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TL;DR

> The Colombian navy rescued a man from Dominica who says he survived 24 days adrift in the Caribbean on a sailboat by eating ketchup, garlic powder and seasoning cubes.

> Elvis Francois, 47, had scrawled the word “help” in English on the boat’s hull, which officials said was key to his rescue.

> “At some point I lost hope and thought about my family, but I thank the coast guard. If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be telling the story,” Francois said.

Life imitates art, reminds me of The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, by the Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez.

Poor guy! Survived on a bottle of ketchup, garlic powder and seasoning cubes, along with rain water he collected. Glad to hear he was rescued!

writing HELP on the hull and signaling a plane with a mirror--this guy was smart! I wonder what he used to write HELP with, since it was big enough to see from the air

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Sources of sugar in the ketchup and salt in the seasoning cubes are both pretty helpful in survival situations. Certainly better than no food at all.

well they say he had ketchup, garlic seasoning with him. so im betting ketchup>!?

Elvis has left the boat.

Why is it we can eat salt and drink fresh water, and that’s good for survival, but drinking water with salt in it is not good for survival?

Because salt water has a LOT of salt, and we need more water than food. Salt water is more concentrated than what our kidneys can produce so if the only liquid we're drinking has more electrolytes than we can clear shit gets out of balance fast.