Earlier this year the European public was urged to stockpile enough food, water and essentials for 72 hours to cope with a military attack, natural disaster, power cut or major industrial accident.
Honestly, unless you have some sort of serious medical condition, most people should be just fine going 72 hours without food. We’ve a social convention of eating three meals a day, sure, but your body is quite able of running off stored energy for a long time. I’ve fasted for a week myself for the hell of it. I remember mentioning that to an aunt once, and she mentioned that she’d done two weeks.
This guy did over a year (though he was pretty heavy to begin with, had plenty of fat reserves).
Barbieri went from 456 pounds (207 kg) to 180 pounds (82 kg), losing 276 pounds (125 kg) and setting a record for the length of a fast.
he consumed only vitamins, electrolytes, an unspecified amount of yeast (a source of all essential amino acids) and zero-calorie beverages such as tea, coffee, and sparkling water, although he occasionally added milk and/or sugar to the beverages, especially during the final weeks of the fast.
Worth mentioning imo, but you are right that most people should be fine fasting for some days if necessary. Although I would bet that almost everyone has a few days of food anyways. Unless you literally have empty shelves and buy groceries every day, most people will have a base stock of shelf stable foods like noodles, canned stuff, sugar, flour and so on.
Imo the limiting factor will be drinkable water most of the time. If something would cut off the supply immediately and for longer durations it would be a serious issue. Especially during warmer months.
Honestly, unless you have some sort of serious medical condition, most people should be just fine going 72 hours without food. We’ve a social convention of eating three meals a day, sure, but your body is quite able of running off stored energy for a long time. I’ve fasted for a week myself for the hell of it. I remember mentioning that to an aunt once, and she mentioned that she’d done two weeks.
This guy did over a year (though he was pretty heavy to begin with, had plenty of fat reserves).
Worth mentioning imo, but you are right that most people should be fine fasting for some days if necessary. Although I would bet that almost everyone has a few days of food anyways. Unless you literally have empty shelves and buy groceries every day, most people will have a base stock of shelf stable foods like noodles, canned stuff, sugar, flour and so on.
Imo the limiting factor will be drinkable water most of the time. If something would cut off the supply immediately and for longer durations it would be a serious issue. Especially during warmer months.