# Is there one food you could live on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967 "2010-01-30T00:15:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/21 "2010-01-30T08:06:13Z")
You may be interested in a couple previous threads on the subject: [cat food has everything needed for life…why isn’t there a “people” food?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=398609) [Why No Human Chow?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=405642) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2010, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/22 "2010-01-30T08:54:58Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Well, most of what we consume today in America is corn. And that is definitely not the answer: [How long could you live on popcorn and Gatorade?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=548754) ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/23 "2010-02-01T16:43:16Z")
No, K-, C-rations, MREs, etc. don’t count. Anyway, I don’t believe you are supposed to consume them for more than thirty days in a row. I thought meat might do the trick, but how much? Thanks, Rob ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/24 "2010-02-01T17:16:15Z")
Soylent Green ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/25 "2010-02-01T19:17:07Z")
[Bachelor Chow](http://www.monkeyspit.net/sites/purina/) ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/26 "2010-02-01T19:20:39Z")
> **[Goji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfberry#Nutrient_content)** > > Goji, goji berry, or wolfberry (Chinese: 枸杞; pinyin: gǒuqǐ) is the sweet fruit of either Lycium barbarum or Lycium chinense, two closely related species of boxthorn in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. L. barbarum and L. chinense fruits are similar but can be distinguished by differences in taste and sugar content. > Both of these species are native to Asia and have been long used in traditional Asian cuisine. > The fruit has also been an ingredient in traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese m... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/27 "2010-02-01T19:49:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Meat has all the nutrition necessary for human life. Some fat in it is necessary (if you eat fatless rabbits you die right quick), and if you were allowed the whole animal -muscle meat, fat, skin, liver, kidneys, bone marrow- you’d be set up for good health, not just survival. With the caveats that you need to eat the organs, too, and at least some of it will have to be raw, or you won’t get all the vitamins you need. If you just ate nothing but steak, you’d get scurvy pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/28 "2010-02-01T19:54:15Z")
lentils? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/29 "2010-02-01T20:01:54Z")
Drink Ensure 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/30 "2010-02-01T20:09:21Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > Unless ‘cow’ is an acceptable answer (and you could eat other parts). I was thinking cow also, which would include milk, and if allowed a bit of leeway, cheese and fermented drink, along with, if really needed, the contents of it’s stomachs. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/31 "2010-02-01T22:35:14Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > Unless ‘cow’ is an acceptable answer (and you could eat other parts). Cow might do it if you eat the organs, the stomach contents, and ground the bones into meal for calcium (would that work?). I don’t know if you’d need to drink the blood, but I don’t see how it would hurt. (The Masai drink cattle blood as a matter of course in their diet. It allows them to get nutrition from the animal without destroying it.) (Of course all of this assumes a healthy animal. Eating diseased just about _anything_ is unhealthy.) ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/32 "2010-02-01T22:45:56Z")
Cannibalism. As long as you clean your plate and ate some of everything. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/33 "2010-02-01T22:47:25Z")
Crap I’m remembering off the top of my head, so no cites, unfortunately: You could get all your nutritional requirements from Guinness if you drank about 40 pints a day. (No info on how long your liver would be able to keep up.) You can get almost everything you need from potatoes, if you eat them in large enough quantities. That’s why potatoes were a staple food in Ireland and why the potato “famine” was so devastating: it wiped out the one crop that a huge percentage of the population depended on almost entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/34 "2010-02-02T00:00:50Z")
Actually, the Irish diet was mostly a combination of potatoes and cabbages, with a little milk and other things thrown in. While you can get everything you need from potatoes, if you eat a heck of a lot of them, it’s more efficient to get most of your calories from potatoes, and most of your vitamins and other nutrients from cabbage. ---
**Author:** ![Dickerman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@Dickerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dickerman)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/35 "2010-02-02T00:45:40Z")
Breastmilk? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/36 "2010-02-02T00:48:11Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I once read (was it in The Straight Dope?) that potatoes will tide you over for a very long time because they contain a small amount of vitamin C. [Could I survive on nothing but potatoes and milk? (December 5, 2008)](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2828/could-i-survive-on-nothing-but-potatoes-and-milk) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/37 "2010-02-02T06:52:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > With the caveats that you need to eat the organs, too, and at least some of it will have to be raw, or you won’t get all the vitamins you need. If you just ate nothing but steak, you’d get scurvy pretty quickly. Apparently not the case. When eating only meat, the amount of vitamin C it contains is sufficient. After all, the animal you’re eating wasn’t vitamin-deficient. In fact, early polar explorers eating animal livers overdosed on fat-soluble vitamins. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/38 "2010-02-02T06:59:45Z")
> [@](#): > > After all, the animal you’re eating wasn’t vitamin-deficient. Well, no, but that doesn’t mean those vitamins are evenly distributed-- They’re mostly in the organs. And I think that the vitamin overdose only happens with polar bear livers, not, say, caribou. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/39 "2010-02-02T07:01:39Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I once read (was it in The Straight Dope?) that potatoes will tide you over for a very long time because they contain a small amount of vitamin C. I have no idea if this is correct, though; it sounds doubtful to me. > [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > [Could I survive on nothing but potatoes and milk? (December 5, 2008)](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2828/could-i-survive-on-nothing-but-potatoes-and-milk) The piece I read was at least 10 years old, but this is a much better reference. The reason I was doubtful was because of the lack of protein. The piece I read I think said you could survive for 4 months or so on taters alone (but my memory is fading quickly, probably from some vitamin or mineral deficiency.) ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2010, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967/40 "2010-02-02T07:46:24Z")
Potatoes may have the vitamins needed for survival, but they don’t have any fat, and you need fat in your diet to process many vitamins and minerals, as well as for normal hormonal functioning. I give someone on the all-potato diet a couple months, tops. If you give them lots of butter on their potatoes - much longer. 🙂 They were the staple of the Irish poor pre-famine, but their prized foods and secondary sources of calories were mutton (one of the fattiest meats existing), cow’s milk products, buttermilk in particular (extra-fatty), and fish in populations on the coast. As well many of them kept chickens so got eggs on a regular basis. And of course some grains and bread. Irish peasants in the 1800s knew better than we do now- animal products full of delicious saturated fat have more available nutrition than any other food and as much of them should be eaten as you can afford. > [@Derleth](#): > > Cow might do it if you eat the organs, the stomach contents, and ground the bones into meal for calcium (would that work?). I don’t know if you’d need to drink the blood, but I don’t see how it would hurt. (The Masai drink cattle blood as a matter of course in their diet. It allows them to get nutrition from the animal without destroying it.) > > (Of course all of this assumes a healthy animal. Eating diseased just about _anything_ is unhealthy.) I know people who have eaten nothing but factory-raised (usually in compromised health) beef cuts for years, and they are in good health. Eating plain muscle-meat with a normal proportion of fat seems to be just fine for survival. Probably not ideal for a life-long diet, or reproduction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-one-food-you-could-live-on/526967.md?page=3)