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Asked by hollyjade to Daniel, Jon, Louise, Sharon, Zoe, Daniel, Jon, Louise, Sharon on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: General. This question was also asked by elan86.
Question: why is it we need food to survive and if so could anything substitute food so we wouldn't have to eat?
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Jon Copley answered on 16 Jun 2010:
All the cells in our bodies need a supply of molecules to survive – some molecules they break down to get energy (e.g. sugars), some they use as building blocks for repair and growth (e,g, amino acids), and some they need to help the chemical reactions that keep us alive (e.g. vitamins).
We get those molecules from our food. Plants, on the other hand, can make the molecules that their cells need, using sunlight as an energy source in the process of photosynthesis. But for us, we need to eat!
I guess you could get all the molecules our cells need in a liquid form, and survive by drinking rather than eating (or even inject the molecules directly into your bloodstream, via a hospital drip). But I think you could end up with problems in your gut if you didn’t keep giving it solid food to work on.
There are, however, a remarkable group of animals that don’t have mouths, or guts, and so don’t eat anything. They are the “tubeworms” that live around the undersea volcanoes where I work. They survive without eating anything because, instead of a stomach inside them, they have a bag of special bacteria. The bacteria living inside the worm use chemicals gushing from undersea volcanoes to make the molecules that the worms need to survive.
You can find out more about the deep-sea tubeworms here:
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Louise Dash answered on 16 Jun 2010:
Food is our source of energy, and the more calories you eat the more energy you have! At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work, if I eat loads of calories I just want to sleep 😀
In the 1970s there were a lot of predictions that by the year 2000 we’d all be living on protein pills instead of eating food – I can remember this being on a TV science programme called “Tomorrow’s World” when I was a kid. I suspect this had a lot to do with 1970s food though, it wasn’t very good, mostly tinned fruit cocktail and Findus crispy pancakes as far as I recall. Protein pills may well have been preferable.
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Sharon Sneddon answered on 16 Jun 2010:
We need food to provide us with energy, every process in our body requires energy, so we cant live without food! Ive no idea about any kind of artificial energy sources that would do the same thing, but I love food so dont think iwould like to give up eating!!!
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Zoe Duck answered on 17 Jun 2010:
Food contains lots of energy. We need energy to make things go and that includes us! The energy we get from our food is used when we think, run, talk etc. It is also used by lots of chemical reactions in your body and simple tasks such as keeping you warm, filtering your blood and even digesting food.
Other things in food are also important. We need the protein we get from food to make new cells and to repair the ones we have. We need fats, also for our cells and as a store of energy. We need vitamins to keep bodily processes going and we need fibre to keep our digestive systems functioning properly
We could potentially substitute food with a high energy drink or with an energy pill but you would need the energy to be in a form that the body can use and it would also need to have all the right nutrients in it. Personally, I would rather eat!
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