Jeremy (One Wildcrafter): experiment made me re-evaluate my thoughts on fat. It was something that I hadn't thought much about. Unlike others, I never swore off fats entirely, nor showed it the distain that is common in our modern culture, but I sure didn't look at it as a vital element of a balanced diet, as I now do thanks to this challenge.
In recent times we've come to talk about fat in very mixed ways. Fat has gone from being totally evil to being something tolerated in moderation. However, we've not yet seen fat as totally necessary. Today we still think of fat in terms of good fats and bad fats, but let me tell you, when you haven't had any fats of any kind for some days, any fat would do.
I've come to learn that fat is a building block to life that is vitally important, and one that, if not available, can lead to certain failure. Frying our lean pike in oil or butter would have made all the difference in the world. Consuming 30% of our daily calories from fat would have surely permitted us to move from a deficit to a surplus and made our lean meat more consumable. It's not that we didn't have enough meat, it was that our meat was too lean, and our bodies began to reject it.
Our stomachs simply didn't want to swallow more of the foods we kept offering it. The palatability for lean meat is as limited as it is for chokecherries. When it's enough, it's enough. When there is no more need for it, your body just can't take it. I remember chewing pike and not being able to swallow. It wasn't like I wasn't hungry, I was, it was just that my body didn't need or want any more lean meat. Dousing that meat in some oil and frying it, would have made the entire lot more balanced and allowed us to continue devouring our spoils.
Regardless, fat in wilderness living is likely the difference between success and failure because it dramatically reduces the volume a person needs to consume in order to meet their daily caloric requirements. Without fat, the body can hardly stomach enough protein to sustain its normal functions. Fat is loaded with calories and packs an energetic punch - it makes a welcome addition to wilderness living.
One Wildcrafter (Jeremy):
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