Have you ever thought about how much food a person needs to maintain his or her life? Some people survived with only water and no food for 44 days. Some people were trapped in the snow at minus 30 degrees Celsius and survived for two months by eating snow. Today, the captain will talk about hunger.
How long can humans live without eating?
Speaking of whether humans can skip eating, there are many experimental cases. The more famous one is probably the magician David Blaine who lived in a transparent glass cover in mid-air by the Thames River and only drank water and did not eat. , spent 44 days, and created the "World Hungry Record" for a while, but Brian generously admitted in a later interview that he used a stand-in. During these 44 days, he arranged for a "trustee" to deliberately throw eggs. While cleaning the glass, a "civet cat for a prince" appeared without anyone noticing.
Anyway, during these 44 days, David was basically sleeping, so it was indeed difficult to tell. After all, David Blaine was first and foremost a magician, and it was understandable that he used a "trust" to deceive him. Our general theory is that humans can generally last a week without eating.
In fact, there are scientific conclusions about whether people can withstand hunger. If you don't eat food for 24 hours, the glycogen stored in the body's liver will be slowly depleted. If you don't eat for 48 hours, the amino acid in the muscles will be decomposed and converted into sugar, and the fat will form glycerol, which will be converted into sugar as a source of energy. After three days of not eating, fat begins to be broken down. Fat is oxidized to produce ketone bodies . The body changes its energy supply mode, and even the brain turns into ketone bodies for energy supply. If you don't eat for six days, your fat will be almost exhausted. Friends, you can really "hungry and lose weight" at this time.
However, the proteins in important organs begin to decompose, which may cause permanent organ function decline, immunity may decline, and the risk of illness will increase. If you continue to be hungry, the body can only use extremely limited nutrients to maintain organ functions and reduce the synthesis of neurotransmitter . At this time, the person's mental state is almost beginning to "collapse". As for the body, it can simply be described as "extremely Under hunger, the body dismembers itself bit by bit."
Curious humans always want to explore the limits of human hunger. Is it to solve the potential global "food crisis"? After World War II , most countries around the world were in chaos. In order to study how ordinary people survived the hunger crisis, the United States took the lead in conducting an experiment-the Minnesota Hunger Experiment.
What is the minimum food intake requirement for human beings to maintain life?
Dr. Case recruited 36 healthy men to participate in the experiment. They even signed the "life and death agreement". They divided the experiment into three stages: the first stage was a normal diet for 3 months; Exercise arrangements are made to ensure that everyone's dietary standards are maintained at a standard level. Mostly it means "fatten and then slaughter".
The second stage: a six-month starvation trial period. First, it simulates the dietary standards of post-war European civilians, basically no meat, eggs, and milk. At the same time, normal exercise and study requirements must be maintained. After three months, everyone has a craving for sweets. Showing enthusiastic interest, three others could not bear to withdraw from the trial. At four months, the diet was reduced again. Not only was there only one meal a day, but the diet was also based on concentration camp standards. The weight of the experimenters dropped by an average of 25%. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as skinny. At five months, according to the concentration camp dietary standards, apart from ensuring the freshness of the food, there is no nutrition at all.
At this time, there are only 15 people who continue to participate in the experiment. The strange thing is: their body indicators all meet the standards, that is to say, although they are thin, they are still healthy! In the last month, I sometimes drank only water and no food for several days in a row.
The most unexpected thing is the third stage, which is the three-month food recovery period. However, in the end, the 11 people who participated in the experiment all suffered from mental state problems, severe depression and strong hallucinations, and recovered. After eating normally, their eating habits have also changed a lot. Some are obsessed with high-calorie foods, and some need to smoke and chew gum constantly to suppress their desire to eat. In addition, the proportion of fat in the restored weight has reached the original level. 140%.
The one-year Minnesota Hunger Experiment tells us that people may not "starve to death", but they may go "hungry".
What will hunger bring to the human body?
When there is sufficient food, humans will also encounter hunger. For example, if you take the initiative to go on a diet, where does the feeling of hunger come from? Around 2000, people discovered a hormone that is a decisive factor in the formation of hunger - "ghrelin". When blood sugar drops, the hormone is transmitted to the hypothalamus. To put it bluntly, if you feel hungry, it is the brain that makes you feel hungry. , the fullness of the stomach only plays a supporting role. It's just that the brain can be naughty sometimes, and it doesn't necessarily have to send out hunger signals when you lack energy, commonly known as "greedy". After long-term hunger, the relatively harmonious "ghrelin" is destroyed, and psychological hunger will completely defeat physiological hunger in the mind. This is why people after hunger experiments or after dieting are prone to retaliatory "overeating" reason.
In 2011, Sweden 44-year-old man was hit by an avalanche while driving. The entire car was buried in snow. He survived for 2 months by eating snow and was finally rescued. Although he was dying and unable to walk when he was rescued, he managed to survive outdoors at minus 30 degrees Celsius without food. Experts were a little confused and could only explain that maybe he was gifted and entered a false "human hibernation". In addition, the car in the snowdrift produced the "Eskimo igloo effect", and he survived by chance.
In any case, most people will not go on a diet to die, just like your best friend or brother. After all, for foodies, there are still many delicacies that have not yet been tasted. Okay, that’s it for today. Team members would like to give a strong thumbs up and recommendation. Life is wonderful. Thank you for having you. See you next time.
