Bush Nutrition and Health
The white coat clergy and their animal sacrifices will never appreciate the power of autonomy and the truth in biodiversity and evolution.
I don't take vitamin supplements or medication, of any sort, at any time, but, I am very picky, work hard, and sacrifice much for quality of what I eat.
Plant vitamins are a powerful if not essential source of motivating energy so make sure you replenish often. I am of the position that all common tree and plants species play a role in maintaining optimal human health. Plants like: spruce, poplar and birch which can be found globally at the right latitudes. These plants have been part of the human evolutionary environment for so long that small amounts must be beneficial if not critical.
Greens are full of many different types of vitamins, they will clean your liver, reduse the craving for other food, and provide your body with energy.
Burdock is safe, palatable, wild plant of note. The stem is edible raw in the mid summer, but better diced and boiled in a broth. While raw, it's simmilar to a strong celery stock. The leaves can be mashed raw for a huge magnesium and chlorophill boost, but again, better diced and briefly boiled in a stock.
The body needs a constant supply of antioxidants to deal with the stresses of the outdoors.
You should really chew the plant, to extract the most from the fibrous walls; this also requires you to consume far less plant for the vitamins.
It is well documented that the natives smashed their dried meat to powder before eating. I'll bring a mortar and pestle if I wont be moving from a camp and always try to smash my dried meat with stones before eating.
Acquisitioning two stones to smash vegetative matter and especially dried meat will aid in assimilating the nutrients of the food stuff; doing this is critical; it also helps to prevent food from getting pushed between the teeth. I believe the hallmark of the sapien technological advancement is credite to the use of stones to process food and extract nutrients which without, was more of a challenge to assimilate.
Calories and other nessiary nutrients must be had from other sources; plants alone do not provide the required calories for prolonged survival in North America.
The raw green tops of the cat tail fiord, found in watery areas, I have found tasty to eat - like a cucumber.
The fresh, immature spruce bids found at the tips of the branch at the end of spring can be eaten for vitamine c. During the winter, spruce needles may be harvested by clipping the fresh, same years ends, cutting away the needles and small buds, chewing and swallowing. Again, smashing the tips in a mortar and pestle helps or you can steep it all mashed in hot water; these provide chlorophill, some bioflavonoids and vitamine c - all essential for life. You can also look around the spruce tree as sometimes after a windy day the end shoots with the plumpest needles may be found fresh on the floor. Know that spruce makes you sweat more and does contain other plant toxins - so using this only is neither tasty nore optimal at very high doses for a prolonged period. Don't bother eating the needles after the fresh tips; these are dark mature needles with little health benifit.
Many mushrooms are ok to eat well cooked. I am not a mushroom expert! but if its big, brown, and has succumb to some form of predation (like bugs or nibbles) likely, it is edible. Pollypores, that is mushrooms which dont have gills but pores under the cap are nearly always edible. Familiarize your self with local poison mushrooms.
Dried meat has few structural minerals - because it lacks bone -which are also things most diets, even the healthiest ones, today, I feel, may lack; these minerals can be drained when stressful work is done afield.
The white ash in a clean fire is also a good source of minerals as it holds all the minerals of the tree or plant which was burnt. Plants are a source of mineral on their own, however, because the mineral is bound to indigestible fiber and other plant ani-nutrients, much of their mineral content can be expelled before it has the chance to be absorbed; the ash of the plant (or animal bone) is a guaranteed method of accessing all the minerals (but none of the healthy plants phytonutrients). Dont eat too much wood ash.
On that note, charcoal helps remove plant toxins from the stomach along with food poisoning toxins if consumed soon enough; it also helps to remove environmental toxins in the stomach and I think it may aid in the removal of parasitic infection.
I eat dried meat when afield, but because the tendon does not get digested when left uncooked, I save the left over sinew and stew them for the collagen (glue for the minerals that make bone, cartilage, sinew, skin, ligaments, lungs, eye balls, other non red protiens) which repair many bodily systems that get taxed. Collagen comprises 35% of our total body protien - all these get a boost in repair when the broth is consumed.
Live vitamins which are heat sensitive and oxidation prone such as vitamin C can be heavily drained on a diet of old/poorly stored dried meat, and especially cooked food so searching for these fresh greens and foliage is a critical endeavor.
The raw green tops of the cat tail fiord, found in watery areas, I have found tasty to eat - like a cucumber.
The fresh, immature spruce bids found at the tips of the branch at the end of spring can be eaten for vitamine c. During the winter, spruce needles may be harvested by clipping the fresh, same years ends, cutting away the needles and small buds, chewing and swallowing. Again, smashing the tips in a mortar and pestle helps or you can steep it all mashed in hot water; these provide chlorophill, some bioflavonoids and vitamine c - all essential for life. You can also look around the spruce tree as sometimes after a windy day the end shoots with the plumpest needles may be found fresh on the floor. Know that spruce makes you sweat more and does contain other plant toxins - so using this only is neither tasty nore optimal at very high doses for a prolonged period. Don't bother eating the needles after the fresh tips; these are dark mature needles with little health benifit.
Eating the inner bark of trees may be bitter, but it harbours many phytonutrients for the winter months or other months the fruit are not yet available.
Pine is another good source of antioxidants during the winter months when there are no other plants available; particularly vitamin c.
Ov the pine or spruce, the latter seems to be the best.
Familiarize yourself with the few plants that are harmful like the water hemlock. Avoid white berries.
Many mushrooms are ok to eat well cooked. I am not a mushroom expert! but if its big, brown, and has succumb to some form of predation (like bugs or nibbles) likely, it is edible. Pollypores, that is mushrooms which dont have gills but pores under the cap are nearly always edible. Familiarize your self with local poison mushrooms.
Yet another source of antioxidants, B vitamins, and other medicinal properties are the woody, tough, shelf mushrooms you can find on most trees, dead and alive. These mushrooms are not the seasonal ones that bloom and die in a few days but live for years growing larger and large by the year. You will find them hard to chew, but if you need the antioxidants, they may be the only thing available (along with spruce needles - that's everywhere, all year). Consumeing these makes me think clearer; they can also be a source of non bitter fiber in the winter. Chew them and swallow or steep some cuts in a tea; on that note, teas have never made much sense to me; heat always destroyes vitamins and eating some of whatever it is raw, is more potent than far more of the substanance heated.
I can say from experience that shelf mushrooms are fantastic - the literature is certainly out there with regards to their medicinal properties. There is something in these mushrooms that I think is integral to human optimal existence. Don't gorge on them though.
If you eat much meat in the bush, bring dried bones or eat them with the meat of small game for the proper mineral suplammentation. I stick one in my mouth when afield if not chew a soft one with a meal. Im not sure if its the calcium, another mineral, or their combination effect, but the calcium tends to slow my thinking down, calm me, give me a stronger feel of control and stay hunger. I feel I learn or have more ideas somehow; this may make sense as calcium helps growth of the body, it may somehow help growth of the mind.
If you eat much meat in the bush, bring dried bones or eat them with the meat of small game for the proper mineral suplammentation. I stick one in my mouth when afield if not chew a soft one with a meal. Im not sure if its the calcium, another mineral, or their combination effect, but the calcium tends to slow my thinking down, calm me, give me a stronger feel of control and stay hunger. I feel I learn or have more ideas somehow; this may make sense as calcium helps growth of the body, it may somehow help growth of the mind.
Dried meat has few structural minerals - because it lacks bone -which are also things most diets, even the healthiest ones, today, I feel, may lack; these minerals can be drained when stressful work is done afield.
It is documented that tribes would remove and grind the bones of rabits and mix it with the meat. Somehow this made them feel full from eating the lean rabbit meat and thus, heald of "rabbit starvation"; I have found this to be the case in some measure.
The white ash in a clean fire is also a good source of minerals as it holds all the minerals of the tree or plant which was burnt. Plants are a source of mineral on their own, however, because the mineral is bound to indigestible fiber and other plant ani-nutrients, much of their mineral content can be expelled before it has the chance to be absorbed; the ash of the plant (or animal bone) is a guaranteed method of accessing all the minerals (but none of the healthy plants phytonutrients). Dont eat too much wood ash.
On that note, charcoal helps remove plant toxins from the stomach along with food poisoning toxins if consumed soon enough; it also helps to remove environmental toxins in the stomach and I think it may aid in the removal of parasitic infection.
I eat dried meat when afield, but because the tendon does not get digested when left uncooked, I save the left over sinew and stew them for the collagen (glue for the minerals that make bone, cartilage, sinew, skin, ligaments, lungs, eye balls, other non red protiens) which repair many bodily systems that get taxed. Collagen comprises 35% of our total body protien - all these get a boost in repair when the broth is consumed.
Like dried beans, meat, or any other dried food, this sinew will not fully cook unless it is fully reconstituted. Maserate in mouth or find a safe way of soaking it without getting food poisoning from leaving it for days in water.
Dried meat must be carefully stored while afield (and not). Vacume seal is best, but a closed jar or air tight container is good. Store in a cool, dry place. You dont want sun or rain reaching your meat after it is dry. While not afield, a fridge is a the best spot.
During the winter months, labrador tea, can be had for chlorophyll and antioxidants. Just pick raw and chew. Spruce and pine stands usually harbour their growth in abundance. Rose hips are also a seedy but excellent source of vitamins C in winter.
“Old hags hair” can be found dangling from pine and spruce. While this isn’t particularly tasty, apparently it’s nutritious.
Other greens may be had by moving snow away to reveal the forest floor.
Sugar is a plant poison. A plant produces a fruit with seed(s) and it would be evolutionary disadvantageous for it to allow an animal to indulge in too many of its fruit, all at once. In the short term, too much sugar, from fruit (even wild), or any other source causes irritability, irratioanl anger, anxiety, and deficiency in all other vital nutrients like vitamins, mineral (particularly calcium), protiens, and anything else non sugar. In the long run, chronicly high sugar levels dammages your organs, like your kidneys causing diabetes and your skeletal system. When in season however, indulge as wild fruit which is saturated with antioxidants and other phytonutrients. The key however is to eat greens with the sugar. Something in the greens slows the digestion of the sugars and helps the body to use the sugars of fruit. You end up craving the fruit less; I speculate it is the mineral magnesium, abundant in chlorophill, which is responsible for this.
When selecting plant nutrients, get a variety: lower order plants (flowers, small herbs, berries (vitamine c), dandelions), fungus (mushrooms, shelf mushrooms), lichens (hags hair), bark teas, and higher order plants (spruce tips and poplar buds) for their far more potent antioxidants than the previously mentioned lower order plants.
Nourishing teas with antioxidants can be made from most plants in the wild - spruce, pine, rose, &c. Ad some to a boiling pot to easly glean some precious antioxidants.
Clean water will clean the body and stay hunger. Often times it not that you need more food, you simply need to be hydrated. Drink plenty of water and then some. It helps to heat the water first as cold water will chill the body and cause discouragement.
Avoid the smoke from your fire to maintain your lung health. I have also mentioned in another article, nose breath, in and out, at all times; coupled with deep, diaphragm, gut relaxed breathing, facilitated by keeping your tongue plastered to your upper pallet.
