In normal life, there is plenty of glucose to feed our brains and plenty of fat to feed the rest of our bodies and our metabolism runs happily along but in times of starvation problems start: we deplete stored glucose and we burn fat rapidly and desperately. (vin.com)
Wild yeast can sexually reproduce during times of starvation or stress, but today's beer yeasts have lost this ability — they only have functional genes for asexual reproduction, likely due to their cushier living conditions. (sciencedaily.com)
Autophagy also enables cells to survive times of starvation, by degrading the cell's own components to recycle their building blocks — similar to recycling stations in a town. (sciencedaily.com)