Up to date March 27, 2026 07:34PM
A volcano simply erupted under Antarctica. Tremors reverberate beneath Earth’s terrain miles from the blast, prompting an enormous tsunami to bury most main cities (and nations!) underwater. Darkish ash fills the sky. Individuals frantically name their family members simply earlier than telephones turn out to be ineffective, and most can’t discover an apocalypse-proof shelter in time. Those that do, refill on the necessities like bottled water and what turns into one survivor’s holy grail: Bush’s Vegetarian Baked Beans.
This catastrophe is the principle thread of Hulu’s hit present Paradise, and that fortunate survivor is med pupil Annie Clay, performed by Shailene Woodley. She hunkers down in Elvis Presley’s mansion, Graceland, and does her finest to fill her time studying by candlelight and consuming numerous beans.
Forty-five days cross. Then 689.
I can normally droop actuality for the sake of being entertained, however it’s happening two years and, all issues thought of, she’s nonetheless in first rate form. That’s suspicious.
Two questions come to thoughts whereas watching: How lengthy may somebody realistically survive on beans? And what would occur to your physique on a bean-only weight-reduction plan? I interviewed a survival professional, a physician, and some nutritionists to seek out out.
The Good and Unhealthy of Beans
“You’ll be able to survive on them as your solely protein supply,” says Cal Coblentz, a former survival, evasion, resistance, and escape specialist in the USA Air Pressure. Their nutrient roster additionally contains fiber, iron, folate, and magnesium, says Dr. Vikram Tarugu, a board-certified gastroenterologist primarily based in Okeechobee, Florida.
One other main profit is that “changing animal protein with plant protein has been linked to improved longevity,” says Avery Zenker, a registered dietitian, a bonus that may critically come in useful throughout an end-of-the-world state of affairs.
However canned beans lack one very essential aspect: vitamin C, a nutrient that helps pores and skin, bone, and tissue develop, and absorbs iron so you can also make purple blood cells. It even helps wounds and burns heal—one other potential that may be very nice to have if the world ends.
What Would Occur to Your Physique If You Simply Ate Beans?
TL;DR: Life wouldn’t be nice.
After the First Couple of Days
“You’ll most likely expertise adjustments in digestion straight away on the primary day or two,” says Zenker. As you’re probably conscious, when you’ve been to any cookout ever, simply even one facet of beans is sufficient to make you gassy and remorse consuming them, due to their fiber content material. However your poops, not less than, can be easy crusing, she says. General, this section is fairly manageable.
After 1 Week
You’re most likely bored with beans now, and an absence of different meals will go away your style buds longing for one thing new, says Zenker. Consuming simply beans, based on Tarugu, can also be positive to place a dent in your temper. (Figuring out that you simply’re in full isolation wouldn’t make you are feeling good both, although.)
These simple bowel actions at the moment are turning into what licensed integrative scientific nutritionist Meg Bowman calls “catastrophe pants,” aka diarrhea.
Between 1 and 6 Months
As a result of beans are filling, it’ll be powerful to devour sufficient energy, so sluggishness is sort of assured at this stage, says Zenker.
The excellent news: your intestine is now used to being bombarded with beans, so your bowel actions will probably return to regular, says Bowman. The rationale? “Your intestine micro organism are populating and shifting and increasing to maintain up with all this new fiber you’re consuming,” says Ashley Kitchens, a plant-based registered dietitian.
That 45-day mark is now wanting fairly believable. My confidence was additional bolstered when Zenker knowledgeable me about Beau Miles, an journey filmmaker identified for documenting his self-experiments, who, again in 2020, when a wholly totally different catastrophe descended upon us, ate solely beans for 40 days (191 cans to be actual)—and lived to inform the story.
However right here’s some dangerous information: the absence of vitamin C is now an issue. With out a ample quantity of it, based on Coblentz, you’d get sick in about one month and get scurvy just a few months later. “I’m not a nutritionist, however I do know scurvy may be very, very lethal.” He’s proper.
Scurvy is a illness brought on by an excessive lack of vitamin C. Early signs embrace fatigue and joint ache. Should you go too lengthy with out vitamin C, your gums may get spongy and bleed (your enamel may even fall out), you’ll bruise simply, and chances are you’ll develop anemia, a blood dysfunction marked by a low purple blood cell rely.
For the physique to operate optimally, males want about 90 milligrams per day, and ladies ought to get not less than 75. In a traditional world, you may get sufficient by consuming vegetables and fruit or downing a glass of OJ. Annie was rising some type of purple flower when the solar got here again, however that’s…not sufficient. Even when it was, if radiation received to it, she’d need to keep away from it anyway, says Coblentz.
Between 1 and a pair of Years
That is the place Paradise needs you to depend on your creativeness. “We as people traditionally have survived on restricted diets time and time once more, however ‘surviving’ and ‘thriving’ are very various things,” says Kitchens. I agree together with her.
Not solely is a bean weight-reduction plan not sustainable for this lengthy, Tarugu says, “dwelling nicely with out main deficiencies for nearly two years on beans alone is unrealistic with out shut medical oversight.”
However contemplating Annie was on her method to changing into a physician, out of anybody, she’d most likely have one of the best likelihood of survival in any state of affairs.
The season 2 finale of Paradise comes out on Monday, March 30, at midnight Japanese time. Will you be watching? Tell us within the feedback.