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This question is inspired by an another question which asked how long a mage could survive on pure water, NaCl salt, and sucrose, which they could summon.

In taking this a step farther, what is the minimum number/complexity of simple compounds that it would take to be able to survive for a relatively long duration in a reasonable healthy manner?

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    $\begingroup$ This is a great question (as in, in general), but it's certainly bigger than the scope of worldbuilding. I think you should start by googling this, sorting through the existing research on this subject, and maybe seeing if you can find a satisfactory answer to your question. It's pretty much the same thing any of us would be doing... $\endgroup$
    – Qami
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 0:14
  • $\begingroup$ The main things are that the proteins in your food contain the complete set of amino-acids used by humans. This is why societies could be built on rice or wheat alone as their staple crops, but others needed corn and beans, or oats and barley together. Corn, oats, and barley by themselves are missing some amino acids. Beans is a wide enough category that it does, but was used to supplement the deficiencies in corn. $\endgroup$
    – Paul Sinclair
    Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 13:56

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The medical community has almost addressed this for you already:

https://www.nestlemedicalhub.com/products/vivonex-plus

Other than the soybean oil this is human nutrition distilled to it's most basic level. It has a very high glycemic index and thus will tend to cause type 2 diabetes over a sufficiently long period of time.

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Your mage could live for a year or more on very little, and it's certainly doable for a month for your average healthy person. But this Scottish chap did over a year on tea, coffee, soda water and vitamins Angus Barbieri's fast

Fasting is actually very good for you in moderation. Our bodies are adapted for it.

So in answer to your question, conjure your chap/chappess some palatable yeast (source of essential amino acids) and they'll be fine.

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