# Could you make a single perfect food for humans? Why isn't there one?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 26, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755 "2011-02-26T23:21:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2011, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/21 "2011-02-27T10:29:04Z")
When a coma or brain dead patient is fed intravenously, doesn’t that give them all the nutrients they need in one bag?
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### Author:  [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/22 "2011-02-27T13:06:13Z")
Good point.
It can easily enough be done, but isn’t widely available.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/23 "2011-02-27T13:59:26Z")
Perhaps the OP would be interested in listening to a song that produces exactly the right state of mind to satisfy the listener for a lifetime. How would you like to listen to that same song day and night, and nothing else, for the rest of your life, until a merciful death?
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/24 "2011-02-27T16:49:53Z")
> [@Superhal](#):
>
> When a coma or brain dead patient is fed intravenously, doesn’t that give them all the nutrients they need in one bag?
Long term nutrition of coma pts is usually a nutient shake through a tube into the stomach. Intravenous nutrition is expensive and has lots more risks.
No idea if the shake would make it for an active person.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/25 "2011-02-27T19:00:45Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> Perhaps the OP would be interested in listening to a song that produces exactly the right state of mind to satisfy the listener for a lifetime. How would you like to listen to that same song day and night, and nothing else, for the rest of your life, until a merciful death?
I wouldn’t. I’m not saying RickFood would taste good, I’m just wondering if it’s technically possible.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/26 "2011-02-27T19:26:04Z")
Whatever they put in Terri Schivo’s feeding tube before they pulled it.
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### Author:  [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/27 "2011-02-27T22:57:54Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> What is literally the most frequently asked question here? I wonder what the real answer is.
That is.
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### Author:  [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/28 "2011-02-28T01:20:14Z")
> [@RickJay](#):
>
> I wouldn’t. I’m not saying RickFood would taste good, I’m just wondering if it’s technically possible.
Taste would be the number 1 concern, so if you get the feeding tube, that would bypass your mouth.
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### Author:  [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2011, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/29 "2011-02-28T01:46:00Z")
I tried just drinking Ensure once (it is commonly used for tube feeding). The idea was to take a break from all of my bad eating habits and start over fresh. I was going to do it for a week, but I didn’t even last two days.
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### Author:  [@bink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bink)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/30 "2011-02-28T08:12:48Z")
> [@Silvorange](#):
>
> I tried just drinking Ensure once
My grandfather called it “Endure”.
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### Author:  [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2011, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/31 "2011-02-28T10:32:40Z")
> [@Superhal](#):
>
> When a coma or brain dead patient is fed intravenously, doesn’t that give them all the nutrients they need in one bag?
Like **outlierrn** said, coma patients are usually fed via a tube into the stomach. Intravenous nutrition is different - as a nursing student I’ve had several patients with GI issues so they can’t digest or absorb food, or their bowel needs rest to heal, who are getting [total parenteral nutrition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_parenteral_nutrition) via a [PICC line](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripherally_inserted_central_catheter)(sort of like an IV).
TPN can be around the clock or just for part of the day (cyclic), but even my patients on cyclic TPN are usually hooked up for 10-12 hours each day to run the infusion, which would put a cramp in anyone’s lifestyle. It isn’t possible to run the fluid in very quickly. Also, blood sugar needs to be monitored to make sure the patient doesn’t become hyperglycemic.
TPN is also pretty expensive - one of my nursing instructors told me it often costs over $1000 per bag (one day worth of TPN), due to the ingredients themselves and everything needing to be totally sterile (to decrease the risk of infection, since you’re injecting a high sugar solution directly into a central artery). It’s also very expensive because a pharmacy tech havs to assemble each patient’s customized TPN prescription individually in a sterile clean room. So very high labor cost
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/32 "2011-02-28T12:07:48Z")
> [@Waenara](#):
>
> TPN is also pretty expensive - one of my nursing instructors told me it often costs over $1000 per bag (one day worth of TPN), due to the ingredients themselves and everything needing to be totally sterile (to decrease the risk of infection, since you’re injecting a high sugar solution directly into a central artery). It’s also very expensive because a pharmacy tech has to assemble each patient’s customized TPN prescription individually in a sterile clean room. So very high labor cost
Having seen the billing for my dad’s terminal hospital stay, yup $1k per bag. [And I will make a comment about the cost of ICU stay - seeing the level of care and attention he got, it was worth every penny.]
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-make-a-single-perfect-food-for-humans-why-isnt-there-one/572755/33 "2011-02-28T13:06:49Z")
Infants get this, along with a very nice benefits package like not having to shiver in the cold but convert fat directly to heat, you just decided to grow up, now deal with it 😛
One reason is we need different foods at different times, we simply have different nutritional requirements at different stages. We have a ability to get food that we need.
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