A history of hunger and deprivation may have given people a fear of being hungry or the habit of constant eating with a belief that being hungry makes us weak and ill.
But recent studies actually point out to the opposite direction. Going hungry and food deprivation for periods of time can be good for us. The reason is 'autophagy' which came from the greek word 'auto' meaning self and 'phagy' meaning eat - self eating. And one researcher who found an explanation for this body process even won a Nobel Prize for it in medicine in 2016.
The theory goes that when we deprive ourselves of food for an extended period of time, our body begins to get nutrition from unwanted and waste material in our system thus effectively cleaning and making our body healthier.
If this theory holds up to more studies and becomes better understood, then indeed, going hungry when we are sick may turn out to be the best medicine.
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