[highwayrider02]

I was watching Survivor Man (not a great show, but not bad either) and he was staging a plane crash in the winter wilderness scenario. He finally caught a hare with a snare trap and he went on to say that he spared no part of it during consumption. I'm wondering if that's really practical. To eat the guts, the brain, even the bones. Two things I'm wondering: 1 is that practical and 2 if it is, what parts can you and can't you eat?

[heysmithy]

I must have missed that episode.. that sucks cuz I'm a fan. Anyway, I'm sure he was talking about the "meat" parts. In most of these survival shows, you will see the guy just take a slab of meat off of an animal, when in reality you could break it down into hindquarters, ribs, front legs, even some meat in the neck, and yes the brains of most animals are edible. Also the heart and liver are edible. But I wouldn't touch the other organs like intestines, bladder, kidneys, stomach, etc. Also the bones would be put to better use in the making of tools, utensils, or traps. And of course be sure to cook any meat from wild game THOROUGHLY.

Also, I have read that you can use the intestines as fish bait, but I don't know that for sure. I do know that liver makes excellent catfish bait.

[Ronnie]

I missed that show and i do watch it every now and then. I did see a Jeff Corwin show where he is in Florida and finds a coral snake (my son was watching it) then he starts talking about how much water is in the swamps. then it shows him with a glass of water
that he was supposed to have just scooped up from the ground and he says. never know this could be the fountain of youth and drinks it. This is a children's show and he is teaching them some stuff that can kill them. He never once says boil the water or nothing. He will get someone killed sooner or later.

I do think if it was eat all the organs or starve i would have to clean and cook them as good as i could
but i would eat them over starving even if it killed me.

[B52gundog]

I think Survivorman eats most of the rabbit. He does mention that he eats the meat, organs, eyes, etc.... Apparently with smaller game you can eat the bones (for calcium).

He doesn't eat the end trails (esophagus, stomach, intestines, etc...). Instead, he says he saves it to use as bait. He also uses the fur for clothing. So, in a way he really doesn't spare much of the animal.

[Omegaman]

I learned this from my grandfather who was a Maine guide.Rabbit meat has little to no fat. Early American settlers and people lost in the woods that ate nothing but rabbit meat or other small game died of what is called rabbit starvation. Rabbit starvation is what we would now call protein poisoning it is caused by eating only very lean meat that contains no or little fatty acids or omega 3’s or 6’s but is pure protein . It is a sever form of malnutrition but what make it worse is you feel great until it is to late because you are eating and you feel full and happy but can't figure out why you are getting weak and loosing muscle mass. What is happening is you body will burn through your fat very fast then it starts to burn your muscle mass. Lots of Native American tribes learned this early on so they tended to eat all of the rabbits or squirrel organs along with the meat and they found the best way was to make a stew out of the animals.

[stairman]

Omegaman is correct. You can only eat the lean cuts for a few days and after that if your not taking in any fat to aid in digestion youll get diarrea. And it wont go away till you take in some form of fat. Thats why in a survival situation a stew is your best bet, with the cracked bones[marrow is an excellent source of fat] and all the other organs except the stomach and intestines along with the meat of course. A few bugs in the stew for added fat and even the blood. If you dont have a pot you can dig a hole and make a bowl with the hide, hair down, and rock boil the contents. Roasting choice cuts over coals is fine for awhile till the fat in your intestines is depleted then the troubles begin.

[TaintRight]

I have never heard of the need for fat in a diet to prevent malnutrition. Not if there are other components (protein and carbohydrate) being consumed. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies might occur eventually. But not Kwashiorkor

I have never heard the diarrhea angle mentioned. So I have no comment on that.

The basics of malnutrition are this. It comes down to simple math. You burn calories to fuel your basal metabolism. Above that your burn calories to move your mass through space (work) If you burn more calories than you consume regardless of the source, you begin to cut into your fat reserves. If you burn 3,500 more calories than you consume, you lose a pound of body weight. Once most of your fat reserves are depleted, you begin to eat into your muscle mass. You develop ketosis and other problems with the byproducts (wastes) of protein digestion. You release a lot of crap embedded in the fat plus toxins resulting from protein metabolism. (ketones, aldehydes) Then you run out of fuel and die. Its a lousy way to go they say.

A gram of fat regardless of source contain 9 calories (9 KCal actually).... beef tallow, olive oil, chicken fat..... it doesn't matter. Protien and Carbohydrate each contain 5KCal/gram. You get more "bang for the buck" consuming fat. The energy is more concentrated. That's the magic of eating fat.

Its been 30 years since I had my last human nutrition courses, but I bet the success of the Indian rule on eating all of the rabbit has nothing to do with balancing protein with fat. Yes, it works, but probably not for the reasons given. By eating all parts of the rabbit or squirrel what you are really doing is maximizing your caloric intake. And I am willing to bet that is the key. By eating a varied group of animals they are also maximizing the caloric content per unit of time spent hunting. A pure rabbit diet wasn't an efficient use of your time. A mouth full of rabbit contained maybe 15 calories. A mouthful of possum contained about 30. So, go hunt a possum.

A professor of mine once told us the Indians of the Pacific NW concentrated their efforts on catching Salmon instead of trout and even land animals like deer or elk that were also available. They didn't know it, but what they were doing by focusing on Salmon was maximizing the caloric content of their diet.

I'm not trying to offend anyone, but there are a lot of food lore out there that works, but not for the reasons our ancestors came up with. And there are a lot of food fads out there that are plain wrong. Ten years ago we didn't eat fat. Five years ago we ate nothing but fat. Now we don't eat carbohydrates. What's next? Depends on who is peddling what. Do your math.

[garret]

if you do not get enough fat in your diet when eating meat you get 'protien poisoning' which leaches the fat from your lower intestine causing lots of bowel issues, i know as it happened to me when i was young and stupid (as opposed to middle aged and stupid )

the only way to overcome it was to put fat back into my diet.

i hate rabbit stewed so i only eat it occasionally spit roasted, most of my fat content when camping came from fish (especially trout and salmon) now it comes from me always having a bottle of olive oil in my kit and some pemmican as a booster if needed

longterm protien poisoning can also cause kidney stones, and boy am i suffering with that issue too

do a google search for protienosis

[TaintRight]

Yeah I will thanks. I am at the stage in my life where I am not sure what I know, what important parts of a subject I forgot and what I just made up.

[stairman]

OK admit it Taintright, you just learned something The importance of fat in a meager diet is paramount.