# How long could you live healthily eating only human flesh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2007, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487 "2007-11-23T05:00:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/1 "2007-11-23T05:00:20Z")
This is something I’ve been curious about for awhile, and was recently made curious again reading Robert Silverberg’s short story, “Road to Nightfall” where there is no food at all and people are turning to cannibalism, naturally. Would a steady diet of nothing but human flesh give you all the protein, fats, carbohydrates and nutrients that you need to thrive? Would it be a subsistence diet that would eventually result in malnutrition? I have a thought that you could get everything you need from another human because they have it to start with. Maybe you would have to be careful to eat all parts of the other human, not just the fat, juicy parts. Anybody have anything factual on this? ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/2 "2007-11-23T05:04:29Z")
My understanding is that the longest you can go without vitimen C is 90 days before scurvy sets in. So something like 120 days should have you on death’s door. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/3 "2007-11-23T07:13:59Z")
[QUOTE=SandyHook] My understanding is that the longest you can go without vitimen C is 90 days before scurvy sets in. So something like 120 days should have you on death’s door. [/QUOTE] Eating the stomachs of vegans will give you all the vitamins you need. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/4 "2007-11-23T14:19:39Z")
That’s what I’m saying; you need vitamin C (and other vitamins and minerals), but another human should have them present in their body, shouldn’t they? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/5 "2007-11-23T14:21:05Z")
Hard times in Calgary? ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/6 "2007-11-23T14:33:27Z")
Anyone else reminded of that short story by Stephen King? A surgeon, who has fallen in with a gang of criminals, was on the run when his ship gets wrecked at sea. Alone, he washes up on a deserted rock in the middle of the ocean. The rock is barren, and supports no life but the occasional passing seagull. The surgeon has an injured foot, but he still has his surgeon equipment with him, and also washed up with him is a big brick of some opiate. The surgeons starts by amputating his own foot when gangrene sets in; and then he’s so hungry that he thinks: " well, why let that foot go to waste?" and he lights a little fire and… well, you get it. At the end of the story both his legs are gone, but he has numbed out the pain with the morphine. And then, in his delirium, his own fingers start looking mighty yummy to him… ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/7 "2007-11-23T14:35:02Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Hard times in Calgary? [/QUOTE] **featherlou** drew the short straw today and unfortunately will not be back to answer that question. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/8 "2007-11-23T14:42:57Z")
I know of one species that can supposedly survive indefinitely solely on a diet of human braaaaains. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/9 "2007-11-23T14:45:28Z")
[QUOTE=Maastricht] Anyone else reminded of that short story by Stephen King? A surgeon, who has fallen in with a gang of criminals, was on the run when his ship gets wrecked at sea. Alone, he washes up on a deserted rock in the middle of the ocean. The rock is barren, and supports no life but the occasional passing seagull. The surgeon has an injured foot, but he still has his surgeon equipment with him, and also washed up with him is a big brick of some opiate. The surgeons starts by amputating his own foot when gangrene sets in; and then he’s so hungry that he thinks: " well, why let that foot go to waste?" and he lights a little fire and… well, you get it. At the end of the story both his legs are gone, but he has numbed out the pain with the morphine. And then, in his delirium, his own fingers start looking mighty yummy to him… [/QUOTE] “Survivor Type” One of the ewwww-est things I ever read. It’s in the form of a idary kept by the evil doctor with a bunch of heroin and no food on the deserted island. Gilligan he ain’t. He doesn’t cook the first foot. He finds some wood later and cooks other parts. He also eats a seagull, crab, seeweek and spiders. In the end, his legs are gone up to his hips, he eats his earlobs, and the very end of his story is “ladyfingers…they taste just like ladyfingers…” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/10 "2007-11-23T14:53:25Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] That’s what I’m saying; you need vitamin C (and other vitamins and minerals), but another human should have them present in their body, shouldn’t they? [/QUOTE] Yes. You should be OK as long as you devour your victims raw. Cecil’s column here is relevant: [Traditionally Eskimos ate only meat and fish. Why didn’t they get scurvy?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010119.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/11 "2007-11-23T15:40:46Z")
**featherlou** –this is not the way to settle your grievances with the neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![misterW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@misterW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterW)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/12 "2007-11-23T16:57:41Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] Yes. You should be OK as long as you devour your victims raw. Cecil’s column here is relevant: [Traditionally Eskimos ate only meat and fish. Why didn’t they get scurvy?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010119.html) [/QUOTE] I think humans might be a poor source of vitamin c, at least compared to other species. Arent humans one of the few species that dont manufacture their own vitamin C? And isnt what humans take in on a daily basis (for example, the recommended daily allowance of vitamin c - ~ 60mg) a fraction of what other species produce (per body weight)? So even if your man steaks were consumed raw, perhaps scurvy might still rear its ugly head. What to you think? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/13 "2007-11-24T02:50:04Z")
It occurred to me at work today (hah! I beat the lottery and I’m back!) that your best bet would probably be pureeing the whole human and eating them that way to make sure you get all your vitamins. Sort of a human milkshake, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/14 "2007-11-24T02:58:46Z")
Well, when you slide into starvation mode, your body starts consuming your _own_ human flesh, and that’ll last a while. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/15 "2007-11-24T03:14:40Z")
[QUOTE=misterW] I think humans might be a poor source of vitamin c, at least compared to other species. Arent humans one of the few species that dont manufacture their own vitamin C? And isnt what humans take in on a daily basis (for example, the recommended daily allowance of vitamin c - ~ 60mg) a fraction of what other species produce (per body weight)? So even if your man steaks were consumed raw, perhaps scurvy might still rear its ugly head. What to you think? [/QUOTE] Even though humans don’t manufacture vitamin C, we still store it in the body, so that human flesh would be a source for it. I don’t know what the relative levels are in human flesh vs that of other species. However, you do make a good point in that, if humans were the only source of vitamin C, it would not be replenished and scurvy would eventually be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/16 "2007-11-24T04:08:22Z")
Doesn’t cooking destroy vitamin C? If so you’d have to eat your neighbors raw to keep alive for more than 4 months. I’m thinking that all that raw meat can’t be good for you in the longer run. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/17 "2007-11-24T17:42:29Z")
Good point. So, the human milkshakes will be served _au naturel_. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/18 "2007-11-30T19:12:21Z")
Burning people smell exactly the same as burning pork,I am not Jewish or Muslim but for a long while I could not face pig products without vomiting. I wonder if those religions brought in that taboo because of that. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/19 "2007-11-30T23:33:47Z")
[QUOTE=SandyHook] Doesn’t cooking destroy vitamin C? If so you’d have to eat your neighbors raw to keep alive for more than 4 months. [/QUOTE] You could always pickle or smoke the meat. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2007, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487/20 "2007-11-30T23:42:10Z")
Human ham! Don’t forget ham! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-could-you-live-healthily-eating-only-human-flesh/427487.md?page=2)