Since
@Charles13 mentioned a more extended fast, I might as well share an anecdote here. Not relevant to the discussion so no need to read on . . .
Long ago, I was 19 yo, I did a nine-day fast. Not for health reasons, it was
kindof a protest. Living in student accommodation in a campus outside the city so the only viable option for eating was the campus cafeteria. They said they catered for special diets but they really didn't do a very job. I was told to announce myself to the staff every day, who would call to the cook,
'It's the vegetarian!' ** The cook
never had anything special for me so I would be offered a salad or an omelet. Just those options.
'But I had an omelet yesterday' would mean I was given salad today. And the salads used zero imagination - couple limp lettuce leaves, a tomato, a lump of cheese. Maybe a spoonful of pickle if I was lucky, or a little bit of limp cress garnish.
Breakfast was not much better - self service, but the only suitable food was toast or cereals. Carnivores could take a hot plate with bacon, sausages, hash browns, eggs
and have toast
or cereals too. Couple times, I tried taking toast
and cereals but that, apparently, was against the rules. As I said, they really didn't do a very good job with special diets.
One day, I decided to stop going for meals. I mean, why bother, I really was not enjoying my meals, so that night, I went to bed hungry. The next day, I felt more hungry, but continued the boycott.
However, the third day
I didn't feel at all hungry. And it was the same on day 4, day 5, day 6, etc. After more than a week of this, on day 9, I stood up and felt dizzy. Didn't take a lot of imagination to realise it was time to go and have something to eat. So that afternoon, announced myself to the staff. Who called to the cook,
'It's the vegetarian!'
Now I will never know if the cook had noticed my absence, but for some reason he did something that had not happened before. He went and prepared a meal for me. And not an omelet, he used a little imagination, some left-over potatoes, some savoy cabbage and made me vegetarian bubble & squeak. Fried the potatoes and cabbage in butter and seasoned it with salt and black pepper. And he presented me with a great big plateful, piled high.
I carried my trophy meal to the table where me friends was sat and prepared to break my fast in style. You really appreciate your food after nine days without any. So for the first time in a long time, I was looking forward to my meal. Launched into the pile of hot food - and after one or two fork-fulls, began to feel full up. I persevered and managed, ooh, maybe a quarter of what was on the plate. Obviously, after all that time with no action, my stomach had shrunk.
Two hours later, I was
ravenous. Appetite had returned! But by now the cafeteria was closed, there was nowhere else to eat on campus, so I had to wait until morning and go for the cafeteria breakfast.
Toast
or cereals.
** Actually, there was another person put through the same slightly humiliating
'It's the vegetarian!' ritual. Her name was Pippa, she was absolutely lovely, really nice girl, . . . I still sometimes wonder why I didn't marry her.
