Fasting is a deliberate and temporary abstention from food for religious reasons. In the biblical material, fasting is total abstention, and is thus to be distinguished both from permanent food restrictions, like those against unclean animals and also from occasional abstention from certain foods, like meat on Fridays, a practice adopted by the later Christian Church. 

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Although fasting became more prevalent in the New Testament there is evidence of the abstention form certain foods present in the Old Testament, specifically, Daniel and others did not eat the King's food while being trained as servants. David fasted following the death of Saul, Jonathon and Abner as recorded in Samuel 1:12; 3:36