
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 25, 1993                   TAG: 9304230468
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FASTING TO PREVENT HUNGER

CONGRESSMAN Tony Hall, D-Ohio, is continuing his fast to protest the demise of the House Select Committee on Hunger. This committee was created in 1984 in response to Congress' unwillingness to let global hunger issues be ignored. On March 31, Congress silently failed to reauthorize this committee - without debate or vote. This committee was the least expensive one in Congress ($661,155 in 1992). It had a solemn, quiet mandate - to be a voice for the voiceless. Today Hall starves - hoping that physically he can succeed where words have failed to preserve the committee.

As a dietitian, I understand starvation. I know that the congressman's energy reserves were depleted within 15 to 20 hours after he started his fast and that precious skeletal muscle and fat stores now are being used for fuel. I also know that we have the technology to restore him completely when his fast ends. This technology is limited on a worldwide basis where 35,000 people continue to die on a daily basis from hunger and malnutrition.

I can understand complacency when the only starvation we are exposed to is through the television's eye on Bosnia and Somalia. Somehow we manage to forget when the sitcoms come on. Try joining Hall in his water-only fast. He's down 16 pounds since starting. Fasting is an acutely uncomfortable state - one that can result in desperation. Hall is desperate for the renewal of the hunger committee. TRISH FREED, Dietitian Roanoke Memorial Hospitals ROANOKE

by CNB