# Sources of water for survival?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sources-of-water-for-survival/492453>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 8, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sources-of-water-for-survival/492453 "2009-04-08T23:36:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Novalyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@Novalyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novalyne)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sources-of-water-for-survival/492453/1 "2009-04-08T23:36:45Z")

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I have always heard that in a starvation situation, a human would die of thirst before lack of food. What if the person had a food source, just no water? Are there any types of food that would also provide enough water to survive? What if only meat were available? Or fruits and vegetables - would they provide the necessary water? If I had a month’s supply of, say, grapes in the desert, would I survive?

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**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sources-of-water-for-survival/492453/2 "2009-04-08T23:49:52Z")

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[Interesting link](http://waltonfeed.com/old/self/h2ocont.html) on water content in food.

This won’t answer your question, but it might help.

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**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:** [April 9, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sources-of-water-for-survival/492453/3 "2009-04-09T00:10:27Z")

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Most foods will give you enough water to survive, if not necessarily thrive, so long as you’re not working up a sweat. And most fruits are almost entirely water, with just a few trace impurities, so if you’ve got a good supply of juicy fruit, there’s no problem at all.

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**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sources-of-water-for-survival/492453/4 "2009-04-09T00:57:07Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Most foods will give you enough water to survive, if not necessarily thrive, so long as you’re not working up a sweat. And most fruits are almost entirely water, with just a few trace impurities, so if you’ve got a good supply of juicy fruit, there’s no problem at all.

Since the OP specifically mentioned grapes, I’d point out that eating a boatload of grapes will…uh…well, you won’t keep a lot of that water. They have a laxative effect in large quantities, don’t they?

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**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sources-of-water-for-survival/492453/5 "2009-04-09T07:41:07Z")

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The consensus seems to be that unless clean drinking water is available, one should not eat anything. The digestion of food consumes water. Eating loads of fruit (or berries here up north) seems like a good idea, but will result in diarrea, greatly increasing dehydration and hastening death.