You may find yourself in the wild for several reasons. You may be out exploring, get lost, or off on a job mission. Survival skills are essential since they will help you come out strong.

You need food to survive, but the wild does not serve you a buffet to choose from when those hunger pangs start biting. Here is a guide that will help you know the nutrition you need for survival in the wild.

1)            Take The Right Calories

For your body to be on the right track, it needs a calorie intake to burn in the right proportion. If you burn high calories to get fewer ones, you are not doing justice to your body. People who live active lives do not have the same nutritional needs as the less active ones.

For soldier nutrition needs, a training recruit can consume more than 3,000 calories but still have a healthy body weight as they burn extra calories with vigorous exercises. While in the wild, you need food that will be appropriate for your current state. You can look for animal or plant fat, a source for starch and sugar, and proteins.

2)            Do Not Eat Everything

Hunger can make you welcome anything that looks edible into your mouth to calm it’s pangs. Be on the lookout, though, as not everything in the wild is edible. For instance, mushrooms almost look the same, and to a normal eye, there is not much difference between the poisonous and non-poisonous ones.

If you cannot tell between edible and non-edible plants or animals, it is better not to consume it. If you are going out camping, you can take a survival course to know the kind of food appropriate in the area you are to visit. A guidebook can also come in handy since it will help you identify edible plants and animals.

3)            Vitamins Are Essential Too

You may have found proteins, carbohydrates, and fats while foraging for food, but your body needs vitamins too. You can source for vitamin C from plants such as lichen, spruce needles, and licorice roots. For vitamin B, white fish can come in handy, while crabs and insects will be rich in calcium.

4)            Fire Is Essential

A fire will help keep you warm on those rainy days and chilly nights. It would help if you also had it to prepare a meal. There are foods you can eat raw in the wild, but it is advisable to cook if you can for several reasons.

The last thing you need while fighting for survival is to worry about a sick body. Meat contains parasites that can be harmful to you if eaten raw, and as such, you need to boil, fry, or roast it. You will need more energy to digest raw food, which you can solve by cooking it and making it more digestible.

If you can hunt a big game, you may have some leftovers, and you do not need it to go to waste, and fire can help preserve it by smoking. Preserved meat can last for weeks, helping you focus on your mission apart from foraging for food.