Saiyan Diet

[Hulk10]

I figure there have to be somethings that even Saiyans won't eat.

[dbgtFO]

Poop, for starters.
Sand, dirt, big metal, wood, plastic and glass.
Probably not flowers, leaves and grass.
Hard to tell. We have no idea how their digestive system works other than it seems like they can eat the same foods we can, but require far more calories a day.
It could be they are more resistant to toxins and antinutrients and so they could eat poisonous plants and animals and won't suffer the same fate we would. Maybe sugar works as a very good source of energy for them, but without the massive detriments, that human experience?
It's possible.

[Hulk10]

Poop, for starters.
Sand, dirt, big metal, wood, plastic and glass.
Probably not flowers, leaves and grass.
Hard to tell. We have no idea how their digestive system works other than it seems like they can eat the same foods we can, but require far more calories a day.
It could be they are more resistant to toxins and antinutrients and so they could eat poisonous plants and animals and won't suffer the same fate we would. Maybe sugar works as a very good source of energy for them, but without the massive detriments, that human experience?
It's possible.

Carrion too. I'm sure there are things that won't eat. I'm guessing that Toriyama decided it wasn't important to show exactly what Saiyans wouldn't eat.

[SSJgogeto]

Chronoa's pudding.

[Koitsukai]

Have we seen them eat candy or drink Coke?

[Hulk10]

No we haven't seen them eat candy or drink coke. But I'm sure they would. And actually Goku did eat Chronoa's pudding once.

[Yuli Ban]

Hard to tell. We have no idea how their digestive system works other than it seems like they can eat the same foods we can, but require far more calories a day.
It's possible.

Time to bring in some goddamn SCIENCE in this house.
1 food calorie (or kilocalorie) is about 4184 joules.
There are one billion joules in an average lightning bolt, or conversely, it takes about 240,000 calories to create a lightning bolt. Lightning bolts can do some serious damage, but they're not destroying cities.
If you could create a lightning bolt yourself, you could theoretically destroy a car.
Thing is, the average human will die LONG before they can consume 240,000 calories of anything. Indeed, if you consume even 24,000 calories of something in one sitting, you're going to feel ill and your body will be thrown out of whack rather than getting a mindless amount of energy. Our bodies don't know how to use all these calories, hence why we get fat. That fat's stored energy, basically.

Saiyans don't seem to have this trait. Instead, their bodies turn calories into incredible amounts of energy. Too much. Thunderstorms don't have as much energy as a Saiyan. And when I say "Saiyan", I mean the average Saiyan— one who was presumably a fraction of the strength of Raditz.

Of course, there is theoretically a way to get to Saiyanlike power through pure consumption— if you were to eat uranium!
It turns out a gram uranium is roughly 20 billion calories. That's about 83,680,000,000,000 joules— which is roughly the explosivity of the Fat Man atomic bomb. If you were to eat full uranium meals, you'd have enough power to be able to punch the planet off its axis. That's more like it!!


So my headcanon is that Saiyans have special stomachs that turn all food into uranium, which they can also digest, and nothing will dissuade me from this viewpoint.

"But there are so many holes in that dumb theory. It falls apart on the lightest tap and completely ignores chi too!"

I don't care!

[Hulk10]

I interpret Toriyama's statement as being that Saiyans will eat anything edible, regardless of whether or not they like it.

[theherodjl]

I interpret Toriyama's statement as being that Saiyans will eat anything edible, regardless of whether or not they like it.

Isn't that what he said in the first place?

[Hulk10]

I interpret Toriyama's statement as being that Saiyans will eat anything edible, regardless of whether or not they like it.

Isn't that what he said in the first place?

Not his precise wording but yeah.