Apart from entertaining us with their conniving and backstabbing, the Survivor participants provide amazing insight into our relationship with food.
At the moment, the South African Survivors in Malaysia are far more threatened by food insecurity than the Americans. This makes us wonder: will the Iban Survivors starve? And will this scupper their chances of getting into the final?
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Two different scenarios
The South African Iban tribe are stranded on a stretch of coast that is particularly low on natural food sources. The surrounding sea, rocks and rock pools don’t have adequate supplies of fish, crustaceans or molluscs.
The Bajan Tribe, on the other hand, are sitting pretty. Their piece of coastline is a treasure house of succulent fish, crabs, limpets and every other type of shellfish.
On top of this bounty, the Bajan Tribe is also privileged to have the leadership and services of Hein, who is a born survivor with amazing skills when it comes to finding and gathering food, making fire and generally ensuring that everyone has a full stomach.
The two groups are faced with totally different challenges when it comes to food. The Bajan Tribe get more than enough kilojoules and plenty of protein, and also have access to a nice variety of foods.
The Iban Tribe are staring starvation in the face. Their attempts to harvest seafood are not very successful and if it weren’t for the coconuts and the sugarcane they chew all the time, they would already have succumbed.
Saving grace
In the latest episode, Iban at last managed to find some tubers that appeared to be edible (we will have to wait to see if these roots cause stomach upsets).
Such tubers would contain carbohydrates – something the Survivors need urgently to provide fuel for their strenuous physical activities. You cannot compete in wrestling matches, long swims and sprints if you don't have a ready fuel supply, such as carbohydrates, to fall back on.
Now that Iban have managed to supplement their meagre diet with some starch, they may just be able to hold out a bit longer and have the energy to win a few more challenges.
The horror of starvation
Just before the discovery of the tubers, Angie clearly showed how desperate the Iban Tribe is as a result of being deprived of food. Bear in mind that Angie is a hardcore bootcamp instructor in real life.
In the last episode she was near to tears and said that she was feeling light-headed and could no longer think straight. This once again illustrates that human beings can't survive without food.
The first thing that is affected by a restricted energy intake is the human brain. Our brains need high and constant levels of glucose to function properly. Go on a starvation diet and your mental capacity will be severely affected.
Being deprived of adequate energy supplies will also have a severe effect on your emotional stability. This is why people on starvation diets feel so depressed and 'wobbly'. It’s not the best method of losing weight and the Survivors are an excellent example of how detrimental starvation can be to the functioning of the body and the brain.
Another effect of starvation is that the body starts to use protein from muscle tissue as fuel.
Dyke and Angie are already showing signs of cachexia (severe loss of muscle tissue). Most people who want to lose weight want to lose fat, not muscle tissue, but this is what happens when your energy intake is too restricted.
So, next time you consider a starvation diet, remember what’s happening to the SA Survivors in Malaysia.
Five-star luxury
In the meantime, the Bajan Tribe are living in 'five-star luxury', as Lorette said. They have ample supplies of food and some variety in their diet.
These two factors are, and have always been, the two most important motivations in human evolution. Even cavemen did everything in their power to find as much food as possible and to eat a varied diet.
No wonder modern man is unable to resist the endless variety and overabundance of food available in western societies. We are genetically programmed to eat as much food as possible, because our genes remember those lean times when we had to starve.
I sometimes think that this is the reason why we’re not winning the war against obesity.
On the one hand we have health professionals warning us that overeating and obesity are going to kill us off. And on the other hand we have our ancient genetic makeup that drives us to eat, because food has been the most important factor in survival since the dawn of time.
Possible scenarios
The question, of course, is who will be crowned the Survivor champ. I’m putting my money on someone from the Bajan Tribe. My guess is that their ample supply of food will determine who stays fit and strong enough to last the entire 27 days.
Text copyright: Dr I.V. van Heerden
24 September 2007
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