A quick note: This is little more than my summary of what
Wikipedia says +1(you know, formal education and stuff). My summaries are
magical and will improve your science skill—nay, your science ability score.
<you know, STR, DEX, CON, WIS, INT, CHA, SCI. That looks right? No?>
Alas! Today’s topic:
Rabbit Starvation
(please don’t starve ya bunnies. They cute.)
This phenomena is also known as protein poisoning and is
caused by eating too much lean meat and neither fat nor carbohydrates. Couple
this with stressers like cold or very dry climates and you have this lovely
nightmare hotdish!
Lets consider some human biology for a couple of paragraphs.
The body has limits. The stomach for example, typically tops out at about 1 liter. Some can extend much more, but a living person’s stomach cannot typically contain more than 4 liters in the absolute worst case you can think of. That is, before having to remove that “living” condition from character sheets. Think of the poor bulimic girl who passed away, having consumed something like 10 liters of food/drink in a sitting. This is largely internet lore, credibility on this statement is….lacking.
The body has limits. The stomach for example, typically tops out at about 1 liter. Some can extend much more, but a living person’s stomach cannot typically contain more than 4 liters in the absolute worst case you can think of. That is, before having to remove that “living” condition from character sheets. Think of the poor bulimic girl who passed away, having consumed something like 10 liters of food/drink in a sitting. This is largely internet lore, credibility on this statement is….lacking.
As it relates to protein, the body can metabolize around 350
grams per day. That is a substantial quantity of protein, consider our good friend and gym
rat, Jeff, eating from his protein powder drum with a ladle, looking all
coked out. Else, there are about 350 grams of protein in the following:THREE pounds of 85% lean ground beef
One entire pound of seitan (wheat meat)
FOURTEEN 3oz cans of tuna
Fifty-eight large eggs
NINE cups of black beans (uuughh the gas)
All of the above also have piles of other nutrients that cost less to metabolize and have fewer adverse effects.
Now, we must consider that each gram of protein produces 4 kCal of energy, the most one person can metabolize in a day is ~1400 calories. If Jeff here is not working hard (doing things like walking and shivering) he can function alright-ish on so few calories. That sounds livable, right?
Right?
WRONG!
Our good friend Urea disagrees. You see, Urea : CO(NH2)2
is a product of protein metabolism. Usually she is pretty benign in the body
and doesn’t react much: the lovely weekend warrior who expresses her enthusiasm and fights the patriarchy in a chorus of, "WOOOOO!" followed by shots or sugarbooze. She is typically taken out of the body efficiently by the kidneys.
Kidneys have limits too, though!
Consider a hoard of basic b-- zombie woo girls overwhelming your favorite little hovel with the high-pitched call to arms, a deafening cacophony.
Living on a diet of very lean protein [rabbits] Urea builds a following in the body. She collects friends very quickly, in just a few days Urea can overwhelm the kidneys. She recruits so many of her
lovely, audibly excitable friends, in fact, that the direction of the following reaction begins to favor( the energetically unfavorable) decomposition of urea into ammonia and carbon dioxide.
H2O + CO(NH2)2 à 2 NH3 + CO2
In this case, carbon dioxide is exhaled <Breathing and shizz: Why haven't you already read this?> but the ammonia remains in the
bloodstream. This increases the pH and the blood becomes slightly basic (heh). Ammonia, due to her lone pair
of electrons is a fantastic nucleophile. She is a good deal like Hydroxie, but the ride or die
sort. She will attack carbon atoms and change structures in ways one cannot
imagine and all for her ladybros.
AS pH increases, electrochemistry, a critical part of cellular homeostasis, changes.
Enzymes and other proteins begin to denature and fail to do their normal jobs. Critical and complex structures drop cofactors (like
hemes and metal ions) and coenzymes (other proteins). Consider
the riotous collapse of the stock market (or a loss from sportsball team and
their enthusiastic fans going all kinds of crazy—also applies). I imagine them
melting right out of the membrane. It is a fun image for me; it looks a good deal
like Nickelodeon in the ‘90s ifyaknowwhatImean.
The takeaway:
The body becomes so full of piss and vinegar
(light on the vinegar) that it dies.
Like any infomercial worth its NaCl, THERE IS SO MUCH MORE!
If you hang in there with me, I will drag you along into the metabolic wonderland in subsequent posts. The minutia of metabolism is THRILLING! I PROMISE!
