[ul]
[li]Survivor Contestants[/li][li]People liverated from a Nazi concentration camp (whose liberation I read about in 7th grade-ish)[/li][li]Karen Carpenter[/li][li]A few members of a Uruguayan rugby team in the 1970’s[/li][/ul]
What do these people all have in common? They all went to the brink of starvation (or at least experienced pretty extreme hunger) and their bodies all reacted pretty violently once they got rich food again. Well, in Karen Carpenter’s case, it was force-fed nutrition that caused her to gain 10 pounds in a week; her heart couldn’t deal with it and she died.
Needless to say, the body has issues when its owner almost starves it and then once again resumes eating normal meals again.
So what’s the best course of action for treating a starvation victim? Should we feed him/her little itty bitty bits of food and increase their intake gradually until they can take it again? Should we give them the nutrition they need and hope they live through it? I’m guessing the lunch buffet at Red Lobster is out…
I would think that the “take it slowly” approach would be best, even if you aren’t getting your full RDA right away.
It really doesn’t take that long to have your body start to react this way. I have a friend who is now recovering from a bout of pneumonia. For about a week, she was eating almost no solid food at all (she was coughing too much to chew and swallow, I think.) Once she was able to eat again, the doctors told her to go easy on the food. She did all right the first couple of days, but on the third day, she overdid it and threw up.
At least she threw up at work. That’ll teach them for not offering health insurance!
Carbohydrates are good, but stay away from fried ones. You can get up to full speed quicker than you might think. Apple turnovers helped me over the waves of nausea I experienced as did Ramen. Good clear soups with pasta and vegatables were easy to keep down.
Avoid fatty meats.
Once the shakiness and nausea pass, it becomes fairly easy to return to a full diet.
“At first, food intake must be limited until GI function is restored. For adults, food should be bland, and liquid feedings limited initially to about 100 mL to avoid diarrhea. A formula consisting of 42% dried skim milk, 32% edible oil, and 25% sucrose plus electrolyte, mineral, and vitamin supplements is recommended. In the absence of signs of specific micronutrient deficiencies, micronutrients should be provided at about twice the recommended dietary allowance (RDA)…Food intake is gradually increased until it is about 5000 kcal/day and weekly weight gain is 1.5 to 2.0 kg.”
A few years ago, I was suffering from the flu from hell, and was home, bedridden for a week. After four days, I noticed I had no food at home, and hadn’t eaten in that time. I was famished, and called a co-worker friend of mine to bring me some food after work. For some reason, I was craving Cheerios, a food I don’t normally eat.
I ended up puking them, but for a while, it did feel good to eat something.
