Fasting for truth

Recently I viewed PBS's biodoc The Buddha, and I was struck by the role of anorexia in the spiritual quest. For six years during his search, the Buddha led a life of extreme asceticism, renouncing almost all food, and when he began to eat again, his former fellow ascetics blasted him for giving in to worldly desires (I'm just paraphrasing here). And I wonder if there isn't a bit of pathology in the spiritual quest and a bit of spirituality in the anorexic pathology. Just wondering.