The paradox for human survivors of prolonged starvation is that the big hearty meal they`ve longed for could actually kill them.
As University of Queensland PhD student Rebecca Cramp explained, "The body simply can`t process a normal portion and the broad-ranging physical effects are often lethal".
Now, thanks to a pioneering study that has seen her chasing frogs through the outback and fishing in ice-cold Antarctica, Ms Cramp is moving closer to both an understanding of the physiology of starvation and a solution to the challenges of re-feeding.
"Most of the existing research in this area has been done on laboratory rats, which are obviously not adapted to starvation conditions. This represents one of the first studies of its kind to look at species that have adapted," Ms Cramp said.
"Primarily, I set out to study the behaviour of an Australian Burrowing Frog, which can effectively live underground with no food for 12-18 months at a time and then come out and eat a huge meal with no apparent effects.
"More recently, after fostering relations with Canterbury University in New Zealand, I`ve been studying in parallel the survival of fish in Antarctica who exist through winter periods without any sustenance.
"It`s essentially brand new research and it is very exciting. Starvation is such a broad and little-understood phenomenon, so potentially we could uncover some important implications for human survival and behaviour."
Among those implications could be an answer to the traumatic plight of re-feeding Third World populations after extended periods of starvation.
"Ethiopian survivors of starvation can endure horrific and often fatal effects of re-feeding after starvation - including massive diarrhoea and gastric ulcers," Ms Cramp said. "Science still understands very little about why that occurs and what can be done about it.
Accompanied by her supervisor, Associate Professor Dr Craig Franklin, Ms Cramp spent about four weeks in freezing Antarctica late last year, much of which was spent huddling around a tiny fishing hole in the ice.
"The Borch species of fish lives at -2 degrees," explained Dr Franklin, "so it`s a fairly cold fishing trip.
"In the end we took about 20 to 30 fish for the study, although sometimes you had to wait quite a while before the next school swam by. Ideally, Rebecca will be able to return this year in order to study their habits during winter."
Ms Cramp, who has already attracted interest from Swedish researchers studying the effects of starvation on human intestinal neuro-transmitters, is due to complete her thesis in September.
For more information, please contact Dr Craig Franklin (telephone 07 3365 2355), Rebecca Cramp (telephone 07 3365 1391) or Brad Turner at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2659).
