If you’re dying of hunger, why can’t you eat leaves and grass to survive? Could that sustain you for even a little longer?

Question

And what would be the most advantageous things to come across if you have dwindling supplies? Berries? An animal?

In: Biology

Answer 1

People have resorted to this a few times. During the Irish potatoe famine, there are reports of families with their teeth stained green from eating grass. The issue is grass is mostly fiber. Fiber has 0 caloric value because our stomachs can’t break it down. Sheep and cows can eat it because they have multiple stomachs that have evolved to break down the fiber into sugars, but as humans our single stomach can’t do it.

So eating a big bowl of grass would only be a 10 to 60 calories at most (depending on the grass), yet you’d feel full because the fiber filled you up. In starvation conditions you need about 500 calories a day to stay alive. But a human eating 500 calories a day is barely functional. you could use it to pad out more calorie rich foods like grains and meats, but it wouldn’t be a substitute for other foods.