How long could you survive on beer alone?

Spoiler: alcohol poisoning isn’t how you would meet your demise.


Asked by: Colin Gray, Castle Cary

Beer typically has around 40 calories per 100ml (one pint = 568ml). To get your daily 2,000 calories just from beer, you’d need to drink 11 pints every day, which is hardly healthy. But the alcohol is the least of your problems. Beer, even real ale or Guinness, contains no fat, almost no protein and – crucially – no vitamin C. Without any source of vitamin C, you’ll experience symptoms of scurvy in two or three months and be dead in six.

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