Desert island survival?

[Deck]

If you were stranded on a desert island surrounded by sharks - i.e. fishing not possible!, could you survive on coconuts alone?! (assuming you can open them!) i.e. you have the cocnut juice, and the flesh, but is it enough for the body to survive?

[BadBob]

Yes an No. I think you would be able to survive for a while but soon enough various ailments such as scurvy would set in due to the lack of various vitimins and minerals.

[Buffy]

Even before scurvy could set in, a person would experience heart failure due to a lack of potassium in the diet. An otherwise healthy 19-year-old woman in the state of Ohio, USA, died that way a few years ago, and the same thing could happen to anyone. It was a very tragic occurrence, though she ended up saving countless other people who never knew that could happen. Stay alive, eat a banana!

[Janetex]

Coconuts in a desert? What an interesting idea. Do they thrive on dung? I'm not English so p'raps something's lost in the translation. Coconuts are not a "whole" food, therefore humans cannot survive on them.,

[Buffy]

I always thought that the word "desert" in the phrase "desert island" was simply short for "deserted", and had little or nothing to do with the climatic conditions.

[Deck]

You're right Buffy. Janetex: "Desert Island" is a turn of phrase here in the UK, to mean a deserted island in the ocean, probably a tropical one with palm trees and coconut trees etc...not a sandy desert!

[firefly]

Sharks are fish, why not fish for them? Ok, you'd need to work out some way of catching them.