How to Avoid Starvation: Finding Food In the Wilderness

While you can only last a matter of days without water, you can last weeks without food. Survival without food after a couple days becomes a miserable existence. You won't be able to think of anything other than the gnawing hunger pangs wrenching through your gut.

At some point, you're going to have to start looking for food. You won't be able to function at a high level without it and functioning at a high level is a must when you're trying to survive. If you're starving, you're going to be exhausted and will be more prone to making mistakes.

There are two types of food the human body needs for sustenance:

         Plant matter.
         Animal matter.

The good news is, you can survive on either one or the other for quite some time. If you're in an area rich in plant life, you can live off plants. If you're in an area with abundant wildlife, you can live off of them. Ideally, you'll have both.

A field guide that shows you what edible plants look like can really come in handy, as there are a number of plants you don't want to consume. This is especially true when it comes to mushrooms, as ingesting certain types of mushroom can have deadly consequences.

Pretty much any animal you can catch and kill can be consumed. Beware of brightly colored bugs, frogs and spiders, as they may be poisonous. When eating any animal or insect, cook it well and consume a small portion first. Wait at least 8 hours to make sure you don't get sick before consuming the rest of the animal.

Be careful when consuming venomous snakes, as you don't want to ingest any venom.

Sure, your digestive system should theoretically be able to break down the venom before it harms you, but do you really want to take that chance? What if you have a bleeding ulcer and the venom is able to enter your bloodstream through it? I wouldn’t want to take that chance, especially while in a situation where professional medical attention isn't an option.

When it comes to eating plants, you're going to want to be very careful. First off, anything containing sap or white berries is off-limits. You also want to avoid anything that smells like peach or almond because it could contain cyanide. Steer clear of mushrooms, molds and fungi, too. Holly berries are bright red berries that look like they might be edible—they aren't, and can make you very sick.

If you find yourself in a situation in which you're going to starve to death if you don't start eating some of the plants around you, you're going to need to do a wilderness survival edibility test on anything you plan on eating before you eat it.

I have to warn you. There are plants that can make you very sick or even kill you even if you follow the instructions of this test explicitly. It's designed to up your chances of survival, but it isn't a guarantee. The only time you should use this test is in the event of an absolute emergency.

This test is time consuming. Don't wait until you're knocking on death's door to start testing plants. You also want to avoid testing plants that aren't in abundance. It isn't going to do you any good to test a plant that's only growing in a small area and will be gone in a matter of days.

Here's what you need to do to test a plant before you eat it:

 
  1. Pick a single type of plant to test. Avoid eating anything else during the test. This should be easy since you probably wouldn't be running the test if you had other stuff to eat that you knew was edible.
  2. Now separate the plant into three parts. You want to test the root, leaves and the stem of the plant separately.
  3. Crush the part of the plant you plan on testing between your fingers and rub it on the skin of your wrist. Set the plant down and wait an hour. Watch for signs of distress like dizziness, rough breathing or any other changes in your condition that weren't there before you rubbed the plant on your skin. If you experience problems when you rub the plant on your skin, you don't want to eat it. It would probably kill you.
  4. The next step is to cook a small portion of your food. If you have the ability to cook the plant you're testing, make sure you cook it. Some plants are poisonous when raw, but are OK to eat once they've been cooked. You up your chance of survival when you cook your food.
  5. Rub the food on the inside of your lips and wait for 15 minutes to see if there's a reaction.
  6. Next, touch the food with your tongue and wait 15 minutes to see if there's a reaction.
  7. If you're still not feeling any ill effects, hold the food in your mouth for 15 minutes, then take it out and wait 15 minutes to see if there's a reaction.
  8. Now try chewing the food. Chew it up for 15 minutes without swallowing anything. Wait another 15 minutes to see if there's a reaction.
  9. Time to try swallowing the food. Swallow a small portion at first and wait 10 hours to see if there's a reaction. If you start to feel sick or start to experience negative effects, drink a lot of water and induce vomiting.
  10. If you're still good to go after 10 hours, try eating a larger portion. This time eat a handful of it.
  11. Wait another 10 hours and if you're still not sick, the plant is probably OK to eat.

Again, I have to warn you that this is a dangerous test to undertake and it should only be done if you find yourself in a situation where you either eat local foliage or die.

This test is time-consuming and takes almost a full day just to test one part of one plant. You can survive weeks without food, but if one of the plants you're testing makes you sick, you're not going to last weeks without sustenance.

Now that I've told you how to run the test, I'm going to tell you that you should never have to use the test if you're properly prepared to bug out. You should research the area you're planning on bugging out to well in advance of actually having to try to survive there. Part of your research should be identifying flora and fauna that's edible and abundant. If you plan ahead, you'll be ready. If not, you might find yourself stranded in the wilderness sick from testing a plant that you never should have had to test in the first place.