Bush Nutrition and Health

A team of white coat clergy and their animal sacrifices will never appreciate the power of autonomy and the truths of biodiversity 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 and reduse the craving for other food.

In my experience, nearly all green plants and berries at ground level are nutritious and provide the much needed, and vital vitamin c among other vitamins, minerals and innumerable phytonutirents. Flower blossoms have a variety of bioflavonoids and antioxidants. All parts of the dandelion are edible and nutritious and generally more palatable. 

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 (but only for the vitamins) than you may think is "needed". 

Acquisitioning two stones to smash vegetative matter and especially dried meat will aid in assimilating the nutrients the food stuffs has to provide; I mention this in passing, but doing this is critical; doing this 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.

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 required 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, smashing 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, nicest 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.

Pine is another good source of antioxidants during the winter months when there are no other plants available; particularly vitamin c.

Ove said two the latter seems to be the best.

Both spruce and pine are best mashed with stones before eating.

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 (something about one in Russia...), like boilets. Familiarize your self with local poison mushrooms.

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 of wood ash however.

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 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.

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, loss of cool, disorientation, confusion and deficiency in other vital nutrients like vitamins and mineral, particularly calcium. In the long run, chronicly high sugar levels dammages your organs, like your kidneys causing diabetes and your skeletal system. Limit your intake of wild fruit. Humans (and other animals and insects) function optimally on fats and protein.

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 hear the water first as cold water will chill the body.

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.