Extracting water from vines

3. Avoid dry, starchy, and highly flavored foods and meats if you have less than 1 quart of water for each day. Remember eating makes you thirsty. Eat food high in carbohydrates, such as hard candy and fruit bars. 4. Keep strenuous work to a minimum. The less you work, the less food and water you require. 5. Eat regularly if possible—don’t nibble. Plan one good meal each day and cook it if you can. Cooking makes food safer, more digestible, and better tasting. Also, the time you spend cooking will give you a rest period in which you can relax. 6. Always be on the lookout for food. With few exceptions, everything you see that walks, crawls, swims, or grows from the soil is edible. Learn to live off the land. PLANTS.—Experts estimate that about 300,000 classified plants grow on the earth’s surface, including many that grow on mountain tops and ocean floors. Of these, 120,000 varieties are edible. Obviously, you won’t be able to learn about all of these plants from reading this chapter. But if you know what types of food to look for in the area in which you are stranded, can identify them, and know how to prepare them properly, you should find enough to keep you alive. You may even surprise yourself with a delicious meal. Eat those plants available in the area to provide you with needed energy while you search for meat. You can depend on them to keep you alive if you’re injured, unarmed in enemy territory, or in an area where wildlife is not abundant. Although plant food may not provide a balanced diet, especially in the Arctic where heat-producing qualities of meat are essential, it will sustain you. Many plant foods, like nuts and seeds, will give you enough protein for normal efficiency. In all cases, plants provide energy and calorie-giving carbohydrates. Most sources of plant foods (fruits, nuts, and berries) have one or more parts that have a lot of food value. For example, certain roots and other underground parts of plants that are rich in starch are excellent sources of food. Some examples are shown on the following page. ANIMALS.—Foods derived from animals have more food value per pound than those derived from plants. Learning what parts of animals you can eat or use in other ways and learning how to prepare animals for cooking increase your chances of survival. Methods of Cooking and Preserving Foods Besides making most foods more tasty and digestible, cooking makes them safer to eat by destroying bacteria, toxins, and harmful elements in the food. Your survival chances increase as your knowledge of field survival skills increases. Survival skills include your ability to improvise and to apply the following principles of cooking and preserving the foods you obtain in the field. Harmful Plant and Animal Foods Although you will encounter relatively few poisonous plants and animals, you should learn to recognize and avoid them. Some places, such as the Arctic and subarctic regions, have less than a dozen plants that are poisonous. These include the water hemlock (fig. 15-16) and the poisonous mushrooms (figs. 15-17 and 15-18). 15-19 Student Notes: Figure 15-10.—Extracting water from vines.