This disparity of answers gave me pause and stuck with me as I delved further to find different opinions. The first people I reached out to were both registered nurses. As with serious scientific questions of this nature, I was initially rebuffed. Undeterred by their glib responses, I pressed onward, until finally, they acquiesced.
They started with a breakdown of the basics to live. We all need certain vitamins to upkeep our body, namely A, B, B12, C, D and E. Off the bat, avocados don’t have all the necessary nutritional components that we need. This means that there is a finite time before you would die surrounded by your mountains of avocados. What that finite time is, has yet to be determined and might not ever be determined.
In general avocados are 73 percent water. The other 27 percent is made up of two grams of protein and 14.7 grams of fat. It also holds a little over eight grams of carbs which is extremely important for sustaining muscles. The only vitamins that are not present in the avocado are vitamin D, A and Calcium. This means that bones, teeth and eyes will all be in for a hurting but other than that avocados might as well be a super food. This came as a surprise to those I spoke to. None seemed to think that avocados held such a nutritional balance.
The closest thing to avocado subsistence I have come across are the Inuit tribes that live in the northern reaches of Canada and Alaska. They have been able to survive eating diets that are very high in protein and fat. Now avocados are a common way for vegan and vegetarian people to consume lots of good fats and protein. This gives credence to the argument that you could survive over two or three months.
Obviously, only eating one thing for too long will present problems like malnutrition and the inability to move after your muscles have degenerated. If we suspend our disbelief and agree that your avocado consumption habits are unaffected by trivialities like muscle deterioration, then you could quite possibly extend your life to over six months.
Pinpointing the exact amount of time you could live only eating avocados is nearly impossible. That is never the point of these bored afternoon questions. You don’t want a real answer. Instead, it’s more fun to traipse around the fantastical lands of your collective thoughts where facts don’t matter and the realities of the world only apply if it supports your point.
Too often it seems like we resist the pull to seriously consider these inconsequential questions. Questions without answers are some of the best questions to ponder. They leave everything open to interpretation and allow you to explore possibilities without fear of being wrong. With that in mind, how long do you think you could survive eating only avocados?
Griffen Winget can be reached at [email protected]