Hello everybody

I was reading the current issue of Modern Survival Guide online and read an article that raises some serious concerns
regarding living off the land,both short and long term.
The article was written by Chris Janowski,whom I'm sure most
forumites have heard of as a quite knowledgeable survival instructor who resides in Alaska.He raises some issues that I was not aware of,and I wonder if anybody here has heard of
so everbody who has knowledge on the following,please share your thoughts,as it was something I've never heard or read about until today.
I know that in a survival situation aquiring food to eat is not our number one priority-shelter,water,fire are.The human
body can survive weeks without food,but once we have taken care of the essentials almost all of us carry snare wire and
fishing kits to aquire small animals and fish to eat.
According to the article Chris Janowski states that if we only eat small,lean animals ie:rabbits,squrrels,fish,etc.,
for a period as little as 7-10 days,that there is a risk of contracting "protein poisoning"aka "rabbit starvation.The reason for this is that we are only eating lean meat with very little fat which deprives the body of vitamin A which is essential to good health.If we don't find some source of dietary fat to eat(animal fat is loaded with vitamin A)
the body will quickly use up it's own vitamin A.If this hap-
pens,it can lead to nephritis (inflamed kidneys)and severe
diarrhea,which can cause death.
Since the typical game one might catch/trap in the wild in a
survival situation consists mainly of lean meat,it raises some concerns to me.Janowski recommends eating bugs,grubs,
insects,etc., even though they don't contain much fat,it is better than none.He also advocates breaking up the bones of eaten small game and boiling them to get at the bone marrow,
(bone marrow is supposed to be one of the richest sources of fat)and eating the marrow and drinking the water they were boiled in.Bone marrow is almost pure fat (240 calories)per ounce and is loaded with vitamin A and B-12.
Janowski also states that most species of fish are very low in fat content with some exceptions.These include freshwater
trout,catfish,salmon, striped bass,ocean salmon,mackerel and
herring.Other good sources of fat can be obtained from large
game animals such as deer,caribou,moose,(from their meat and
bones).Native Americans would often carry a leg bone or two when away from home for their fat source.They also made pem-
ican cakes which contained 1/3 animal fat mixed with other materials as a major source of dietary fat.
The need for dietary fat in winter is even greater.The body can require 3000-6000 plus calories per day depending on the
temperature and physical output.Another noted survival inst-
ructor Mors Kochanski,advocated that if you could trap a medium sized mammal ie:beaver,marmot-to throw it in your fire,singe all the hair off it and to cook it whole as is.
The reason for this method is that you are cooking all the organs and releaseing all the fat stored in them.He stated that it might seem unpalatable to some but that it's better than no fat at all and its consequences.
Sorry for the long winded story,but much of the info in that
article was news to me,and I'm sure will be news to others as well.I learn something new every day.I'm looking forward to everybodys input on this topic.Reading this has left me
wondering what one should do in a short or longer term survival situation?Should I forego eating in a survival situation?Yes if I'm lost or hurt and there's an expectation
of rescue. I can easily survive for 3 weeks plus on my fat
reserves. <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />at least that's what I tell my wife why I
never lose the extra 10 pds above my ideal weight! <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
If it's a long term situation I better think about adding a
firearm to my BOB to supplement my trapping/fishing kits.In my geographic location I'd be limited to mostly lean meat and fish to eat,unless I got lucky and landed a catfish.

Dennis