A
lmost everybody who travels, it seems, worries about
starving in a survival situation. In reality such concerns are largely
overblown: you can survive for a month (or longer) without putting
any food in your body. This is hard for some people to wrap their heads
around, since most who live in developed nations are comfortably used
to eating three or more meals a day. The thought of going days—or even
hours—without a substantial meal is a scary proposition. But though it’s
not necessarily comfortable to go for a stretch without food, it is possible.
Your quest for food will be easier if before you leave you research
what you can eat, how to catch or pick it, and how to make it edible. There
may be food in abundance all around you in the wild, but you have to know
it’s there, and if necessary, how to prepare it. And there’s danger in con
suming something without knowing if it’s edible.
The first time I saw star fruit was in Costa Rica. As I stared, wonder
ing if they were poisonous, my survival buddy and military survival expert
Mike Kiraly was stuffing his face with them. Had it not been for him, I
might never have tried them, thereby missing out on an important and
abundant food source.
Many early explorers died from scurvy while sleeping on beds of
spruce boughs, which when boiled into tea would have provided all the
vitamin C they needed.
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