Can you live on just vitamin pills?

oliviajane

If you don't eat actual food, the body will stop the digestive process. This happens in people with anorexia. It is extremely dangerous to not eat solid food for a prolonged time.

dimensionless

Live off of vitamins + honey? No. You need fat too, so maybe vitamins + honey + ramen noodles .

Seriously? Yogurt is dairy based and is fairly nutritious. With vitamin C tablets you'll fight off scurvy. I think you could last years on it. I'm not 100% sure though. Ideal nutrition does not come in a pill, and with certain notable exceptions, those who take vitamins receive highly questionable benefits.

cmb

The body (liver) makes its own fat from carbohydrates/sugars, no? I thought it built up glocogen reserves from sugars first, then once it is stuffed with glycogen it starts churning out fats.

Else, you are saying eating sugar can't add to your fatty pounds!?

bobze

Yes and no. Some fats your body cannot produce on its own; essential fatty acids

cmb

Oh, OK, for sure. Omega-X oils. But you'd never get fat on those!!!

I think (/thought) for the purpose of the question, we're considering the use of artificial supplements for all 'essential' substances; vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids (all of which you'd find in a good 'one-a-day' type supplement - any others need a mention?).

So I'm still a bit unclear on whether there is a particular consensus to that question? If all essential substances are administered in some artificial form*, can a basic mono-nutrient (e.g. consuming a pound of sugar a day) then be sufficient for healthy survival?

(notwithstanding their limitied uptake efficiency - let's assume they are taken up in sufficient quantity)

Monique

First, sugar with all essential substances added is not a mono-nutrient.

Here are two studies showing the current state of (public) knowledge at NASA:

Space rodents surviving on nutrient bars:
Evaluation of the nutrient-upgraded rodent food bar for rodent spaceflight experiments

NASA and human nutrition:
Developing the NASA Food System for Long-Duration Missions

From an earlier publication:

nucl34rgg

In addition to the laundry list of vitamins you require for proper enzyme function etc, you need a certain amount of carbohydrates to be converted to glucose to fuel your metabolism. You also need to consume proteins and break them down into amino acids for protein synthesis. I also think you need fat and cholesterol for lipid and membrane maintenance. If these processes are not sustained, you will die. DO NOT try a "vitamin only" diet. Before you ever switch to any diet CONSULT your doctor first.

mycotheology

Well the body needs a whole lot more than just Vitamins but I'm guessing you're asking if you can live off just supplements. Theoretically, yes. In practice its not so simple because various foods contain such a wide range of different essential and beneficial nutrients and compounds that there are no supplements out there that incorporate all of that.

pa5tabear

Has anyone heard of a theoretical minimum food mass requirement to maintain a certain energy level?

For example, if I want to maintain a 2500 calorie/day diet, including all the micronutrients necessary, what sort of minimum intake mass per day would we be looking at?

Evo

Mass has nothing to do with calories.

pa5tabear

Yes it does. I'm aware that caloric density varies with the item being measured. But if you know the precise caloric mass density of an item, you can precisely calculate the caloric content from the mass. Same for volume.

There are rough estimates like 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate, or 9 calories per gram of fat.

It would be interesting to try and determine the minimum mass and/or volume necessary to provide "sufficient" daily amounts of macro and micro nutrients.