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Letter Re: Coping with Changes in Diet when Using Storage Foods

If and when you find yourself tapping into your survival food, consider that the change in diet may have some unexpected effects.
As an example, I recently increased my protein intake, then noticed a pain in my foot. I thought at first it was just an injury from training (jumping out of a moving car is a little tricky). Later I realized it might be gout. Four gallons of cherry juice later it's gone and it set me to thinking, how might my food cache effect me.

I think the main concerns with stored food would be as follows:

Food Allergies. High wheat intake could lead to allergic reactions that could range from mucus to irritability, fatigue and disturbed digestion.

Constipation. All that dehydrated/freeze dried food has a minimum water content.

Aflotoxins. If you have mold growing on your food, this can create allergic and in extreme cases, toxic reactions. Cooking will not get rid of these toxins as they are not alive (infectious) but chemical in nature. You may be able to see them fluoresce with an ultraviolet light (pen type lights are available) but even in a dark room you may not see faint color. There are some ideas on the Internet about washing in various solutions to get rid of the toxins.

Vitamin deficiencies. While minerals will stay in stored food, vitamins and possibly amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) will deteriorate over time.

Here are two sites that discuss some of the symptoms. (There are many others):
Real Time
Holistic.com

How might you increase your vitamin intake after the crash? I already wrote in SurvivalBlog about sprouting grains. Here's another idea: Fermentation. Consider making yogurt and beer. Both types of fermentation increase vitamin levels, specifically the B vitamins. Beer has the added advantages of being able to lower stress and is a something we can barter with. On the other hand, alcohol lowers vitamin C level. - SF in Hawaii

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