Old research pertaining to food and survival.

[Kathala]

From the year of the Creator 2010:

Some food and survival related research.

Aes Sedai,

When I mentioned to Alexis Sedai that I was busy with some research, she encouraged this. When I presented my initial findings on another subject, Alexis Sedai suggested a subject that could also be applied to Healing and supporting. Given my love for food, I decided to research the nutritional value of various foods, the mechanics of eating vs nibbling and how survival affects the amount of time it takes before one goes hungry from full.

Interesting things I found were that "being full" takes 21 nibbles of any given food, no matter the amount of survival practised. However, there are foods that contain more than 21 nibbles. When one eats these types of food, like for example a hunk of beef, a mushroom or a plate of food, one can go beyond merely full. This also means that one can go without food longer than the normal amount of ticks it takes to go hungry for that level of survival. E.g with the lower levels of survival, if one eats a plate of food with the nutritional value of 30, it will take 30 ticks before going hungry.

I tested the amount of ticks it takes to go from full to hungry by sitting in a Wisdom Healing Station. In these, the Wisdom does an action every tick. By measuring it per tick, it becomes more reliable than per minute, given the varying tick length we have. After eating, I simply had to wait until I went hungry, and count all the things the Wisdom did in the time that had passed.

I would nibble until full, then measure the amount of ticks it took before I went hungry again. These are the results:

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Level:..........Amount of ticks until hungry:
0 survival......21 ticks
1 survival......21 ticks
2 survival......21 ticks
3 survival......21 ticks	
4 survival......21 ticks
5 survival......42 ticks
6 survival......63 ticks
7 survival......84 ticks

This is working from full (21 nibbles from hungry). As you can see, at the lower levels of survival, one loses a nibble per tick, and one can reliably nibble once a tick to remain full. At the other levels of survival, one only has to nibble once every 2, 3 or even 4 ticks.

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Type of food.........................Weight in lbs...Full=21 nibbles
an apple.............................0.1.............4 nibbles
a bastard turkey leg.................0.8.............12 nibbles
a bunch of grapes....................0.2.............7 nibbles
a bunch of yellow peppers............0.1.............8 nibbles
a carrot.............................0.1.............5 nibbles
a choice steak.......................0.8.............24 nibbles
a chunk of cheese....................0.3.............4 nibbles
a cinnamon pastry....................0.1.............4 nibbles
an egg...............................0.1.............4 nibbles
a handful of blackberries............0.1.............3 nibbles
a hunk of beef.......................0.5.............24 nibbles
a large fillet of meat...............1.0.............19 nibbles
a large melon........................1.0.............8 nibbles
a large slab of meat.................2.0.............20 nibbles
a loaf of bread......................0.6.............11 nibbles
a mid-sized slice of meat............0.7.............10 nibbles
a mushroom (queenscrown).............0.2.............20 nibbles
a mutton shank.......................0.8.............19 nibbles
a package of dried rations...........0.2.............24 nibbles
a piece of birthday cake.............0.2.............5 nibbles
a plate of yellow peppers and pork...0.8.............30 nibbles
a potato.............................0.3.............6 nibbles
a raw side of meat...................1.0.............14 nibbles
a slice of bread.....................0.1.............2 nibbles
a small cut of meat..................0.4.............5 nibbles
a soft honeycake.....................0.1.............4 nibbles
some dried fruit.....................0.5.............10 nibbles
some plump blue grapes...............0.2.............4 nibbles
a spicy muffin.......................0.1.............5 nibbles
a strange fruit......................0.3.............10 nibbles
a thick hunk of peppered beef........1.2.............12 nibbles
a thick slice of salted ham..........0.5.............24 nibbles

From this list, you can see that a package of dried rations and mushrooms are both light and nutritious foods. Hunks of beef, slices of ham and plates of food are heavier, but also very nutritious.

If one were to eat a plate of food before leaving the safety of the city, this would assure you can do without food for at least 30 ticks, while not impeding your physical abilities. Mushrooms are reasonably plentiful, so those too are a good option to carry around if one has an interest in getting food for free. Otherwise, carrying rations is both light and they will provide plenty of fulfillment.
Butchering for large slabs of meat and carrying them around will hamper your physical abilities because of their relatively large weight. Likewise, strange fruits are also slightly heavier than other foods, compared to their nutritional value.

I found researching this informative, though it was very time consuming. As you will understand, waiting to go hungry and thoroughly testing this took many many hours.

I will forever carry the knowledge that practising survival under level 5 will not have any bonuses towards the amount of time one can go without food. For me personally that means it will free up some practices. Now that I know that one can stuff oneself before setting out from a city, I will make note and do that more often as part of my preparations before going to fight.

I hope you find this information worthwhile, and would appreciate any feedback,

Accepted Kathala