Day 6: Still Going Hungry for World Hunger

On Day 6 of this 21 Day journey of raising awareness for world hunger, I realize hunger in any other language is still hunger. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, or where you live, the struggle is universal. I want to share with you all the different ways to say hunger: 飢餓Honger רעבFaimHunger饥饿Glad배고픔HladπείναfomeGłód Foameiголод hambreSult空腹La fame الجوع Гладът Nälkään.

My attitude level today would be rated as crappy.  Before writing that last statement I tried to come up with some clever or eloquent way to better describe my mood.  It probably would’ve been more interesting for me to share that outside of a few brain cells telling me to toughen it up, every other ounce of my body was telling me to eat.  It might have been more engaging for me to share how I pretended to need some toilet paper so that I could go to the grocery store and look at food.  Or maybe it would’ve been more appealing to read how I was craving french-fries so incredibly much that I made fried sweet potatoes for dinner.  Burned ‘em just how I like ‘em.  And maybe you would’ve been interested in knowing that whatever motivation I had yesterday to conquer the world morphed overnight into a waning force to simply get through each hour.  After my grocery store escapade, I made a quick trip to the drugstore to pick up a birthday card for a friend. While it would’ve been special for me to create a card by hand, I knew I didn’t have it in me this evening to exert that effort.  I spent about 45 minutes picking up the same cards – in the same row – and examining them repeatedly, because I couldn’t remember what they said.  While I didn’t feel sick-to-my-stomach-hungry, I felt light-headed.  All the words were blending together into one massive Hallmark Mush.  I envisioned myself passing out in the store and my husband coming to get me and forcing me to eat  Uncle Eddie’s Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies in order to recover from my weakened state.

I awoke hungry and I remained hungry right up until dinner at 6:00.  Our roles at home are now completely reversed with my making dinner and the husband doing dishes.  Usually he’s the one telling me dinner’s ready, and I’m the one saying, okay five more minutes as I rush to complete one of the many tasks weighing down my desk.  But tonight he wasn’t ready, and I had a mini-freak out on him.  Okay, not really a freak out.  More like a hissy fit.  While he now has an adapted version of the World Hunger diet that looks more like eating three small meals a day (still much less than what he would normally consume in a day), come time for my one and only meal that I had been eagerly waiting for all day; I was ready to eat.  Now.

It is Day 6 at 11:00 pm and while some of my energy is recovered and although my mental attitude has vastly improved, I have to admit that writing this post at this moment is about the last thing I want to do.  And yes, I’m still driven by the goal to help bring awareness to World Hunger.  That’s what is keeping me going.

I weighed in at 116.5.  One half pound more than yesterday.  Admittedly, I was relieved to see the additional half pound.  Losing four pounds in five days was a bit unsettling.  And still, I don’t want to put too much emphasis on the day-to-day numbers.  That’s a mind game.  I know there was a lot of sodium in my dinner last night (because I put it there), so there’s a chance my body is holding extra fluids. And then, giving credence to the body’s capability to deal with stress, it’s possible my body is adjusting to the shock of this change and finding ways to store reserves.

Tonight’s dinner consisted of peanut oil fried sweet potatoes, left over asparagus, spinach, peanuts stir-fried together with black eyed peas.

The nutritional values for today’s meal:

Looking at today’s nutritional values, you will see I consumed 50.25 grams of fat.  Converted to calories (9 calories per gram of fat), that’s 452.25 calories or nearly 43% of the overall total caloric intake.  One gram of protein is equal to four calories.  At 26.75 grams, my protein intake equals 107 or roughly 10% of my total caloric intake.  Likewise one gram of carbohydrates is equal to four calories.  My total carb intake at 123.5 grams equals 494 calories or nearly 47% of total caloric intake.  Many experts would suggest I need to reduce the fat intake and increase the carbohydrate intake.  Several leading experts would suggest my protein intake is near perfect.

As a former distance speed skater (skating up to 50 miles in one day) and a vegan, I’d like to think I’m living proof that the idea of humans needing to load up on protein for optimal living is fiction.  I’d even go so far as to call it utter nonsense. Carbohydrates, on the other hand were essential for my managing the energy required to perform with maximum endurance during practices and races.

Dr. John McDougall, a physician and nutrition expert, states how primarily six foods (five of them grains): barley, maize (corn), millet, potatoes, rice, and wheat have fueled the caloric engines of human civilization.  Most of the energy in these foods comes from carbohydrates.  Each containing only small amounts of fats. Human metabolism is designed to run primarily on carbohydrates.

Dr. Neal Barnard, licensed physician, nutrition researcher, author and founder of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), suggests that we aim for 40 grams of fiber per day. Note: This would be based on a diet about twice that of what I am currently eating.  Barnard also states how a variety of whole foods in your diet such as beans, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains will help you to meet your fiber needs. Other foods such as meat and dairy products contain zero fiber.

According to PCRM, plant foods have plenty of protein.  The recommended amount of protein in the diet is 10-12% of calories.  Most vegetables, legumes, and grains contain this amount or more.  Excellent protein sources include beans or lentils.

Dr. McDougall in his article When Friends Ask:  Where Do You Get Your Protein? shows how the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that men and women obtain only 5% of their calories as protein.  This would mean for my typical diet of 2,400 calories that I would need only 30 grams of protein.  McDougall claims this quantity of protein is impossible to avoid when daily calorie requirements are met by unrefined starches and vegetables. Even if one ate slightly higher – closer to the 10% protein range – one would meet all their protein needs with a starch and vegetable-based diet.

Check out Dr. McDougall’s article to learn more about breaking down protein myths, how plants can synthesize all the individual amino acids that are used to build proteins, and how they can meet all of our essential protein needs.  This article also shows an excellent table comparing plant-based and animal-based protein percentages and that unlike fat, protein cannot be stored.  When it is consumed in excess of a human’s needs, it overworks the liver and kidneys resulting in diseases of over-nutrition.

Dr. McDougall’s article on Basic Nutrition offers a load of useful information.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell in his book The China Study also reveals sound scientific evidence correlating protein over-consumption and illness.  He also details how the healthiest people on earth consume plant-based diets.  Keeping in mind these folks are consuming the necessary calories to meet their needs.

Interesting side note:  Turns out even gladiators were vegan.  Check out VegSource to learn more from Dr. McDougall about how archaeologists recently unearthed a burial site in Turkey containing the bodies of 60 Roman gladiators.  Tests to their remains led researchers to conclude the gladiators ate an exclusively plant-based diet.

But before I end this post tonight, I want to bring us back to world hunger.  In his article, When Friends Ask:  Where Do You Get Your Protein? McDougall points out that starvation is more a result of calorie deficiency and that children recovering from starvation with medical assistance and then nourished back to health with their local diets of corn, wheat, rice or beans grow up to 18 times faster than usual.  This fast rate of growth does require a higher protein intake for their catch-up development.  Plant foods meet this need including the low-protein starchy crops like cassava.

Which brings me to the thought:  If starving children – people – can be nourished back to health on a starchy plant-based diet, why are we not growing more healthy (as in organic or nonGMO) vegetables to feed these people?  This thought will ultimately take me to discussing agriculture…another time…soon.  It’s nearly 1:00 am, and I’m beat.

It seems disingenuous for the intellectual elite of the first world to dwell on the subject of too many babies being born in the second- and third-world nations while virtually ignoring the over-population of cattle and the realities of a food chain that robs the poor of sustenance to feed the rich a steady diet of grain-fed meat.
- Jeremy Rifkin

A special thanks to Dr. McDougall for taking the time to respond to my questions.

To support the organizations I write about in the series, purchase a World Hunger: Be the Solution Tee.  Proceeds from the shirt will go to the Small Planet Institute Fund and the International Fund for Africa.  All tees are sweat free and available in organic cotton.  To see the selection of World Hunger tees at Conducive’s Humanitarian & Human Rights Tee store, click here

To follow this Souljourn from the beginning, you can follow the links below:

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 1

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 2

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 3

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 4

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 5

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 7

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 8

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 9

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 10

21 Days for World Hunger:  Day 11

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 12

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 13

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 14

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 15

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 16

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 17

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 18

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 19

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 20

21 Days for World Hunger: Day 21

Solutions for World Hunger: Part I

Solutions for World Hunger: Part II

Solutions for World Hunger: Part III