Survival Skills: Be Wise When You're Hungry

Don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach.

We’ve all done it, and we all know better. Hunger can cause us to make some unwise decisions and go a little overboard when acquiring food. This same scenario can happen when we’re lost in the wild. The wilderness is full of delicious and wholesome wild foods, as well as a good number of dangerous things that happen to look like familiar foods.

According to the NCBI, roughly 39 people per year are seriously harmed by ingesting the wrong mushrooms here in the United States (with an average of three fatalities per year). Plant poisonings are much harder numbers to average (yes, plants are different from mushrooms) and plant poisoning numbers are much higher than mushroom poisoning numbers (being bolstered by toddlers wolfing down mistletoe at Christmastime, teens trying to get high from toxic wild plants and adults making mistakes with herbal remedies). NIH has stated that over 100,000 plant poisonings occur in the U.S. annually, but since the cases are lumped together we don’t know how many of these were foraging accidents. Still, I’ve made mistakes in foraging (especially in my early years) and I know plenty of other people who’ve eaten the wrong thing too.

Here’s the quick solution - if you are in doubt of a plant or mushroom’s edibility – DO NOT eat it! Find something else to eat that you are 100% certain is edible and nutritious. If you can’t find anything you’re certain about, then don’t eat anything. If you’re lost in the wild, just think of it as a crash diet. Most SAR incidents (93% of them, in fact) are resolved within 24 hours. You won’t starve.

Here’s the better solution - learn which plants you can safely use for food and medicine. I have taught foraging for nearly 30 years and would be thrilled to share this information with you in a class. Wouldn’t you rather know about the good and helpful plants around you? And the ones that really are dangerous? Check out the class details today.

Written by Tim MacWelch First draft published on outdoorlife.com