Nutrient Pills?

[brad89]

I was in class today studying nutrients, and I kind of wonder what the problem is with this. I think it would cost too much to mass produce, so it isn't a high possibility, but could you just take a pill with all of the nutrients you need in perfect amounts, and never have to eat? I still don't see any problem with it. I do know there is more too it than just that, like activity, special things like allergies or lactose intolerance, but skipping all that, would it work that way? You get all the calories you need, all the important nutrients, what would you need food for?

[Bluenoise]

Sure you could, but the pill would be soooo big you'd choke to death trying to swallow it. Think about it a single hard candie is almost 100% sucrose you can't get energy much more condensed than that. Now they're pretty big and hard to swallow. plus 1 can't hold you out for a full day.

 

So yeah that idea can work, but you'd be swallowing a fairly large handfull of pills a day.

[Skye]

http://www.retrofuture.com/spacefood.html

[Mokele]

Sure you could, but the pill would be soooo big you'd choke to death trying to swallow it.

 

From Futurama:

Fry, looking at enormous pill: "I can't swallow that!"

Prof Farnsworth: "Good News, then! It's a suppository!"

[brad89]

Sure you could' date=' but the pill would be soooo big you'd choke to death trying to swallow it. Think about it a single hard candie is almost 100% sucrose you can't get energy much more condensed than that. Now they're pretty big and hard to swallow. plus 1 can't hold you out for a full day.

 

So yeah that idea can work, but you'd be swallowing a fairly large handfull of pills a day.[/quote']

 

Yeah, I guess it would be pretty big, but would it work if it were dense as, say, a neutron star? Besides crushing our stomachs and falling out of our bodies, would that work? Because the area of the pill would be so small that It would have trouble getting to all of the bodies cells. I know a pill as dense as a neutron star is completely stupid, but it is just as an example.

[AzurePhoenix]

Under the hypothetical imagining that such a pill was ever developed and created at an easily managable size, I really don't see what the actual benefit would be to normal people. It's clear that such a thing would be a boon to military units, survivalists in their bunkers, and hardcore and long-distance nature hikers, but I doubt it would catch on among the general populace.

 

For one thing, I happen to like food, and enjoy eating. Sure, a few people would get caught up in it as a fad of sorts, but in my books, taste and satisfaction trumps efficiency any day of the week.

 

And it wouldn't serve as a good source of nutrition for the homeless and destitute either (as friends have suggested to me), because (as brad already mentioned) such a pill would almost certainly be very expensive, too much so to distribute at homeless shelters.

 

I imagine an overdose would be a real threat, especially in the early stages when a few idiotic people might think the pill is supposed to actually stem hunger, which it wouldn't do immediately, so the next thing you know they chow down eight or nine pills.

[Douglas]

To get the pill down to a reasonable size, they need to develop a powerhouse synthetic substance that is equivalent to 2000 calories of a combination of fat, carbohydrate and protien. You may not need fiber, since the intestines may absorb the entire pill. This would save on toilet paper.

[insane_alien]

but taking a good dump is the best part of the morning

[Nevermore]

You seem to forget that even with all nessacery vitamins and nutrients, your body still needs to digest something. That pill would need to be taken with a couple mouthfulls of grass.

[Douglas]

but taking a good dump is the best part of the morning

That's true, I've heard that a good dump is 1/4 of an orgasm.

[ecoli]

That's true, I've heard that a good dump is 1/4 of an orgasm.

 

...that's, um, interesting.

 

 

 

What about intravenously... so swallowing, no hassle

[Douglas]

You seem to forget that even with all nessacery vitamins and nutrients, your body still needs to digest something. That pill would need to be taken with a couple mouthfulls of grass.

Well, the grass would be in the form of another pill. The next step toward a pill society would be to develop synthetic water, one capsule = 8 oz of spring water, this would be especially good for the woman, who seem to have to pee all the time. Then we move on to capsulized booze, think of how nice it would be to order up your favorite drink (in my case, a dry martini, straight up, with a twist) in capsule form.....no more dribbling booze down your chin.

[Douglas]

What about intravenously... so swallowing' date=' no hassle [/quote']A person wouldn't want to lose their ability to swallow for other reasons.

[Nevermore]

Well, the grass would be in the form of another pill. The next step toward a pill society would be to develop synthetic water, one capsule = 8 oz of spring water, this would be especially good for the woman, who seem to have to pee all the time. Then we move on to capsulized booze, think of how nice it would be to order up your favorite drink (in my case, a dry martini, straight up, with a twist) in capsule form.....no more dribbling booze down your chin.

No, your stomach needs to be full of stuff, to prevent it from eating itself. The grass would need to at least partially fill your stomach.

[Douglas]

No, your stomach needs to be full of stuff, to prevent it from eating itself. The grass would need to at least partially fill your stomach.

Ok, I'll buy that. Would it be Kentucky blue grass or penn red fescue?

[Nevermore]

Personaly, I prefer a the rugged feel of saw grass.

It puts hair on your chest!

[hello1]

too sexy for scientist.

[AzurePhoenix]

I like bermuda grass, good, lush green and as tender as a baby bunny.

[Glider]

What about intravenously... so swallowing, no hassle

That's doable, and is done in hospitals for patients on CPN (Complete Peripheral Nutrition). Those who are unable to eat are fed IV. It's a milky substance and it smells awful, but it will keep you alive.

 

The thing is that much of what we need can't really be ensmallened, so you'd just end up with huge pills, or hundreds of smaller ones. You might just as well eat 'normal' food.

[brad89]

That's doable' date=' and is done in hospitals for patients on CPN (Complete Peripheral Nutrition). Those who are unable to eat are fed IV. It's a milky substance and it smells awful, but it will keep you alive.

 

The thing is that much of what we need can't really be ensmallened, so you'd just end up with huge pills, or hundreds of smaller ones. You might just as well eat 'normal' food.[/quote']

 

Actually, I kind of just asked this question out of curiousity rather than a possible future alternative. I couldn't find any type of problem with it when I was thinking. That idea is kind of out of the question. Mass production would be a bit out of the balance. First of all, obtaining the right amount of nutrients is tough. It is like milking a piece of meat for all the protein and not too much of the saturated fat or cholesterol. Second, to make enough to be purchased would be just out of the question! We have roughly about 7 or so billion people, each taking a pill every day. That is like 7 billion times each day. So we get pd=a, where p is the population, d is the times a person takes a pill, and a is the amount of pills we need. So in a years time, we would have had to produce 7,000,000,000 * 365 = 2,555,000,000,000 pills a year. To make enough pills for a decade, we would need 2,555,000,000,000 * 10 = 25,550,000,000,000 pills, or 25.55 trillion pills, for a century, about 255,500,000,000,000 or 255.5 trillion pills. But that is an estimate for if everyone on earth took them. But still, the actual balance wouldn't be far from that (or maybe it would, im not a mathematician)

 

besides, I love to eat, and I am pretty sure everyone else will agree with me!

[brad89]

Under the hypothetical imagining that such a pill was ever developed and created at an easily managable size' date=' I really don't see what the actual benefit would be to normal people. It's clear that such a thing would be a boon to military units, survivalists in their bunkers, and hardcore and long-distance nature hikers, but I doubt it would catch on among the general populace.

 

For one thing, I happen to [i']like[/i] food, and enjoy eating. Sure, a few people would get caught up in it as a fad of sorts, but in my books, taste and satisfaction trumps efficiency any day of the week.

 

And it wouldn't serve as a good source of nutrition for the homeless and destitute either (as friends have suggested to me), because (as brad already mentioned) such a pill would almost certainly be very expensive, too much so to distribute at homeless shelters.

 

I imagine an overdose would be a real threat, especially in the early stages when a few idiotic people might think the pill is supposed to actually stem hunger, which it wouldn't do immediately, so the next thing you know they chow down eight or nine pills.

 

I agree totally. It wouldn't ever really catch on because people would probably be concerned about eating for taste rather than for bodily function. And since I don't even want to give up eating for a pill, I can't disagree. Eating is a way of life, and has gone far beyond the function of being solely for nutrition.

[BioNerd]

Yeah, I guess it would be pretty big, but would it work if it were dense as, say, a neutron star? Besides crushing our stomachs and falling out of our bodies, would that work? Because the area of the pill would be so small that It would have trouble getting to all of the bodies cells. I know a pill as dense as a neutron star is completely stupid, but it is just as an example.

 

The problem with that idea is that your body has to be able to break-down this completely dense object. Think about it this way: copper is a nutrient that humans need to live. However, if you swallowed a penny you cannot digest the whole thing - it's just too dense. Instead, it would just pass right through the digestive tract without being digested. You would need a much longer digestive tract and some very very strong enzymes and chemicals to breakdown such a massively concentrated pill. I mean you're talking about smushing the atoms down to subnuclear size here.

 

-M