this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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Let's say you are dying of starvation. You pull one of your teeth out, causing blood to slowly seep into your mouth, which you swallow. The calories from the blood getting digested will delay the time you die of starvation, right? Or will losing blood while starving kill you faster?

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[–] MisterCurtis 13 points 8 months ago

Something to consider is that your body relies on blood glucose as its primary energy source. During starvation, glucose levels are severely depleted. This triggers your body to start using stored fatty acids. All remaining glucose is reserved for the brain to use.

By removing blood from your body and moving it to your stomach, you're essentially moving that precious energy to an organ that can't as readily make it available to the tissues that need it.

Thanks to the thermic effect, it also takes energy to digest and metabolize food. You'd be expending extra energy to digest the blood that was already in your body, where it was perfectly content carrying usable energy where it was needed.