Assuming you otherwise have a sufficient and healthy diet, what could be subtracted from it that would lead quickly to a noticable ill effect? I assume completely pulling out a macro-nutrient (fat, carbs or protein, right?) would be the worse. But what would happen?
What about vitamins? Would you get rickets or scurvy first?
Just preparing for medical advising services from my bomb shelter during the apocalypse, you know… 
Pulling out protein would be the worst if it’s strictly protein vs. carbs vs. fat.
Quickly, these came to mind from the vitamin/mineral category:
sodium
magnesium
Vitamin C
I don’t think pulling out carbs would affect you negatively. For a long time, or ever. Eliminating fat would mean you couldn’t absorb any fat soluble vitamins.
I know that a lack of salt can kill you pretty quickly, but I can’t tell you exactly how fast (I know that marathoners have died through over hydration during the course of a day).
nitpick: Lack of sodium. All salt is not sodium chloride.
Ugh… I should know better. Re: the sodium/salt thing.
Electrolytes: sodium and potassium.
Sorry for being salty. You don’t want to be without these electrolytes:
sodium chloride, potassium, magnesium, and calcium
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other than the clear answer of water? dehydration will really mess you up after only 72 hrs. i’d go with electrolytes as a distant 2nd.
Water is not so clear as an answer: You get water/hydration from eating.
Also: Dehydration death is from loss of electrolytes… OR loss of water… OR loss of both.
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How could you compltely subtract a macro-nutrient, though? You mention a healthy diet, I think you’re talking about real whole foods and nothing uber-processed. Don’t most food items have a combination? A whole avocado would have something like 30g of fat, but also half a dozen grams of protein and 20g or so of carbs. 3 ounces of cooked trimmed tenderloin would have no carbs, but about 20g of protein, and 22g of fat. Unless you were only eating meat and drinking olive oil or something, could you really eliminate carbs completely? Is there anyway to eliminate fat or protein completely?
Fruits/Veggies/Grains of all sorts can have O grams of fat.
It’s possible to eat pure fat, and get O protein.
It’s possible to eat pure protein and get no carbs. Egg whites and other proteins can have no digestible carbs.
RE: Healthy diet. Yes, the OP mentions it, but he mentions it to say it’s healthy until you eliminate something. Obviously with illness or death in mind as a goal here, it’s not healthy going forward. I can’t believe I just had to explain that, beartato.
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Thanks, sweetheart. Kisses.
:rolleyes:
Thanks, all. Seems the concensus is that things in the electrolytes box are the fastest way to death.