Up to date March 27, 2026 07:34PM
A volcano simply erupted beneath 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. Folks frantically name their family members simply earlier than telephones grow to be ineffective, and most can’t discover an apocalypse-proof shelter in time. Those that do, top off on the necessities like bottled water and what turns into one survivor’s holy grail: Bush’s Vegetarian Baked Beans.
This catastrophe is the primary thread of Hulu’s hit present Paradise, and that fortunate survivor is med scholar Annie Clay, performed by Shailene Woodley. She hunkers down in Elvis Presley’s mansion, Graceland, and does her greatest to fill her time studying by candlelight and consuming quite a lot of beans.
Forty-five days cross. Then 689.
I can often droop actuality for the sake of being entertained, however it’s happening two years and, all issues thought of, she’s nonetheless in respectable 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 search 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 consists of 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 will significantly turn out to be useful throughout an end-of-the-world scenario.
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 may make crimson blood cells. It even helps wounds and burns heal—one other capability that will 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 modifications in digestion immediately on the primary day or two,” says Zenker. As you’re seemingly conscious, in the event you’ve been to any cookout ever, simply even one facet of beans is sufficient to make you gassy and remorse consuming them, because of their fiber content material. However your poops, no less than, shall be clean crusing, she says. Total, this part 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 yearning for one thing new, says Zenker. Consuming simply beans, based on Tarugu, can be certain to place a dent in your temper. (Figuring out that you simply’re in full isolation wouldn’t make you’re feeling good both, although.)
These simple bowel actions are actually turning into what licensed integrative medical 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 eat 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 seemingly 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 trying 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 completely 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 unhealthy information: the absence of vitamin C is now an issue. And not using a ample quantity of it, based on Coblentz, you’d get sick in about one month and get scurvy a number of months later. “I’m not a nutritionist, however I do know scurvy could be very, very lethal.” He’s proper.
Scurvy is a illness brought on by an excessive lack of vitamin C. Early signs embody fatigue and joint ache. When you go too lengthy with out vitamin C, your gums may get spongy and bleed (your tooth may even fall out), you’ll bruise simply, and it’s possible you’ll develop anemia, a blood dysfunction marked by a low crimson blood cell rely.
For the physique to operate optimally, males want about 90 milligrams per day, and girls ought to get no less than 75. In a standard world, you could possibly get sufficient by consuming fruit and veggies or downing a glass of OJ. Annie was rising some form of purple flower when the solar got here again, however that’s…not sufficient. Even when it was, if radiation bought 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 desires 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 effectively with out main deficiencies for nearly two years on beans alone is unrealistic with out shut medical oversight.”
However contemplating Annie was on her option to turning into a physician, out of anybody, she’d most likely have one of the best likelihood of survival in any scenario.
The season 2 finale of Paradise comes out on Monday, March 30, at midnight Jap time. Will you be watching? Tell us within the feedback.
