Food Theory: The Challenge That Nearly KILLED MrBeast!

In WW2, when the Americans liberated the concentration camp "Saint-Cyprien", located in France. The American troops wanted to feed the newly freed Camp Prisoners because they have been starving. Without knowing what would happen if they would feed them heavy food, literally seconds after liberating them. The soldiers, thinking it was the right thing, started giving the Prisoners Apples, Sandwiches, and even Chocolates. Leading to a lot of Prisoners dying. After that incident, the Science team gave out an order to not feed the prisoners in the camps and to let the Medical Staff feed them first. It was mostly a slow input of light soup.

There’s a story on YouTube about a crew of Japanese sailors who shipwrecked on an island and went a few weeks without food. They were eventually rescued by an American ship and the captain was extremely strict with what the starving crew ate. Making sure they only ate small amounts of soup. Ship captains in the 1800’s clearly knew how to deal with starvation. And it goes to show how easily knowledge can be lost.

honestly just goes to show how smart and careful jimmy really is with all of his challenges, and how far he prepares for them. I didn't even know refeeding syndrome was a thing at all.

I remember when I was a kid a holocaust survivor was telling us all these stories about his experience there, and the one that stuck with me the most for how so utterly devastating it is, is how when his small group was rescued at the end of the war they were given tins of food and rescue blankets. The only two options were a dryer biscuity type and a sausage and gravy type. He originally got the sausage one but his closest friend was far hungrier than him so he swapped it for the biscuit. They all hadn’t eaten in days- the shock to the system was so severe every person who ate the sausage died. He watched his only friend die AFTER they survived the holocaust… Edit: just saw there’s a pinned comment about this already lol whoops

Refeeding syndrome actually somewhat happened to my dad. He had a really bad case of the flu several years ago and could barely keep anything down. All he could have was broth for like a week and a half. Well he started to feel better. The rest of us wanted to get burgers. He obviously didn’t have one but wanted to have a bite (he wasn’t contagious anymore). He had one bite and within about fifteen minutes he was unresponsive. His eyes were wide open but he didn’t speak or respond when we were screaming at him. It was extremely terrifying. He was responsive with 10min and he refused to go to the hospital😖 thankfully he only got better after that but yeah don’t make any drastic changes!!

What was interesting is that during his Willy Wonka video you could tell his energy levels were low...but had no idea it was due to the challenge he was doing at the time. I figured it was from trying to put together the crazy factory.

The fact that Jimmy talked about refeeding syndrome and had a bunch of medical experts on standby really shows the precautions he takes behind the scenes. He's really serious about doing these challenges and definitely should be taken inspiration for a lot of people.

Looking back, I realized that slowly feeding someone soup after they were starving for a long period of time was displayed in the book The Hunger Games. When Katniss was woke up in that room after winning and being picked up in a hover car, she was fed small amounts of soup over time. Hats off to the author for their attention to detail.

This is probably my favourite food theory video to date. This information could save lives of people who fast, whether voluntarily or not. As someone who has unfortunately been in a position of not being able to acquire food, I really appreciate this information. There had been times in which I went a few days without food, only to try and stuff myself. I only ever felt sick, and knowing it's my body's natural response is a huge perspective change.

The fact that he endured 2 weeks without food is insane. At least he seemed okay after

As a recovering ED patient, refeeding syndrome is NO JOKE. I went over 3 weeks once without anything solid (water and a single popsicle a day), only to break the fast at a band dinner celebrating the end of the season. Spent the next day hugging the toilet...

I'll be honest, one thing Hunger Games taught me was that eating a lot after starving/eating very little wasn't a good thing, even if they didn't portray it perfectly or anything. Interesting to hear it elaborated on, tbh.

As someone who had an eating disorder this video is very accurate. My doctors had to work me up to what my actual diet plan was going to look like instead of hopping right in.

Slight correction: Pretty sure Gordan didn't know MrBeast was fasting until he literally started cooking for him. He probably would not have even started cooking if he knew. By the time he started, he definitely has the pride of a chef to have his target audience enjoy his food.

Mr Beast truly is the reverse Chris McLean, his challenges are reasonably safe and rewarding to every contestant, and he saves the real dangers for himself.

As someone who struggles with anorexia, eating only around 900 calories a day, I knew as soon as you started this episode that you were going to talk about refeeding syndrome. I’ve never been forced into recovery to experience it myself but I’ve done plenty of research on it. It can be extremely dangerous and harm your body in so many ways. This is why many people trying to recover from eating disorders only go up about 100 calories or so per week. Him eating something extremely full of calories after being malnourished for so long is just a recipe for disaster. I’m glad you covered this as it’s not something most people know about. This will hopefully help people understand their bodies more.

I actually remember reading something about this stuff. A kid in the Donner party died after being rescued because he ate too much after, you know, the starvation thing. The kid didn’t understand and ate through a crap ton of the rations while the adults were sleeping and died from “overeating”

Never before has a Food/Film/Game theory made me so worried about someone else's heath or even mortality. Seriously, I actually got stressed hearing about how dangerous this challenge was.

as a medical practitioner, I'm proud of Jimmy for having doctors helping him and ACTUALLY LISTENING to their advice... education is fundamental in everything health-related, so I'm all for doing these experiments with counseling from health professionals =D

Watching Matpat fire shots at Gordon Ramsay from a Mrbeast challenge is the funniest thing ever