Member-only story
Angus Barbieri, The Man Who Stopped Eating For 382 Days And Lived To Tell About It
In the 1960s, a young Scottish man went more than a year without eating and emerged healthy
Losing weight is hard. For as easy as it is to pack on the pounds, getting rid of them is fiendishly complicated.That is unless you stop eating altogether, which isn’t a medically wise solution for the long term. However, in the 1960s, a Scottish man named Angus Barbieri went from being dangerously ill because of his weight to becoming healthy after ceasing all eating for a period of 382 days while under stringent medical supervision.
In 1965, Barbieri was 27 years old and working at his father’s fish and chips shop in Tayport Scotland. The nature of his employment exacerbated the fact that the 6'1” man weighed in at 456 pounds. Despite his youth, his life hung in the balance because he continued to get bigger.
Seeking a way to get his health back on track, he checked into the Mayfield Hospital in Dundee with the intent of undergoing a brief fast. Doctors were there to supervise because of the dangers of going without food for too long a period of time. They routinely conducted blood tests that demonstrated that even though he had stopped eating, his body continued to respond positively.
