M.D. For more than 50 years a Texas health practitioner advocated fasting to treat diseases and prolong life, and some of his patients died. Herbert Shelton claimed that undigested food in the colon is converted to toxic waste products that cause cancer and shorten life. He recommended fasting to give the colon a rest and allow the colon to rid itself of waste products. The colon does such a good job of letting food pass through that toxic waste products do not accumulate.
Most people can tolerate fasting for a few days.
The African Queen, to burn the wood to keep his engine going. First they consume their body fat, then their muscles, and their heart. Eventually the heart becomes so weak that it can't pump blood through the body. The cause of death in starvation is heart failure and the longest that anyone has been recorded to survive is 66 days. G Garruti, G Depergola, M Cignarelli, V Marangelli, G Santoro, V Triggiani, A Ciampolillo, R Giorgino.