is it possible for someone to live eating nothing but vitamin and mineral pills. and water. no food what so ever. the only thing filling in your stomach is your daily need of vitamins and minerials?
2007-10-29 08:36:05 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
including multi-vitamins that have fatty acids and carbs protien etc.
2007-10-29 08:47:30 · update #1
As some have mentioned above, the definition of "vitamins and minerals" is the key to the question.
I presume that you are saying that if you had 100% of your RDA's through synthetic means (such as Vitamin C pills, as opposed to eating an orange) you would technically be meeting the necessary requirements for basic systemic function. (The amino acids necessary for bodily function, unlike what a previous answerer posits, are all contained in Omega 3's, etc.) You would have enough iron to regulate production of red blood cells, enough potassium and sodium to regulate muscle usage, etc.
However, you would be lacking a very key component to nutrition. Calories. Raw calories are essential to the daily basic running of the body. Even at rest (or asleep, for that matter) the average human body burns about 1200-1500 calories per day, just breathing, beating the heart, etc. These calories are what provide the energy via ATP to propel the iron to be used in the blood, for the potassium and sodium to work in the body, etc.
If one were to simply meet the very base RDA's consecutively for any period of time, (My guess is that depending upon the vehicle for the vitamins, you would be consuming at around 100-150 calories in the vitamins) the body would go into starvation mode, and eventually die...not from malnutrition...but from starvation.
2007-10-29 09:56:38 · answer #1 · answered by evanbartlett 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. You need essential amino acids (ones your body can't manufacture) and essential fatty acids (ditto) and some fuel such as protein or carbs.
Pat Buchanan once suggested that instead of food banks, the poor could live on soup and vitamin pills. He is an idiot.
2007-10-29 08:39:49 · answer #2 · answered by Howard H 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You have to get those essential fatty acids, carbs and proteins from someplace, and by the time you package them you have something along the lines of Similac for babies or Ensure for adults. Actually, there are zillions of such formulas commercially available, and you'll find nursing homes are full of people being tube-fed by such formulas.
2007-10-29 09:58:04 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Depends what you mean by vitamins and minerals.
If your vits and mins contain essential fatty acids, essential amino acids, and all other essential dietary requirements, then maybe.
2007-10-29 08:41:30 · answer #4 · answered by attakkdog 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no. your body needs carbs and a little fat. if a person survived on vitamins and minerals alone, they would have NO energy.
2007-10-29 08:39:48 · answer #5 · answered by purplelightning92 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no
2007-10-29 08:43:43 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋