Book Portfolio....Hunger

In Hunger by Sharman A. Russell, the theme that I found was hunger has different effects on different people. The book talks about hunger within people who don't have a lot of food, the effects of hunger on people who eat regularly, what hunger does to the body, and why people starve themselves.

You feel empty, you haven't eaten anything all day, and you see a commercial for Ruby Tuesdays. All of a sudden your body reacts. First, the process starts off when you visualize the meal. Your brain sends a message to your stomach saying "Alright, get ready, foods a coming!!". Your mouth starts to water because your stomach says "Your in charge of getting food down here, look alive!". All of this is just the start of the hunger process. Finally when you get food your body starts to release chemicals that produce insulin, split starches, and start the digestive track.

What happens when people who don't eat all the time, get fed? Or what happens when people who normally eat, are starved? The answers are drastically different. When people who don't usually eat, or are fasting for a long time and their body's kind of reject the food. When food enters someone who hasn't eaten in a while the body doesn't remember what to do with it. In one test, the man who was starved for 30 days threw up he food he was given because it was "too much" even though it was a simple serving size. The people who eat everyday and are starved have psychological effects and physical effects. Most people will lose weight. Others however will change their daily routine or have emotional breakdowns. Some people would freak out at the simplest questions. Either way both have great effects on the body.

You see someone in a box, not moving, meditating, they haven't eaten in 24 days; in your mind you wonder " Why"? People fast for many different reasons. As mentioned above people starve themselves to lose weight, get in touch with them inner selves, and to reach out and find god. Everyone has their own reasons.

To conclude, this book was pretty boring. It was fascinating, but dragged out. The author definitely got her theme across and was very descriptive in some parts. I learned a lot from this book, and I figured I wouldn't be fasting anytime soon.