Short answer: YES. Long answer: Also YES.
This week, I sit down with First Amendment firebrand Laurie Ortolano—winner of the 2023 Nackey Loeb Award and the 2025 NEFAC Award—to talk about why New Hampshire’s Right-to-Know system is… let’s call it “quaint.” As in: charming if you like rotary phones, not so charming if you think government should actually be accountable.
Join us for a fast, funny, no-BS conversation about transparency, citizen power, and what needs to change right now if we want to keep New Hampshire truly free.
I’m Carla Gericke, the voice of New Hampshire. Let’s shine some damn light. 🌲✨
GROK: Humans’ understanding of hunger is indeed quite distorted—not just a little off, but fundamentally backwards in many ways. Here’s why most people get it wrong:
1. We confuse different types of hunger
There are at least three distinct kinds of hunger, but we lump them all under “I’m hungry”:
- Homeostatic hunger (true physiological need for energy): triggered by low blood glucose, empty stomach, low leptin, ghrelin spike, etc. This is the “real” hunger that kept our ancestors alive.
- Hedonic hunger (reward-driven eating): the brain’s dopamine system screaming for pleasure, even when energy stores are full. Modern ultra-processed food is engineered to hack this pathway.
- Emotional/opportunity hunger: eating because you’re bored, stressed, anxious, or because food is simply there (“see food” diet).
Most people think all hunger is type 1, so they treat ice cream cravings at 11 p.m. as a biological emergency instead of a dopamine-seeking behavior.
2. We believe the “empty stomach = need food” myth
An empty stomach is mostly a mechanical signal (stretch receptors turning off + ghrelin), but it’s incredibly weak compared to modern cues. You can have a completely empty stomach and zero desire to eat if you’re in acute stress (sympathetic nervous system dominance) or distracted. Conversely, you can feel ravenous 90 minutes after a 1,000-calorie meal if it was mostly sugar and seed oils (insulin spike → crash → reactive hypoglycemia).
The stomach is a very unreliable fuel gauge.
3. We think hunger should be avoided at all costs
We’ve been told for 50+ years that hunger is dangerous: “eat every 2–3 hours or your metabolism will crash,” “never let yourself get hungry,” “breakfast is the most important meal,” etc. This is backwards.
Mild to moderate hunger is:
- Normal
- Healthy
- A sign that fat-burning and autophagy are ramping up
- Necessary for proper appetite regulation (hormones like leptin and insulin only sensitize properly when you experience real energy deficit periodically)
Constant grazing keeps you in a fed state, blunts fat adaptation, and makes true hunger feel unbearable when it finally arrives.
4. We misunderstand satiety
People think “feeling full” = satiety. Wrong.
True satiety is the absence of desire to eat more, even when food is available. You can stuff yourself on pizza and still eye the dessert menu 20 minutes later (poor satiety). Or you can eat a modest steak and not think about food for 8–10 hours (strong satiety).
Protein, fiber, and nutrient density drive satiety far more than volume or calories.
5. We’ve lost the cultural and biological context
Our ancestors experienced large swings in food availability. Hunger was routine. Modern humans experience near-constant abundance, so we’ve lost the physiological and psychological calibration for it. The average person today eats in a 12–16 hour window every single day, year-round. We’ve never given our bodies the chance to remember what real hunger feels like versus manufactured cravings.
The result?
We treat every food thought as a five-alarm fire. We think hunger is an emergency instead of a normal sensation. We medicate it with snacks instead of letting it do its job (signal energy availability, encourage fat oxidation, regulate portion sizes naturally).
In short: most of what we call “hunger” today is a learned, environmentally triggered craving—not a biological need. And because we never let ourselves experience actual homeostatic hunger anymore, we’ve completely lost the ability to tell the difference.
That’s why people can be 50 lbs overweight and still feel desperately hungry three hours after eating. Their body isn’t low on energy—it’s low on the ability to access its own fat stores and low on proper hormonal signaling, both of which require periodic, genuine hunger to restore.
Overview of the Fasting Protocol
This is a ~40-hour intermittent fast once per week:
- Start: Sunday 8 PM (last meal)
- End: Tuesday 12 PM (break fast)
- Total fasting time: 40 hours (water, black coffee, tea, electrolytes allowed; zero calories)
This falls into the category of weekly prolonged intermittent fasting or alternate-day-style fasting with one extended fast per week. It is more intense than 16:8 daily fasting but less extreme than multi-day water fasts.
Key Health Benefits Supported by Recent Science (2020–2025)
| Benefit | Mechanism | Key Evidence (Recent Studies) |
|---|---|---|
| Improved insulin sensitivity & lower type 2 diabetes risk | Depletion of liver glycogen → increased fat oxidation → reduced insulin levels → better glucose uptake | 2022–2024 trials on 36–48 h fasting show 20–30% improvement in HOMA-IR (insulin resistance marker) even in non-obese adults (e.g., Sutton et al. extended follow-up data; Templeman et al., Physiol Rev 2023). Weekly 36–40 h fasting protocols in 2024 trials (Di Francesco et al.) produced similar benefits to 5:2 fasting but with deeper metabolic switching. |
| Significant fat loss while preserving muscle | Body enters deep ketosis (~0.8–2 mmol/L ketones by 32–40 h) → preferential fat burning; growth hormone spikes 300–500% during 36–40 h fasts | 2023 RCT (Guo et al., Obesity) comparing weekly 36–42 h fasting vs daily 16:8: weekly group lost 1.2 kg more fat in 12 weeks with no greater lean mass loss when resistance training was included. 2024 meta-analysis (Liu et al., JAMA Netw Open) confirms prolonged fasting ≥36 h triggers stronger autophagy and fat oxidation than shorter fasts. |
| Cardiovascular benefits (lower blood pressure, triglycerides, LDL oxidation) | Reduced insulin → lower sympathetic tone; ketone bodies (β-hydroxybutyrate) have anti-inflammatory & vasodilatory effects | 2021–2024 Buchinger periodic fasting studies (7–10 day fasts) show BP drops of 10–20 mmHg; weekly 40 h fasting in 2023 pilot (Mindikoglu et al., PLoS One) showed 9–12 mmHg systolic drop and 25–40% reduction in trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a cardiovascular risk marker. |
| Enhanced autophagy & cellular repair | Nutrient sensors (mTOR ↓, AMPK ↑, sirtuins ↑) peak around 24–48 h of fasting | 2023–2025 animal + human biomarker studies (e.g., Wilhelmi de Toledo et al., 2024) show LC3-II and other autophagy markers rise significantly from 36 h onward in humans. Weekly cycling appears sufficient to maintain elevated autophagy without continuous fasting. |
| Brain health & neuroprotection | Ketones provide alternative brain fuel; increased BDNF; reduced neuroinflammation | 2024 review (Mattson et al., NEJM) cites evidence that 24–48 h fasting cycles increase BDNF 150–300% and improve cognitive performance in mild cognitive impairment patients. Pilot 2023 trial of weekly 36 h fasting showed better verbal memory scores vs controls. |
| Reduced systemic inflammation (CRP, IL-6, TNF-α) | Ketones inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome; visceral fat loss reduces adipokine release | Meta-analysis 2023 (Bozkurt et al., Clin Nutr) of intermittent fasting ≥24 h shows ~30% drop in CRP; weekly 40 h protocol in 2024 trial reduced IL-6 by 40% after 8 weeks. |
| Potential longevity & cancer-protective effects | Mimics caloric restriction: lower IGF-1, higher NAD+/sirtuin activity, improved DNA repair | Long-term Valter Longo Fasting-Mimicking Diet (FMD) studies (5 days/month ≈ biological equivalent of weekly 36–48 h) show reduced IGF-1 (~30%) and cancer risk markers in humans (Brandhorst & Longo, Cancer Cell 2023). Weekly 40 h fasting achieves similar IGF-1 reduction (2024 data from Wei, Longo lab). |
Important Caveats from Recent Literature
- Most benefits are dose-dependent: 36–48 h appears to be the “sweet spot” where autophagy, ketosis, and stem-cell regeneration peak without excessive stress.
- Women may need modified protocols (30–36 h instead of 40 h) due to higher sensitivity to energy deficit (2023–2025 studies show longer fasts can disrupt menstrual cycles in lean women).
- Not recommended for underweight, pregnant, breastfeeding, eating-disorder history, or type 1 diabetes.
- Refeeding matters: breaking the fast with a large high-carb meal can blunt benefits and cause GI distress.
Bottom Line (2025 Consensus)
A weekly 40-hour fast (Sunday 8 PM – Tuesday noon) is one of the most evidence-backed intermittent fasting protocols for:
- Deep metabolic switching
- Fat loss
- Insulin sensitivity
- Cardiovascular protection
- Autophagy
- Brain health
It produces stronger biological effects than daily 16:8 or 18:6 fasting, with human trials and mechanistic studies from 2022–2025 consistently showing measurable improvements in 8–12 weeks when done consistently and safely.
Always consult a physician before starting, especially if you have any medical conditions or take medications.
Did you catch my Dr. Phil episode yet? I did a SMASHING job!
