Conan’s Strategies for SHTF Fitness & Nutrition, Part 2: Understanding the Potential Deadliness of Nutrient Deficiency

Courtesy: https://twitter.com/cartoonmovement/status/791542801880186880

Welcome back to the series, Partisans! In today’s post, we’ll start getting into the subject of nutrient deficiencies which, in modern times, are mostly overlooked when it comes to fitness and nutrition. I mean, let’s be honest: most people aren’t paying any attention to nutrition at all, let alone nutrient deficiencies. That said, one could accurately state that most Americans are already nutrient-deficient if they follow a typical American diet of low-nutrition processed food; the comprehensive lowdown on nutrition and good eating lifestyle is extensively detailed in my Nutritional Empowerment Program Guide series. Merely observe how just about everyone that reaches a certain age range (say, 40+) seems to end up with a metabolic disease of some sort or other (i.e., the body’s chemistry is “off” somehow, causing chronic illness): heart disease; diabetes (a big one); skin issues; reflux… and this is just to name a few! What’s up with that? My own nutritional mentor first caught my attention way back by stating that, as a society, we suffer from metabolic disease not so much because we “get sick”, as much as because we’re literally starving – starving for essential nutrients, that is!

Imagine a lifetime of eating mostly processed junk, resulting in being mildly to moderately deficient in various essential nutrients (macronutrients and micronutrients): some vitamin A missing here, some protein missing there, with a bit of deficiency in vitamin C thrown in, but… for years on end. I mean, it’s not outright absence of essential nutrients as occurs in famine, but an intake that is just not enough for normal bodily chemistry; remember: modern mass-production practices create food that is lacking in nutritional quality. And, being that the deficient nutrients are ESSENTIAL – i.e., they MUST be obtained externally to LIVE, or you’ll DIE (as I mentioned a bunch in my various nutrition posts) – then it should readily make sense that even a mild deficiency in an essential nutrient(s) will have consequences, especially if sustained over time. So again, we end up in disease states much of the time due to poor diet not providing enough real nutrition for our body to properly reconstitute itself from the raw materials provided. There are, of course, other factors that influence the appearance of metabolic disease – excess calories without attached nutrition; lack of exercise; stress. But nutrient deficiency certainly plays an outsized role in the onset of metabolic disease.

Well, if during good times when quality food and nutrition are at least widely available, we still get sick due to deficiency… what do you think would happen metabolically in conditions of scarcity? One word: YIKES! I remember first becoming familiar with nutrient deficiencies in 7th grade biology (or so), when I read about how British sailors would stock limes on ships in order to prevent Vitamin C deficiency, which would cause bleeding gums and eventual loss of teeth; I was shocked that such a thing could even happen, but yeah… you need Vitamin C, as well as all other essential nutrients, or stuff like that (or worse) happens! Expanding out from the Vitamin C example, we have below the Merck website’s table of nutrient deficiencies and symptoms:

Courtesy: https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/multimedia/table/symptoms-and-signs-of-nutritional-deficiency

Courtesy: https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/multimedia/table/symptoms-and-signs-of-nutritional-deficiency

The list above is not comprehensive, but it definitely gives a pretty broad view of the many physical maladies that can afflict a person going through outright nutrient deficiency, and not just micronutrients, but protein (a macronutrient) as well. Just imagine trying to do some effective running n’ gunning while suffering from Vitamin B deficiency-based diarrhea (or zinc, too?), with a helping of loose teeth and bleeding gums due to Vitamin C deficiency, and topped off with impaired night vision due to Vitamin A deficiency – just to name a few. Yo, forget running n’ gunning! How about just trying to stay alive under such conditions? I don’t think that would work so well in a SHTF environment which, again, will be filled to the freakin’ brim with stressors that we can’t even conceive of during good times! Not to be too harsh, but imagine watching your wife or kids waste away due to nutrient deficiency. Many would rather just be dead, I’d imagine.

But not us! We’re American Partisans, and we do things differently, intelligently, and with foresight. Like my awesome reader The OldFreedom Fighter commented in a recent post, “I’ll be 70 & want to be in great shape when the shit show begins, but most important, I want to be around when it’s finished.” Ain’t that right, y’all? No need to lie down and die! We need to be healthy enough to give a good fight and LIVE, so that justice can be done. We need our families to be healthy enough to support us, morally and physically.

So, as a starting point, we need to fully understand this: where mild to moderate nutrient deficiencies will very often lead to metabolic disease during times of plenty, the severe nutrient deficiency that will undoubtedly be built into the immediate post-SHTF / Off-Grid / WROL will be extremely debilitating for most, and cause many to perish. It’s also worthwhile to note how even “just” one missing nutrient (say, Vitamin B1 – Thiamine) can cause multiple (and potentially fatal) deficiency symptoms, thus highlighting the multifunctionality of each nutrient – the upside of which is that strategically investing in a stock of essential micronutrients is truly an investment in LIFE AND HEALTH, especially in a post-SHTF world, where even junk food purposely fortified with vitamins and minerals (fwiw) likely won’t be available.

That all being said, Partisans need to start pondering how they might go about refining their existing emergency food supplies to contain 1) macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) of the best feasible quality for energy and activity and 2) micronutrients to fill the need for ESSENTIAL nutrition and proper bodily chemistry at the cellular level. The next few posts of this series will delve into the macronutrient and micronutrient considerations potentially necessary to meet the nutritional requirements of a Partisan operating in the extreme deprivation of a post-SHTF world.

Thanks for reading!

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Conan’s Strategies for SHTF Fitness & Nutrition Series

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