“The manifestations of starvation depend on the context, the person's previous nutritional status, his or her age, and the severity of food deprivation.” from George G Graham article "Starvation in the Modern World" in the New England Journal of Medicine Vol328:1058-1061 (1993). This is the "conventional wisdom".
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| Originally Posted by LoveHound Not so sure if this is the right place to ask, but here goes. Have you noticed how the starved children in Africa always have a huge bloated stomach? I heard this was caused by accumulated liquids and gas from malnutrition, lack of protein to be exact. |
This is what is called kwashiorkor and, your right, it is due to a lack of protein in the diet. These are kids who are not nursing & are trying to survive on an adult famine diet.
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So how come anorexics, who also suffer from malnutrition and most likely severe lack of protein, don't have bloated stomachs like that?
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Simply, anorexics are just starving & suffer a set of famine symptoms. I don’t think that anorexics are suffering from a specific lack of protein compared to the young children with kwashiorkor. Anorexics will have a much larger protein reserve (size) & have a lower (relative to size) nutrient need for protein (compared to young children).
You can imagine a famine where the surviving mothers would look anorexic while the babies would have kwashiorkor.
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