"...More studies, well designed studies, are needed before we have the final answer..."
Sounds like a plan.
"...More studies, well designed studies, are needed before we have the final answer..."
A rule of thumb is that if you cannot harvest/hunt 1600 cal's of food (with 500 cal's in carbs) when surviving you would most likely be better of fasting.
Introduction of small unbalanced meals at intermittent periods that do not account for your overall food intake, over 24 hours, could well upset the bodies process of fasting.
I read Ranalph Fiens Bio(without getting up and finding the book I think that's how his name is spelt) I know it's not bushcraft but on the same lines of nutrition and burning calories. even though he was taking in loads of calories. because of the scale of work he was expecting his body to do, he was loosing body mass not just fat on his polar treks and when he did the 7x7x7
Mike Stroud talked about the weight loss on his trips with Fiennes and basically they needed more energy than the body could process regardless how much they ate, easier for the body to draw on its own reserves hence the weight loss. There is a limit, can't remember without digging the book out but the body can only process something like 10k cals a day sort of thing even when (as they did) were eating butter as a food suppliment.
Another major problem when foraging, certainly in the UK is you can use more energy gathering than the food found provides.
I did the Journeyman course with Woodlore a few years ago and a large part of the course is focused on resourcing food. We mostly foraged Cattail but I guess Burdock would be good too. We also got some carbs from fruits and other greens.It's really hard work to produce calories this way, much harder then most would imagine I guess.
It was interesting detoxing, I hardly drink, don't smoke and avoid caffeine however have a very sweet tooth so had lots of headaches at the start.
Off topic slightly I know but I can't bear to waste food now and idiotic programs like 'Man vs Food' drive me insane!
I don't know the science behind it but personally I'd forage for the psychological benefit of doing something instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself...
This is an excellent thread. Firelite, can you expound at all on hunter-gatherer diets? These of course depend on knowledge of the environment where the people live but the people do and always did live well. It seems we've lost all that with farming and packaged meals, etc, but it would be so good to relearn. Can't afford RM's or PK's courses at the mo unfortunately
Elen you don't necessarily need to go on a course to learn about wild foods as a great deal can be learnt from books, blogs and the forum. It's worth getting a copy of Richard Mabey's Food for Free or Roger Philips's Wild Food along with a couple of field guides and just get out in the countryside.
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But to do something to make yourself feel better doesn't nessecarily mean foraging. You could keep busy improving your shelter, gathering firewood and preparing signal fires.
True, but working and not eating is no fun in practice. If I can see wild food I'll eat it even when I'm not hungry.
Niels
Can you actually prove that? Why wouldn't your body be able to switch between digeting fat and muscles, and digesting the small bites of food you foraged?