“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” ― Herman Melville
As I go through my third day of a three day food fast, there are certainly obvious physical effects being encountered. You are starting to place the body under tremendous stress. Within the first 24-48 hours of denying calories, our bodies will have used up deprivation, the body depletes its glycogen stores from both our muscles and the liver; this is the stuff which helps provide us with quick energy.
More things begin to break down such as the protein within those same muscles and fat in order to produce energy. You've used up the glycogen, so the body starts using it's other hidden stores. And while all of this is going on, your metabolism will slow down in order to conserve energy. Your hormonal reactions board an unanticipated roller-coaster ride.
In jest we become "hangry" as we fight these hormonal fluctuations.
In seriousness, persistent hunger has serious consequences to health.
My three-day fast is a tiny portion of the lack of portion hunger many live with everyday.
There are many sources containing information and statistics to choose from. In general what I have read is, in America nearly 50 million struggle in one way or another to put food on the table. You can interpret this many different ways and assign your own cause or reason as to why this is so.
It could be poverty, bad choices of how we spend our money, food waste (40% of food is thrown out in the US every year, or roughly $165 billion worth; all of this uneaten food could potentially feed 25 million Americans) to name just a few.
Of course everyone will have their opinion of these causes, but whatever the cause, hunger has an impact on society.
Everything is connected
Are we singularly going through life, trying to remain disconnected from all of the world? Can we really do that and still live a live fulfilled? Is that really the life you think we as humans should live?
I doubt the vast majority of you reading this would think that way. In fact the vast majority of people in this world have some level of compassion for other people. We help each other in ways that are small, big; some of it reported in a news shaking way and most in a quiet undertaking.
My question then, is if you are hungry one day, can your hunger for food turn into hunger for greater connection?
Stay inspired my friends!
