Category: Health and Fitness

Letter: Another Note on Infant Nutrition

Hugh, We raised six healthy kids on a diet best described as “locally grown, in harmony with the seasons”. Unless you’ve got the food stockpile of the century, you too will soon be eating primarily “locally grown, in harmony with the seasons” when those refrigerated rail cars quit rolling and are looted out. We live in the grain belt, and whole grains in one form or another play a major role in our diet as they have for much of mankind’s history. I’m not talking about white bread, Doritos, or noodles here but the “Staff of Life” freshly milled whole …


Letter: A Note on Infant Nutrition

Dear Sir, Regarding the very helpful letter on alternatives to commercial baby foods, I wanted to add the widely-used practice sometimes called “baby-led weaning”. This consists of introducing a six-month or older child to larger chunks of soft foods that they can grab, manipulate, and gum on their own. The two keys to make this practice safe are that the chunks be too large to aspirate (perhaps the size of a large french fry), and soft enough for the baby to mash or dissolve with their tongue or gums. Banana and avocado are often used as first foods in this …


Feeding The Vulnerable At TEOTWAWKI: Infant Nutrition- Part 2, by P.G.

Plant-derived Milk Substitutes Are Dangerous For Infants Plant “milks” should never be used as a substitute for breastmilk or infant formula. Without exception, they are too low in calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals. Soy, rice, almond, and sweet chestnut milks have been associated with severe problems in infancy, including death. Protein malnutrition and growth arrest, rickets, hypothyroidism, iron-deficiency anemia, vitamin B12 deficiency, seizures, and coma have all been reported in infants who were fed these substitute milks. Substitutes For Commercial Baby Foods Most pediatricians recommend that infants receive only breastmilk, no water or fruit juice, for the first six months …


Feeding The Vulnerable At TEOTWAWKI: Infant Nutrition- Part 1, by P.G.

In the event of an EMP or other worst-case scenario, it is feared that as many as 90 percent of the population will not survive. The elderly and the ill, who are dependent on soon-to-be nonexistent medicines, will be the first to succumb. Another extremely vulnerable group consists of infants in the first year of life. They are toothless, wholly dependent on adult providers, and limited to breastmilk or infant formula for the first few months of life. Babies do not have the immunologic capacity to defend themselves against the myriad of microbes that will arise in an environment that …


Letter Re: Toilet to Tap

Mr. Latimer, Thanks for bringing to our attention the massive project in LA to turn sewage back into drinking water. I must say that people should be less concerned about picking up a dangerous infections disease (the treatment of sludge is accompanied by heavy use of chlorine and/or ultraviolet light to disable bacteria and viruses) and more concerned about the fact that many of our treatment facilities lack the ability to remove the massive amount of pharmaceuticals and drugs people are on. A lot of treated water being released into the environment contains high levels of anti-depressants, birth control hormones, …


Soothing the Savage [Beast], by Captnswife

It’s easy, when preparing for the worst, to concentrate only on material needs and ignore the less tangible but vital elements of health. Music, and the ability to produce it, will be an extremely important salve on the mental, emotional, and even physical wounds of a diminished lifestyle, should the SHTF. Modern science has shown us that there are tangible physical benefits of listening to music, including the ability to help in healing illness and injury. We must remember it’s only been in the most recent decades that the Western musical experience became the passive listening of professional recording artists. …


Letter Re: What We Lack In Training Can Be An Advantage- Part 2

HJL, There was a comment in the article by R.W., “What We Lack in Training Can Be An Advantage“. It is tough to put pen to paper and generate something of value, and I would like to complement their efforts; for the most part I have no issues. However, sometimes what may seem reasonable and practical can in fact be more dangerous. Regarding the use of gas masks for respiratory protection, it stirred some memories from back in the days when I went to NBC School in the Army, from 30+ years ago. One of the things I remember was …


Letter Re: Sources of Vitamin C in a Post-SHTF World, by Okie Ranch Wife

HJL, Regarding R.T. in Georgia’s advice of using sassafras root tea to counter “bad water”, sassafras tea won’t halt a bacterial infection, and it isn’t safe to consume as tea, regardless. From Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: “Because there is no evidence of effectiveness, sassafras should not be used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, infections, or any other medical condition. “Sassafras is classified as a carcinogenic substance. It caused liver cancer in laboratory animals; the risk of developing cancer increases with the amount consumed and duration of consumption. “Sassafras was once used as flavoring agent in root beer and candies, but …


Letter: Grain Milling Muscles

JWR and HJL: We bought a grain mill—the Wonder Mill Junior to be specific–from one of your advertisers and we are pleased with the purchase. However, I must warn my fellow readers that if you have bought one of these and just threw it on the shelf alongside your the stack of #10 cans and food storage buckets, then you made a mistake. Unless you regularly start your Ford Model T with a hand crank, then you are in for a morning-after surprise. This is another example of the importance of “practicing your preps.” A seven year old cannot turn …


Letter: What You “Learn” Can Kill You

HJL, My name is Mark and I’m a Prepper. Sounds faintly like how you’d introduce yourself at an AA meeting, but even though I’m afflicted by the Prepping bug it’s not a disease like most of America would want you to think. Most of my family years ago were farmers and poor backwoods people. So prepping was the only way to survive the harsh winters after the short growing seasons. I fell into it easily being raised to hunt and raise a garden. When the last administration was installed in 2009 I saw what was happening. And being former military, …


Letter Re: Sources of Vitamin C in a Post-SHTF World, by Okie Ranch Wife

Sir: There are a couple of sources of Vitamin C that are not common knowledge. If you are an oldtimer like me you may remember the name Euell Gibbons, the spokesman for Grape Nuts cereal. His catchphrase was “Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.” He wasn’t kidding. The inner bark of a pine tree is a great source of Vitamin C, Thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin A and other beneficial properties like Protein and fat, yes fat one of the things everyone needs to survive. How to get it? Take a branch the size of your little finger (this …


Sources of Vitamin C in a Post-SHTF World, by Okie Ranch Wife

Let me start by saying that I am not a medical doctor or a nutritionist. Any suggestions in this article are based upon my personal experience and should not be considered medical advice. There will be many health concerns for people in a post-SHTF world, for people who have prepared as well as those who have not, including but not limited to the lack of life-sustaining prescription medicines, limited food, reduced caloric intake, and limited access to life-saving antibiotics. There will be a resurgence of diseases, such as cholera and TB to name just two, that were eradicated in the …


Letter Re: Good Use of Your Dog’s Waste

SurvivalBlog, We live on 1.3 acres in a semi-rural area of Colorado. We have one dog, and used to pick up after her and put it in the trash for collection. When we stopped mowing our large deer-fenced front yard that has a number of small- to medium-sized evergreen and shade trees, it occurred to me to stop throwing this high nitrogen fertilizer away and stop buying fertilizer. I collect the stuff from the small, fenced and mowed back yard in a bucket with the usual scooper and distribute it in the drip line of the trees. The result has …


Hypothermia: Prevention, Identification, and Treatment, by Stonecold

Hypothermia is a condition wherein the core body temperature drops from its “normal” temperature, with normal being between 97.7 and 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Some symptoms, in order of increasing seriousness, are cold extremities, mild shivering, mental confusion, muscle incoordination, severe shivering and shaking, combativeness, paradoxical undressing, and cardiac arrest. A drop in core body temperature of as little as three degrees can result in these symptoms and eventually lead to death. Hypothermia should be a concern with anyone who lives in Western Washington, given our wet, temperate climate. Its prevention, identification, and treatment must be in the forefront of our …


Letter Re: A Year’s Supply of Food on a Budget by J. H.

HJL I’d throw in that the rice and beans need to be stored in a ratio of 10 lbs. of rice to 6 lbs. of beans. Together, in that proportion, they provide the essential proteins according to smart people with credentials to whom I am related. Fats and oils are important as PW asserts. Check out Piteba Nut and Seed Oil Expeller Oil press. It is important that you not just buy it and put it on the shelf. There are expendable parts, and the instructions include direction to a video to figure it out. Also, I understand it takes …