What do Zombies Eat Exactly?

[Feylynn]

Probably just retreading answers offered before but Zombies are dead and don't need nutrition.
Eating is an instinct and it's only practical function is to spread the infection.

True but how would the zombies have energy to move if they dont eat? Unless they are supernatural in nature.

My assumption was the virus was extremely potent. It alone is enough energy to bring them back in the first place without them having eaten.
This would require a large amount of energy inherent to the substance.

One theory may be the virus is more parasitic in nature eating the host for energy while pushing it to spread the seed. Maybe this means eating does supplement their supply of energy but i don't think they'd starve quickly and they'd certainly eat each other before re-dying.

but we're on non scientific ground by seriously discussing Zombies, if you want definitives you need to clarify certain lore sets to take from.

 

[Nunny]

It honestly depends on what zombies you are referring to.
Romero[Slow, Dumb, Classic]: I think it had been establish in some Romero movie that zombies just ate people because they were in pain. They would eat only the brains I think. In later movies they seem to eat the whole human. These zombies won't starve.
Max Brooks Zombies[Same as Romero]: In the the "Zombie Survival Guide", Brooks says that while zombies prefer to eat humans, and will always go after them, but will consume animals such as dogs,cats, and etc. These zombies won't starve.
28 Days Later [Fast,Crazy,Newer]: To me this is the most plausible thing that could happen in real life. These zombies or "infected" are really just full of rage that drives them insane. They don't really want to eat you, they just want you dead. They will just happen to bite you sometimes, the virus spreads through blood and saliva so you probably going to be infected. These zombies will starve eventually.

Actualy the whole "pain of being dead" was not part of Romero's Zombies but rather spin off made by a guy who worked with Romero in the original movie.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It annoys me how there is supposed to be some sort of zombie canon every zombie movie has to abide by. Especially as it falls apart even when you aren't looking at it closely.

If the thing is caused by a virus, the zombie is just another living creature, they require food to eat, stomach to digest, blood to carry stuff around, heart to pump the blood and lungs to oxygenate it etc.

If the thing is dead, shrug and say "a wizard did it".

 

[Guilherme Zoldan]

Probably just retreading answers offered before but Zombies are dead and don't need nutrition.
Eating is an instinct and it's only practical function is to spread the infection.

True but how would the zombies have energy to move if they dont eat? Unless they are supernatural in nature.

My assumption was the virus was extremely potent. It alone is enough energy to bring them back in the first place without them having eaten.
This would require a large amount of energy inherent to the substance.

One theory may be the virus is more parasitic in nature eating the host for energy while pushing it to spread the seed. Maybe this means eating does supplement their supply of energy but i don't think they'd starve quickly and they'd certainly eat each other before re-dying.

but we're on non scientific ground by seriously discussing Zombies, if you want definitives you need to clarify certain lore sets to take from.

True its not hard science here, but if we are going for virus zombies its science fiction so it needs to at least make some sense. The parasite virus makes sense, but I think it still feeds on the flesh that the zombie eats. Although the zombie being dead he has no way to digest the food hmmm...
In resident evil the T-virus zombies dont eat, they only attack in order to spread the virus, I remmember reading that on a note in RE 3. Do the Ganados eat?

 

[deathstrikesquirrel]

The Ganados are shown to eat, just not have any concern for hygiene.
In World War Z, which is in the same Zombieverse as the Zombie Survival Guide, it is proposed to let the Zombies starve out instead of going on the offensive so that seems to indicate that Zombies have to eat.

 

[Nunny]

The Ganados are shown to eat, just not have any concern for hygiene.
In World War Z, which is in the same Zombieverse as the Zombie Survival Guide, it is proposed to let the Zombies starve out instead of going on the offensive so that seems to indicate that Zombies have to eat.

Not that they have to eat rather that they eventualy decompose/suffer enough damage to the point that they are no longer a threat.

 

[Biodeamon]

that depends on what type of zombie we're talking about.

if it's just the infected then they actually need to eat otherwise they'll starve (see 28 days later for instance).

however the undead just eat becuase they have a place in their brain that controlls hunger is affected and only eat because of instinct not need.

both eat but the reasons for both are varied.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I refuse to site my sources in a conversation about zombies. That's just silly. I can say that zombies survive on Moon Cheese and it wouldn't be any less relevant then whatever the Zombie Survival Guide says.

OT: Moon Cheese, of course. Weren't you paying attention?

 

[Vexik]

What sustains zombies? Obvious:

The willing suspension of disbelief. They also remain sustained on metaphors, especially regarding the human condition and consumerism. Also voodoo.

 

[Raacoba]

i thing it depends on the kind of zombies we are talking about:
if we talk about the cursed body's, lifted from the dead by an evil sorcerer (or something like that). i don't think they need to eat anything, or brains in the same way vampires need blood (aka there are a million possibilities).

but if we look at the left 4 dead zombie who is an human infected with a virus that makes him go mad... i think he could eat anything. living, dead, vegetable, it doesn't matter cause a body needs energy to do stuff.

in conclusion:
i guess it's best to grab as much food as possible and wait in a bunker till all of the zombie' starve to death, or you could wait till it's winter so all the zombies freeze to death cause they aren't smart enough to find a shelter.

 

[LordOrin]

Lets Ask

Gardener Zombie: Graaaains
Plumber Zombie : Draaaaains
Physicist Zombie : Braaaaaanes

oh....

lol

OT: There are [URL="http://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly_p1.html" (cracked.com)]a few reasons[/URL] why a zombie apocalypse doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'd add this to the list.

 

[IronicBeet]

Well, if you're going by the logic of Return of the Dead zombies (How they eat brains) it's not that they need brains to survive, they just eat brains to make the pain of being dead go away.

 

[Daverson]

Any living meat. Most will gain necessary nourishment from eating people. If they need too, however, they'll also eat domesticated animals, rodents, each other and, eventually, themselves.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Zombies eat whaterver they can get their cold dead hands on. There was once the theory between some zombiefans that since the only body parts of a zombie that need to be in working condition is the most vital "reptilian" part of the brainstem and they cant keep it working due to their unability to heal they need nervecells and tishue to keep it working, thats the only kind of digestion or recycling they are doing.
It is as much nonsense as any other theory about undead because it is a concept that defies science and logic. But i like it because it works well enough for a sidenote in a narration.

 

[Michael K]

You need to read the survival handbook. Zombies don't eat because they have to eat to survive, they eat because it's a base instinct, which is all they have left.

Seriously though this [http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Survival-Guide-Complete-Protection/dp/1400049628] is a great read for zombie stuff.

Why Amazon, when you got http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Zombie_Wiki

 

[thiosk]

Lets Ask

Gardener Zombie: Graaaains
Plumber Zombie : Draaaaains
Physicist Zombie : Braaaaaanes

oh....

Engineer zombie: Traaaaaaains
Cowboy zombie: Plaaaaaaains
Puerto Rican zombie: Plantaaaaaaaainss

 

[Fayathon]

You need to read the survival handbook. Zombies don't eat because they have to eat to survive, they eat because it's a base instinct, which is all they have left.

Seriously though this [http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Survival-Guide-Complete-Protection/dp/1400049628] is a great read for zombie stuff.

Why Amazon, when you got http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Zombie_Wiki

Because that was the first link that I got in a Google search and I'm a lazy bastard. Also the Guide is a pretty good read.

 

[let's rock]

They can eat any flesh, human or not, so that works

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Brie on cream crackers. What else?

 

[Jamash]

ED: am i the only person that doesnt take the survival guide as the be all end all of zombie canon? Yeah it was a funny little survival guide and what not, but its just polluted the genera. I hate discussions where the guide is brought up constantly "the guide says use a shaolin spade" "the guide says a prison is the safest place to be" "the guide says don't use guns". It's a guide, not a rule book, but people treat it like the zombie survival bible. I dono, i liked the days of silly humans firing mass ammount of ammo into crowds of zombies and slowly being swarmed.

This annoys me too.

It seems that a lot of people don't realise that Max Brooks (the son of Mel Brooks) is a satirist and a comedian and The Zombie Survival Guild is a work of comedy fiction. In every bookshop I've seen it in, it's been in the humour section.

As a survival guide it's woefully lacking in instructions and proper information. It vaguely tells you what to do, but not how to do it, and because most of the information is so off the mark and far from reality it's more of an anti-survival guide if you were to take it seriously.
For example, in the section about armour and protective clothing, he talks in relatively great detail about Medieval plate armour but doesn't even mention motorcycle leathers. Now which of the two types of clothing do you think the average person would be able to find more easily?

The author of The Zombie Survival Guide also wrote sketches for Saturday Night Live, but his greatest work of comedy and satire is writing a Zombie Survival Guide in such a deadpan tone that some people take it seriously. It's like the joke that keeps on repeating itself every time on of these discussions occur.

Believing that The Zombie Survival Guide has imparted you with any genuine survival knowledge is like believing that you can handle any medical emergency because you've watched every episode of Scrubs.