Re: Pick the odd one out
Fasting does help in many ways. Like Doctors say that too much consumption of protein and carbohydrates makes a person more sexually active. Through fasting we can control and limit our food which helps in limiting appetite for sex.
Because you are trying to associate guilt with very innocent activity of masturbating which harms nobody but gives an outlet to Muslim youth to satisfy their sexual urges in peace , quite and privacy instead of resorting to some criminal way of doing so.
Brother, let us not use the word innocent for an activity which the prophet (saw) didn't encouraged or allowed.
I am not going to go in details of the medical effects of masturbation on one's health, it would be easy to Google it. Anything the prophet (saw) disallowed was later proved by science as harmful for health. If we groom ourselves according to the sunnah of the Prophet (saw) there wouldn't be any need of masturbation. Though I don't like to display my deeds, just to give you an example, I recently got married at the age of 27, and Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah I was able to spend my bachelor life without using this act, not even once. In sleep the process happens itself in accordance to the needs of one's body after a certain time depending upon a person's body. I agree that at times the desire is too intense, but the solution to such problems are the teachings of the prophet (saw). More Zikr, protection of gaze, fasting and other religious practices helps us in gaining control over our desires.
We don't need to ask the practicality of an authentic hadith. Allah and the prophet (saw) know better than us. It is our duty to find out ways to implement the ways of the prophet (saw) in our lives than finding excuses for the forbidden acts.