SURVIVAL FOODS, ALWAYS THINK PLANTS

The importance of obtaining fresh red meat is one of the most fascinating yet controversial aspects of Survival/Bushcraft so many of the experts on the subject will undoubtedly become very upset with the focus of this posting. While in a ideal world it might be unnecessary for us to learn how to capture and kill our fellow creatures at all; this is not an ideal world or at least that is not The Mother's plan.
We could simply forage for plants and berries to meet all our nutritional need and in doing so we would; in many ways, be consuming a much healthier diet. Unfortunately, just as we would by becoming strict carnivores, we would eventually starve to death.
A good knowledge of edible plants is an important survival skill, and  consumption of vitamin rich plants are an important part of a balanced diet, because they help to maintain a robust immune system, and good general health.. However; forging uses energy in the form of calories from food, and in order to replace these calories we might have to consume vast quantities of plant materials; which would require even more calories.
This is the vicious circle faced by our prehistoric ancestors, and hunter gatherers throughout the world. They may not have known the names for calories, protein, and fats, but they would certainly have known hunger, and they would have noticed the increased energy and feeling of satisfaction they experienced eating a nutrient rich food.
The more macho minded survivor always assumes that the best way to obtain nutrient rich foods is to run off in pursuit of large game animals such as the deer family. Armed with some impressive weapon--not necessarily a firearm, they would walk for miles, tracking the animals that they hoped to hunt. They would then have to wait until an animal came into range. If, they got lucky and killed a deer or other large animal, they would then have to carry it's carcass back to their camp site where it would be butchered and prepared for eating or storing (remember, any fresh meat or animal tissue starts to deteriorate very quickly). All this requires energy, and while the body of a large animal would provide a substantial amount of calories and protein, it would also require a vast amount of energy expenditure in order to obtain it. What if the hunting trip was unsuccessful? If they return to camp without any meat, after burning up thousands of calories in pursuit of food, they would go to bed hungry and wake up hungry. They may not even have the energy to head off on another hunting trip and without anything to fall back on they would quickly starve.
How well we know the stereotype of the "rugged Plains Indian": Killer of bison, dresses in Buffalo Bill Cody designed bead-decorated buckskin, elaborately feathered headdress, and leather moccasins, living in an animal skin tepee master of the horse able to perform impossible feats with a bow and arrow and a stranger to vegetables of any kind. But this fantasised life style, limited almost exclusively to the Apache, Comanche or Sioux, nations, (if and where it existed at all) flourished no more than a hundred years. It is not representative of most Native North Americans of today or yesterday.
Fish and meat are undeniably good sources of protein and fat and they do provide almost every thing a long-term survivor would need--except fibre. However, at the first stage of a bushcraft/survival situation, plants are always the most appropriate diet, as plants are easily accessible, and contain all the necessary carbohydrates, fibre, protein , minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients necessary for survival which meat does not. Unless you are a very experienced hunter and know the area well, hunting animals for meat is very, very, inadvisable (plain stupidity) in a survival situation. Hunting is difficult and you will expend a lot of energy to get your food, if you get it at all.Instead, consider trapping. Trapping requires much less skill and leaves you free to spend time searching for other-- very necessary-- food sources. The wilderness survivor--the one who survives needs to know how to construct and place simple traps that are easy to remember and just as importantly easy to construct--without a lot of intensive labour.
Some other factors to remember: while all studies of human evolution have shown that our ancestors were all vegetarian by nature and that meat consumption by humans is a relatively new phenomenon; some bushcraft/survival experts will point to the Inuit diet as an example of a healthy diet, based extensively on animal products. these experts do not hesitate in the least to point out that the Inuit peoples had a relatively low incidence of heart disease. They often also suggest that these peoples may have been genetically programmed to to have a shorter life span (less than forty years on the average). More likely, and while the Inuit peoples did tend to have a larger liver; the shorter life s pan was  due to the  fact that the human body can not really detoxify vitamin A , a substance all too plentiful in many Arctic animals. The structure of the human body just is not suited for eating meat. This was demonstrated in a medical essay on comparative anatomy by Dr. G. S. Huntingen of Columbia University. He pointed out that carnivores have short small and large intestines. Their large intestine is characteristically very straight and smooth. In contrast, vegetarian animals have a long small intestine an a long large intestine. Because of the low fibre content and high protein density of meat, the intestines do not require a long time to absorb nutrients; thus, the intestines of carnivores are shorter in length than those of vegetarian animals.
Humans, like other naturally vegetarian animals have both a long small intestine and large intestine. Together, our intestines are approximately twenty-eight feet (eight and a half metres) in length. The small intestine is folded back in itself many times, and it's walls are convoluted, not smooth  Because they are longer than those found in carnivores, the meat we eat stays in our intestines for a longer period of time. Consequently, the meat can purify and create toxins. These toxins have been  implicated as a cause of colon cancer, and they also also increase the burden on the liver, which has the function of getting rid of toxins (this is undoubtedly why the Inuit peoples had larger livers). This can cause cirrhosis and even cancer of the liver.
NEW STUDY SHOWS THAT THE CONSUMPTION OF RED AND PROCESSED MEAT SUCH AS FRANKFURTERS (weiners), AND HOT DOGS CAN INCREASE THE INCIDENCE OF PREMATURE DEATH BY UP TO TWENTY PERCENT. READ ALSO: http://thegirvanway.blogspot.com/2012/03/red-meat-linked-to-higher-risk-of.html
Meat contains a lot of urokinase protein and urea, which add to the burden on the kidneys, and can destroy kidney function. There are approximately fourteen grams of urokinase protein in every pound of steak. If living cells are put into liquid urokinase protein, their metabolic function will degenerate. Furthermore, meat lacks cellulose of fibre, and lack of fibre creates constipation It is known that constipation can can cause rectal cancer or piles, and that it can kill you.
If you wanted to survive on a diet of rabbit, you would die, even if you had all the rabbit you could eat Rabbit is lacking in certain elements essential to our diets, so while rabbit may be a good supplementary food, much easier to catch with snares than by shooting. It or any other meat, should not be your staple.If , there is no other food available, you are undoubtedly best to eat the rabbit whole. The rabbits stomach contains essentially green leafy grasses, or other vegetation, all of which is edible to humans.
Always keep in mind, in a prolonged survival situation, protein alone will not keep you alive.
©Al (Alex, Alexander) D. Girvan 1995-2012