Exact Answer: 1-2 Months

Food is one of the most important and necessities for a living organism and we all need it for our survival. Food provides us energy to perform life processes like digestion, respiration, nutrition, transportation, excretion, and circulation of blood which are important processes for the human body. Food is required to repair your body cells on daily basis.

Food provides us nutrition like vitamins, fats, carbohydrates, and protein which are very important for survival. Nutrition is the science of food, nutrients, and other substances as well as digestion, absorption, and utilization by the body.

It is also concerned with the social, psychological, and economic aspects of food and eating. All living organisms like humans, animals, and microorganisms need food in different forms for their survival.

It is very well known that the optimum amount of nutrition is very important for providing immunity and protection from infections, and promoting recovery from a variety of illnesses as well as managing chronic diseases. Food is the most important factor that affects the proper functioning of the body.

How Long Can You Go Without Food

How Long Can You Go Without Food?

Humans need proper food with an adequate amount of nutrition for the survival and make your life healthy and happy. An average human with no health issues can survive for a maximum of two months without dying but can suffer from a serious health issue due to a lack of nutrients in the body. Without consumption of any sort of food will make the body too weak to fight the diseases by making your immunity weak.

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Starvation affects your whole body and in fact, it may affect you mentally too, even your brain too needs some sort of energy to work properly. Moreover, due to lack of proteins in your body may affect your heart muscles and other protein-rich organs which may really turn into a big health issue for you.

Food
Age GroupTime Period
Teenagers 1-2 Months
Middle-aged 2 Months
Old-aged2-3 Weeks

Why Can You Go So Long Without Food?

Without food, survival is possible for at least 2 months because our body stores some of the vitamins, minerals, and glucose. The liver is the site of storage for our body when food is consumed on daily basis, but if not then these store nutrients help the body to get energy. When your body doesn’t get food the liver releases glycogen for the functioning of the organs.

The time period for which a human can starve depends upon some important factors like age, sex, body size, fitness, general health, activity level, and most importantly how long one can go without food. If one is starving plenty amount of water should be consumed, liquid intake can prolong survival without food.

There are several problems a person can face during starvation like fatigue, poor concentration, weight loss, impaired cognitive performance, drop in blood pressure, dizziness, gastrointestinal discomfort, cold intolerance, and many more.

Food

Not only this it may affect your health in a long term too. Some of them are Malnutrition, Dehydration, decreased Metabolic Rate, Loss of monthly menstrual period, constipation, bone loss, Electrolyte imbalance and it can badly affect your brain development too. These all are really serious health issues that can’t be left untreated for a long time.

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Conclusion

For living a healthy life-consuming healthy food is very important. Starvation is really bad for your health and causes long-term diseases which are really fatal. Without food your body gets weak and this will induce anxiety and stress leading to depression and many eating disorders. If you stop eating food then your body will start using its own tissue to get energy which is not healthy this will make you very weak both internally and externally.

Many people chose the method of starvation for losing weight they think that not eating will help them in their weight reduction which is their biggest myth and mistake. It needs to be understood that losing weight and becoming fit are two different things. Weight should not be lost at the cost of your health.

You should consult your doctor before taking any such step.

References

  1. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1951-02195-000
  2. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.nutr.26.061505.111258