aged 20 to 62 kept the fast for 21 days. There was no control group: it measured the same people before and after. Their self-rated compliance was 98.7%, and mood and fullness both averaged 7.9 out of 10.

In those participants, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and blood pressure fell. So did HDL, the “good” cholesterol, by 14%. There was no change in body weight or body fat. The authors call for “larger scale, randomized studies.” A 2011 paper from the same 43 people, in Nutrition & Metabolism, reported improvements in some markers of oxidative stress.

That is small, short and uncontrolled. It is not a reason to fast, and it is not a promise about your body. The reason to fast is in Daniel.

Read Daniel while you fast: a 21-day plan, timed

Daniel has twelve chapters, 10,606 words in the Berean Standard Bible. At a normal reading pace of 220 words a minute, the whole book takes about 48 minutes, using the same counting method as how many words are in the Bible. That is about four minutes a chapter.

The book has two halves. Luther Seminary’s Enter the Bible course notes that chapters 1–6 are stories, and 7–12 are visions; it is even written in two languages, Hebrew and Aramaic. If chapter 7 feels like a different book, that is normal. Their summary of Daniel says “the dominant tone in the book is one of encouragement rather than chastisement.” Scholars and traditions differ on the book’s dating; that is a question for your pastor, not this plan.

So here is the plan: the whole book in the first twelve days, a chapter a day. Then nine days returning to the passages about prayer and fasting, including Daniel’s prayer “in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3, NIV).

The longest day is 6.2 minutes (Daniel 2 and Daniel 11). The shortest is Daniel 12, under two minutes. If your Bible is Catholic or Orthodox, it carries two more chapters, Susanna and Bel and the Dragon, as Daniel 13 and 14; together they add about 11 minutes, and the canon differences explain why.

When the fast wobbles, and what to carry into February

Fasts wobble. You eat the wrong thing at a work lunch, or day nine is a hard day and you skip the reading. Neither undoes the fast. Daniel 10 is the record of a man mourning and seeking God; it is not a scorecard.

Jesus assumes His followers will fast, and He cares about why: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do” (Matthew 6:16–18, NIV). A church fast is no secret, and that is fine. The point is the motive: your Father, “who sees what is done in secret,” is the audience, not anyone else. Isaiah adds where a fast should point, outward, “to share your food with the hungry” (Isaiah 58:7, NIV); giving up your phone for Lent reads that passage more fully.

Some people pair the food fast with time away from screens. If you do, fasting from your phone covers it, and its main point applies here too: what the time is for matters more than what you give up.

When day 21 ends, the reading habit does not have to. If you want to keep going, reading the Bible in a year from January picks up where this leaves off, and how long it takes to read the Bible in a year gives the daily number: about nine minutes. What your church asks of its fast is your church’s call, and if you have questions about what is right for you, your pastor is a good place to start. Our FAQ covers how the app fits in.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Daniel Fast in the Bible?

It comes from two passages. In Daniel 1:8-16, Daniel and his friends eat only vegetables and water for ten days. In Daniel 10:2-3, Daniel mourns for three weeks and eats no choice food, meat or wine. The modern food lists are built on those verses.

How long is the Daniel Fast?

Most often 21 days, from Daniel 10. Researchers note that fasts of 10 and 40 days are also kept. A ten-day fast, like Daniel 1, is a good first fast. Follow your church's length if it has one.

When does the Daniel Fast start in January 2027?

Churches set their own dates. Common choices are Friday, January 1 (ending Thursday, January 21), Sunday, January 3 (ending Saturday, January 23) and Monday, January 4 (ending Sunday, January 24).

Can I drink coffee on the Daniel Fast?

Churches differ. Daniel 10 does not mention it. The version used in the Daniel Fast research left out caffeine, and participants said giving it up was the hardest part. Follow your church's guidance.

Is the Daniel Fast safe if I have diabetes or am pregnant?

Talk to your doctor first. Anyone with diabetes, who is pregnant or breastfeeding, has a history of an eating disorder, takes medicines with food, or is under a doctor's care should check before changing how they eat.