It goes without saying that food will be critical in any survival scenario.  Again, referring to the “Rule of Three”, a human can function reasonably well on little food for a period of time.  But, as soon as you approach 3 weeks without sufficient food you physical, mental and emotional viability decreases rapidly.  Even after a week without food you will notice a significant decrease in your strength, ability to fight off disease, judgment, decision making, and overall attitude toward your plight and efforts.

PRINCIPLES RELATED TO SURVIVAL AND FOOD:  First, your diet will need to change, targeted at eating more of a set of critical foods and less of others.  Second, calories will be important.  As you face daily struggles to survive, you will need foods that build strength, that carry a good punch to your physical strength.  Third, given all of that proteins will be critical to your survival, primarily from meat sources. Fourth, a balanced diet, at least as much as you can, including fats and carbs will be important to enable your body to function as well as possible. And fifth, you will need to see foods you might not touch now as viable options to give you the food value you need.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THOSE PRINCIPLES:  You can gain protein, vitamins and minerals, and other key items from plants.  But plants will never be able to give you the hit for your volume buck that meat can.  There are virtually no meats that you cannot eat, even those creepy crawlers that send you running for cover today.  Plants are necessary, but you need to remember that 95% of plants on earth today can kill you.  Eating raw meat and plants comes with their own sets of dangers.  Cooking your food is important to destroy any parasites and other nasty things that you won’t want in your digestive system.

Freeze dried foods are a recent miracle replacing canned, smoked, dried foods of the past.  Freeze dried foods are good for the short term in a survival situation.  But, even they come with restrictions, primarily the weight involved in carrying them.  You will need to know how to preserve foods, in particular meats, for the long haul.  A capability to smoke or dry foods, to build the structures necessary to do this, and the knowledge to know the difference between good food and spoiled food could mean life or death.

If you are looking at a scenario of longer than 72 hours, you will need to go back to the knowledge and skills of your ancestors.  You will need to plan your diet and work that plan.  After a few weeks, along with water and shelter, food will be a daily task.  Where ever you find yourself there is a grocery store within you reach.  It will be all around you.

Always be looking for food sources even when you are not hungry.  Trust me, if you aren’t looking you will soon be very hungry without any food available.  As you get more hungry, have less strength, you will find it more difficult to undertake the difficult tasks of finding food. Use whatever means you must to secure food.  Ration it.  Guard it with your life because you life depends on keeping your body strong.  Make the tough choices.  Don’t hesitate to kill animals for food no matter what kind.  Identify a few plants that you can trust and harvest them constantly.

You will lose weight.  But with care you can find yourself getting stronger with your new diet.  Enjoy the bounty that nature provides.  Gain the right knowledge, practice your skills, experiment with odd foods before the survival situation hits, forget about what you would not eat in the past.  Never forget, food sources exist for you to have a better chance to keep living.  Make the decision to live.  Choose to survive!