With the usual talk about what a person could survive off of if they had only one food on a desert island, I started wondering: The avocado, from a nutritional standpoint, seems to have it all: Fiber, fat, protein, most of the vitamins.
What would happen to a person’s body if they had only avocados on a desert island to eat (ignore for the moment as to whether avocado plants can even grow on a desert island or not.) How long would they live? What deficiency would they suffer from?
Do avocados have vitamin C? Scurvy tends to be a concern when talking about eating one singular food. Although, limes and avocados can grow in the same climate. Mix them together and you get delicious guacamole.
Given that this the dope, I’ll go all pedant and point out that no one can live indefinitely regardless of what they are eating.
Lots of Vitamin C. The missing nutrients seem to be salt, Vit A and Calcium. I don’t know what the rules are about finding these elsewhere, but on an island salt isn’t going to be difficult, and seawater also contains a little calcium. Vit A is in a lot of plants, it might even be in avocado skin, but I can’t find a nutritional breakdown for that.
I’m guessing that you’d live a long time. Probably not indefinitely, what with old age and everything, I don’t think avocados stop that.
Not very long. Avocado thieves would eventually be along to wipe out your stash.
But seashells might solve the calcium problem.
Avocados are quite low in calcium, iron, a lot of other minerals, and are totally devoid of B-12. Plus they don’t have very much protein or other B vitamins. Sorry, count on a short lifespan while feeling terrible if they are all you have to eat. If you had some small mammals or fish plus some green weeds and some avocados, you might fare better.
I suspect that some respondents in this thread don’t quite know the meaning of “indefinitely”. It doesn’t mean “forever”.
Anyway, I’m interested in this remark:
OP: “With the usual talk about what a person could survive off of if they had only one food on a desert island, . . .”
Have we had threads here about this before? Can anyone give any link(s)? I’ve been getting a little curious lately about the prospects of subsisting on just one or a small number of foodstuffs, especially inexpensive and easily obtained foods that require little-to-no preparation. Can one survive for any length of time (“indefinitely”) on just bread and water? Maybe bread and water with some occasional caviar?
Avocado thieves… lol.
You can get most of your required nutrients if you eat 2000 kilocalories a day of avocados (1250 grams or 2.75 pounds). Plenty of calories, potassium, fat, carbohydrate, fiber, and most vitamins and minerals. You’ll only get 25 grams of protein, which is on the low side. Avocados have no vitamin D, but you can get that from sunlight. In common with most vegetable foods, they have no B-12. You might try fermenting your avocados because some bacteria can produce B-12. You would get less choline than recommended, but the safe minimum intake of choline is not well known. The biggest issues are a few of the minerals. You’d get only about one-tenth the calcium, sodium, and selenium you should. If you can drink sea water for sodium, that’s taken care of. Calcium and selenium are stored in bone, and you can break down muscle for protein, so you could probably survive quite a while on just avocados.
Sea water also contains trace amounts of selenium, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to make an appreciable difference. If you’re using a solar still to make your drinking water from sea water, you should get sea salt as a by-product. Putting that on your avocados is probably a more tolerable way to get sodium and trace minerals than drinking the sea water directly.
Leads me to ask: “Would just bathing in the sea cause (or allow) the body to absorb salt through the skin?”
If you really mean a desert island, I don’t think you’d find many avocados there. More likely, some variety of cactus. Or sea critter, if you can catch it.
Yeah, it’s a pretty common topic, split into two main categories, along the lines:
“I heard you can get all the necessary nutrition from a diet of parsnips and jellybeans - is this true? If not, what two things do provide all necessary nutrition?”
or
“I am so tired of all the different flavours of food! Why can’t they make uniform bland food pellets that can take away the misery of eating?”
No.
As this is the dope, I’ll nitpick that ‘desert’ in the context of islands, just means ‘uninhabited’ (i.e. deserted).
Another nitpick: not all islands are surrounded by saltwater.
That’s so strange for me. I was pretty sure the skin as an organ was a two way street, or is it only for excretion?
Or, “Why hasn’t the Red Cross already solved the problem of long-lasting emergency food which can be airdropped onto the latest Disaster Westerners Care About* to maximize nutrition and minimize Black Hawks going Down and/or losing Cups?”
Then someone brings up the MRE equivalent to peanut butter, Plumpy’nut, which is patented (because Lord knows the Global South has literally all the money…) and isn’t an actual solution, and we’re off.
*(Other than the ones catered by Waffle House.)
Anyway, we know what single food can satisfy all needs: Infant formula. (Or, in a pinch, the Rose Of Sharon…) Tweak it for adults and we’re done.
Don’t forget Monkey Chow!