Treefern, I think that was me you're talking about - I've been offline for a couple of days so have just seen this thread.

I finished a Hard game in 174 hours. I ran it on fast while I was watching it - I was sitting with it in the cradle beside me all day, so I could jump in any time they got short of food or had any other problems.

After about attempt #5, I also ran it on Slow overnight - in the cradle switched on. I found that if you leave it sitting on the map, you don't get events and you don't seem to get the freeze or reset issues either - so I could leave it all night with the villagers either researching or farming.

As StacyDlacy says, it's easy to drop major amounts of food if you're not paying attention. This happened to me mostly when I exited the game - even going back in a few seconds later decimated the food count.

Leaving the game running seems to make the food figure go up faster (and drop slower) than if the Palm is switched off or the game is exited - although this could just have been a false impression so I won't be upset if Arthur contradicts me here.

I'd suggest Pausing the game if you can't stay with it.