Starving patients can be treated, but this must be done cautiously to avoid refeeding syndrome. Rest and warmth must be provided and maintained. Small sips of water mixed with glucose should be given in regular intervals. Fruit juices can also be given. Later, food can be given gradually in small quantities. The quantity of food can be increased over time. Proteins may be administered intravenously to raise the level of serum proteins.

For the individual, prevention consists of ensuring they eat plenty of food, varied enough to provide a nutritionally complete diet.

Starvation can be caused by factors, other than illness, outside of the control of the individual. The Rome Declaration on World Food Security outlines several policies aimed at increasing food security and, consequently, preventing starvation. These include:

- Poverty reduction

- Prevention of wars and political instability

- Food aid

- Agricultural sustainability

- Reduction of economic inequality

Supporting farmers in areas of food insecurity through such measures as free or subsidized fertilizers and seeds increases food harvest and reduces food prices.

Barcoo fever is an illness once common in the Australian outback that is now virtually unknown. It was characterised by nausea and vomiting exacerbated by the sight or smell of food and, unlike the usual gastro-intestinal infections, by constipation rather than diarrhoea. Fever and myalgia were also symptoms. Severe cases developed inanition and even death. It was seen in travelers in the outback rather than in cities or towns, but occasionally entire settlements were affected, such as occurred in Toowoomba in 1903. The aboriginal population knew to avoid the ailment by not drinking from certain water sources and by taking water from soaks or pits dug in the dry sandy bed of a stream.

It is postulated that the disease may be due to ingestion of cyanobacterial (blue-green algal) toxins, in particular cylindrospermopsin, a toxin from "Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii" and other cyanobacteria, which is a hepatotoxin. The symptoms of the disease are consistent with a hepatitis or liver disorder, and "Cylindrospermopsis" is known to be widespread in inland Australian water sources. The toxin is not destroyed by boiling and, although it would flavor water, this flavor would be masked by tea, the common beverage in the Australian bush. Provision of safe drinking water sources in Australia, with the development of bores and covered tanks to collect rainwater, explain the demise of a once-common illness.