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Though I suppose it might save a life, in this case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refeeding_syndrome
If your fictional character has been subsisting for a lengthy time on inadequate amounts of gruel, bread, and water - including some periods of just water - then even though they probably want to gorge themselves once freed from starvation it's best if they limit themselves at first, just until their body reacclimates.
If the person they're staying with has also endured periods of hunger or is a doctor then that person might know that and keep them from making themself gravely ill, or otherwise they might go "You poor thing!" and try to fatten them up right away, but at any rate, you might as well milk the situation for drama because if they straightaway down a five course dinner and suffer no ill effects some of us are going to raise an eyebrow.
I can tell you exactly where I first read about this, by the way - it was in the novel Just a Little Bit Lost, where the two get rescued from their accidental week in the woods and immediately are put on a diet of watered down gruel. Which is what they'd been eating in the woods, because they managed to get separated from their class trip carrying all the oatmeal, so our protagonist thought it was funny, but the nurses hastened to explain that you have to start slowly when you've been hungry even if it was just for a relatively short time.
If your fictional character has been subsisting for a lengthy time on inadequate amounts of gruel, bread, and water - including some periods of just water - then even though they probably want to gorge themselves once freed from starvation it's best if they limit themselves at first, just until their body reacclimates.
If the person they're staying with has also endured periods of hunger or is a doctor then that person might know that and keep them from making themself gravely ill, or otherwise they might go "You poor thing!" and try to fatten them up right away, but at any rate, you might as well milk the situation for drama because if they straightaway down a five course dinner and suffer no ill effects some of us are going to raise an eyebrow.
I can tell you exactly where I first read about this, by the way - it was in the novel Just a Little Bit Lost, where the two get rescued from their accidental week in the woods and immediately are put on a diet of watered down gruel. Which is what they'd been eating in the woods, because they managed to get separated from their class trip carrying all the oatmeal, so our protagonist thought it was funny, but the nurses hastened to explain that you have to start slowly when you've been hungry even if it was just for a relatively short time.
