At 08:45 PM 4/2/97 +0200, you wrote:

Yes, Jean-Louis!

>(It was me who posted something about fasting)

>Pat:

>>If one studies a
>>healthy, hungry animal, from amoeba to blue whales, one finds an animal
>>seeking food. Must be a reason for it, don't you think? An instinct to
>>survive, based on millions of years of experience?

>I don't find that argument convincing. Wild animals may occasionally
>suffer from food deprivation, so we are probably genetically adapted
>to fasting.

This, I submit to your argument here, is only surviving adversity by robbing
Peter to pay Paul.

> Being hungry doesn't necessarily mean that skipping a few
>meals will harm one's health: maybe it simply means that the body is
>beginning to use the energy that is stored in its reserves;

Yes; and perhaps the reserves are there for precisely that purpose, to avoid
undue stress on the organism. But I would prefer to back up such a theory
with carefully conducted biochemical/psychological/physiolgical
(stressometer?, endurance) tests.Betcha the data is out there, I just don't
know where to find it without going back to biochem booksand/or professional
journals. Any ideas? that course of action is not too appealing to me at the
moment!

>the red signal in your car indicates that you should gas it up, not that you
>are doing harm to the engine.

Red is the standard color of warning of danger, mild to devastating. I
believe much information is required for the individual to decide how much
danger is involved and whether it is advantageous to tolerate it; and I have
never enjoyed roulette.There are other games much safer and more amusing.

>BTW, here are further details I read in a book:
> -urine excretion of H+ considerably decreases the risk of acidosis
>caused by ketones;
> -the glucose level is "almost normal".
>
>Not very precise and satisfying, eh?

No, certainly not, particularly standing alone. Do you find, from the rest
of the book (whose, and what book please, do you have it handy?), that this
means that H2O ingestion creates a biochemistry equation in which the H+
binds with the ketones so that they may detox them by excretion? . I know
tha ketones are produced in fat catabolism and are found in the urine during
starvation of an animal. I have forgotten too much, perhaps more than I ever
knew! What does glucose do in this?Does the open-ended glucose chain combine
with the ketone and water so that it is rendered a salt, and thus excreted?
I am certain that this can all be measured quite accurately, which would be
highly informative; I wonder why the vagueness of the quote? Glucose is also
present in the urine as a warning of pathology, but I don't understand the
significance of this to ketosis and fasting: one would think glucose the
very last thing the body would "want" to get rid of in a fast...

Well, good, Jean-Louis, we have some parameters set for further
investigation and soul searching and perhaps it is even an important line of
inquiry. A good days' walk, hmmm?

Pat