subsistence diet
Minimal nutrition intake
A subsistence diet provides the minimum nutrition necessary to survive, without excess or variety.
The term appears in contexts of poverty, famine, or deliberate restriction: Prisoners were kept on a subsistence diet of rice and water.
It implies bare survival rather than health or satisfaction.
- survivalRemaining alive against odds
- hand to mouthBarely meeting basic needs
- hungerNeed for nourishment
- empty stomachDigestive tract without food
- famineSevere food shortage
bare · bare minimum · minimal · foraging · rationing · meager · scarcity · poverty · calories · gruel · bread and water · rice and beans · roots · berries · scraps · lean · hardship · drought
quantity/abundance
subsistence dietfeast
Elaborate ceremonial meal
abundance · plenty · overabundance · surplus · gluttony
subsist, subsisted, subsisting, subsists, subsistence, subside, reside, residence, resident