How nutritious is wild food?

People often don’t realize how much wild food there is available out there until they start looking for it. Wild food is one of those things that’s in huge amounts when you’re out in a casual setting, but nowhere to be seen when you need it, even if you did manage to find some in a survival situation, how much good will it really do you?

Obviously eating something is better than nothing at all, but in terms of how much energy and calories it gives you, it’s worth noting what is worth eating and what will be more trouble to gather than its worth. So how nutritious is wild food? Well here’s a few of the most common wild foods and their nutritional values.

Mushrooms

Year round (Across the various types)
10 kg to reach 2000 calories

One of the more popular things to forage because of their taste, mushrooms are over 90% water and contain very little in terms of fat or energy. The following nutritional information is for 100 grams of field mushrooms.

Calories – 20
Sodium – 5 mg
Carbs – 2.3 grams
Fat – 0.3 grams
Protein – 2.5 grams
Fiber – 0.7 grams

Because mushrooms are mostly water, you would have to gather and eat around 10 kg in order to reach 2000 calories, and 15 kg to reach the more desirable 3000 calories you’d need in the wild. It would be impossible to eat this volume of mushrooms in a single day, so they are best used as a filler and shouldn’t be something prioritized as a food source.

Nettles

March to October
5 kg to reach 2250 calories

One of the most common wild plants in the UK, these annoying stinging weeds seem to pop up just about everywhere. Luckily they are very similar to spinach in terms of nutritional value, but the taste is something to be desired. The following is for 100 grams of nettle leaves:

Calories – 45
Sodium – 4 mg
Carbs – 7 grams
Fat – 0.1 grams
Protein – 2.7 grams
Fiber – 7 grams
Potassium – 334 mg

It would be very difficult to eat 5 kg of leaves in a single day, but because of how common they are, at least this would be an option in most places. The leaves can be eaten raw after being waved through the flames of an open fire to wilt the small stinging needles so you can chew them without getting stung inside your mouth.

Berries

Late July to mid September
4 kg to reach 2000 calories

Blackberries are the most common wild berries in the UK and can be found across the country, but because all berries require a decent amount of sun they all seem to be ready at the same time. Blackberries are the most common, both in terms of growth and picking popularity, the following is for 100 grams of blackberries:

Calories – 50
Sodium – 1 mg
Carbs – 10 grams
Fat – 0.5 grams
Protein – 1.5 grams
Fiber – 5 grams
Sugar – 5 grams

Even though you’d still have to eat a huge quantity to get any real amount of calories from them, blackberries contain a good amount of sugar and carbs which will give you a much bigger energy boost than any leaf-based food.

Wild Flowers

Spring to early Autumn
3.5 kg for 2100 calories

There are hundreds of edible flowers out there so it’s difficult to give accurate nutritional information, but for this purpose, I am going to use 100 grams of elder flowers as an example:

Calories – 60
Sodium – 0 mg
Carbs – 18 grams
Fat – 0 grams
Protein – 0 grams
Fiber – 0 grams
Sugar – 18 grams

Flowers generally contain high amounts of sugar and carbs, but nothing else. They would be good for an energy boost but it would be difficult to eat any large amount of them. Even if they could be easily gathered and eaten raw, the perfumes in the flowers would probably make you feel quite sick after eating more than a cup full. Even though they are edible, flowers are not usually on a person’s diet and the human stomach would have trouble digesting such a large amount of a new food type.

Shellfish

All year round
1.5 kg for 2580 calories

The most common types of shellfish you’ll find in the UK are mussels, limpets, and cockles, with things like scallops and razor clams being available at the right times of year. Because no one seems to gather limpets, and cockles are only on certain beaches, Mussels are by far the most commonly gathered and consumed beach-dwelling shellfish, so the following is for 100 grams of Mussels:

Calories – 172
Sodium – 369 mg
Carbs – 7 grams
Fat – 4.5 grams
Protein – 24 grams
Fiber – 0 grams
potassium – 268 mg
Cholesterol – 56 mg

Fat and protein are very hard to find when it comes to wild food, so the coast is always a good place to head towards if the option is available. Not only are mussels very common, but they normally appear in large patches and are easy to gather without tools, making them a prime choice when it comes to wild food.

Nuts

September to November
2 kg for 2620 calories

There are only a handful of edible nut types in the UK, but three of these are much more common and provide the best eating, and these are Hazelnuts, walnuts, and chestnuts. The following is for 100 grams of Chestnuts:

Calories – 131
Sodium – 27 mg
Carbs – 28 grams
Fat – 1.4 grams
Protein – 2 grams
Potassium – 715 mg

Nuts are the best source of non-animal-based fat you can find from wild food. Many wild animals, especially deer rely on nuts to give them enough fat to survive the winter, and they make excellent eating for anyone not allergic. The biggest advantage is that when you find a fully grown nut tree, you can count on a huge amount of produce to come off it, allowing someone a rare chance to get an all-you-can-eat meal, providing that person is able to stomach nothing but a load of nuts of course.

When it comes to wild food, nothing beats animal produce in terms of nutrition and energy. The problem with most plant-based food is that it generally contains a very small amount of anything that can provide energy, and it gives next to no fat which is very important when stuck in the wild. Berries and nuts are a good choice but often seasonal, leaving you in trouble if you’re stuck at the wrong time of year.