Hunger is a very powerful physiological force that creates a strong desire to eat. Not the case. Food, after all, is fuel. The result is an abnormal physiological state that is known as starvation. Starvation has been inflicted upon many people, including third world natives suffering from famines, poverty-stricken people at the end of the month when no food money is left, and victims of the World War II concentration camps.
Starvation is also common among athletes who are intent on losing weight.
In 1950, Ancel Keys and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota studied the physiology of starvation. For 3 months prior to this semi-starvation diet, the researchers carefully studied each man's behaviors, personality, and eating patterns. The men were then observed for three to nine months of refeeding. The most striking change was a dramatic increase with food preoccupation. The subjects, similar to people with anorexia, thought about food all the time.