# Starvation- Is Eating Your Own Poop Advisable?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 13, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040 "2003-11-13T16:20:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/1 "2003-11-13T16:20:32Z")
In a recent thread here, it was revealed that that humans continue to defecate even after they have stopped eating altogether.
This raises an interesting possibility. If you are starving and have absolutely nothing to eat, would you be able to delay your own demise by eating your own poop? I would think that the poop would still contain some nutrients, unless the digestive process is 100% efficient.
Also, if you are becoming dehydrated, would drinking your own urine be advisable? In my experience, urine is rather salty, so I would be concerned it might make the dehydration worse. Would it??
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/2 "2003-11-13T17:03:14Z")
Urine would affect you just like drinking sea water (in a recent column rerun). You’re asking for both dehydration and kidney failure.
I doubt feces would have enough nutrients to counteract the possibility of a massive e. coli infection. Remember, too, your body’s been sucking out nutrients from it for several days, so there isn’t much left.
Neither are recommended.
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### Author:  [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/3 "2003-11-13T17:15:14Z")
With a little ingenuity, you could set up a still of sorts to capture potable water from your wastes. I’m sure it would taste unimagineably foul, however.
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### Author:  [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/4 "2003-11-13T17:59:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Surreal \*
> **In my experience, urine is rather salty…**
GROSS!!! :eek:
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### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/5 "2003-11-13T18:30:45Z")
As a diabetic, I’ve tasted my urine many times…
The first time, out of curiosity, to see if it really is sweet, when my blood sugar is high. And yes, it is sweet… sweet and salty.
Kinda like a Payday bar.
Other times I’ve tasted it when I didn’t have a blood sugar monitor handy, or I was out of test strips.
Before the invention of the galvanic blood glucometer, there used to be people who were paid to taste patients’ urine to determine their blood sugar concentrations… Imagine that, tasting urine all day long, day in and day out.
“Honey, I’m home! Give us a kiss, love!” MMmmmmmm… (puckering)
😃
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/6 "2003-11-13T18:44:47Z")
According to the account by Captain William Bligh, the men in the boat ceased defecating after a few weeks on starvation rations…
Trinopus
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/7 "2003-11-13T20:01:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Kinda like a Payday bar.
Passing those peanuts must be unholy painful…
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/8 "2003-11-13T21:30:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bughunter \*
> **As a diabetic, I’ve tasted my urine many times…**
Please be advised that it is neither routine, expected, nor desirable for diabetics to taste their own urine.
QtM, MD
[sub]jeez, I’ve enough trouble trying to get my diabetics to do fingersticks, much less worry about them thinking they need to taste their urine![/sub]
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### Author:  [@Redsland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redsland)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/9 "2003-11-13T21:37:14Z")
Oh-oh. What about boogers?
😉
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### Author:  [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/10 "2003-11-13T22:23:52Z")
What about someone else’s poop?
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/11 "2003-11-13T22:25:39Z")
Would you get an e. coli infection from your own feces? I mean, they’re already in there, right?
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### Author:  [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/12 "2003-11-14T01:17:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jpeg Jones \*
> \*\*What about someone else’s poop? \*\*
Makes me think of the Spinal Tap drummer who died after choking on someone else’s vomit.
**Redsland** : For that matter, how about earwax?
**Surreal** : I swear, you ask the weirdest questions around here.
No Poop for You!
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### Author:  [@gcarroll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gcarroll)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/13 "2003-11-14T01:51:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by awldune \*
> \*\*With a little ingenuity, you could set up a still of sorts to capture potable water from your wastes. I’m sure it would taste unimagineably foul, however. \*\*
No, distilled water is distilled water… assuming you are careful about contamination. But, if you’ve got the stuff to make a still (plastic sheeting and a tin can will do) you can get water pretty easily from the ground.
[http://ohoh.essortment.com/solarstill\_rcjl.htm](http://ohoh.essortment.com/solarstill_rcjl.htm)
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### Author:  [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/14 "2003-11-14T02:11:40Z")
All right, **gcarroll** , at the next opportunity, I promise I’ll try it out. (I admit I was thrilled to hear of a “plastic sheeting and tin-can” still. :). Then I realised there was no sour mash involved :(.)
And, confidentially, those instructions sound more like a way to keep oneself occupied whilst dying of _thirst prostration_. Have you tried building this contraption?
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/15 "2003-11-14T03:03:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jpeg Jones \*
> \*\*What about someone else’s poop? \*\*
Reminds me of something Crow once said on an episode of _Mystery Science Theater 3000_:
“Hey Mike, if I run out of vomit, can I borrow some of your’s?”
I would think it would be pretty useless-I mean, it’s our waste-what our body didn’t need, right? So our body would just end up pooping it out again. If it worked, wouldn’t that make us perpetual motion beings?
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### Author:  [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/16 "2003-11-14T04:19:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by awldune \*
> With a little ingenuity, you could set up a still of sorts to capture potable water from your wastes. I’m sure it would taste unimagineably foul, however.
Reminds me of this [Red Meat cartoon](http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2000-06-27/index.html). Or [this one](http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2003-08-12/index.html).
And while you’re at it, you could get [this mug](http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/buyproducts/prodpage_mug.html).
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/17 "2003-11-14T18:18:20Z")
How about smegma?
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/18 "2003-11-14T19:23:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cher3 \*
> Would you get an e. coli infection from your own feces? I mean, they’re already in there, right?
Yeah, but they’re not supposed to be **elsewhere** in your body. “Migrating” bacteria like that are how women get urinary tract infections, for instance.
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/19 "2003-11-14T19:52:08Z")
I would guess that normally the body does a less than 100% job extracting nutrients, so there would be some left. (Aside: rabbits do this habitually, right?) But if you’re starving, and not eating, then whatver you do poop must be omsosed _out_ of your blood… it seems likely it’s pretty bare.
Though even if it wasn’t I’d listen to the doctors’ advice and not try it.
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2003, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starvation-is-eating-your-own-poop-advisable/213040/20 "2003-11-14T20:08:09Z")
Anybody care for a snackfart?
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