You would be surprised how many people have gone trough their life without experiencing real hunger.
I was doing short weekend hike with a friend and the shop we intended to visit was closed. We had to walk six hours without eating. My fried started to panic and would have called emergency services because he was feeling so weak that his hands started shaking. I had to explain it to him several times that if you sit down for a 15-20 minutes the shaking goes away as the body converts fat to glucose. He was convinced that he would die from walking hungry. Yes, physical exercise while hungry sucks, but you don't die in several days.
> He was convinced that he would die from walking hungry.
Do you think that this is a cultural phenomenon? I cannot imagine a person having constant access to food, everywhere, so that he never walked a few hours without eating. You would have to carry a backpack full a snacks everywhere, or you would somehow make sure that a store or some food place is near you, which seems pretty inconvenient.
> I cannot imagine a person having constant access to food, everywhere
I think it's very common in urban environment with middle class people. You may feel little hungry but you eat within hour or so, never hunger pangs or real weakness. When you do hard exercise, you carry sport drinks and snacks. It's not that hard.
It can be different for poor people in the same culture. Maybe the lack of shared experience contributes to the lack of empathy. When people see poor person walking on the street with hunger pain expression in their face, how do people interpret it? If they don't have a shared experience, hungry person may look just angry.
I was doing short weekend hike with a friend and the shop we intended to visit was closed. We had to walk six hours without eating. My fried started to panic and would have called emergency services because he was feeling so weak that his hands started shaking. I had to explain it to him several times that if you sit down for a 15-20 minutes the shaking goes away as the body converts fat to glucose. He was convinced that he would die from walking hungry. Yes, physical exercise while hungry sucks, but you don't die in several days.