I've been asked whether I'm encouraging others to join in this hunger strike. Let me be clear--I'm neither encouraging nor discouraging anyone from joining in the near-fast, but should you consider it, I will strongly encourage you to speak with a physician first.
One of my concerns with this 30 day food strike (i.e., limiting myself to about 350 calories a day--which is about what the North Korean prisoners receive) is malnutrition. Scurvy was one ailment I thought about, so after doing some research, I discovered that cabbage is a decent source of Vitamin C. I suppose that explains the cabbage soup given to the prisoners. Though cabbage wards off scurvy, 350 calories a day on a diet of cornmeal and cabbage soup isn't enough to sustain life for any significant period of time. Fortunately, we're only doing this strike for 30 days, and of course, unlike the prisoners in North Korea, we always have the option of stopping our food strike should we suffer serious health consequences.
Unfortunately, I despise cabbage, so I had planned to skip the cabbage soup. It looks like I'll have to incorporate it into my meager diet over the next 30 days, after all. I suppose by the end of the first week, I'll be happy to ingest whatever I can...even cabbage. I only hope that this endeavor makes a few people think about what life must be like for prisoners in North Korea's labor camps (many of whom committed no crime except, perhaps, failing to worship Kim Jong-il or being related, within three generations, to someone considered a dissident).
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