What would you do for food?

[Frogo]

I'm willing to accept that some have been bred to the point of no return...but survival of the fittest...some domesticated meals on legs will still roam about and i'm only after the odd one...as i'll be the one taking pot shots at the ram, not trying to raise a herd with it...

Pigs and sheep will roam wild as well as horses.

 

[Frogo]

You would survive eating meat during the time between the seasons of new growth, but you would have to select your prey well and consume the whole animal.

 

[Ronnie]

The problem with subsisting entirely on lean meat (such as rabbits) is that your are consuming lots of protein, very little fat, and negligible carbohydrate. Your body can turn protein into energy and this process goes on in the liver. It is quite an inefficient source of energy. The amount of protein that can be converted into energy is limited by the blood supply to the liver. This creates a bottle neck which means that only about 400g of protein can be turned usefully into energy in a 24 hour period. The rest is passed as waste products.

1g of protein gives 4 calories (Kcal) so 400g in 24hrs gives you 1,600 calories per day. An average man these days needs 2,000-2,500 calories per day. A trapper working the trap lines in the northwoods would need a lot more to stay warm and active so they would be in massive carlorific deficit. Hence, however much lean meat they would eat, they would eventually starve.

Pretty depressing eh?

It's quite easy to live off a lean meat diet - all you need to do is supplement it. If you can't get carbs, fat will do. Wild duck would be perfect. You also need a source of phytonutrients. Rose-hips, herbage, wild garlic - lots to choose from.

 

[Paul K]

It's quite easy to live off a lean meat diet - all you need to do is supplement it. If you can't get carbs, fat will do. Wild duck would be perfect. You also need a source of phytonutrients. Rose-hips, herbage, wild garlic - lots to choose from.

Yes, you are right. You have to supplement the lean-meat only diet. But then it's not a lean-meat only diet. It's then lean meat plus fat and carbs.

 

[Paul K]

Paul are there any books or other references you could recommend on this subject?

Andrew

'Energy source, protein metabolism, and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies' http://tinyurl.com/2vsvebo

'Early hominid hunting and scavenging: the role of meat as an energy source' http://tinyurl.com/2vvpehl

'Protein poisoning and coastal subsistence' http://tinyurl.com/2w7mvjs

All the best

Paul

 

[sandbender]

Thanks Paul

 

[Yorkshire]

I think Rabbit is fine if you eat the whole thing, brain, liver kidneys etc. If you just stick to the lean meat thats the problem ???

 

[sandbender]

I think Rabbit is fine if you eat the whole thing, brain, liver kidneys etc. If you just stick to the lean meat thats the problem ???

Have you tried it? Hallucinations about butter kick in on day three of the rabbit only diet.

 

[Yorkshire]

Have you tried it? Hallucinations about butter kick in on day three of the rabbit only diet.

no but thats what i heard somwhere, not to neglect other aspects of the rabbit

 

[Toddy]

I've wondered about this rabbit starvation before.
Brains are mostly fat, livers are pretty fatty too, so's marrow.
Until the advent of mad cow disease, brains were part of the foodchain.
Singed sheep's heid, roasted boar head.......lights and pluck, haggis and sweetbreads, tripe and trotters. All traditional, nutritious and tasty food. It's only our modern sensibilities (and scrapie) that make these unpalatable.
In a survival situation, waste not, want not.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[rik_uk3]

I've wondered about this rabbit starvation before.
Brains are mostly fat, livers are pretty fatty too, so's marrow.
Until the advent of mad cow disease, brains were part of the foodchain.
Singed sheep's heid, roasted boar head.......lights and pluck, haggis and sweetbreads, tripe and trotters. All traditional, nutritious and tasty food. It's only our modern sensibilities (and scrapie) that make these unpalatable.
In a survival situation, waste not, want not.

cheers,
Toddy

Good point Toddy but at a guess if rabbitt was plentyfull many folk would just eath the meat. I used to help me dad make brawn from a pigs head when I was a lad and very nice it was too and we would eat steamed lamb brain on buttered toast, trotters and mushy peas etc

 

[Frogo]

Why we rave on about rabbit really confuses me, squirrel pound for pound has more calories than rabbit and you aint got to eat the brains.