bare minimum a person can eat?

[liamstar2002]

What is the minimum a person can eat,

just enough to stay alive?

thx.

[natalie_1982]

Well I guess unless you had a balanced diet you#d probably die eventually anyway, I mean you could eat celery for brekkie, lunch and dinner but if you're not getting any protein, or fat or any other vitamins or minerals you'd probably get some nasty disease and die.  I'm assuming as long as your diet is healthy then you could eat very, very little, i.e. the bare minimum I remember some silly fact about the amount of protein in one fishfinger is enough that you'd only need one fishfinger a week to have a healthy amount of protein.

[Loosehead]

Well I suppose if you consitantly eat less that you use you will eventually starve so I would say once you are at desired weight you would need at least the amount of calories that you body uses. Even if you laid still all day you still need a certain amount or you slowly starve. imagine a grown man ate only 500 calories a day, probably take years but he would starve to death. 

[Lindylou]

My Dad was a Japanese POW and for over 3 years ate little more than a small bowl of (polished) rice plus whatever - as he said 'walked into the camp on more than 2 legs'.  He was 5' 11' and when he was finally rescued, weighted less than 6 stone. He suffered from scurvy, beri-beri and a wonderful condition known as 'rice balls'.  (Don't ask!).  He spent over 4 months in hospital in San Francisco being treated before he was allowed to come home to Britain. 

[natalie_1982]

I'm sorry Lindyloo I need to know what rice balls is and am slightly wary of inputting that into Google seeing as I am at work!

[smudge]

There are quite a few sites on rice balls natalie, but here's one on how to make them: 

http://www.bob-an.com/recipe/dailyjc/hints/musubi/musubi.html

[smudge]

Just one more:

http://www.thatsmyhome.com/venettos/pasta/fried-rice-balls.htm

[natalie_1982]

I think it's a condition rather than a recipe smudge

"He suffered from scurvy, beri-beri and a wonderful condition known as 'rice balls'."

[smudge]

Yes, I realised that last night natalie & was wondering what it could be too. I tried Google for war/illness/rice balls, etc., but it kept coming up with recipes! Perhaps it was a nick-name for something rather embarrassing, which is why LindyLou wrote (Don't ask!). So I think I'd better leave it at that!