# 40 days of starvation. Special diet to recover?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-of-starvation-special-diet-to-recover/730740>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 11, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-of-starvation-special-diet-to-recover/730740 "2015-09-11T23:16:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-of-starvation-special-diet-to-recover/730740/1 "2015-09-11T23:16:23Z")

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Several of the _Naked and Afraid_ participants survived the 40 day challenge.

They were basically starving because they would go for days pretty much not eating at all and only occasionally would they catch an animal and really have some food.

When they were finally picked up, the boat seem to have different kinds of food for them including what appeared to be junk food like potato chips.

After this kind of ordeal, doesn’t your body need a somewhat special diet to readjust to normal eating?

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**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-of-starvation-special-diet-to-recover/730740/2 "2015-09-11T23:47:53Z")

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Don’t have a full answer but the peanut based [plumpy’nut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy'nut) (and off-brand equivalents) has been used to treat severe acute malnutrition, the peanuts providing a decent mix of carbs, fats, fiber etc.

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-of-starvation-special-diet-to-recover/730740/3 "2015-09-12T01:02:18Z")

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There is a definite different between occasional food and really not eating anything at all for an extended period of time. I believe you may be thinking of [refeeding syndrome.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refeeding_syndrome).

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**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-of-starvation-special-diet-to-recover/730740/4 "2015-09-12T01:14:07Z")

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> [@Mangosteen](#):
>
> Several of the _Naked and Afraid_ participants survived the 40 day challenge.
> 
> They were basically starving because they would go for days pretty much not eating at all and only occasionally would they catch an animal and really have some food.
> 
> When they were finally picked up, the boat seem to have different kinds of food for them including what appeared to be junk food like potato chips.
> 
> After this kind of ordeal, doesn’t your body need a somewhat special diet to readjust to normal eating?

if they had really undergone such an ordeal, yes. but this is a TV show, so you’d best assume that what they showed you isn’t actually what happened. “Reality TV” has as much to do with reality as Taylor Swift has to do with death metal.

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**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-of-starvation-special-diet-to-recover/730740/5 "2015-09-13T18:40:00Z")

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This re-feeding syndrome is explained well in this video, [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=banfsKLOpXA)

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-days-of-starvation-special-diet-to-recover/730740/6 "2015-09-13T19:31:15Z")

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Couple other threads here on refeeding. Hit the search page.