Hi Catherine, I think faster and more clearly when I am starved. I move faster and get up quicker. Then I generate the most impossible smile ever seen on a human being.  :-D

If I am stressed (which is hard to do to me) then I do lose weight whilst I think deeply. It is enjoyable. It's power consists in the feeling of knowing everything.

(PS I loved your avatar and wondered if it slobbers, kisses or gives brandy when friendly. I think James and myself felt a kiss recently but we are very confused and still working on this seemingly intractable problem).


Viva la France!

Good question Catherine. Usually after I eat a big meal I feel sleepy. This doesn't happen after a sandwich, but otherwise I start looking for a comfortable chair. So, eating is useful but not always the best if I have a lot of work to do.

Hunger may not be so useful by itself, but a lot of hunger i.e. fasting is supposed to be powerful if you know what you are doing. I haven't really fasted myself but one of my professors was saying that in the ancient world it was common to fast as a way of getting clarity before a big decision. There are apparently places in the Bible where this happens, and in other sources. So maybe if you know how to do it, it allows you to think better. This idea has not really survived to modern times though, might be interesting to think why.

From what I read in the news it seems that fasting has been corrupted here in the States and is now anorexia which leads to not thinking at all.

Fasting has also (here in the USA) become a vanity sport among the relentlessly healthy.  I am a nurse and deeply in favor of healthy living but anything can be taken too far.  They are ( the relentlessly healthy ) affectionately known as bean-eaters and they count their beans very carefully before ingestion.

Fasting as a spiritual practice or as preparation for a ritual or ordeal can be an excellent thing if you approach it sensibly.

I heard a talk by Michael Pollan recently.  I think it's on TED Talks.  It's really good and his new little book Food Rules is very good as well.
He's a sensible sort who believes in eating well but not much.  I recommend him.

There was a study done back in the '60's that found that people learn better when they are a little cold and a little hungry.  I think its true although I haven't searched for any recent studies.

A story:  I had a patient once, about forty years old, male.  He was a life long practitioner of an Eastern Philosophy.  I don't remember specifically which one.  When I walked into his room to introduce myself I saw an unusual flower arrangement which I commented on and asked about.  He told me about his long practice and explained the yin-yang flowers.  Then he told me (I was a night nurse; people always confess to the night nurse) how bad he felt that his appendix had blown and he wondered what he had done wrong--he was very distressed about it.
Now that's over-doing it.  A person can follow a practice to the letter, physically and spiritually, but he's never going to be anything but human and encumbered by all those things the flesh is heir to. 
That was years ago and I didn't know what to say to him.

Anyway, there are uses for hunger.  Many more uses in fact than there are for being stuffed.

I think there is a psychological hunger too that's completely unrelated to the physical variety.  I'll have to think about it.
What do you all think?