You know, even though most Americans just finished a three-day food orgy, not everyone out there has enough to eat. It’s not just a question of bad food or odd food, it’s a question of no food. If you’re ever starving, and in need of something to fill your belly, then Mental Floss has a guide you need to check out. In it, they tell you how to turn dirt, bark, bugs, and even old leather jackets into edible substances.
It’s a really, really gross idea to me. I mean, eating bugs has to be awful, no matter how much you might boil or fry or roast them. They’re still insects, after all. I like a good crunch as much as the next lover of crispy bacon, but that’s just crazy.
Also mind boggling is the idea of eating dirt, also called geophagy. In some parts of the South, particularly the red clay-rich delta region, it’s a tradition for pregnant women to eat dirt. The dirt is supposedly good to control nausea and adds essential nutrients to the diet that the mothers might otherwise lack. Sounds crazy, but apparently a type of clay called Kaolin is an active ingredient in anti-diarrhea medicine Kaopectate.
If eating dirt can be good for you, who am I to turn my nose up at a snack of leather sleeve and tree bark?
Tags: unusual food, eating garbage, cooking leather, eating bugs, eating dirt, preparing tree bark, weird edible objects, starvation survival guide, how not to starve, emergency food