Dear Jimen,
A person can survive without food for several weeks:
"Without food, you can last around 60 days if you are a healthy adult
with at least 11kg of fat in your body. It all depends on how much
body fat you had in the first place. No human being can survive if he
loses more than 40% of his body mass.
If you had more fat to begin with, you might possibly survive longer,
though not by much.
Without water, you can only survive a few days. How long you survive
also depends on your environment. If you were in a hot desert without
water, you certainly won?t last very long. "
(SOURCE: Dr. Yilm, "Going without food",
<http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2005/6/19/health/11240999&sec=health>).
Here are some historic examples:
"Most of the most famous hunger strikers always supplemented their
diet, so that they were not totally deprived of nutrients. In 1981,
the Irish republicans who fasted in protest supplemented their diet
with occasional spoonfuls of salt. One of them, Bobby Sands,
subsequently died of hunger. He lasted 66 days.
In another incident, Turkish Marxists went on a hunger strike. Some of
them lasted for over 300 days. But they supplemented their diet with
salt, sugar and vitamins. However, some of them still ended up
starving to death.
Gandhi, the world?s most famous hunger striker, never fasted for more
than 21 days. "
(SOURCE: ibid)
Read further:
Jill Irvin, "Re: How long can a human live without water and food",
<http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/sep99/937540022.Gb.r.html>
Rajeev Khanna, "Fasting fakir flummoxes physicians", BBC News,
Tuesday, 25 November, 2003,
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3236118.stm>
I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any
further clarification on this answer before you rate it. My search
terms were:
human survive "without food" |
