February 23, 2012 • 34 mins
Avoiding food for religious or health reasons has been around for millennia. But while God may appreciate the sacrifice, how does it affect the body? Join Josh and Chuck to find if fasting actually can be healthy or if it's as bad an idea as it sounds.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and with me is Charles W.
Chucker's Bryant. I'm hungry, are you? I just had a
(00:25):
six of a slice of pizza pizza. Yeah, you better hurry.
That's all right, it's pretty good. I got off pizza.
The cheese gets gets to my stomach. In our Digestion podcast.
You've got a lot of great support I did for
people anything work. I am going to uh make an
appointment with a specialist for the gird good and get scoped.
(00:49):
I think they call it when they drop a camera
down in there and they find out that I have
a small dragon living in my stomach and then the
scope drops a film canister into your stomach. Asked him
to be retrieved later and developed. Yeah, so thank you
for that support people. I'm definitely gonna go get that
checked out. He's going to the specialists, going to a specialist. Um,
(01:10):
I'm not gonna quit drinking red wine? Is that the problem? Well? No,
I mean I get heartburned from anything, which is so
that means I've definitely got a real issue. But obviously
things like red wine and chocolate and Margarita's and citrus,
all the best stuff, all the best stuff. Margarite is
you could go either way. I like him. During the
(01:31):
right time of year, you need to just drink like
white Russians all the time. It has a lot of
milk in it. Chocolate though that's a black Russian. Oh right,
white Russian. Or just drink of vodka mm hmm, yeah,
just drink milk, okay and pretend you're wasted and be healthy. Chuck. Yes,
have you ever fasted? Uh no, I've done the little
(01:54):
Master cleans thing, but which is sort of a fast.
I guess so that the lemon juice one. Yeah, okay,
we've talked about this before. I've done that as well,
and this is kind of like gives you shingles. Yeah,
I'm not gonna do it again. You're not. So I
fast like all the time. I know that, um all
(02:15):
the time? Maybe hyperbole because I actually do eat. Sometimes
you just say to the pizza the sixth of Us,
um what I I? And so I have a pretty
good understanding of what fasting can do and what it
feels like. But what I did not know is that
it comes from an old Anglo Saxon word fastin. Oh yeah, yeah,
(02:37):
that's the the fact of the podcast for me. Well,
that's that's remarkable, facing fast and fasten fasting. There's an
f A E S T E N fasting. Yeah, so
people have been doing it for a while. Then that's
what you're saying. Well, yeah, apparently, um, fast and means
(02:58):
to hold oneself from food, and yeah, people have been
doing it for a while because it's a firmly rooted
in a lot of religious traditions that have been around
for many, many years. Um. And then there's other reasons
that people fast, more modern ones see medical fasting. Yeah,
which we'll talk about, political statement fasting, Yeah, hunger strikes. Yeah,
(03:20):
there's a lot of that. In the twentieth century it
was big for hunger strikes. Of course still is. But
let's let's talk about fasting, shall we. Okay, Um, let's
talk about specifically religious fasting. Chuck, great place to start. Um,
it's been going on for thousands of years in religion.
So you answered your own question. Yeah, I knew eventually
(03:42):
that's been coy uh. A lot of times they initiate
a fast to um. Someone will do that too, maintain
contact with the divinity. And some say that if you
fast for long enough, you will hallucinate, and that that
might be uh. They might interpret that as communicating directly
with God. Right. And I looked that up. I couldn't
(04:03):
find out exactly why you hallucinate when you fast. I mean,
that is corroborated all over the place. The best I
can find, you're dying. Well, the best I can find
is that it's a it's a vitamin deficiency leads to
hallucinations for some reason, but I don't I don't know why.
But no, not necessarily. Also came across some articles that
suggested that hallucinations are a lot more natural than we
(04:27):
would think because we associate them with mental illness or
drug use. UM in the West way of a lot
of negative connotations for hallucinations UM that aren't necessarily spiritual, right,
when in fact other cultures might believe it's a form
of enlightenment. Right. So hallucinations may not be bad. It
may not be that you're dying, and it may not
(04:48):
be that you're mentally ill. It may just be that
you're hungry. Yeah, all right, that's a good point. Um.
A lot of times religious fast are are undertaken because
you're toning for since is punishment, you're asking God for
your forgiveness for your misdeeds. Yeah, these are the big
two basically, like you fast religiously either to get closer
(05:11):
to God or to tell God you're sorry and thus
get closer to God. Yeah, yeah, I know what you
mean though. Thanks. So let's you know, you want to
talk about some of the religions and and why and
when they fast. Yeah, Buddhists. Buddhists fast on full moon days, holidays, um,
(05:32):
and they do it mainly for purification and to um
free the mind. Apparently you know your butt will follow
if you free the mind. That's an old Buddhist adage.
I had not heard that, I think so. Um, they're
fasting is mostly it's not a full fast. You can drink,
so I guess you could have soup, maybe just a broth.
(05:54):
God help you if you have noodles in it, but
you have to abstain from solid foods, right, Um, you
can live on broth yeah forever. Yeah, he probably wouldn't
have a very productive life. G Hi system, But yeah,
you can live on broth. Catholics they fashion on fast
on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday. Um. Actually they can eat
(06:17):
a small meal without meat on those two days. Yeah,
so it's not exactly a fast. But they on Fridays
during Lent, they're not really supposed to eat meat at all.
That's why we have the filet of fish and for
a little while in the sixties of the Hula burger,
right because Crock was like, man, there's a mess of
Catholics out there and they're not eating burgers on Fridays,
but we need to get them in the store anyway. See,
(06:38):
I'm thankful for that because I love a filet of
fish every now and then, like once a year. Uh.
They fast to Catholics fast to show their control of
their flesh, fleshly which one of my favorite words, fleshly desires.
So Catholic to do penance, to show solidarity with the
poor and people who might not have food. So I
(06:59):
went to a Atholic school for the first couple of
years of school, our Lady of Perpetual Help and um,
every once in a while they would serve rice with
a pad of butter for lunch, and it was kind
of this fast, but it wasn't really fast because we're
still having rice. But basically the whole idea was, this
is what poor kids in Bangladesh have to eat every day,
(07:19):
and you're just this spoiled kid, So eat some rice
instead and kind of get in the mindset. And I
never did it because I got the point. But some
of my friends would eat the rice and then eat
their own lunch from home as well, which even even
in like second grade, I'm like, that seems wrong. Yeah,
I don't think you're supposed to be doing it like that.
(07:40):
Yeah they I mean that didn't even have to be
a religious space. You could do that in school today
and just say as a hunger awareness like in Australia. Yeah, Australia,
what what is that? The forty hour Fast? Do you
know anything about that? I know that I think they
have it once a year and many many Australians take part,
and basically the whole thing is to like they raise
awareness of poverty, of the state of the poverty stricken
(08:04):
and um also to raise money to the forty Hour Famine.
Excuse me, which is a fast? Boy? We headed that
one off the past. Good going, chuck, uh Eastern Orthodox
Church members they will fast on Lent. They observe the
Apostles fast and the Nativity fast, and they think, um,
that it could strengthen your that your resistance to gluttony
(08:28):
is obviously one of the seven deadly sins. And they
eat no meat, dairy, eggs, or fish during these fasts.
So it's my understanding. They can also eat a little something,
just not those things the carbs. They can eat bread,
that'd be nice, and bread and broth. But now you're talking, yeah,
that's what else you need. I can't think of it.
(08:51):
Fruits and vegetables and stuff like that. Well, no, it
says no meat, dairy, eggs, or fish. So you could
have fruits, vegetables, broth, bread. That's like, that's a good
kind in a fast right there. I wouldn't even call
that a fast. No, you couldn't actually get gluttonous on that.
You could. Uh. The Jewish folks they fast on Yam Kapoor,
which is the day of Atonement, and they are doing
(09:13):
this to a tone first sins obviously like the Catholics,
and special requests from God. I know, it's so funny.
It's like, hey, I'm not gonna eat for twenty five
whole hours. But I have a huge favor to ask
you right sun up. The sundown is that the deal
which and they have one of the tougher fast because
they don't eat or drink anything for twenty five hours.
(09:36):
That's like no nothing, that's a real fast. Mormons stay
fast on the first Sunday every month. This is kind
of a week fast. If you ask me, this is
like a Tuesday for me. They have to skip two meals.
They skipped two meals and they think it helps them
obviously get closer to God like many of the religions do,
and just basically just focuses their minds on God. Well,
(09:58):
the cool thing about the More and Fast, in my opinion,
is that they're also required to give food and money
to the needy, right what they would have spent perhaps
on those meals. It's probably a good one. You should
do one on Mormons as a whole. We've had that
requested a lot. I've read about this one guy UM
named Paul Kingston, and he is the head of a
(10:18):
an accused alleged crime family that's a Mormon sect also UM.
And he does forty day fasts. Yeah, wow, forty days man,
can you imagine it's good? Did it? He does it?
I bet his breast stink so bad. Um, we'll get
(10:39):
into that. Muslims uh that obviously they fast on for
the observance of Ramadan, the ninth month on the Muslim calendar.
And many of you might not know what Ramadan is.
Do you want to tell him? I'll tell him. It
commemorates the month when the Koran was first revealed to Mohammed.
That's what Ramadan is all about, is right. So they
(11:02):
don't have food, they don't have drink, they don't smoke,
they don't curse, they don't have sex from sunrise the sunset. Yeah,
for a month, every day for a month, that's right.
And millions millions of people do this during Ramadan. Which
is when is it? Like? Does it take place roughly
in November on the Grigorian calendar? I think is it?
(11:24):
I think it is. And we've been asked to do
one on Ramadan too, So we're gonna we got a lot.
We haven't explained hardly anything, have we we still? Uh.
Ramadan is a very famous fast obviously because um of
the length of time, and it is supposed to teach
Muslims patients and modesty spirituality. You ask Allah for forgiveness,
(11:47):
pray for guidance, and you purify yourself and then it's
really effective, man, like getting this, uh, this mindset of
I want this, so I'll have it right now, um
out of your head for a little while. Even a
day really kind of opens your eyes a little bit
beyond that one single day denial, aren't you? It never
(12:13):
it never leaves you, does it? Well? I have to
say that, like, um, the further I've gotten away from Catholicism,
the more into self denial I've gotten. Ironically. Yeah, alright,
well let's talk about medical fasting. That's an overview of
religious fasting. You can get a lot more detailed but
nice transition than you. Well, medical fasting, Um, a lot
of people have probably engaged in. If you've ever had
(12:36):
some sort of test done, A lot of times they're like,
don't eat the night before your your appointment, um, sometimes
twenty four hours if it's like certain kinds of blood tests. Yeah.
The reason for this is pretty straightforward and logical. With
blood tests in particular, Um, they want your body to
have metabolized all the food, so they have a pretty
good idea of what your baseline levels of things like cholesterol, blood, sugar, um,
(13:01):
all of these things are in your system normally. If you,
you know, ate a handful of chicken fat right before
you went in for your cholesterol test, it's gonna skew
the results a little bit. Yeah, that fat's gonna be
in your blood. But if you haven't eaten in twenty
four hours and your blood shows uh, the same levels
(13:22):
of lipids that as if you had just eating a
handful of chicken fat, your physician is going to be like,
we have to save your life right now. Well, yeah,
if your baseline indicates something that scary, then no more
chicken fat um. And the same goes with if you
were going to go under for surgery, yeah, which apparently
this one's becoming outdated. We both had surgery recently. You
(13:46):
went all the way under it into I went into
twilight sleep for my tooth. I went all the way under,
and I don't know what my oral surgeon used, but
she brought me out like totally was wide awake within
an hour of being put under, Like she did the
procedure and then I was wide awake. I still need
to ask her you weren't like I was just right back.
(14:10):
I love the Twilight. Actually yeah, it was pretty rocking. Um.
I mean I still wasted, but it was like like
I was awake. It wasn't like huge time loss or
anything like that. Anyway, I wasn't supposed to eat. I thought,
just eat, but it's eat or drink And they had
to delay my surgery like three hours because I was
a jass and drank some coffee. Um. And the whole
(14:32):
reason I didn't understand why until I read this article.
But the whole reason they tell you not to um
eat or drink anything for you know, the night before
you're put under, because they're worried you're going to puke
and choke on your vomit like John Bottom. I didn't
know that. I thought it was just it could make
you nauseous. Until I read this, I didn't realize that
was a deal. No, But they may be phasing it
(14:54):
out because it can make you nauseous if you don't eat,
if you have if you take all those drugs on
an empty stomach, um, you may be likelier to be nauseated.
And it's also really rare that they found, so I
think it's not uh, I mean they still did it
with me, but the article says that it may be
(15:15):
phased out because it's such a rare thing to choke
like that, right, And they're saying, well, a lot more people,
um are having trouble with dizziness feigning because they haven't
eaten anything, and we just pumped them full of drugs.
So we're gonna go ahead and let people eat. And
in the UM, I want to take a minute to
explain the difference between nauseous and nauseated. You know this, Yeah,
(15:39):
So nauseous means that, um, you're causing nausea, right, so
I'm making you nauseous. I'm nauseous to you, Okay. Nauseated
means that you're feeling or suffering from nausea. So I'm
making you nauseated. I'm nauseous to you. Know, I'm nauseated,
(16:03):
is what you would say, unless you are aware that
you're making other people no nauseous And that's with behaviorally speaking,
what do you mean, well, like you're nauseated with someone's
actions or does that mean literally you're nauseated with somebody's
actions that would make the other person nauseous. They have
(16:24):
the ability to cause nausea and other people got you.
I never knew that. It's a big, big deal. The
more you know, thank you worldwide words. By the way,
is that where that came from? Yeah, that's a great thing.
I haven't seen it. Uh So what happens when you
stop eating? Your body is going to start burning. You know,
if you don't have any protein, your body's gonna break
(16:45):
down your muscle. It's gonna start eating that because that's protein. Yeah,
it's a scary notion, it is, which is why if
you're on a low calorie diet you want to eat
lean protein. And it's also why you'll feel weak if
you're on like a hunger strike, like to the point
where you can't get out of bed, if it's you
haven't eaten for three weeks or you're hallucinating um. A
(17:09):
long term fast can damage your heart because your heart
is a muscle, and what what your body is doing
is going after your muscle because your muscle is made
of amino acids, which is the building blocks of protein.
So it's saying, well, basically, we have a bunch of
store of amino acids here where your brain is Like no, no,
I used that to lift things where I used that
to pump blood. Your body's like, no, it's a bunch
(17:31):
of amino acids and I need it right now. If
you feed your body lean protein, logically speaking, um, it
will go after other things e g. Fat because it
has protein. Right. So aside from the heart though, liver
and kidneys can also decrease in size if you don't
have enough protein and damage those as well, which is
not good. It is not good. Um that at least
(17:53):
it is pretty clearly too fasting for weight loss. Right, Yes,
there's a weird catch twenty two for fasting for weight
loss where your body, uh, if given few enough calories
or if on a fast, enters what's called starvation mode.
And when you enter starvation mode, it goes. It does
things like going after your muscles, which is bad, but
(18:16):
it also lowers your metabolism to preserve calories. So the
fewer calories you take in, the fewer calories you end
up burning. It's weird. It's not weird. It actually makes
perfect sense, but it's also extremely unhealthy. It is, and
there's uh. I've dug into web m D for this
UM and they say that there's a lot of controversy
(18:37):
on this people say, you know, some people say it's
can be effective. Other people say it can't. But they say,
if you really weed through all this stuff that most
medical experts say that it is not healthy at all. Um,
it'll come back quickly if you fast to lose weight,
it's really just liquids. Beyonce made a lot of headlines
when she did the Master Cleanse and lost twenty pounds
(18:59):
for Dream Roles. Awesome movie. Did you see that? No,
I don't know if you'd like, it might not be
your thing. Okay, health risks that we already covered, um, liver, kidney,
and heart. And this doctor says, you know, people try
(19:19):
all these weird diets and there's a hundred thousand different
books on odd diets. When everyone knows the way to
lose weight is lower your fat, eat five fruits and
vegetables a day, drink a lot of water, and do
some exercise and get plenty of sleep. Uh. If they
say I want to fast, let's say you want to
(19:40):
fast and do a good enema just to clean yourself out,
Very very dangerous to do that. What not to do
an enemo while you're on a fast. It's not a
good one too. Punch web MD says, what you're gonna
do is you're gonna flush your intestinal attract of your
good bacteria and put your health it too sarious risk um.
(20:02):
And this is the whole detoxification thing. There's one camp
that says, you know, your body detoxes itself, there's no
scientific evidence that any of these cleanses do any good.
Then there's another camp that says, well, if you're eating healthy,
then your body is doing a great job of detoxifying itself.
But most people don't eat healthy, they eat packaged, processed foods,
(20:24):
and so your body could actually use some help detoxifying.
I mean that makes a lot of sense of the
same thing with saunas, like they're like, well, yeah, I
mean you might only sweat like a very small amount
of toxins out of your body, but you're still sweating
that amount out. Why why how could that hurt if
you're doing it properly. There's definitely two camps on this.
It is very controversial. Yeah, same with a calorie restricted diet,
(20:46):
which I know we've talked about before. There's two camps
on it. The fact of the matter is it's neither
one knows for certain whether they're right. That's a lot
of it's just based on the common sense and logic ketosis.
If you go without eating for a couple of days,
your body is gonna enter a stage called ketosis, and
that is, um, what your goal is. If you do
the Atkins diet, they preach ketosis and that's what happens
(21:09):
when your body runs out of carbs to burn for energy,
so it burns fat, which sounds like a good thing. Um,
but the breath I mentioned earlier, be prepared for really
awful halitosis. Is that right? Tell me about it, Chuck. Well,
it's that's just one of the side effects of of
fasting and ketosis is you're you're gonna have rank halitosis.
(21:30):
I don't know the science behind it, but it's true.
And uh so, you know, carry around if you're gonna
be doing that kind of thing. Just take care of
your mouth a little more. Get a tongue scraper. Um.
I think probably while we're on this, we should take
the time to debunk the whole idea that you should
(21:50):
be drinking eight glasses of water a day. Debunk. Well,
you should definitely drink water. It's not it's good. It's
good to drink water, but that whole eight glasses of date.
Think there's people who rigidly drink eight glasses of water
a day, totally arbitrary, and um, yeah, there's a guy
named Tim Crow who's a professor nutrition at Deacon University
(22:14):
who's kind of gone to the trouble of debunking this.
Apparently back in the US, um recommended, uh two point
five liters of water a day, I would imagine. So, um,
so this this, this whole uh this, this is where
this whole eight glasses came from. Right, um, but there
(22:40):
there's also been this whole Um it has to just
be water idea, Like it can't be coffee, it can't
be so that one guy said liquids, water and other
liquids right, at least on web m D. Technically you
could get it all from cokes, which is you know,
it's gonna have all these other side effects. But there
it's water, you know, one of the main ingredients, and
(23:01):
coke is water. Same with coffee, same with tea, all
this other stuff. So, um, if you're drinking water, drink water.
But that whole eight classes a day thing is apparently
not true, says that one guy. There's Well, the problem
is water intake varies by body size weight. It's two individuals,
(23:22):
say eight classes a day. Yeah, but let's put it
this way. It's never gonna be bad for you, is it. Yeah,
there's um you can die of water toxicity. Well not
from eight glass water, No, but people have that. That
lady did that contest drink like twelve gallons of water
or something like that. I know, isn't that crazy. That
wasn't that much, but there was a lot. And then
(23:43):
I'm sorry. There's one other there's one other problem that
can develop from not eating from fasting. When you lose minerals,
not only can you hallucinate, but specifically, if you have
h not enough potassium, copper, and magnesium, you can lose
(24:03):
electricity or electrical function in your heart. That's not good. Well,
it's also gonna put a big hit on your immune system.
If you're fasting, you're gonna have a real hard time
finding off sickness or and if you get sick, you're
gonna have a real hard time getting better. Yes, because
you're not getting the stuff you need, the good stuff.
I agreed, the nutrients. So what what's the next checker?
Hunger strikes that's really the last reason that we have
(24:25):
for fasting. And throughout history a lot of people have
made political statements by going on very public hunger strikes
to raise awareness, and it's you know, it's a good
way to get attention if you're a Gandhi, Let's say,
And Gandhi did do that, I think in because the
Crown was saying, hey, let's get this new Indian constitution
(24:48):
underway and let's codify the cast system that keeps people
in these this horrible socioeconomic hierarchy. And Gandhi said, you
know what, you do that and I'm can eat and
the whole world will pay attention. And the Brits were like, oh,
shut up, and Gandhi was like, no, I'm gonna do it,
and they're like, oh, no, you're not. And he did
(25:08):
it and everybody paid attention. And he said, one day,
Sir Richard Edinburgh will make a movie about me. Isn't
that who made Gandhi? I think so? Huh? And Ben
Kingsley will play me because he looks that's good stuff, Chuck.
That was a great back and forth, wasn't Bobby Sands
Uh the infamous Irish hunger strike in Uh in Ireland
(25:31):
and and sorry, in in May's prison in Northern Ireland.
He fasted for sixty six days and I'm pretty sure
he had some of his uh ira A cohorts taking
part in it with him. Yeah, I think nine other
guys died. I wasn't including him, Okay, sixty six days. Yeah.
So they had demands, various demands like, hey, we want
(25:53):
to wear our own clothes. We want to be able
to socialize and correspond with the outside world. Sure mails,
mailsome letters here and there. We shouldn't have to do
penal work as part of our senates here and uh,
nine prisoners died, like you said, and sixty others died,
and the violence that followed. I think there were some
(26:13):
riots that happened afterwards, and it was a really big deal.
I think I wrote about that in my how Long
can You Go Without Food and Water? Article many months ago.
That's where we talked about the Calori restricted diet, isn't it.
I think? So we'll have to tweet that that episode.
It's a good one, agreed, man that that seems like
a gazillion years ago. And then I don't even remember
what was in it. I don't either, Uh, and then
(26:35):
we mentioned the forty hour famine, which is an annual
event in Australia, and basically people say, I'm not gonna
drink food or water for forty hours and I'm going
to raise awareness. Like that's a really good way to
raise awareness, to just say I'm not eating and you
can't make me. And then people will try. Authorities will
be like, no, we have to keep you alive because
(26:57):
we want to keep you in prison. Logic all over
the place. You got anything more about fasting? No, you know,
be careful if you're out there. It's Uh. Anarexy is
a real problem in the world and it can get
out of hand. And there was a sidebar in this
article we didn't cover, but um, we'd be remiss without
mentioning that anorexia nervosa. That's right, not good, No, neither.
(27:24):
I saw a thing recently where UM a plus size model.
Did you see this? This female plus size model had
her picture taken with UM, a regular model and they
were like both nude and just hugging and it looked
like she was hugging a a small child and I
(27:45):
think they had and she was doing this to raise
awareness that like this image that they put out with
models is just a unattainable and be unsafe. And I
think that I can't remember the year, but it was
something like twenty years ago the average model was like
eight percent smaller and thinner than your average person. And
(28:06):
nowadays it's like well, not only that they alter them
digitally through like photoshop or some other photo editing. Sweet, yeah,
just do crazy things for me. They don't even look
right if you see what they do to them in
photoshop afterwards, it's crazy. It's a great article. I wish
I could remember where it was. It was going around Facebook, though,
(28:27):
but I think it is a very good message to
send out that chuck from stuff you should know thinks
that that plus size model was uber hot and sexy.
Look good for you? Look good, man, That's how a
woman should look. It's very nice of you, not like
that little frail waife waif of a of a lady.
And if you're like that, naturally I'm not you know,
(28:47):
I don't want to make you feel bad about yourself,
but if you're starving thisself with to make you look
like that, then some guys like a little junk in
the trunk, as they say. I think that's an excellent
one to end the fun way too good, Chuck. So
you have nothing more now about fasting? No, nothing more
any other discourse. Jerry's just the last. He's like, boy,
these guys are spiraling. Um. Well, if you want to
(29:10):
know more about fasting, you can type that word into
the search bar at how stuff works dot com and
chucks a junk in the trunk. So that brings up
listener mail. So listener mail. As I just said, right,
I'm shaking my head down. I knew that you're going
(29:30):
to say that. South By Southwest announcement continues. Is this
the generic one or the specific one? This is the
generic version. This is the the um where does this
is filled with the seat and trickery? Yes, we are
having a party on Monday, March twelve in Austin, Texas. Yeah,
(29:51):
no badge required, let's not forget. Also, dude, we're doing
an official live podcast on the day before March eleven pm. Okay, well,
I'm glad you remember that. What's going on March twelve,
March twelfth is a party we're having and uh at
a place to be announced later downtown Austin, and there
will be performers comedians, bands and some other special treats
(30:15):
and it will be in the evening hours. Yeah, it'll
be a cool party, early evening hours. Can we call
it a party, it's a it's a party. Okay, it
will be a party. And if you don't have to
have a badge for this, you do have to have
a badge for the live podcast on Sunday, and you
probably have to be twenty one when don't you think
do you know, I think it's a restaurant. Well, yeah,
I think you can come in there and awesome. Or
(30:36):
if you're twenty one, you can come in there and
drink your face off. Yeah, bring your pocketbook. We're not
buying drinks. You can buy us drinks. Yeah, here you go.
Can we get to it now? Yes? Okay. Appropriately This
is from an Aussie fan that um has uh to
wants to raise awareness for weight loss. Weird funny how
(30:59):
that works. Greetings from down Under. I just wanted to
plug a little something for the Ausi corner of the
s y s K nation and we have a lot
of Australian fans. One of our major AUSI broadcasters has
started a new initiative called the one million kilow challenge
and the goal is to get Australians to collectively pledged
to lose one million kilos. It's about two point to
(31:23):
million pounds. Where you backwards folk as she calls us, uh.
Their site is www dot one and it's the number
one million kilow challenge dot com dot a you that
means Australia and it gives you all the diet and
exercise plans you need to shed that lab in ten
weeks starting on January. Maybe I should do this. You
(31:45):
can complete the challenge as an individual or as a team.
So I thought, why not rally the s y s
K army. I think it would be a great way
for AUSI listeners. I'm sorry keep saying Ausy. It's really Ausy.
As they say AUSI lis sners to interact, get healthier
and dominate all the other teams. So I created a team,
conveniently named them Team s Y s K. International folk
(32:09):
always complain when we can't enter your contests, so how
about we make this the official Ausy thing. Of course,
you guys can still sign up if you're willing to
fake an Aussie address and get your key loose two
pounds convert at the ready I have pledged to lose
five point three ms. That's eleven point seven pounds that
(32:29):
I put on last year, and I'm really pumped up
about it. Um. I don't know how to get this
out to the s y s K nation, but I
would love it if we could encourage any other AUSI
or otherwise listeners to sign up and fight the flat together.
And this is how you do it live the email
us and we read it the next day. So here
we are jesus ps I noticed the Colbar nation doesn't
(32:50):
even have a team, so we've already won up them again.
Nice um, and that's in thirty days. January is when
it it's off, and that is number one million kilow
challenge dot com dot Au and throw a www in
front of that and you'll be taking straight there. And
is there a team page? Uh? She said she started
(33:13):
team s y s K, so I guess it might
be like Kiva word. You might can enter that in
a in a team section or something to find out. Okay,
I'm gonna look after this. Actually all right, well we'll
publicize it if you can. That is Live. Thanks a lot, Live.
We appreciate you go into that trouble and thanks to
everybody listening. If you have a cool story, uh that
you want to tell us about, it doesn't matter if
(33:35):
it has to do with fasting or anything else we
want to hear it. Just whatever, general assignment, how about that? Yeah? Yeah.
You can find us on Twitter at s y s
K podcast, Facebook at Facebook dot com, slash stuff you
Should Know and Uh. You can also reach us via
email at Stuff podcast at Discovery dot com. Be sure
(34:01):
to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Join how Stepwork's staff as we explore the most promising
and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by the
reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and with me is Charles W.
Chucker's Bryant. I'm hungry, are you? I just had a
(00:25):
six of a slice of pizza pizza. Yeah, you better hurry.
That's all right, it's pretty good. I got off pizza.
The cheese gets gets to my stomach. In our Digestion podcast.
You've got a lot of great support I did for
people anything work. I am going to uh make an
appointment with a specialist for the gird good and get scoped.
(00:49):
I think they call it when they drop a camera
down in there and they find out that I have
a small dragon living in my stomach and then the
scope drops a film canister into your stomach. Asked him
to be retrieved later and developed. Yeah, so thank you
for that support people. I'm definitely gonna go get that
checked out. He's going to the specialists, going to a specialist. Um,
(01:10):
I'm not gonna quit drinking red wine? Is that the problem? Well? No,
I mean I get heartburned from anything, which is so
that means I've definitely got a real issue. But obviously
things like red wine and chocolate and Margarita's and citrus,
all the best stuff, all the best stuff. Margarite is
you could go either way. I like him. During the
(01:31):
right time of year, you need to just drink like
white Russians all the time. It has a lot of
milk in it. Chocolate though that's a black Russian. Oh right,
white Russian. Or just drink of vodka mm hmm, yeah,
just drink milk, okay and pretend you're wasted and be healthy. Chuck. Yes,
have you ever fasted? Uh no, I've done the little
(01:54):
Master cleans thing, but which is sort of a fast.
I guess so that the lemon juice one. Yeah, okay,
we've talked about this before. I've done that as well,
and this is kind of like gives you shingles. Yeah,
I'm not gonna do it again. You're not. So I
fast like all the time. I know that, um all
(02:15):
the time? Maybe hyperbole because I actually do eat. Sometimes
you just say to the pizza the sixth of Us,
um what I I? And so I have a pretty
good understanding of what fasting can do and what it
feels like. But what I did not know is that
it comes from an old Anglo Saxon word fastin. Oh yeah, yeah,
(02:37):
that's the the fact of the podcast for me. Well,
that's that's remarkable, facing fast and fasten fasting. There's an
f A E S T E N fasting. Yeah, so
people have been doing it for a while. Then that's
what you're saying. Well, yeah, apparently, um, fast and means
(02:58):
to hold oneself from food, and yeah, people have been
doing it for a while because it's a firmly rooted
in a lot of religious traditions that have been around
for many, many years. Um. And then there's other reasons
that people fast, more modern ones see medical fasting. Yeah,
which we'll talk about, political statement fasting, Yeah, hunger strikes. Yeah,
(03:20):
there's a lot of that. In the twentieth century it
was big for hunger strikes. Of course still is. But
let's let's talk about fasting, shall we. Okay, Um, let's
talk about specifically religious fasting. Chuck, great place to start. Um,
it's been going on for thousands of years in religion.
So you answered your own question. Yeah, I knew eventually
(03:42):
that's been coy uh. A lot of times they initiate
a fast to um. Someone will do that too, maintain
contact with the divinity. And some say that if you
fast for long enough, you will hallucinate, and that that
might be uh. They might interpret that as communicating directly
with God. Right. And I looked that up. I couldn't
(04:03):
find out exactly why you hallucinate when you fast. I mean,
that is corroborated all over the place. The best I
can find, you're dying. Well, the best I can find
is that it's a it's a vitamin deficiency leads to
hallucinations for some reason, but I don't I don't know why.
But no, not necessarily. Also came across some articles that
suggested that hallucinations are a lot more natural than we
(04:27):
would think because we associate them with mental illness or
drug use. UM in the West way of a lot
of negative connotations for hallucinations UM that aren't necessarily spiritual, right,
when in fact other cultures might believe it's a form
of enlightenment. Right. So hallucinations may not be bad. It
may not be that you're dying, and it may not
(04:48):
be that you're mentally ill. It may just be that
you're hungry. Yeah, all right, that's a good point. Um.
A lot of times religious fast are are undertaken because
you're toning for since is punishment, you're asking God for
your forgiveness for your misdeeds. Yeah, these are the big
two basically, like you fast religiously either to get closer
(05:11):
to God or to tell God you're sorry and thus
get closer to God. Yeah, yeah, I know what you
mean though. Thanks. So let's you know, you want to
talk about some of the religions and and why and
when they fast. Yeah, Buddhists. Buddhists fast on full moon days, holidays, um,
(05:32):
and they do it mainly for purification and to um
free the mind. Apparently you know your butt will follow
if you free the mind. That's an old Buddhist adage.
I had not heard that, I think so. Um, they're
fasting is mostly it's not a full fast. You can drink,
so I guess you could have soup, maybe just a broth.
(05:54):
God help you if you have noodles in it, but
you have to abstain from solid foods, right, Um, you
can live on broth yeah forever. Yeah, he probably wouldn't
have a very productive life. G Hi system, But yeah,
you can live on broth. Catholics they fashion on fast
on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday. Um. Actually they can eat
(06:17):
a small meal without meat on those two days. Yeah,
so it's not exactly a fast. But they on Fridays
during Lent, they're not really supposed to eat meat at all.
That's why we have the filet of fish and for
a little while in the sixties of the Hula burger,
right because Crock was like, man, there's a mess of
Catholics out there and they're not eating burgers on Fridays,
but we need to get them in the store anyway. See,
(06:38):
I'm thankful for that because I love a filet of
fish every now and then, like once a year. Uh.
They fast to Catholics fast to show their control of
their flesh, fleshly which one of my favorite words, fleshly desires.
So Catholic to do penance, to show solidarity with the
poor and people who might not have food. So I
(06:59):
went to a Atholic school for the first couple of
years of school, our Lady of Perpetual Help and um,
every once in a while they would serve rice with
a pad of butter for lunch, and it was kind
of this fast, but it wasn't really fast because we're
still having rice. But basically the whole idea was, this
is what poor kids in Bangladesh have to eat every day,
(07:19):
and you're just this spoiled kid, So eat some rice
instead and kind of get in the mindset. And I
never did it because I got the point. But some
of my friends would eat the rice and then eat
their own lunch from home as well, which even even
in like second grade, I'm like, that seems wrong. Yeah,
I don't think you're supposed to be doing it like that.
(07:40):
Yeah they I mean that didn't even have to be
a religious space. You could do that in school today
and just say as a hunger awareness like in Australia. Yeah, Australia,
what what is that? The forty hour Fast? Do you
know anything about that? I know that I think they
have it once a year and many many Australians take part,
and basically the whole thing is to like they raise
awareness of poverty, of the state of the poverty stricken
(08:04):
and um also to raise money to the forty Hour Famine.
Excuse me, which is a fast? Boy? We headed that
one off the past. Good going, chuck, uh Eastern Orthodox
Church members they will fast on Lent. They observe the
Apostles fast and the Nativity fast, and they think, um,
that it could strengthen your that your resistance to gluttony
(08:28):
is obviously one of the seven deadly sins. And they
eat no meat, dairy, eggs, or fish during these fasts.
So it's my understanding. They can also eat a little something,
just not those things the carbs. They can eat bread,
that'd be nice, and bread and broth. But now you're talking, yeah,
that's what else you need. I can't think of it.
(08:51):
Fruits and vegetables and stuff like that. Well, no, it
says no meat, dairy, eggs, or fish. So you could
have fruits, vegetables, broth, bread. That's like, that's a good
kind in a fast right there. I wouldn't even call
that a fast. No, you couldn't actually get gluttonous on that.
You could. Uh. The Jewish folks they fast on Yam Kapoor,
which is the day of Atonement, and they are doing
(09:13):
this to a tone first sins obviously like the Catholics,
and special requests from God. I know, it's so funny.
It's like, hey, I'm not gonna eat for twenty five
whole hours. But I have a huge favor to ask
you right sun up. The sundown is that the deal
which and they have one of the tougher fast because
they don't eat or drink anything for twenty five hours.
(09:36):
That's like no nothing, that's a real fast. Mormons stay
fast on the first Sunday every month. This is kind
of a week fast. If you ask me, this is
like a Tuesday for me. They have to skip two meals.
They skipped two meals and they think it helps them
obviously get closer to God like many of the religions do,
and just basically just focuses their minds on God. Well,
(09:58):
the cool thing about the More and Fast, in my opinion,
is that they're also required to give food and money
to the needy, right what they would have spent perhaps
on those meals. It's probably a good one. You should
do one on Mormons as a whole. We've had that
requested a lot. I've read about this one guy UM
named Paul Kingston, and he is the head of a
(10:18):
an accused alleged crime family that's a Mormon sect also UM.
And he does forty day fasts. Yeah, wow, forty days man,
can you imagine it's good? Did it? He does it?
I bet his breast stink so bad. Um, we'll get
(10:39):
into that. Muslims uh that obviously they fast on for
the observance of Ramadan, the ninth month on the Muslim calendar.
And many of you might not know what Ramadan is.
Do you want to tell him? I'll tell him. It
commemorates the month when the Koran was first revealed to Mohammed.
That's what Ramadan is all about, is right. So they
(11:02):
don't have food, they don't have drink, they don't smoke,
they don't curse, they don't have sex from sunrise the sunset. Yeah,
for a month, every day for a month, that's right.
And millions millions of people do this during Ramadan. Which
is when is it? Like? Does it take place roughly
in November on the Grigorian calendar? I think is it?
(11:24):
I think it is. And we've been asked to do
one on Ramadan too, So we're gonna we got a lot.
We haven't explained hardly anything, have we we still? Uh.
Ramadan is a very famous fast obviously because um of
the length of time, and it is supposed to teach
Muslims patients and modesty spirituality. You ask Allah for forgiveness,
(11:47):
pray for guidance, and you purify yourself and then it's
really effective, man, like getting this, uh, this mindset of
I want this, so I'll have it right now, um
out of your head for a little while. Even a
day really kind of opens your eyes a little bit
beyond that one single day denial, aren't you? It never
(12:13):
it never leaves you, does it? Well? I have to
say that, like, um, the further I've gotten away from Catholicism,
the more into self denial I've gotten. Ironically. Yeah, alright,
well let's talk about medical fasting. That's an overview of
religious fasting. You can get a lot more detailed but
nice transition than you. Well, medical fasting, Um, a lot
of people have probably engaged in. If you've ever had
(12:36):
some sort of test done, A lot of times they're like,
don't eat the night before your your appointment, um, sometimes
twenty four hours if it's like certain kinds of blood tests. Yeah.
The reason for this is pretty straightforward and logical. With
blood tests in particular, Um, they want your body to
have metabolized all the food, so they have a pretty
good idea of what your baseline levels of things like cholesterol, blood, sugar, um,
(13:01):
all of these things are in your system normally. If you,
you know, ate a handful of chicken fat right before
you went in for your cholesterol test, it's gonna skew
the results a little bit. Yeah, that fat's gonna be
in your blood. But if you haven't eaten in twenty
four hours and your blood shows uh, the same levels
(13:22):
of lipids that as if you had just eating a
handful of chicken fat, your physician is going to be like,
we have to save your life right now. Well, yeah,
if your baseline indicates something that scary, then no more
chicken fat um. And the same goes with if you
were going to go under for surgery, yeah, which apparently
this one's becoming outdated. We both had surgery recently. You
(13:46):
went all the way under it into I went into
twilight sleep for my tooth. I went all the way under,
and I don't know what my oral surgeon used, but
she brought me out like totally was wide awake within
an hour of being put under, Like she did the
procedure and then I was wide awake. I still need
to ask her you weren't like I was just right back.
(14:10):
I love the Twilight. Actually yeah, it was pretty rocking. Um.
I mean I still wasted, but it was like like
I was awake. It wasn't like huge time loss or
anything like that. Anyway, I wasn't supposed to eat. I thought,
just eat, but it's eat or drink And they had
to delay my surgery like three hours because I was
a jass and drank some coffee. Um. And the whole
(14:32):
reason I didn't understand why until I read this article.
But the whole reason they tell you not to um
eat or drink anything for you know, the night before
you're put under, because they're worried you're going to puke
and choke on your vomit like John Bottom. I didn't
know that. I thought it was just it could make
you nauseous. Until I read this, I didn't realize that
was a deal. No, But they may be phasing it
(14:54):
out because it can make you nauseous if you don't eat,
if you have if you take all those drugs on
an empty stomach, um, you may be likelier to be nauseated.
And it's also really rare that they found, so I
think it's not uh, I mean they still did it
with me, but the article says that it may be
(15:15):
phased out because it's such a rare thing to choke
like that, right, And they're saying, well, a lot more people,
um are having trouble with dizziness feigning because they haven't
eaten anything, and we just pumped them full of drugs.
So we're gonna go ahead and let people eat. And
in the UM, I want to take a minute to
explain the difference between nauseous and nauseated. You know this, Yeah,
(15:39):
So nauseous means that, um, you're causing nausea, right, so
I'm making you nauseous. I'm nauseous to you, Okay. Nauseated
means that you're feeling or suffering from nausea. So I'm
making you nauseated. I'm nauseous to you. Know, I'm nauseated,
(16:03):
is what you would say, unless you are aware that
you're making other people no nauseous And that's with behaviorally speaking,
what do you mean, well, like you're nauseated with someone's
actions or does that mean literally you're nauseated with somebody's
actions that would make the other person nauseous. They have
(16:24):
the ability to cause nausea and other people got you.
I never knew that. It's a big, big deal. The
more you know, thank you worldwide words. By the way,
is that where that came from? Yeah, that's a great thing.
I haven't seen it. Uh So what happens when you
stop eating? Your body is going to start burning. You know,
if you don't have any protein, your body's gonna break
(16:45):
down your muscle. It's gonna start eating that because that's protein. Yeah,
it's a scary notion, it is, which is why if
you're on a low calorie diet you want to eat
lean protein. And it's also why you'll feel weak if
you're on like a hunger strike, like to the point
where you can't get out of bed, if it's you
haven't eaten for three weeks or you're hallucinating um. A
(17:09):
long term fast can damage your heart because your heart
is a muscle, and what what your body is doing
is going after your muscle because your muscle is made
of amino acids, which is the building blocks of protein.
So it's saying, well, basically, we have a bunch of
store of amino acids here where your brain is Like no, no,
I used that to lift things where I used that
to pump blood. Your body's like, no, it's a bunch
(17:31):
of amino acids and I need it right now. If
you feed your body lean protein, logically speaking, um, it
will go after other things e g. Fat because it
has protein. Right. So aside from the heart though, liver
and kidneys can also decrease in size if you don't
have enough protein and damage those as well, which is
not good. It is not good. Um that at least
(17:53):
it is pretty clearly too fasting for weight loss. Right, Yes,
there's a weird catch twenty two for fasting for weight
loss where your body, uh, if given few enough calories
or if on a fast, enters what's called starvation mode.
And when you enter starvation mode, it goes. It does
things like going after your muscles, which is bad, but
(18:16):
it also lowers your metabolism to preserve calories. So the
fewer calories you take in, the fewer calories you end
up burning. It's weird. It's not weird. It actually makes
perfect sense, but it's also extremely unhealthy. It is, and
there's uh. I've dug into web m D for this
UM and they say that there's a lot of controversy
(18:37):
on this people say, you know, some people say it's
can be effective. Other people say it can't. But they say,
if you really weed through all this stuff that most
medical experts say that it is not healthy at all. Um,
it'll come back quickly if you fast to lose weight,
it's really just liquids. Beyonce made a lot of headlines
when she did the Master Cleanse and lost twenty pounds
(18:59):
for Dream Roles. Awesome movie. Did you see that? No,
I don't know if you'd like, it might not be
your thing. Okay, health risks that we already covered, um, liver, kidney,
and heart. And this doctor says, you know, people try
(19:19):
all these weird diets and there's a hundred thousand different
books on odd diets. When everyone knows the way to
lose weight is lower your fat, eat five fruits and
vegetables a day, drink a lot of water, and do
some exercise and get plenty of sleep. Uh. If they
say I want to fast, let's say you want to
(19:40):
fast and do a good enema just to clean yourself out,
Very very dangerous to do that. What not to do
an enemo while you're on a fast. It's not a
good one too. Punch web MD says, what you're gonna
do is you're gonna flush your intestinal attract of your
good bacteria and put your health it too sarious risk um.
(20:02):
And this is the whole detoxification thing. There's one camp
that says, you know, your body detoxes itself, there's no
scientific evidence that any of these cleanses do any good.
Then there's another camp that says, well, if you're eating healthy,
then your body is doing a great job of detoxifying itself.
But most people don't eat healthy, they eat packaged, processed foods,
(20:24):
and so your body could actually use some help detoxifying.
I mean that makes a lot of sense of the
same thing with saunas, like they're like, well, yeah, I
mean you might only sweat like a very small amount
of toxins out of your body, but you're still sweating
that amount out. Why why how could that hurt if
you're doing it properly. There's definitely two camps on this.
It is very controversial. Yeah, same with a calorie restricted diet,
(20:46):
which I know we've talked about before. There's two camps
on it. The fact of the matter is it's neither
one knows for certain whether they're right. That's a lot
of it's just based on the common sense and logic ketosis.
If you go without eating for a couple of days,
your body is gonna enter a stage called ketosis, and
that is, um, what your goal is. If you do
the Atkins diet, they preach ketosis and that's what happens
(21:09):
when your body runs out of carbs to burn for energy,
so it burns fat, which sounds like a good thing. Um,
but the breath I mentioned earlier, be prepared for really
awful halitosis. Is that right? Tell me about it, Chuck. Well,
it's that's just one of the side effects of of
fasting and ketosis is you're you're gonna have rank halitosis.
(21:30):
I don't know the science behind it, but it's true.
And uh so, you know, carry around if you're gonna
be doing that kind of thing. Just take care of
your mouth a little more. Get a tongue scraper. Um.
I think probably while we're on this, we should take
the time to debunk the whole idea that you should
(21:50):
be drinking eight glasses of water a day. Debunk. Well,
you should definitely drink water. It's not it's good. It's
good to drink water, but that whole eight glasses of date.
Think there's people who rigidly drink eight glasses of water
a day, totally arbitrary, and um, yeah, there's a guy
named Tim Crow who's a professor nutrition at Deacon University
(22:14):
who's kind of gone to the trouble of debunking this.
Apparently back in the US, um recommended, uh two point
five liters of water a day, I would imagine. So, um,
so this this, this whole uh this, this is where
this whole eight glasses came from. Right, um, but there
(22:40):
there's also been this whole Um it has to just
be water idea, Like it can't be coffee, it can't
be so that one guy said liquids, water and other
liquids right, at least on web m D. Technically you
could get it all from cokes, which is you know,
it's gonna have all these other side effects. But there
it's water, you know, one of the main ingredients, and
(23:01):
coke is water. Same with coffee, same with tea, all
this other stuff. So, um, if you're drinking water, drink water.
But that whole eight classes a day thing is apparently
not true, says that one guy. There's Well, the problem
is water intake varies by body size weight. It's two individuals,
(23:22):
say eight classes a day. Yeah, but let's put it
this way. It's never gonna be bad for you, is it. Yeah,
there's um you can die of water toxicity. Well not
from eight glass water, No, but people have that. That
lady did that contest drink like twelve gallons of water
or something like that. I know, isn't that crazy. That
wasn't that much, but there was a lot. And then
(23:43):
I'm sorry. There's one other there's one other problem that
can develop from not eating from fasting. When you lose minerals,
not only can you hallucinate, but specifically, if you have
h not enough potassium, copper, and magnesium, you can lose
(24:03):
electricity or electrical function in your heart. That's not good. Well,
it's also gonna put a big hit on your immune system.
If you're fasting, you're gonna have a real hard time
finding off sickness or and if you get sick, you're
gonna have a real hard time getting better. Yes, because
you're not getting the stuff you need, the good stuff.
I agreed, the nutrients. So what what's the next checker?
Hunger strikes that's really the last reason that we have
(24:25):
for fasting. And throughout history a lot of people have
made political statements by going on very public hunger strikes
to raise awareness, and it's you know, it's a good
way to get attention if you're a Gandhi, Let's say,
And Gandhi did do that, I think in because the
Crown was saying, hey, let's get this new Indian constitution
(24:48):
underway and let's codify the cast system that keeps people
in these this horrible socioeconomic hierarchy. And Gandhi said, you
know what, you do that and I'm can eat and
the whole world will pay attention. And the Brits were like, oh,
shut up, and Gandhi was like, no, I'm gonna do it,
and they're like, oh, no, you're not. And he did
(25:08):
it and everybody paid attention. And he said, one day,
Sir Richard Edinburgh will make a movie about me. Isn't
that who made Gandhi? I think so? Huh? And Ben
Kingsley will play me because he looks that's good stuff, Chuck.
That was a great back and forth, wasn't Bobby Sands
Uh the infamous Irish hunger strike in Uh in Ireland
(25:31):
and and sorry, in in May's prison in Northern Ireland.
He fasted for sixty six days and I'm pretty sure
he had some of his uh ira A cohorts taking
part in it with him. Yeah, I think nine other
guys died. I wasn't including him, Okay, sixty six days. Yeah.
So they had demands, various demands like, hey, we want
(25:53):
to wear our own clothes. We want to be able
to socialize and correspond with the outside world. Sure mails,
mailsome letters here and there. We shouldn't have to do
penal work as part of our senates here and uh,
nine prisoners died, like you said, and sixty others died,
and the violence that followed. I think there were some
(26:13):
riots that happened afterwards, and it was a really big deal.
I think I wrote about that in my how Long
can You Go Without Food and Water? Article many months ago.
That's where we talked about the Calori restricted diet, isn't it.
I think? So we'll have to tweet that that episode.
It's a good one, agreed, man that that seems like
a gazillion years ago. And then I don't even remember
what was in it. I don't either, Uh, and then
(26:35):
we mentioned the forty hour famine, which is an annual
event in Australia, and basically people say, I'm not gonna
drink food or water for forty hours and I'm going
to raise awareness. Like that's a really good way to
raise awareness, to just say I'm not eating and you
can't make me. And then people will try. Authorities will
be like, no, we have to keep you alive because
(26:57):
we want to keep you in prison. Logic all over
the place. You got anything more about fasting? No, you know,
be careful if you're out there. It's Uh. Anarexy is
a real problem in the world and it can get
out of hand. And there was a sidebar in this
article we didn't cover, but um, we'd be remiss without
mentioning that anorexia nervosa. That's right, not good, No, neither.
(27:24):
I saw a thing recently where UM a plus size model.
Did you see this? This female plus size model had
her picture taken with UM, a regular model and they
were like both nude and just hugging and it looked
like she was hugging a a small child and I
(27:45):
think they had and she was doing this to raise
awareness that like this image that they put out with
models is just a unattainable and be unsafe. And I
think that I can't remember the year, but it was
something like twenty years ago the average model was like
eight percent smaller and thinner than your average person. And
(28:06):
nowadays it's like well, not only that they alter them
digitally through like photoshop or some other photo editing. Sweet, yeah,
just do crazy things for me. They don't even look
right if you see what they do to them in
photoshop afterwards, it's crazy. It's a great article. I wish
I could remember where it was. It was going around Facebook, though,
(28:27):
but I think it is a very good message to
send out that chuck from stuff you should know thinks
that that plus size model was uber hot and sexy.
Look good for you? Look good, man, That's how a
woman should look. It's very nice of you, not like
that little frail waife waif of a of a lady.
And if you're like that, naturally I'm not you know,
(28:47):
I don't want to make you feel bad about yourself,
but if you're starving thisself with to make you look
like that, then some guys like a little junk in
the trunk, as they say. I think that's an excellent
one to end the fun way too good, Chuck. So
you have nothing more now about fasting? No, nothing more
any other discourse. Jerry's just the last. He's like, boy,
these guys are spiraling. Um. Well, if you want to
(29:10):
know more about fasting, you can type that word into
the search bar at how stuff works dot com and
chucks a junk in the trunk. So that brings up
listener mail. So listener mail. As I just said, right,
I'm shaking my head down. I knew that you're going
(29:30):
to say that. South By Southwest announcement continues. Is this
the generic one or the specific one? This is the
generic version. This is the the um where does this
is filled with the seat and trickery? Yes, we are
having a party on Monday, March twelve in Austin, Texas. Yeah,
(29:51):
no badge required, let's not forget. Also, dude, we're doing
an official live podcast on the day before March eleven pm. Okay, well,
I'm glad you remember that. What's going on March twelve,
March twelfth is a party we're having and uh at
a place to be announced later downtown Austin, and there
will be performers comedians, bands and some other special treats
(30:15):
and it will be in the evening hours. Yeah, it'll
be a cool party, early evening hours. Can we call
it a party, it's a it's a party. Okay, it
will be a party. And if you don't have to
have a badge for this, you do have to have
a badge for the live podcast on Sunday, and you
probably have to be twenty one when don't you think
do you know, I think it's a restaurant. Well, yeah,
I think you can come in there and awesome. Or
(30:36):
if you're twenty one, you can come in there and
drink your face off. Yeah, bring your pocketbook. We're not
buying drinks. You can buy us drinks. Yeah, here you go.
Can we get to it now? Yes? Okay. Appropriately This
is from an Aussie fan that um has uh to
wants to raise awareness for weight loss. Weird funny how
(30:59):
that works. Greetings from down Under. I just wanted to
plug a little something for the Ausi corner of the
s y s K nation and we have a lot
of Australian fans. One of our major AUSI broadcasters has
started a new initiative called the one million kilow challenge
and the goal is to get Australians to collectively pledged
to lose one million kilos. It's about two point to
(31:23):
million pounds. Where you backwards folk as she calls us, uh.
Their site is www dot one and it's the number
one million kilow challenge dot com dot a you that
means Australia and it gives you all the diet and
exercise plans you need to shed that lab in ten
weeks starting on January. Maybe I should do this. You
(31:45):
can complete the challenge as an individual or as a team.
So I thought, why not rally the s y s
K army. I think it would be a great way
for AUSI listeners. I'm sorry keep saying Ausy. It's really Ausy.
As they say AUSI lis sners to interact, get healthier
and dominate all the other teams. So I created a team,
conveniently named them Team s Y s K. International folk
(32:09):
always complain when we can't enter your contests, so how
about we make this the official Ausy thing. Of course,
you guys can still sign up if you're willing to
fake an Aussie address and get your key loose two
pounds convert at the ready I have pledged to lose
five point three ms. That's eleven point seven pounds that
(32:29):
I put on last year, and I'm really pumped up
about it. Um. I don't know how to get this
out to the s y s K nation, but I
would love it if we could encourage any other AUSI
or otherwise listeners to sign up and fight the flat together.
And this is how you do it live the email
us and we read it the next day. So here
we are jesus ps I noticed the Colbar nation doesn't
(32:50):
even have a team, so we've already won up them again.
Nice um, and that's in thirty days. January is when
it it's off, and that is number one million kilow
challenge dot com dot Au and throw a www in
front of that and you'll be taking straight there. And
is there a team page? Uh? She said she started
(33:13):
team s y s K, so I guess it might
be like Kiva word. You might can enter that in
a in a team section or something to find out. Okay,
I'm gonna look after this. Actually all right, well we'll
publicize it if you can. That is Live. Thanks a lot, Live.
We appreciate you go into that trouble and thanks to
everybody listening. If you have a cool story, uh that
you want to tell us about, it doesn't matter if
(33:35):
it has to do with fasting or anything else we
want to hear it. Just whatever, general assignment, how about that? Yeah? Yeah.
You can find us on Twitter at s y s
K podcast, Facebook at Facebook dot com, slash stuff you
Should Know and Uh. You can also reach us via
email at Stuff podcast at Discovery dot com. Be sure
(34:01):
to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Join how Stepwork's staff as we explore the most promising
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