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elijah - as best I understand, here's a list of what you need to live above and beyond vitamins/minerals - some of it is already available in pill or drink form - a trip to GNC can be an eye-opener - so the tentative answer to your question is "yes, but unlikely":
1. a source of nucleosides (A,G,T,C,U) for both DNA and RNA. These are not only required for the activities of the nucleus, but are also the basic components for many neurotransmitters and other cell activation systems, as well as the vital energy-storing/releasing triphosphate molecules (ATP, GTP, etc)
2. carbohydrates, simple and complex (sugars and starchs, respectively) which serve as the source of easy-access short-term energy.
3. lipids - saturated and unsaturated fats and oils - which are long-term storage for energy, but more importantly serve as the structural basis for many endocrine molecules (hormones, etc.), as well as the maintenance of the brain cells, which are primarily full of fatty acid structures. lipids are also needed to form cell membranes and the myelin sheaths around nerves.
4. amino acids and proteins, to build your own proteins, etc. - which are the molecules that function as the engines of change in the body - and also as the basis for the remaining neurotransmitters - including some vital ones like serotonin - and some endocrine chemicals.
So you could probably "survive" on pills that filled these requirements, plus vitamins and minerals, but you'd probably have immense kidney and liver problems. Also, there is a difference between merely dumping the basic necessary elements into the stomach and the slower process of all of the digesting and enzymatic work that goes between the mouth and the lower intestine. Something tells me that the resulting person wouldn't be very pretty. |
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