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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35724
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

### Starvation

The information you seek is in the Wikipedia article on [starvation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation). There it is explained how starvation leads to death (because important organs are "digested"), how long it takes (though the exact number of days will differ from individual to individual), and you can infer that after a certain point (when organs are damaged irredeemably) eating won't "heal" the person again.

### Generally

You will find most of this kind of information on the web. Usually Wikipedia is sufficient, though you may have to combine the information in several articles to get what you need. Wikipedia, as @TripeHound has mentioned in a comment below, will also give you the technical terms and alternative keywords for your search.

If resources like Wikipedia and other encyclopedias cannot help you, there are many Q&A sites that either allow questions regarding certain topics (e.g. Stack Exchange) or all questions (e.g. Quora). Just ask there.

You can also use [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/) to do your own research. Some scientific journals are open access, many books can be read (at least in the relevant parts) on Google Books (or their Amazon previews), and often the abstract will suffice. If you need to read something behind a paywall, you can go to a university library, register as a guest, and access most journals from there.

If you still cannot find an answer, **simply use common sense**. Most readers won't know either and will not notice any mistakes.

Original score: 17