Back in my school days I was taught that a person could live for 3-4 weeks without food but with water; the teaching is still applicable… but there are other factors that dictates the surviving period.
Mental strength, health condition, body weight, climates and some other factors play their part in determining the survival length; under optimal circumstances a person could live without food for 6-8 weeks or even longer in extreme cases.
I am not sure if there’s any official record for the longest survival without food; the longest record that I managed to find is 73 days during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. A total of 10 prisoners had died after 46 to 73 days of starvation in the strike.
Laurence McKeown survived the strike for 70 days, which could be the record for the longest period for a person to live without food and still surviving.
There are several institutions for “hunger cure” in Japan. I tried one of them last year according to my friend’s recommendation. They are not hospitals because hunger cure is not authorized as medical treatment, but they usually employ doctors to visit there regularly.
I stayed there for 17 days in total. The first 3 days were for preparation, in which meals were lessened gradually. After that I got no food for 7 days, though I had plenty of water. The first 3 days of the fast were a bit tough because I felt light nausea and tiredness, but it was totally OK for the rest 4 days. I talked a lot with other people and took a short walk every day. Then there were 7 more days, in which I gradually got used to eating again. This last part is the trickiest, since you get larger and larger appetite but the volume of each meal has to be strictly controlled.
I definitely recommend hunger cure for the below reasons;
1. Naturally you lose your weight considerably. Usually you lose about 1 kg a day during the fast.
2. You feel whole of your internal organs refreshed. I heard there were hundreds of people who had had their cancer cured that way.
3. The taste of food after the fast is MIRACULOUS. You feel your tongue refreshed as well.
The doctor said the best recommended period for hunger cure was 2 weeks. This means you need to stay one month and 3 days in total, which is hardly possible for ordinary office workers (at least in my country).
Fasting is not uncommon for spiritual or health purpose… most are for 2-3 days though. 7 days sound a bit extreme for me.
i think i cannot survive more than 3 days without food. mental too weak haha.