What is starvation?

Starvation is when your body doesn’t get enough food to stay strong and healthy.

Imagine you have a toy robot that needs batteries to move. If it runs out of batteries and you don’t give it any new ones, the robot can’t do anything, it’s like being starved of energy. That’s what happens to people when they’re starving, their bodies don’t get enough fuel (which is food) to keep going.

When your body doesn’t get enough food, it starts using up its stored energy, just like a toy robot uses up its batteries. At first, you might feel tired and grumpy, like after playing with your favorite toy for too long without a break. If the starvation lasts longer, your body gets weaker, and you can’t do things as well as before.

If someone keeps being starved of food for a very long time, their body might not be able to recover. It’s like if your robot ran out of batteries and never got any new ones, it just stops working altogether. But with enough food again, the robot (or person) can start moving, and feeling, better!