My very limited knowledge of nutrition tells me that we need carbohydrates for converting into energy. Our body parts also need certain vitamins/minerals/proteins/whatever as well in order to repair/function/live/whatever. Many of these other vital ingredients can be found in pill form at the local health food store.
So, is it possible to live off a basic carbohydrate-rich food while taking the other nutrients in pill form?
We needs fats and proteins and carbohydrates. We also need fiber for our intestines. There is a certain minimum bulk that promotes good health in people with normal digestions who eat normal food*. The food pills of past science fiction are no more real than interstellar flight.
*Intravenous feeding is possible, but that is not recommended for a healthy digestive tract nor it is any less bulky in the aggregate.
Minor nitpick, but stirctly speaking we need fats and proteins. People don’t really need carbohydrates, and can survive happily without them, it’s a matter of habit, culture and availability.
To take care of the fiber we could make the carbohydrate portion of the ‘meal’ a dark bread which usually had a good amount of fiber. The only thing we’re missing is the fat, no?
I’m not really wondering if there is the possibility of a full meal in pill form but if it’s possible and safe/healthy to get the rest of the nutrients (vitamins and such) solely from non-food sources like pills.
I’m not planning on doing this myself although I must say I already have been substituting eating more food for vitamins in a pill form.
My google-fu is weak, but I do remember reading an article about scientists trying to engineer a mouse food from non-food sources. They mixed together all known essential minerals and vitamins for mouse health, and added a calorie source of some kind. The mice all died. They tinkered around with it a long time, but it’s not possible to keep a mouse alive without giving them at least some actual food in the form of grains or other plant stuffs. The scientists decided that we haven’t isolated all the essential components of food yet, so just building up a synthetic food from the stuff that we do know about doesn’t get the job done.
The answer is no, don’t try it! There are about 50 or so known basic nutrients (sugars, amino acids, vitamins, minerals etc.), and if you tried to live on nothing but these you would become quite malnourished.
There are over 10,000 phytochemicals in a tomato. Which ones are beneficial to us? It’s difficult to tell; best just to eat the whole tomato.