Suggested changes to some plant nutrition values

[Vahvapito]

I was doing a challenge to see if I could survive eating only plant based food while I noticed that several plant nutrition values seem kind of strange. Looking at the values set in the files, some seem a bit low and some quite high.

First, berries in the game seem to contain very little nutrition compared to real life. For example blueberry has 6 carbs, 1 fat and 1 protein per 100g and 168 kilocalories per pound according to the Unreal World wiki. In reality, the values are about 10 carbs, 1 fat, 1 protein and about 295 kilocalories per pound (source: fineli.fi ). In the game, picking and eating berries will cost you more energy than you gain but I feel like you should be able to sustain yourself just by eating berries, at least for a while.

Then on the other hand, for example these plants seem to have quite high nutritional values: lake reed, bogbean and marsh calla. I don't know if these values are accurate because I can't find any information about the nutritional value of their real life counterparts. Limited information that I could find is that they are edible (some after blanching to remove poisons) but were generally used as animal feed because eating them was only slightly preferable to starving.

In the game for example lake reed has so much nutrition that it beats every cultivated plant except barley and rye. This becomes an issue because lake reed is so abundant that you can quickly gather very large amounts of it and this makes cultivating other plants kind of pointless. If it was actually this nutritious, people would have probably used it for more than animal feed and emergency food.

(As a side note, I was going to comment that nutrition value of turnips is really low but its actually higher in the game than in real life. You would have to consume almost 10 kg of uncooked turnip to get 2000 kilocalories. Life was hard before potatoes.)

[Plotinus]

I think lake reeds are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typha

5 carb, 0 fat, 1 protein per 100g

[Vahvapito]

I think lake reeds are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typha

5 carb, 0 fat, 1 protein per 100g

Interesting, I always thought that lake reed's real life counterpart was common reed: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phragmites_australis

However, looks like Typha can be used just like lake reed, so it could be that too. Both have edible roots and young shoots. And those nutritional values you found seem more plausible than the ones on the game, just slightly less nutrition than turnip.

[Sami]

First, berries in the game seem to contain very little nutrition compared to real life. For example blueberry has 6 carbs, 1 fat and 1 protein per 100g and 168 kilocalories per pound according to the Unreal World wiki. In reality, the values are about 10 carbs, 1 fat, 1 protein and about 295 kilocalories per pound (source: fineli.fi ). In the game, picking and eating berries will cost you more energy than you gain but I feel like you should be able to sustain yourself just by eating berries, at least for a while.

Fineli.fi has been actually the main source for UrW plant nutrition data. It truly seems that the current Fineli database suggests 10 carbs for blueberry, and at first I thought we've made a typo there, but then realised that some of the values are provided by THL and they have changed over the years.
Most of the values have been initially set around 2010, based on Fineli database, and you know what...I found out that (still) back in 2014 Fineli database gave 6.4 carbs for blueberry.
http://funktionaalinenravinto.blogspot.com/2014/07/mustikka-ja-sen-ravintopitoisuus.html

I really wouldn't say the berry nutrition is much off compared to the real life, but we just haven't updated it every time Fineli/THL changes the values.

Then on the other hand, for example these plants seem to have quite high nutritional values: lake reed, bogbean and marsh calla. I don't know if these values are accurate because I can't find any information about the nutritional value of their real life counterparts. Limited information that I could find is that they are edible (some after blanching to remove poisons) but were generally used as animal feed because eating them was only slightly preferable to starving.

In the game for example lake reed has so much nutrition that it beats every cultivated plant except barley and rye. This becomes an issue because lake reed is so abundant that you can quickly gather very large amounts of it and this makes cultivating other plants kind of pointless. If it was actually this nutritious, people would have probably used it for more than animal feed and emergency food.

All the values have been fetched from different databases. I can't remember from where in case of lake reed (which is Phragmites australis in the game) but it is really packed with carbs and thus very nutritious. However, the levels actually change during the growing season.
And it has been used a lot back in the day - for both people and animals.  Little kids were told to have lake reed roots as a snack when they were outdoors by the lake.
You don't need much else to get a good boost of carbs and sugars if feeling a little low on energy.
Occasionally included in my personal diet too. Very precious plant - for the easy availability too.

(As a side note, I was going to comment that nutrition value of turnips is really low but its actually higher in the game than in real life. You would have to consume almost 10 kg of uncooked turnip to get 2000 kilocalories. Life was hard before potatoes.)

Here again, Fineli might have had different values now than when the turnip values were initially set. Wikipedia is somewhat in line with current UrW values, though:
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauris

Well, if there's something to tune we'll tune it for sure, but all the values should be within reasonable and realistic range.
The thing is that after a decade or so some databases may show different values once again.

[Vahvapito]

I really wouldn't say the berry nutrition is much off compared to the real life, but we just haven't updated it every time Fineli/THL changes the values.

You're right that berry nutrition values are definitely very close to reality. Berries don't actually have that much energy per unit of weight. Also it doesn't really matter to me if the values are exactly correct, I just feel that right now picking and eating berries in the game is counter productive and not worth the effort.

Because of how nutrition works in the game, nutritional value for most berries is just slightly below a treshold where eating berries will cause you to starve. Maybe this is realistic though, eating only berries certainly wouldn't be comfortable.

All the values have been fetched from different databases. I can't remember from where in case of lake reed (which is Phragmites australis in the game) but it is really packed with carbs and thus very nutritious. However, the levels actually change during the growing season.
And it has been used a lot back in the day - for both people and animals.  Little kids were told to have lake reed roots as a snack when they were outdoors by the lake.
You don't need much else to get a good boost of carbs and sugars if feeling a little low on energy.
Occasionally included in my personal diet too. Very precious plant - for the easy availability too.

Interesting! I knew it was edible but I could not imagine it would contain that much energy. I really need to try it.

Here again, Fineli might have had different values now than when the turnip values were initially set. Wikipedia is somewhat in line with current UrW values, though:
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauris

Nutritional values for turnip in the game are probably right, numbers in fineli actually seem a bit low. I was mostly making a comment that I would expect a cultivated plant like turnip to have higher nutritional value. I can definitely see why potato replaced turnip as the most popular tuber.

[Vahvapito]

You're right that berry nutrition values are definitely very close to reality. Berries don't actually have that much energy per unit of weight. Also it doesn't really matter to me if the values are exactly correct, I just feel that right now picking and eating berries in the game is counter productive and not worth the effort.

Hmm. I maybe could have clarified thatwhile  I agree that berry nutrition values are quite correct, I think some of them, like blueberry, could be increased slightly to make them more useful in the game.

Sorry about the rambling, wrote too late at night.