death by getting food after starvation?

Factual Questions
1

I remember reading somewhere that in some places after WW I, after long periods of starvation, when food aid arrived, thousands of people died, ironically, by eating the much needed food. Somehow their hibernating digestive system couldn’t take the sudden load or something like that. Is this true? What is the physiological explanation of the phenomenon?

2

I think this is a really interesting question so I am bumping it in hopes someone will come along and answer it.

3

Yes, there is a condition called “refeeding syndrome”. My understanding of it is that it is caused by low levels of phosphates in the body. When you are starving, your body’s phosphate level decreases because you are not getting any from food. This doesn’t cause an immediate problem because you metabolize fat, which does not require phosphates. On the other hand, metabolizing carbohydrates (i.e. from food) does require phosphates, and so the sudden reintroduction of food into one’s system may result in dangerously low phosphate levels. This can cause heart problems, or other dangerous conditions.

You can read about refeeding syndrome here:
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic278.htm
or search on Google.

Obligatory disclaimer: I am not a doctor.

4

Yes.
That’s why people who have been fasting (hunger strikers) need to start eating on a carefully controlled diet.
Peace,
mangeorge

5

This was noted during the famine in Ireland, IANAD either tho, but I remember reading about it.

http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SS/irish/irish_pf.html

Use your browsers find function (ctrl-F probably) and search for “DEATH FROM EATING FOOD”.

6

Also seen when Allied troops liberated the concentration camps at the end of WWII and started handing out C-rations indiscriminately to the newly freed.

7

This also applies to giving water to badly dehydrated people, IIRC.

When you come across that half-dead man in the desert who is begging to have at your water canteen and go for his life, you are instead meant to give him only a wet towel to suck on. After a little while, you can put an inch or so of water in a cup, and give him that. It is only much later that he can drink as he wishes.

8

It is often a case of letting your mouth overload the rest of the anatomy with the wrong intake and too great an amount.

“Beware of the Cog”