Fasting to Help the Hungry
Hello Friends, Family, and Strangers-
Thank you for your interest in my fundraiser “Fasting to Help the Hungry”
For those of you that know me, you are probably aware of my love of food. Whether it’s a grass fed pasture raised bone in ribeye steak or a dozen Krispy Kreme original glazed fresh out of the fat, I love to eat. Why I don’t weigh a thousand pounds is a mystery to me; maybe it’s a well-fed tape worm, maybe its just good genes with a good metabolism, who knows.
What I do know very well is that I have been blessed with the ability to access very high quality food (and some not so high quality….hello Mother’s Iced Oatmeal Cookies) any time I want, day or night. Organic, Non-GMO, Pasture Raised, Grass Fed, all purchased by double-clicking the button on the Apple Watch. No hunting, no gathering, just a quick trip to Whole Foods. It doesn’t get much simpler than that….unless of course I have Amazon deliver it within the hour.
Unfortunately, this easy access to this kind of food is not an option for everyone. While some folks struggle to put three square meals on the table for their families every night, some folks struggle to get a single good meal.
In Oregon, 1 in 5 households are without access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food (food insecurity). This equates to about 644,000 Oregonians and 223,480 of them are children.
That’s a lot of hungry kids. The good news is of course there are programs in place to help feed these folks through generous contributions from those of us more fortunate.
The Oregon Food Bank and their statewide network of 21 regional food banks and approximately 970 partner agencies help our neighbors facing food insecurity throughout Oregon and Clark County, Washington. Food assistance is provided to anyone who needs it. The OFB’s food network ensures access without discrimination against any person because of race, color, citizenship, religion, reprisal, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation including gender identity or expression, unfavorable discharge from the military or status as a protected veteran.
In an average month, an estimated 270,000 people are receiving food from a food pantry in the network. Of households utilizing food pantries, about 80% of them are able to meet their food needs for the month with the help of a pantry.
These are statistics of both sadness and hope. I can’t even fathom what it feels like to go hungry for a long period of time……but I’m about to find out!
Starting January 1, 2018 I am embarking on a 12 day water only fast to raise the awareness of hunger in Oregon (yep, 12 days only consuming water!) and along the way I’ll be asking for your sponsorship in the form of generous contributions though my go-fund-me page. All the proceeds collected will be provided to the Oregon Food Bank through Go-Fund-Me. Our goal will be at least $20,000 so I will be asking you all to dig down deep into those pockets. At the end of the 12 days I’ll be matching whatever generous contributions you all have placed with a 10% contribution of my own.
In the interest of science, I will be posting daily updates of my vital statistics including weight, body fat composition, blood pressure, resting heartrate, body feelings and sensations, and emotional condition (hangry!?).
At the end of my fast, I will ease back into eating (healthier choices from here on out I swear!), and post an update on the progress there as well.
For those of you who are thinking “WHAT THE HELL?? HE’S GOING TO DIE!” Let me assure you the human body is capable of going around 40 days without food (healthy, average weight adult). I met with my doctor in mid-December, got a complete physical including blood work, and he gave me the green light to go forth with my fast. There is some interesting science behind the ancient art of fasting that is now being explored in areas of metabolic function, cancer prevention, and brain health. I have included an excerpt from one such study below. Hopefully, in addition to losing the extra 20lbs I picked up since Thanksgiving and donating to a great cause, I’ll dissolve the Big Mac shaped tumor that I’m sure is growing in me somewhere that resulted from years of eating like a maniac (Coke Big Gulp and Hostess Powdered donuts for High School lunch anyone??)
They say that “hunger starves the human spirit”.
Please join me in my quest to raise awareness of hunger in Oregon and put food on a few more tables in 2018. Thanks for your support.
Scott
Here is an excerpt from a recent study focused on the effects of fasting on the body.
Fasting: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Applications
Authors: Valter D.Longo, Mark P.Mattson
Read the full report here: http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(13)00503-2
Conclusions and Recommendations
Based on the existing evidence from animal and human studies described, we conclude that there is great potential for lifestyles that incorporate intermittent fasting or periodic fasting during adult life to promote optimal health and reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, particularly for those who are overweight and sedentary. Animal studies have documented robust and replicable effects of fasting on health indicators including greater insulin sensitivity and reduced levels of blood pressure, body fat, IGF-I, insulin, glucose, atherogenic lipids, and inflammation. Fasting regimens can ameliorate disease processes and improve functional outcome in animal models of disorders that include cancer, myocardial infarction, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease. One general mechanism of action of fasting is that it triggers adaptive cellular stress responses, which result in an enhanced ability to cope with more severe stress and counteract disease processes. In addition, by protecting cells from DNA damage, suppressing cell growth, and enhancing apoptosis of damaged cells, fasting could retard and/or prevent the formation and growth of cancers.
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