Minimum nutrition to sustain life

[Atellus]

First, some background:

 

My Grandmother suffered from osteoporosis, among other things which were mostly related to radiation poisoning (she took part in early medical trials involving X-rays).

 

For the last ten years of her life she required nursing home care, and over that period became increasingly bed bound. Due to the osteoporosis, her spine began to crumble until she stood at less than half her original height. It was in a sense fortunate that she had previously had one lung and half of the other removed due to tuberculosis, as this was what essentially "made space" within the chest cavity for this degree of "crumpling" to occur without destroying any organs, although there was still damage to the remaining lung and the heart. Another side effect of the spinal deformity was an obstruction of the esophagus which eventually prevented her from swallowing any solid food at all. It would be trapped in a curvature not unlike the U bend of a toilet and be vomited back up.

 

So, for the last few years, she existed on cups of tea (milk, no sugar), her various drugs which included a huge dosage of morphine, the occassional nutritional drink (a thick, soupy substance tasting of cardboard that was provided in cartons with a straw) which she eventually refused to take anymore, and bags of boiled sweats which she would suck for hours.

 

On this cocktail she survived for many years after her movement became restricted to sitting all day, with occassional trips to the bathroom, and continued to survive for several months after becoming completely bed bound.

 

And so my question: how was she sustaining herself on so little?

 

What are the absolute minimum dietary requirements to sustain human life, assuming a sedentary life style with little or no strenuous movement.

 

What effect would a large dose of a drug like morphine have, if any? Among their various chemical constituents, can drugs contain any essential minerals or nutrients that might contribute to a patients diet?

 

Thank you

[insane_alien]

tea has a lot of different nutrients in it especially with milk added. the boiled sweet would provide sugars necessary to keep the body going. most drugs have little to no nutritional value although they can provide energy when metabolized.

morphine would have no life sustaining effects as the dosage require for the body to get a decent amount of energy out of it would be lethal. she probably lost weight during this time burning fat reserves? they tend to store a lot of nutrients.

[whap2005]

Actually it's proven that the higher your caloretic intake, the shorter your life span is on average. Even if your not over weight, the impurities in food will damage your cells (Oxidants) which will lower you're life span. So don't eat more then your body actually needs and odds are you will live longer!

[Rexus]

I heard you could survive on one prune and a glass of milk a day

[weknowthewor]

I believe that our stomach must have 25% Water + 25% Air + 50% Food to work efficiently...

[YT2095]

the minimum is the exact amount put in as is consumed.

this involves much more than Just calories also.

[danzman]

If you use the standard BMR equation for a woman..

BMR=}[(4.35*mass) + (4.7*height) - (4.7*age)] * activity}

You can come up with the minimum caloric intake for a day..

Since you didn't include your grandmothers size, age, and mass, an assumption of a woman who is 80years old, 5ft 2in, and weighs 90lbs would net you a BMR of 1057.9kcals a day (calories) If you say that she was pretty much sedentary, the activity part of the equation would be about 1.1 to 1.2, yielding you a max of 1269.5cals a day. Neglecting all dietary needs that are not strictly calories (i.e., vitamins, proteins, and carbohydrates etc') you can come up with her daily caloric need. For example...

If she drank 4cups of tea a day@ 5cal each, consumed a total of 8oz of milk in a day at 150cal's, drank a nutritional supplement (I used Ensure for calorie content) at 355cal's, you would be left with about 525cal's, which is not nearly enough. However, the sugar that she would have consumed would have plenty of extra cal's. If you say each 15g of candy has 75cal's, (somewhat conservative I think) and she only needs 750 cal's more, that is only 150g a day, or three to four candy bars...

 

These numbers are only for example of course, as there are other variables. But something to consider is that your physical activity is only about 20-25% of you caloric usage, just living takes about 70% and the digestion of food takes up some more, as does producing heat. In the end, someone who ate less would have less energy expended on digesting it. Not to mention that the older you get, the less food you need....

[Atellus]

I begin to see how she managed as she did. The staff often commented that she seemed to live on the boiled sweets and cups of tea (certainly more than 4 a day).

 

She was 76 when she died, but had not led an easy life from a health point of view, having suffered various ailments and been on the receiving end of some less than efficacious fashionable treatments many years ago, so one could probably argue that she was prematurely aged to begin with.

 

Her general physical deterioration, that was not directly linked to illness, could probably be accounted for by the lack of vitamins in her diet, I suppose.

 

Thanks, Danzman. That's very interesting.