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From:	Claudia (conpx05.cms.hhs.gov)
Subject:	Re: "enough calories to support life"
Date:	February 15, 2006 at 5:44 am PST

In Reply to: posted by lurker w/question on February 14, 2006 at 4:44 pm:

I was speaking pretty loosely there. I'm not really sure what the minimum number of calories would be before you start starving yourself to death, but the calories in foods come from three sources, which are protein, carbs, and fat, and so if you have a serious caloric deficiency, this would be a way of developing a protein deficiency. Outside of starvation, it is very difficult to find people who suffer the effects of protein deficiency because it just happens that our physical requirements for protein are easily met. Actually there are limits to how much protein the body can utilize, and the more common problems that people have come from excess rather than deficiency, but generally its an excess of protein, carbs, and fat (i.e. too many calories, period) rather than just simply an excess of protein. In other words, most people just eat too much food, and instead of worrying about whether or not they are getting enough of an individual macronutrient (protein, carbs, or fat), they should worry more about whether they might be getting too much.

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