In our last post on plants as a sole source of survival foods, the question of a minimum diet was brought up. If you were forced to survive on only one or two dietary staples, what would your health look like?

The video pointed to examples of the grain and legume diets used by impoverished people living all around the world. From corn tortillas and beans in Mexico to rice and soy in southeast Asia. the combination is widespread. Many preppers take it upon themselves to weight heavily on a single staple. It does seem a lot easier to just buy rice by the drum and seal it off in the garage.

A question of protein

By this point you should know that all proteins are not created equal. While it is possible (although difficult) to get the recommended dose of protein. For example, to get the recommended dose of 50g of protein would require almost 3 cups of white beans or (God forbid) over 12 cups of white rice.

While this is inefficient and unrealistic for limited food stores, it gets even worse. The conversion rate on protein from these sources is much worse than others. The conversion rate for soy, one of the highest touted forms of vegetable protein is only 17%.

What does that mean? Even if you’re getting 50 grams on paper, after conversion you’re body is getting roughly 8.5g. The rest are converted into carbohydrates via the process of gluconeogenesis.

It could also be considered a question of amino acids. A diet consisting entirely of grain or legumes is lacking in animal foods. If you recall our series on amino acids, there are a number that are either impossible to get from plant sources, or so poorly converted that it is effectively impossible. These would include lysine, methionine and tryptophan

What about vitamins?

Grains have one of the lowest nutrient densities of any food. White rice, corn and wheat all lack the vitamins contained in vegetables, healthy animal fats and nuts. There is a reason bread is fortified in many parts of the developed world, because it’s useless otherwise!

What’s worse, legumes and many grains actually contain chemicals which bind to vitamins called phytates. Grains and legumes are seeds, for the most part. Their purpose is to germinate to produce a new plant. In order to prevent this from happening in the wrong conditions, phytates exist within the seed to prevent them from sprouting.

How do they work? By binding to the essential vitamins and minerals required from growth. When you’re eating grains and legumes, you are not only unable to access the vitamins and minerals which may show up on a calorimeter, but inhibiting your ability to absorb the other nutrients in your diet!

The verdict

The ability of impoverished populations to survive on legumes and grains alone may be exaggerated. In order to get the amino acids needed to survive, some animal based protein must have been worked in.

There is also a difference between surviving and thriving. People in poverty conditions have a lower average height, likely because of insufficient nutrition caused by diets like this. We shouldn’t aim to provide only this for ourselves or our families.

Great video from our friend Chris Nyerges and the Dirttime crew about edible plants in a survival scenario. The group brings up some good points. When it comes to survival, subsisting on plants alone is a difficult strategy to sustain. There is simply too much fiber being digested with not enough calories.

The lack of survival foods is true in southern California (where they are located) and is even more true the farther north one goes. The ability to continue and recover is limited if you depend solely on the environment.

Another interesting topic brought up is the matter of protein and amino acids. As we know, getting the complete spectrum of essential amino acids is a must when it comes to running your body. Each one is tied to thousands of functions within the body and without them, the ability to perform is limited.

There was an interesting discussion on the use of grains and legumes as the subsistence diet of many of the impoverished peoples around the world. While both grains and legumes fall squarely in the bad category for a paleo diet, it is definitely worth exploring. Stay tuned for a future blog post.

In a situation of survival, performance on all aspects of mind and body can literally be the difference between life and death. That’s why we advocate taking care of the most important item on your bug out bag list.

While keeping in peak condition will more often bring to mind thoughts of battling attackers, leaping over obstacles to bug out and running to a bug out location, the mental aspects of preparation can be even more important. History has been written according to those who did not make mistakes in the heat of the moment. This isn’t to mention the countless survivors, pilgrims and colonists who weren’t able to survive mentally.

In our last post, we learned about the importance of the gut and how changes in diet can create massive differences in health. But did you know the effects lead as far as the brain? Recent research has even gone to far as to describe a gut-brain axis because it is that significant.

Serotonin and the Second Brain

The terms for describing emotions in the gut have been around forever. From butterflies in the stomach to giving yourself an ulcer, the connection is a part of our culture. However, recent research has shown that this connection is a lot more literal than many people expected.

The work of research professionals such as Dr. Michael D. Gershon has led to the set of nervesaround the stomach being referred to as the second brain. In addition to dealing with many of the local issues of digestion, such as the speed of food movement, pressure and ph balance, it has feedback with the first brain.

Remember serotonin, the chemical necessary for feelings of well being? 95% of serotonin within the body is found not in the brain, but in the gut. Interestingly enough, most patients suffering from anxiety and depression have significant disturbances in their gut flora. Gut health has even been connected to diseases like autism and the development of the hippocampus in animal research.

Inflammation and the blood brain barrier

Carrying a cargo of partially digested food and close to 100 trillion bacterial cells, the intestines are something we definitely don’t want leaking into our bloodstream. However, when inflammatory survival foods make their way into our diets, the tight junctions between cells of our intestinal walls can loosen up, releasing parts of our food into our bloodstream.

Where this gets even scarier is if these inflammatory chemicals irritate the brain. Your brain is actually separated from the rest of your bloodstream by what is called the blood-brain barrier. This prevents infections of the blood from reaching the break and wreaking havoc.

The difference in capillaries surrounding the brain and those in the rest of the body? Tight junctions – the same ones that hold the gut together. The inflammatory chemical that can cause the gut to get leaky can also cause the blood brain barrier to become leaky – which is bad news.

Leaky brain can cause inflammation of the brain, which is governed by different cells. Cells called microglia function to defend the brain from outside influence, but unlike our body cells, they have a lot harder time turning off. It’s no surprise this has been connected to autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Gut Flora

Pop quiz: do you know how many cells are in your body? The answer is close to 100 trillion. However, the number of cells that belong to your body proper are outnumbered by bacteria within your body by almost 10 to 1. Woah.

Let that settle in for a minute. In reality, you  are less of a single organism and more of a symbiotic colony of a number of different ones. Even in the body cells proper, organelles called mitochondria have their own set of DNA and are effectively a different organism.

Yet most of the focus on medicine throughout history has been focused on the observable. Only recently has the function of the bacteria within us become a popular topic of study in health sciences.

The lion’s share of this bacteria lives within the gut, the area including the large and small intestines. They are essential to many roles within digestion and without them, we would not be able to process food correctly. We need their enzymes to break down certain foods or absorb vitamins and nutrients.

Another key role that the gut flora plays is in the protection of the body against threats. The gut is one of the most contaminated environments in the body and the potential for bad bacteria to build up and cause illness is always present. The bacteria within your gut can protect against negative bacteria and change the environment to prevent infection.

Gut permeability

To the naked eye, the intestines seem to be a more or less solid barrier. However, on a cellular level this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The cells of the small and large intestinal walls are known as epithelium. Between them they are held together by what is known as tight junctions which, for the most part, remain tight.

However, a number of things can cause the tight junctions to break apart. Considering the incredibly dynamic nature of what passes through the guy. When these junctions leak, the incredibly septic contents of predigested food and bacteria can leak into the massive amount of blood vessels which surround the gut. This can lead to massive inflammation in the body at large and even brain problems.

The connection

The connection between your gut flora and gut permeability can be good or evil. There are thousands of different types of bacteria in your gut at any time competing some resources, each with a different diet. Which ones become the most common depends on what kind of fuel you give them.

If you don’t protect the good bacteria in your gut, it leaves the door open to all sorts of bad ones. The name for this condition is SIBO -small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. When we kill the bacteria in our gut with toxins, depleting them of good, healthy fuel or by taking antibiotics, we effectively start a power struggle for what bacteria will take over.

How can we choose our survival foods to stop this? Stay tuned for the next part of this series.