# What other non-foods could you eat to survive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 20, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302 "2015-08-20T00:48:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/1 "2015-08-20T00:48:03Z")
Cannibalism thread got me thinking…lots of refugees and prisoners in WW2 ate some weird stuff without resorting to cannibalism, what else could you eat to survive but wouldn’t normally consider food? Examples from WW2: Tree bark Shoe leather Dirt Some basic assumptions: Let’s say that any animal or insect would already be eaten and no longer available. Things that are obviously bad for you or poisonous would not be eaten, _unless_ there was a way to prepare it for safe consumption (e.g. fugu, snakes, etc.) Basic kitchen tools, fire, etc. are available Moving is not an option because of distance, weather, or other obstacles The area is urban yet abandoned. You can go into any place and take anything. My thoughts: If leather can keep you alive, then I would hit luxury cars for the seats, dash, etc. A school would have extra sports equipment around, like baseballs, gloves, etc. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/2 "2015-08-20T01:11:24Z")
A lot of people don’t know this but pine needles are edible. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/3 "2015-08-20T01:18:54Z")
I would look for laboratories where bacterial cultures had been grown. There could be jars of growth medium powders of various kinds. Preparing them as broth or gel would make them easier to consume and digest. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/4 "2015-08-20T01:34:43Z")
I once saw a [documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY0DOnNK3Wg) that described how to eat a shoe. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/5 "2015-08-20T01:37:33Z")
collins mix, cloves, Pie crust… ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/6 "2015-08-20T01:47:59Z")
Being that you’ve postulated an abandoned URBAN area, what about dandelion greens? Bound to be a few of those around. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/7 "2015-08-20T01:53:36Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > I once saw a [documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY0DOnNK3Wg) that described how to eat a shoe. Without clicking the link, I can only assume this: Let us out of here! We’ve cook our shoes in the dryer and ate them, now we’re bored! ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/8 "2015-08-20T04:46:11Z")
Idea: would an average sewer system have a developed ecosystem? I’m thinking moss would be a possibility, insects, rats, possibly fish, etc. Also there’s the whole deal about tomato seeds from poop growing into viable plants. Also, would a latrine or cesspool be able to support life? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/9 "2015-08-20T05:16:49Z")
It shouldn’t be surprising that leather is potentially edible. It’s just preserved animal skin. I think I’d avoid getting my leather from cars, though. The less dye and processing, the safer and more nutritious I’d assume it was. Is the library paste already eaten? I might look at other starch-based adhesives too. Wallpaper paste is supposed to be edible. I know that wild animals usually get the most nutrition from new shoots and young leaves, so I’d look for those on any plant I knew to be nonpoisonous. While sawdust, paper and the like aren’t directly edible, if desperate enough, I just might try peeing on it and growing mushrooms in the dark, especially if I could find spores from a mushroom species that is normally edible. (Commercial mushrooms are often grown using a compost that includes straw from horse stables). If I could find ethanol-based rubbing alcohol, it would be worth trying to do a distillation to purify the ethanol. Alcohol is good for calories. Even if I couldn’t figure out the distillation process, I might just try drinking tiny amounts (like a teaspoon a day) to see if I could get a few calories without dying. Since I’m in an urban area, I should be able to find the necessary research to do this without killing myself. Oh, and inpsired by another thread: Bud Light Lime. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/10 "2015-08-20T06:24:21Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > While sawdust, paper and the like aren’t directly edible, if desperate enough, I just might try peeing on it and growing mushrooms in the dark, especially if I could find spores from a mushroom species that is normally edible. (Commercial mushrooms are often grown using a compost that includes straw from horse stables). I could see how a sewer could be a viable mushroom farm this way, but I wonder if mushrooms could keep you alive. I know that your body chemistry allows one to survive on only say potatoes by chemically altering it into whatever you need. I don’t know if mushrooms would have that same quality. My other concern would be how could you get mushrooms to grow fairly large overnight, like those that appear after rainstorms? If there was a way to commercialize that, that would be awesome. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/11 "2015-08-20T11:41:26Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > It shouldn’t be surprising that leather is potentially edible. It’s just preserved animal skin. I think I’d avoid getting my leather from cars, though. The less dye and processing, the safer and more nutritious I’d assume it was. Depends how old it is; with older leather compounds used in tanning could contain mercury or hexavalent chromium, both of which are bad news. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/12 "2015-08-20T13:05:42Z")
Acorns? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/13 "2015-08-20T13:32:48Z")
There was a horrific case of foster parents starving their children in New Jersey (google it if you must). The children were eating raw oatmeal and wallpaper paste to survive. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/14 "2015-08-20T13:40:54Z")
I ain’t no professional word definitionist, but I think if you can survive by eating it that it is food. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/15 "2015-08-20T14:52:22Z")
Solzhenitsyn said in _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ that the Soviets fed their prisoners boiled grass when food supplies got low (In the film adapted from the book, it didn’t look so bad – it became a yellowish puttylike mass. Like yellow-green Play-Doh). Of course, it was nutritionally useless – people can’t digest cellulose. Unlike cows and gorillas and termites, we lack the gut bacteria that can break it down. So we get no nutritional value from it. But it does fill you up. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/16 "2015-08-20T15:17:57Z")
Check out the sex shops for edible underwear, lotions, whipped creams, etc. Sorry, couldn’t resist. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/17 "2015-08-20T16:18:42Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Acorns? I posted a thread here about eating acorns. I had always heard that acorns were extremely bitter and needed to be ground and soaked in several changes of water to be made edible. Being the intrepid adventurer that I am (read as “lacking in common sense”) I nibbled at a couple of acorns from a large white oak in my front yard and found them to be delicious! Turns out acorns are highly variable in flavor, even from tree to tree. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/18 "2015-08-20T16:31:09Z")
Oh wait, you mentioned cannibalism already. Well how about self-cannibalism, like in that Stephen King story? ---
**Author:** ![Simmerdown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simmerdown/32/14859_2.png) [@Simmerdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simmerdown)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/19 "2015-08-20T16:42:32Z")
[Nettle soup.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettle_soup) ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2015, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302/20 "2015-08-20T16:48:44Z")
McDonald’s? 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-other-non-foods-could-you-eat-to-survive/728302.md?page=2)