to think people should do more 24/48 hour famine and less cake eating to help starving people in Africa

[sPJPPp]

Is it me or has the sponsored 24/48 hour famine famine died out? 20 years ago it was a big thing, I remember how much it made me think when I did it as a teenager several times. I'm obsessive about never wasting food. These days I never hear of anyone doing it, has it been killed by health and safety?

I fast twice a week.
I disregard rat studies because I can manage my stress hormones.

Fasting is irrelevant in the issue of hungry kids in Africa
because the biggest issue is wastage of food in transit, not the amount I do or do not buy in a week.

Solar powered fridges will do a lot more for alleviating hunger around the world than any do gooder meal skipping in the UK

There are many studies that show a link to longevity and restriction of calories. Google it.

I think the boomers wont live as long as their parents as they have never had lean years. But that's just guess work and we'll have to wait and see.

Many health charities are going off cake sales as they do more harm than good and raise peanuts of the big charities budgets.

When I was a teen we used to do a thing at university where you'd pay your normal amount of money for lunch and get a small bowl of brown rice to eat. Church soup lunches are a similar idea. I think that struck a good balance.

The majority of adults in the UK would be benefitted rather than harmed by eating a nutritious but taste-free low calorie lunch every now and then so it could be quite a good idea in offices/colleges where a lot of people buy expensive takeaway sandwiches, or large canteen lunches, to give them the option to spend the same amount of money on a bowl of veg soup.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with the odd cake as part of a balanced diet, I do think that there's a "treat" culture that's grown up in too many workplaces that has got out of hand and contributes to obesity.

About 30 years ago, we skipped lunch at school as a charity thing, instigated by Princess Anne, if I remember correctly. But it wasn't really skipping lunch because we had soup and a roll instead of the normal lunch . We didn't exactly starve.

Thanks for the info APlaceOnTheCouch, that's very interesting :)

sPJPPp If you are making a claim it is up to you to back it up. However, in this case you don't need to because another poster has kindly done the work for you.

I think it stopped being a popular way to raise money after a C4 documentary revealed worrying links between the charity that organised it and gun running/large scale political corruption in the countries money was supposed to be going to ...
Know I did it few times 88-90 ish but in that very earnest 6th form manner only teenagers can do!
Think now anything that raises money is prob worthwhile.

Saskia, no I don't I'm not paid to post here. If you don't believe something someone says just google it. Fasting has many many health benefits.

Just goes to show how mollycoddled people in the UK are as many here find it impossible to function not eating for a day. When the human body can last for weeks even if you have a normal bmi.

Saskia glad to be of help. I read into the 5:2 diet when it first became popular and then did further reading from there. There is some interesting research on how it impacts on female fertility and hormones, but those sections weren't as well-publicised in the articles lauding it as an approach.

Pic lots of different charities had annual sponsored fasts. I worked with one of the largest. It had celebrity participants, etc. It definitely had nothing to do with gun running or political corruption!

I remember 24-hour fasts from my childhood, yes, although I wasn't old enough to join in.

At school we had "hunger lunch" on Fridays in Lent, where they made cheap soup and bread (nutritious but frugal) and gave the cost difference to charity. It worked.

I think it's fair to suggest activity is better than indulgence, and schools with the "healthy schools" label should consider sponsored scoot/silence/bounce/fun run instead of the ubiquitous coffee morning or cake sale.

But that misses the point that a cake sale or coffee morning is a social occasion. You would struggle to drum up two or three volunteers to count the children's scooter laps, but dozens turn up for a bun and a natter.

So yes, a sponsored fast is a good thing; but that doesn't make a fatter event a bad thing.

I think it's fair to suggest activity is better than indulgence

Thanks that's the point I was trying to make :)