Suppose that a person of average fitness and good health stops eating. He is allowed unlimited water and any supplements he wants. Which supplements should he be taking? Would it be beneficial for him to take some of every supplement available? How long can he sustain himself before developing complications, and which complications would be the first to occur?
He’ll starve as quickly with supplements as without them.
Vitamin C would be the most necessary missing element, outside of food. But before scurvy could kill him, starvation would.
Do protein powder and fish oil count as supplements?
What about meal replacement powders (i.e Mypolex, MetRx)? They contain carbs, protein, vitamins and minerals…even fiber. If that is an allowable supplement, I suppose the person would have no issues, save extreme boredom with their food choices.
And what about meal replacement shakes, like SlimFast etc.? Given the calorie content, is it possible to survive on alcoholic drinks and/or soda?
Suppose he is allowed meal replacement powders/shakes, plus supplements. Could he keep himself alive indefinitely, or are there necessary substances in foods that aren’t available in supplements?
Well, if you use supplements that contain food, then you can survive a long time. Just like by eating food.
If you get complete Proteins (available in pill and powder form), fiber (again, pills and powders) essential fats (pills) vitamins & Minerals (pills,powders) you can survive more or less as long as you would on “real” food, maybe longer. I’d suggest some of the more complete “whole food” vitamins and maybe some of that “green foods” powder too, just in case there’s some trace nutrient missing.
In other words, you could survive quite well simply with the stuff from any decent Vitamin catalog.
It would not be fun.
I just had this discussion with a couple friends. We concluded (not with scientific knowledge or anything) that a good multivitamin, protein shake, and maybe 1-2 other “supplements” (things we defined as geared to a specific purpose, not a generally recognized food) would do just fine to keep you alive. I mean really you need caloric intake, and vitamins, to survive (AFAIK) so presumably, bare nutrients that had caloric content would work
You need certain minerals, vitamins, calories, essential fatty acids and essential amino acids to survive. The last 3 come from food.