When All Hell Breaks Loose Part 10

Unless you use the Uruguayan rugby team's melting method, or have the time and s.p.a.ce to bring large amounts of contained snow or ice into some part of your house to slowly melt, transforming ice and snow into water will require fuel and a suitable container. If fuel is in short supply, you will once again have to prioritize your needs. Think ahead and always try to kill two birds with one stone, such as melting snow for water on or around the woodstove that is keeping the family warm and cooking their food.

Water is a biological necessity down to the cellular level. Without it you will die. Thus, if it's not readily available from your environment, storing potable water for the entire family, including pets, is of prime importance.

Dehydration adversely affects your physiology and your psychology. Many factors increase the risks for dehydration such as chronic illnesses, living at alt.i.tude, exercise, hot and humid weather, cold and dry weather, pregnancy and breast-feeding, and being either very young or very old.

Thirst is never an indication of adequate hydration. Your body is maximally hydrated when your urine is clear. Lesser indicators are how often you pee and how much you pee. Vitamin B and certain medications will color the urine regardless of how hydrated you are.

It may be necessary to strongly encourage family members to drink to avoid becoming dehydrated, especially during very hot or cold weather. Most people will not drink enough water on their own to stay hydrated.

If you choose to use them, electrolyte and rehydration solutions should be used with caution. Don't overuse them as they can make you sick in concentrated quant.i.ties. First try to alleviate the dehydration with adequate quant.i.ties of plain water.

For families without access to natural water sources, plan ahead by storing potable water in containers. Store a minimum of one gallon of water per person per day. If you live in an arid environment, storing three gallons of water per person per day is highly recommended. Don't forget about pets and realize that your stored water will also be used for cooking and sanitation needs. There are many types of water storage container options. Choose what works best for your family, don't store them all in one location, and remember to store water at the office and in vehicles as well.

If applicable, beware of contaminated water entering your home after a disaster from the munic.i.p.al water intake pipe attached to your house's plumbing system. Know where the shutoff valve is and pay attention to local emergency broadcasts about if and when to turn off the water supply entering your home.

Fill as many preexisting water storage containers, such as bathtubs, extra sinks, and pots and pans, as you can with potable water. Know how to access other water options such as hot-water heaters and the backs of toilets.

Nonpotable water should be disinfected before drinking using a method such as household chlorine bleach, iodine, boiling, filtration, pasteurization, distillation, or UV radiation. For water sources suspected of being contaminated with chemicals and pollutants, use the filtration and/or distillation methods.

As a general rule, use great caution when disinfecting nonpotable water sources for drinking. If in doubt, re-treat the water in question!

Scout your neighborhood now for possible alternative emergency water sources in case your home runs dry. Streams, rivers, ponds or lakes, fountains, and random water spigots may be available. Don't reduce your survival options by having only one alternative source of water. Use extreme caution when using man-made sources of water such as artificially created ponds at golf courses. Such water sources can be laced with chemicals and pollutants.

Harvest rain whenever possible using a variety of nontoxic, nonpermeable materials such as the roof of your home, or suspended tarps or plastic sheeting. Disinfect rainwater before drinking using the described disinfection methods.

Melt snow and ice for water. Ice contains much more water than snow by volume.

Don't use nonpotable water to wash dishes, brush teeth, prepare food, or make ice.

FAMILIAR yet Fantastic FOOD

"Thou shouldst eat to live, not live to eat."

-Socrates While food is not a priority in a short-term survival scenario, which lasts on average seventy-two hours or less before you are rescued, for an extended emergency it's a must-have commodity. Food is a hotly debated item in survival and everyone has their opinion about what you should have on hand and how much. As psychological stress is such a huge part of every survival scenario, knowing where your food is coming from and having enough for your family will do wonders for everyone's peace of mind. Consider storing a few snacks in your car and office as well.

In a nasty, long-term crisis in which you are unable to resupply your cupboard, you will be forced to ration your family's food. Take the mind-set now that your survival rations, in their truest sense, are just that, THEY ARE RATIONS; and rations are to be rationed. Beware, as the Earth's history is full of fools who willfully chewed through their survival supplies in short order, their deaths being the only proof of their bad planning. If you want to live high on the hog for a few days, purposefully storing and eating gourmet supplies at the beginning of your ordeal, that's your choice, but be able to get down and dirty with a food supply that is supernutritious and easily stored and rationed, at the expense of taste if need be. Much about your food storage strategy, of course, revolves around the wants and needs of your family.

The Big Three: Macronutrients in Food Foods contain three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, along with trace amounts of micronutrients such as minerals and vitamins. Each type contains a certain amount of kilocalories (kcal) or units of food energy and metabolizes or "burns" differently within the body. Fats contain the greatest amount of kilocalories at a whopping 9.3 kilocalories per gram. Carbohydrates come in second with 3.79 kilocalories per gram, and then proteins with 3.12 kilocalories per gram. Each kilocalorie is equivalent to 1,000 calories and is the quant.i.ty of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of pure water 1 degree C. One pound of body weight equals around 3,500 kilocalories. At 280 kilocalories a pop, that's nearly thirteen Snickers candy bars!

The largest energy reserves are found in the largest parts of the body, princ.i.p.ally muscle (around 28 kilograms) and fat (15 kilograms). On average, a healthy body contains a storehouse of energy: around 1,200 kilocalories of carbohydrates, 24,000 kilocalories of protein, and 135,000 kilocalories of fat. As stated earlier, the burn rates of macronutrients, how their kilocalories are metabolized by the body, vary. Just as adding various types and sizes of firewood to a fire influences the burn size and time duration of the flame, so the three macronutrients influence the body in much the same way. Fats, as an example, like larger fuelwood, contain the most calories per gram, but also require more oxygen to oxidize their components down for metabolism by the body. Simple sugars (carbohydrates), like hard candies, act the same as smaller kindling wood and don't contain many kilocalories, but they break down very quickly and thus are metabolized by the body very fast. Putting kindling-size wood on a fire will produce a huge flame in a heartbeat but it's short-lived.

Almost everyone at some point has "hit the wall," as an athlete would say, having burned up their available carbohydrate supply. Eating a few simple sugars and carbohydrates might be all that's necessary to jump-start your body's system. If your survival tasks become extremely physical, working at less than 60 percent of your maximum exertion level uses more fats than carbohydrates, thus helping to prevent blood glucose depletion. This physiological rule is one that aerobics instructors use to their advantage in helping clients lose fat while they maintain the energy needed to keep exercising during their cla.s.s. If the weather is cold and available body carbohydrates are drained, heat production starts to fail and you become hypothermic much easier. In this situation, you must eat simple carbohydrates to tap into your body's remaining fat reserves.

Subjecting your body to cold weather without the protection of adequate clothing or shelter will cause your body to burn more calories. In other words, having adequate clothing or shelter for the climate and season will make your emergency food supplies last longer. Not only what you eat, but also how you eat can affect your body's thermoregulation in cold weather. Eating smaller, more frequent meals increases the body's metabolism, thereby burning more calories for digestion, a process referred to as diet-induced thermogenesis. This thermal effect of food, or "TEF" principle, increases your metabolism, which in turn increases the amount of calories burned. These increased calories produce more internal heat for the survivor when needed.

POTENTIALLY PROBLEMATIC PROTEINS.

Proteins are not ideal survival foods in hot environments for several reasons. If water is scarce, proteins should be avoided, as the metabolism of protein depletes body water stores. Protein metabolism produces urea, a toxic compound excreted by the kidneys. The more protein you eat, the more water the body devotes to the production of urine in order to rid the body of urea. Eating quant.i.ties of protein in a limited-water situation hastens death through dehydration long before starvation. However, in long-term survival scenarios where starvation is a possibility, the body consumes protein anyway by cannibalizing muscle tissue. Unlike proteins, the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats, to a certain extent, contribute to body water stores up to twelve to seventeen ounces per day depending on the type of diet. Furthermore, the metabolism of protein produces a higher metabolic rate, thus using more energy and creating more heat. Use common sense and adapt to your particular situation. Proteins are a wonderful thing in cold, low-elevation environments with plenty of available drinking water.

As already mentioned, if your survival situation goes long term, survival rations, in their truest sense, should not be considered subst.i.tute meals. Their main focus is to provide the survivor with sugar in order to minimize catabolism and dehydration in order to increase survival time. Ideal survival foods, provided there's adequate water to drink, consist of mostly fats and carbohydrates. While fats are packed with calories they take time for the body to metabolize into the simple sugars or glucose required for energy. In addition, fats are not well-tolerated as an energy source at high alt.i.tudes. If you live at alt.i.tude, store extra carbohydrates in the place of some fats and proteins, as carbohydrates are already partially oxidized and thus require less oxygen from the body-up to 8 to 10 percent less-to convert into energy. More than any other nutrient except water, a reduced carbohydrate intake depletes muscle glycogen stores, decreasing your endurance. For short-term survival (one to three days), a lack of calories is not nearly as important for performance as a lack of carbohydrates. Simple sugars and carbohydrates provide fast energy as they metabolize very quickly and are required for the body to be able to access its stored fat deposits. For the long term, however, if not accompanied by certain complex carbohydrates and proteins for stabilization, this quick source of energy leaves your body just as quickly, resulting in the infamous "sugar crash."

The Glycemic Index (GI) was developed in 1981 and is a numerical system for measuring how fast carbohydrates in various foods trigger a rise in blood sugar or glucose. Foods containing high amounts of fats and proteins don't cause blood sugar levels to rise nearly as much as those containing carbohydrates. In essence, the higher the GI number, the greater the blood sugar response. In general, a GI of 70 or more is high, 56 to 69 medium, and 55 or less is low. Until the early 1980s, scientists a.s.sumed that only digested simple sugars produced rapid increases in blood sugar levels. In truth, many simple sugars don't raise glucose levels any more than some complex carbohydrates, as not all carbohydrates act the same when digested. Foods producing the highest GI response include several starchy staples that folks commonly eat including breads, breakfast cereals, and baked potatoes. Even table sugar is low on the GI list in comparison. Lowglycemic foods include beans, barley, pasta, oats, various types of rice, and acidic fruits among others.

Consuming food with a high GI will cause your blood sugar to go through the roof. In response, your pancreas releases insulin in an attempt to combat your body's rising sugar levels. Ingested proteins contain glucagons that swim around the bloodstream trying to stabilize the blood sugar, helping to prevent the crash your body experiences by consuming simple carbohydrates or sugars alone.

In summary, the three macronutrients found in foods-proteins, fats, and carbohydrates-contain different amounts of calories and metabolize at varying rates within the body. The savvy survivor should store foods containing all three macronutrients. In addition, it would be wise to have on hand a one-size-fits-all, portable, quick, no-cook combination food source containing simple sugars and carbohydrates that jump-starts the body's glucose levels immediately. This same food source should also possess longer-burning carbohydrates for short-term energy and fats for sustained, long-burning energy. Proteins, with thought given to their disadvantages, should be present as well, thus stabilizing simple sugars and carbohydrates, helping to prevent the "crash," as well as providing the body with extra, long-burning fuel.

Foods including all macronutrients will give you the greatest bang for your buck, metabolizing in succession sugars, carbohydrates, proteins, and finally fats. Native American people knew the advantage of combining foods for maximum energy and performance all too well as their rugged lifestyles demanded the most from their bodies. They developed "pemmican," a staple that possessed all three macronutrients: berries for simple sugars and carbohydrates, meat for protein, and fat for fat. All three elements were prepared and mixed together to create the ultimate indigenous trail mix.

Your Basal Metabolic Rate [BMR]: Defining How Much Feed You Truly Need Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of calories you burn at rest doing absolutely nothing. It is the bare minimum number of calories or energy your body needs to sustain the life process: respiration, circulation, cellular metabolism, glandular activity, and the maintenance of core body temperature. BMR requirements vary widely based on age, s.e.x, muscle and bone weight, and height, so pinning down how much calories you burn sitting on your b.u.t.t can be a challenge. The four main physiological factors that influence the burning of calories for BMR are as follows: 1 Being male. Men and boys burn more calories simply being men than women do being women.

2 Your age. Young people burn far more calories than middle-aged or older folks.

3 Muscularity. More muscles require more nutrients, even at rest.

4 Tall people. The more body one has, excluding fat, the more nutrition is required to keep the body idling.

The biggest calorie burners or those who eat the most food are young, tall, muscular men or boys-ask any mom. Statistically, tall women will burn more calories than shorter women and so on. Make no mistake about it, if you go by the serving size posted on the labels of foods, they will not have taken these variations into account-how could they? If your household plans on feeding several large teenage boys during a crisis, plan on storing much more food.

The following BMR worksheet can be photocopied and filled out by each member of your tribe. This will give you an estimate of how many calories will be required to feed your family when they are doing absolutely nothing. However, being inactive is not a typical daily survival activity so the worksheet also has an activity level option that will increase the daily amount of calories required for that person depending upon which activity level they choose. This will give you an estimate of the active caloric needs of each family member, a more true representation of what they are burning right now in the bustle of daily life. Other factors such as illness and weather conditions will also influence how many calories your body uses. Cold weather without proper shelter or clothing will dramatically increase the amount of calories your body burns in order to thermoregulate its core body temperature.

Basal Metabolic Rate and Active Caloric Needs Worksheet

for Guys and Gals-Harris-Benedict Equation

Women Men Your height in inches:_____ Your height in inches:_____ Multiply by 4.3 = _____= A Multiply by 12.7 = _____ = A Your weight in pounds: _____ Your weight in pounds: _____ Multiply by 4.4 = _____ = B Multiply by 6.2 = _____ = B Your age in years: _____ Your age in years: _____ Multiply by 4.7 = _____ = C Multiply by 6.8 = _____ = C Plug in the above information into this formula to estimate your BMR: Females: A + B + 655C = _____ is your basal metabolic rate per day.

Males: A + B + 66C = _____ is your basal metabolic rate per day.

As your BMR is simply the amount of calories you burn doing absolutely nothing, choose one of the following options regarding your activity level and add it to your BMR number as indicated below.

Sedentary to lightly active: (active less than 30 minutes 1 or 2 days per week at minimal intensity) Multiply your BMR number above by 1.3 = _____ calories you need per day Moderately active: (active for 30 minutes 6 to 7 days per week at moderate intensity) Multiply your BMR number above by 1.4 = _____ calories you need per day Very active/athletic: (active for 60 minutes 6 to 7 days per week at a high intensity) Multiply your BMR number above by 1.5 = _____ calories you need per day The active caloric needs are the amount of calories you burn each day being you, doing all of the activities, work or play, that make up a day in your life. Life sucks without enough calories and you may be obliged to share some of your stored food with others so choose a calorie number on the high side.

If you're curious about the breakdown of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats of your daily energy consumption based upon your active caloric needs, use the following formula.

Protein = (Your active caloric needs) _____ multiplied by 0.15 = _____ calories, divided by 4.0 = _____ grams of protein Carbohydrates = (Your active caloric needs) _____ multiplied by 0.55 = _____ calories, divided by 4.0 = _____ grams of carbohydrate Fat = (Your active caloric needs) _____ multiplied by 0.30 = _____ calories, divided by 9.0 = _____ grams of fat Factors That Will Determine What You Choose to Store and Eat The type of food your family prefers. Your choice of emergency food should be linked as closely as possible to the realities of your pending disaster. In other words, if you and the kids love steak at every dinner, think again about how that stored steak will look after six days without the freezer working due to a power outage.

How long your supposed "emergency" will last. There are many forms in which you can buy your beans: canned, freeze-dried, dried whole, and dehydrated into a powder, to name a few. Each form will have its advantages and disadvantages in regard to its shelf life and palatability, or in other words, how long it will store before it gets nasty, or at the very least, becomes virtually nutrition free.

The age and health of your family members. Dietary restrictions of one kind or another are very common. Grandpa Joe and his dentures will not be happy campers when he attempts to eat leathery lentils that were either stored too long or undercooked because of lack of water, fuel, time, or ability. Bouncing baby Francine will be equally unimpressed at your meal plan. Take time to research family members who may have certain food allergies; an allergic reaction can range from an annoying inconvenience to killing your loved one. I don't care what the emergency food company phone representative said about their company's one-size-fits-all food storage plan being the best, people don't have the same needs. Think ahead to avoid food preparation ha.s.sles and p.i.s.sed off family members.

Your home's ability to store the food of your choice through variations in temperature, available s.p.a.ce, and location. While bulk foods such as whole grains are cheap, they're heavy and take up s.p.a.ce. . .a lot of s.p.a.ce if your survival scenario involves weeks of cooking rice in the backyard. While people can and have gotten creative with how they've stored their food stash-five-gallon buckets becoming legs for the dining room table, for example-it may not be practical for your efficiency apartment on the thirtieth floor. All stored foods are highly affected by fluctuations in temperature. If you live in a warm climate, or experience times of the year where it gets warm in your house, your stored food will not last as long as it will in a home that achieves a constant, low temperature.

How big your wallet or purse is. Many prepackaged emergency or "backpacking" foods, while convenient, are not cheap. You pay for the preparation that goes into that pasta primavera and cranberry-walnut chicken. Large families or those on a budget will be turned off at the pricey cost per meal for these options.

Pets. Don't forget about Fluffy and Sc.r.a.pper when storing food. Like human canned food, canned pet food is a no-brainer to store. Dry dog and cat foods can be stored in the same way as dry human food. If you have finicky pets, they won't be if they get hungry enough. Jillions of unwanted back-alley feral dogs and cats in the country are proof to the fact that animals will eat about anything to stay alive. Although I can't imagine that your family would have any wasted leftover food on their plates after an extended crisis, any leftovers that for lack of safe cold storage can't be saved should be given to Peaches and Fido. I once lived at a radical hippy commune that made their own dog food from scratch. The pets ate like the people, who were all vegetarian. While many will argue that this is not healthy for a dog, and they may be right, the commune dogs were as obnoxiously healthy as ever. Maybe they cleaned up on supplemental mice and rats, too. In a serious pinch, eat the pet food. While it's not for human consumption, neither is the weird stuff written about later in this chapter that humans all over the planet have eaten in dire need. When I was a little boy, like most little boys, I experimented with eating many things. I specifically remember how the dog food tasted that day long ago because my mom whipped my b.u.t.t when she caught me with my face down in the doggie dish. One morning, years later, I ate a common breakfast cereal and instantly flashed back to the dog food incident. Yup, one of those popular, "healthy" breakfast cereals tastes just like dry dog food-without the milk.

Junk Food Junkie Although I love, appreciate, and recognize good-tasting food when I eat it, I'm not attached to the whims of my taste buds. After all, I drank blended tuna fish for years. Although you probably won't choose to get your protein in this manner, when push comes to shove, food is nothing more than fuel for your body. The more food you eat that has the desired nutrition your body demands, the less food you'll require to get your nutritional demands met. Translation, you will need to buy and store less food for your family. Junk food is just that, junk, and you will require much more of it to fuel your body during times of stress. High-quality simple foods, such as whole grains, possess much more burn time for the buck (and are typically much cheaper than processed foods) and are great additions to any survival pantry. You would require cases of sugary snack cakes to achieve the equivalent in nutrition of a few pounds of whole wheat.

Here's one more thing on the "my food needs to taste good" school of thought. If this last statement is true for you, so be it, but plan now for having the proper culinary training and ingredients required to make your food taste wonderful long after the grid goes down. For hundreds of years, the spice trade was one of the most lucrative on the planet, as our ancestors were all tired of eating bland, c.r.a.ppy-tasting food. Who can blame them? My concern, as a survival instructor, is not how your food tastes, but that you have food to taste at all. I have eaten many things in the wilderness that would make most people vomit, all in the name of survival nutrition, and because we didn't have any other options. My point is this: please don't get too picky with your food if supplies run thin. Necessity might require from you someday that you ingest things that you didn't think were edible. Many, many people all over the earth have been reduced to eating the greatest of all taboos, each other. This book will not include ideas for barbecuing Uncle John, but it will include bare-bones survival fare that is cheap, easy to store for long periods of time, nutritional, and, with a little bit of ingenuity, good tasting.

What About Fasting?

I know many people who have fasted for more than three weeks and they are still breathing air. While hunger is a b.u.mmer, especially when combined with the stresses of a survival situation, food-deprived folks can still function for long periods of time. Fasting (deliberately not eating) has been around for thousands of years, and in some world religions it's standard practice. Fasts lasting longer than two or three days use up liver glycogen completely and consume nearly half of the muscles' glycogen stores. After this, if the body is still without food, the body synthesizes glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis. Ketone bodies are then formed by the oxidation of fatty acids that are utilized as energy by the muscles and brain. In a normally fed individual, ketone oxidation accounts for less than 3 percent of the total energy bill for that person. Longer fasts produce so many ketone bodies that they provide for more than 40 percent of the body's energy requirements and up to 50 percent of the brain's glucose needs. Eventually, the longer the fast, the less glucose the body uses, therefore reducing the amount of cannibalization the body must undergo to support gluconeogenesis. Fasts lasting more than fourteen days cause the body's basal metabolic rate (BMR) to decrease by 21 percent as the body becomes superefficient with its resources.

WHY BE HUNGRY WHEN YOU CAN BE STONED?.

No one likes the feeling of hunger. Its persistent presence gnaws at even the most psychologically hardened souls. If things get bad at your place, consider what others have done to lessen the feelings of lack. Eritrean women are known to tightly strap flat stones to their stomachs to lessen hunger pangs. Mothers in many countries boil water with stones and tell the children that the food is almost ready, hoping they will fall asleep waiting. Let's hope (and prepare) that it doesn't come to this.

Real-life starvation scenarios, such as the Donner Party in which far more women survived than men, show that women may have a metabolic advantage over the guys. As an important side note, medical research has found that ketone production may come to a screeching halt after eating only 150 grams of carbohydrates per day. This means that if you have fasted, and then eat a very small amount of food, you lose your former ketone production advantage when the food is gone. I have talked to people with a lot of field experience who feel this is nonsense, so the choice is yours in how your body may react to the effects of fasting and food.

If you haven't tried fasting, do so. Your family may hate you for a few days but feel free to blame it on me. The best time to find out that you become a raging a.s.s with low blood sugar is not when your food supply is running low. Fasting will give you a broad look at how you and your family, physiologically and psychologically, deal with the stress of a no-calorie meal plan. Unknowns are scary so anytime you can cut down on the fear factor with simple training and hands-on experience, do it with enthusiasm.

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment: A Window into a Hungry Person's World Wow! My clothes look sloppy! My belt buckle is in the last notch-a decrease of three notches since the starvation began.

-Lester Glick, Minnesota volunteer, March 16, 1945 In the early 1940s during World War II, thirty-six young male conscientious objectors partic.i.p.ated in a human semistarvation study for six months conducted by Ancel Keys at the University of Minnesota. The intention of the study was to learn the physiological and psychological effects of semistarvation in the hopes of dealing with the rehabilitation of refeeding civilians who had been starved during the war. As the psychological ramifications of the study were just as important as the physical, all partic.i.p.ants were heavily screened for extraordinary psychological stamina. Overall, the partic.i.p.ants lost 25 percent of their total body weight in a controlled, clinical setting.

For the first three months of the semistarvation experiment, the men ate normally while researchers doc.u.mented their personalities and eating patterns. For the next six months, the volunteers were fed half of what they normally ate. The study ended with a three-month rehabilitation time in which the men were gradually refed to prestudy levels. In all cases, the volunteers experienced radically altered physical, psychological, and social changes.

I'm beginning to want to isolate myself from the other subjects who are developing all kinds of weird behaviors. . .and the starvation is less than half over!

-Lester Glick, June 24, 1945 Predictably, all of the men fantasized about food: in their conversations, readings, thoughts, and actions. Menial tasks during the day were harder and harder to accomplish as the volunteers' concentration remained solely upon food. As the experiment continued, and s.e.x drives plummeted, the men smuggled food, made bizarre mixtures of food which were eaten in long, drawn-out rituals of two hours or more, and collected cookbooks, menus, and educational literature on food, including basic agriculture. As the calorie cut continued, they h.o.a.rded food memorabilia such as kitchen utensils, hot plates, and coffee makers. The "collecting" progressed to nonfood items as well, such as old clothes and garage sale junk. Chewing gum was limited after one subject was found chewing more than forty packages of gum per day, so much that he developed a sore mouth from the exercise. All achieved extreme pleasure by smelling food or watching others eat.

Books on starvation tell us that hungry people eat clay, wood, bark, unclean animals, and often become cannibalistic. Yesterday I took the lead out of a pencil and began chewing the wood. I think about how cannibalism is a terrible option for a starving person, and try to put it out of my mind, but I can't seem to stop thinking about it. People are a terrible bore. I don't know what I'd do without my private room and my stack of cookbooks.

-Lester Glick, June 25, 1945 During the refeeding phase, as had been the case for some of the men who had binged during the experiment, some continued eating to the point of vomiting, only to start all over again after the vomiting ceased. After three months of normal meals the men still complained of increased hunger after eating. Some men, whose daily estimate of calories topped 10,000, would start snacking within a half an hour of eating. After more than five months of refeeding, most of the volunteers reported somewhat normal eating patterns but some continued to eat much greater portions than when the experiment began.

Today Jim and I made a routine visit to a restaurant to watch people eat. We bought our usual black coffee and directed our attention to a well-dressed lady who had ordered a beautiful pork chop dinner. She tinkered with the chop, eating less than half of that wonderful looking tenderloin. She nibbled at the string beans, embellished with nuts and bacon. Finally she ordered a fantastic coconut cream pie, which appeared to us as G.o.d's prize creation. She pushed off the wonderful whipped cream on the top, nibbled daintily at the filling, leaving the crust untouched. What a stupid woman! She paid her bill and left the restaurant, with Jim and I close behind. Jim stopped her and proceeded to lecture her on world hunger and how she was contributing to it. She shrieked an exclamation and took off running.

-Lester Glick, July 6, 1945 Most of the psychological changes such as collecting and h.o.a.rding continued, as did the total preoccupation with food. Although the men were chosen for their more than average psychological stamina, most experienced severe emotional breakdown as the semistarvation progressed. Depression, apathy, irritability, anger, and radical mood swings, along with the inability to function overall, dogged the volunteers relentlessly. Anxiety in once-stable men increased as nail-biting and smoking were chosen to combat hypersensitivity and nervousness. Humor between the men disappeared and they became socially withdrawn from each other, visiting friends and family, and the facilitators. The men showed signs of impaired judgment and alertness, along with impaired concentration and comprehension, as well as poor motor coordination, reduced strength, hair loss, decreased tolerance of cold, headaches, added sensitivity to noise and light, ringing in the ears, and spots in front of their eyes. Their body's physiological processes seemed to slow down across the board, from body temperatures to heart rates, including a drop in their normal basal metabolic rate (BMR) by nearly 40 percent. Upon refeeding, those who consumed the most calories also had the biggest gain in their BMR.

Cannibalism, death through starvation, gra.s.s salads, and eating garbage are more than fleeting thoughts. We are told that we are starving so that thousands of starving people might be fed. Such thoughts are fleeting, and I'd give them up in a minute for a few slices of bread.

-Lester Glick, July 8, 1945 The Minnesota study proved the body's amazing ability to adapt in times of food shortages. In times of dire need, everything, including the s.e.x drive, takes a back seat toward the goal of obtaining more calories. The study should make it glaringly obvious as to the benefits of a well-thought-out food storage plan, and hopefully your ability to improvise gathering calories should your "plan" disappear. I've included the study here not just to encourage you to store food, but to have you realize the psychological, not just physiological, ramifications of a forced low-calorie diet. If your family finds itself with limited food opportunities, and starts acting a bit weird, you will have been forewarned.

Epilogue.

A few years ago, sixteen of the thirty-six original partic.i.p.ants who were still alive were interviewed. Despite all the hards.h.i.+ps and suffering they endured, all of them said that they would do it all over again, saying the study was the most impactful experience of their lives. After the original study ended, many of the partic.i.p.ants worked at rebuilding the war zone of Europe, working in ministries and diplomatic careers. Survivors of the study living in Florida still meet regularly. All continue to be strong advocates for human service programs, promoting justice, peacemaking, and concerns about world hunger.

What about Living off the Fat of the Land with Wild Edible Plants and Game?

There is perhaps no quicker way to ruin your day than by putting the wrong thing into your mouth and swallowing it, and I speak from experience. There are many variables when using wild edible plants and game as part of a survival plan. The more variables a plan contains, the more moving parts there are, the more Murphy's Law is liable to act, and that which can go wrong, will go wrong. Some people reading this have read other survival books in which many wild edible plants were shared. A few of you have taken field courses on wild edible plants taught by knowledgeable and enthusiastic instructors, a few of who are probably friends of mine. I have attended plant walks where the instructor stated confidently to mesmerized students that the instructor could live off the seeds of one plant alone for many months, although they had never attempted to do so for even a day. Some readers will gaze into their backyards or back forty and see endless amounts of wild edible plants: cattails, watercress, p.r.i.c.kly pear fruit, and others. Some no doubt feel confident that nature's bounty will be there in their time of need, oblivious to potential drought, flooding, fire, insect infestation, human or animal exploitation, premature cold snaps or warm spells, chemical contamination, dubious nutritional and caloric values, limited palatability, odd preparation requirements for edibility, and seasonal availability. All wild game, both large and small, have their share of challenges, legal and otherwise. Hunting and trapping are true arts and require much practice, the right equipment, and the proper area to be successful. That said, some people in the United States could live on roadkill alone and I do envy you. On the positive side, rats and mice are easy to catch but most of you will quickly exhaust your supply.

I'll let you in on a little survival instructor secret. There is a great yearning by many to live off the land, wild and free, perpetuated by movies, television, outdoor magazines, and all aspects of the media. Whether it was cowboys and Indians, Daniel Boone, Grizzly Adams, or Jeremiah Johnson, the illusion of forever successfully living from the land has long ago been hammered into the human psyche. The concept has reached mythological proportions, containing a certain glamour and mystique equaled only by the romance of martial arts or the Navy SEALs-both highly exaggerated by the media as well. When a survival instructor works with innocent, wide-eyed students eager to place the instructor upon a pedestal and/or the media, whose bottom line is selling a product at the expense of truth, a change can happen. The instructor may start believing his own BS. In other words, you might be taught survival concepts and skills that don't have a s...o...b..ll's chance in h.e.l.l of working under the real-life pressures of a true survival scenario. Along with the cool "wild" things you can eat, your survival instructor should also mention the extreme psychological and physiological stress your body, mind, and emotions will be under, and that your fine and complex motor skills, including your cognitive skills, will have gone to h.e.l.l in a handbasket, seriously compromising your hunting and gathering abilities. But hey, that reality just ain't no fun, and it don't make very good TV neither.

Thanks to Rambo, clueless TV producers and magazine editors, testosterone, and lots of ego there is great pressure for survival instructors to make magic and prove themselves at all costs, including honesty, to be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat regardless of circ.u.mstances. History has proved this to be a lie, as many indigenous peoples, depending upon the life zone in which they lived, died young while living off the fat of the land. The truth is, for much of the planet, there isn't a whole lot of fat left, at least not in my area. In summary, closely scrutinize survival teachings through a fierce lens of discretion and realism. Even if you possess the needed training and resources to do so, take a serious look at your situation to see if harvesting calories from the land is realistic for your survival setup. Gathering wild plants and animals for food may be the icing on the cake for your survival plan, but I would strongly caution you against it being the "cake." In the end, if you're still determined to "play Indian," be willing to accept death as a possibility.

This snippet is in no way meant to discourage you from learning and practicing what indigenous food resources you have in your backwoods or your backyard. Learn all you possibly can about your area and what type of calories, if need be, can be harvested or hunted. Putting all of your eggs in one basket is not a wise move with any of your family's resources, especially food.

So Glad to Have You for Dinner!

"THE MISFORTUNE OF OTHERS, EVEN YOUR OWN FAMILY, LEAVES YOU COMPLETELY INDIFFERENT WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING IN YOUR BELLY. YOU ROB RUTHLESSLY; YOU WOULD EVEN KILL.".

-HYOK KANG In our planet's history, famines, both "natural" and man-made, have caused people to literally eat anything they could shove into their mouths. In the twentieth century alone, more than 70 million people died from starvation around the world. If you have the mind-set and the will, history proves that nothing is taboo to eat when extreme hunger knocks at your door. The following true examples, which are just a smattering of scenarios that have occurred, are not meant to gross or b.u.m you out. They are meant to knock you out of American complacency and encourage you to take your food storage program seriously. They are also meant to inspire appreciation within you and your loved ones to be grateful for the food you eat now, and hopefully in the future. Have the "picky eaters" in your tribe read this section twice. Bon Appet.i.t.

Egypt, AD 12001202 A drought prevented the Nile River from its annual flooding, preventing people from growing their crops. Approximate death toll was 110,000, due to starvation, cannibalism, and disease.

Europe, AD 13151322, the Great Famine Bad weather and crop failure caused the death of millions of people by starvation, disease, infanticide, and cannibalism. At that time in Europe's history, famines were common and people were lucky to survive to the ripe old age of thirty. It seems that hard times knew no economic boundaries. In 1276, official records from the British royal family, society's wealthiest people at the time, recorded an average life span of thirty-five years.

Ireland, 18451849, the Great Potato Famine Potatoes, the mainstay of the Irish diet, were inflicted with a potato blight that killed the crops. Local grain and livestock were owned by the English, and laws prevented the Irish from importing grain. The combination of crop disease and politics caused the death of 1.5 million people by starvation, cannibalism, and disease.

BLOATED BUREAUCRATS.

In its 2006 yearly report that measures Americans' access to food, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that 12 percent of Americans, some 35 million people, could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Of these, 11 million reported going hungry at times. Regardless of this, the USDA has chosen to phase out the use of the word "hunger" in its reporting, instead choosing to use the term "very low food security." Mark Nord, a USDA sociologist and lead author of the change, said that, "hungry [is]. . .not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey [and]. . .we don't have a measure of that condition." A panel recommending that the word "hunger" be dropped from the USDA vocabulary said the word "should refer to a potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation." Could they be serious? Seeing as how USDA reports indicate that the number of the hungriest Americans, whoops, I mean Americans that apparently aren't yet starving, but who are simply experiencing the "usual uneasy sensation" has risen over the past five years, wouldn't it be a better use of tax dollars to take some action about "very low food security" in our nation? For all the overfed bureaucrats (who doubtfully have ever had a "usual uneasy sensation") who chose to spend their time and our money helping to wipe out the word "hunger" instead of hunger itself, this "Famine" section is for you. It proves that we do indeed have a measure of "that condition" called hunger.