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While no official medical opinions have emerged from Theresa Spence’s Victoria Island teepee, past experience indicates it may be another few weeks before the 49-year-old faces mortal danger — partly due to a liquid diet that is maintaining her body’s store of basic nutrients and staving off early health problems.

Chief Spence’s hunger strike is not a total fast — at least under the Ramadan/Lent/Yom Kippur definition of the term. Since the strike began on Dec. 11, she has been sipping water, broth and cups of tea.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or If a hunger striker is well hydrated, the human body can survive for weeks or even months without food Back to video

Speaking to Postmedia in late December, Dr. Yoni Freedoff, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, estimated that Chief Spence is probably getting between 200 to 400 calories a day — a quarter of the 1,200 an average person requires.

Her liquid diet is still starvation rations, to be clear, but it does top up her body’s store of basic nutrients. Without salt, for instance, Chief Spence’s blood pressure could already be dropping to dangerous lows. As long as a hunger striker is amply hydrated, Dr. Freedoff said, the human body can survive for weeks or even months without food.