Vitamin deficiency solutions

Posted by Upper-Razzmatazz176@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 44 comments

I was looking at what I might be weak points that long term preppers often overlook.

I came across vitamin C, vitamin A and iodine as potential weak points.

Vitamin A I’ve been able to get through growing sweet potatoes squash, and we’re adding some carrots and all those things stored long-term so able to get through the winter.

iodine seems like the only real way you can get it is in salt, but it becomes degraded after five years. Not too difficult to overcome rotating salt.

But Vitamin C definitely appears to be the most difficult to preserve. Doesn’t seem like a big deal bc it’s fortified in a lot of our foods but growing your own food or long term is the issue. Highest is strawberries you can freeze them. Freeze dryer seems to be the best but that’s expensive and then buying freeze dried strawberries for a year supply for my family would be like $3600 is the cheapest I can find which is insane. I came across sauerkraut for over winter months but who wants to eat sauerkraut every day? Problem is vitamin C deficiency can let you bleed to death within a 1-3months.

Maybe this question would be better for the Homestead form, but just wondering what you guys plan to do for those mainly the vitamin C and iodine long-term?

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KTeacherWhat@reddit

Foraging vitamin C is pretty easy as long as you aren't at sea. Dandelions, pine needles, and a lot of your backyard weeds are full of vitamin C.

Get yourself a good foraging book for the area where you will live.

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dittybopper_05H@reddit

Foraging vitamin C is pretty easy as long as you aren't at sea.

Even if you are, many fresh fish have a non-negligible amount of Vitamin C in it.

https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrient-ranking-tool/vitamin-c/fish/highest

The reason why sailors back in the 18th Century and before used to get scurvy is because their diet on long voyages was pretty much salt pork, salt beef, dried peas, ship's biscuit (hard tack), oatmeal, fats (suet, butter), flour, maybe some raisins, rum, and water.

Peas have a pretty low Vitamin C content, and none of the other foods have it. The peas would have been made into "pease pudding", and the cooking process destroys most of the Vitamin C it did have.

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squidwardTalks@reddit

Stinging nettles are a nutrient power house too. They just need to make sure they're dried or boiled before consuming.

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JRHLowdown3@reddit

+1 Yes and have medicinal uses as well.

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gramma-space-marine@reddit

We always made pine needle “soda” growing up because it creates tiny bubbles with a natural ferment. Our elders also made pine needle tea as a vitamin C supplement.

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No-Inflation5483@reddit

This is the way! There are plenty of books and resources for whatever area you are in. And don't just collect books. Read them, draw the plants, learn where they grow and how to identify them. Learn imposters. Hike. Walk. Get out in nature. Join foraging groups in your area. If you can't find any, YouTube, social media, plant identification apps, etc.

DSBYOLOO@reddit

Plant a lemon tree

Utter_cockwomble@reddit

Potatoes are high in Vitamin C. One medium potato provides almost 50% of the RDA.

Broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, and other brassica varieties all have high amounts of Vitamin C.

Also, you need less Vitamin C than you might think to stave of scurvy. Something like 11% of the recommended daily allowance is enough.

The British did an experiment with volunteer conscientious objectors back in late WWII about what levels of Vitamin C are necessary. It showed that 10 mg daily is enough to stave off scurvy, even for months after not getting any. USRDA is 90 mg for adult men, 75 mg for adult women.

UND_mtnman@reddit

Peppers are high in Vit C too

New_Internet_3350@reddit

I dry my peppers and use them for seasoning. They have more vitamin c in them than even oranges. I also stock up on emergen-c packets.

los-gokillas@reddit

You can make a tea with hemlock, pine, spruce, or fir needles that will be high in vitamin C

Vitamin A stores in the liver for years so it's not an emergency

Iodine can be found in seaweed, if you're near the coast

Ryan_e3p@reddit

Vitamin C deficiency being a problem has been known about and avoided with proper planning for hundreds of years. You worry too much about spending thousands and thousands of dollars on freeze dried strawberries for an entire year, when you could simply get multivitamins. Don't make things harder or more expensive on yourself than you need to. Just doesn't make sense.

As for "long term", the solution is the same as the other "long term" solution for nutritional intake: grow food. Plant fruit and citrus trees. If you think you'll need it in 5 years, the best time to plant is now. If you need it now, well, should've planted 5 years ago.

This.

Spend $3500. on (just) FD strawberries? Hell to the no... Better spent getting an orchard going.

Hell I got strawberries growing in some old gutter sections on one wall of our greenhouse, they weren't hard to grow.

You're luckier than I am. I can't get the dang things to grow at all. Thankfully, blackberries, raspberries, those absolutely thrive.

I'm going to try strawberries again using a hanging method in my greenhouse to see if that'll help. Likely rabbits or whatnot were going to town on them which didn't help any.

Try gutters if you have wall space. We had some wall space and a lot of gutters semi damaged from a building that took a hit in hurricane Helene. I drilled holes every foot or so in the bottom and also set them on an angle so they would drain. Only a few months in on these, but so far so good.

Dialaninja@reddit

Vitamin C is pretty readily available from plant sources, but assuming you can’t garden for whatever reason, pine needle tea will get you all the vitamin C you need.

You could also just buy the powdered ascorbic acid, use it in your kitchen, and cycle it every couple years if you’re not using it enough. It’s pretty cheap.

drAsparagus@reddit

Lugol's iodine lasts quite awhile itself. Unopened bottles properly stored should be good for many years.

Radiant_Load_5261@reddit

Could the iodine in seaweeds and kelp be used to somehow purify drinking water?

I mean you could probably extract it out somehow sure, definitely way easier ways to purify water though

Having experience putting up, eating and rotating long term food storage for 40 years now, including an approximate 2 year period where we lived almost solely off of LTS I can share some observations.

Multivitamins cover a "multitude of sins" as the saying goes. Our bulk storage has always been centered around bulk grains- long grain white rice, legumes, hard red winter wheat. We are always rotating some of this product and it is usually 20+ years old when it's being rotated. Currently that is hard red winter wheat from 1998 that is going into bread we make at home 3X a week, and 90's white rice being used a couple times a week.

We have a ton of other options for supplementing in LTS- dehydrated, freeze dried as well as MREs. We don't use grocery store "wet packed" cans for long term storage due to short rotation times and having had to throw out hundreds of lbs. of them over the decades I stopped wasting money on wet packed cans.

We have always supplemented with fresh fruit and veg grown at home, rabbit home raised chickens and eggs home raised. We are active, both involved in regular workout classes (her) and combatives classes 3X a week and then we usually run together once or twice a week. I work outside every minute I'm not at the office. We both get plenty of sunshine, fresh air and exercise.

Zero chronic health problems- and surely some vitamin deficiency would have shown itself in 27 years. We do both take a quality multivitamin every day as well as a few others.

$3600. in FD strawberries? No, not just no hell no. And FWIW I've spent more than most folks home prices on this sort of thing over 40 years of doing this.

And why aren't you GROWING strawberries and an orchard if this is a concern?

PrisonerV@reddit

Pine needle tea is high in Vitamin C and A.

r_frsradio_admin@reddit

You can buy a years supply of multivitamins for cheap and they will cover all the other micronutrients too.

Pando5280@reddit

Mandatory prep for me. Its amazing how much lower nutrient levels negatively impact both mood and physical health.

OtherwiseAlbatross14@reddit

The placebo effect is great

What do you mean?

AlphaDisconnect@reddit

Stinging nettle. Boil it

Spiley_spile@reddit

I foragged stinging nettle for the first time ever this year. Im looking forward to making a nettle and spinach Quish soon!

Vitamin C would be easier for me to get than iodine.

Fortunately, lots of forgeable plants in my area contain vitamin C. Wild strawberries, rose hips, Oregon Grape, blackberries, miner's lettuce, thimble berries, wild apples, dandelions, wood sorel etc.

I live much closer to the ocean than some. But still far enough away that it'd be worth establishing a seaweed supply line for the iodine.

For vitamin A, I'm not well versed in foraging root veggies. And Im drawing a blank on other sources of Vit A, outside of root veggies and cattail. Clearly, Ive neglected my foraging education for this vitamin. Ty for bringing it to my attention!

olycreates@reddit

I just heard that in modern American America we get most of our iodine from dairy. The logic works, the dairymen was the cow teats off with an iodine solution to make sure they're clean and the little, tiny bit that that's left gets into the milk. Minute quantities but that's all we need. So, all dairy, milk, cheese and things made with it keep us goiter free.

Old_Butterfly7984@reddit

Get the book Nourishing Traditions and it will not only teach you nutrient profiles but food sources, food processing, and food preservation.

SunLillyFairy@reddit

Wheat berries are easy to sprout for a ready source of vitamin C out of a long-term storage food. And they are less expensive than other prep foods.

darthrawr3@reddit

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iodine-HealthProfessional/

There are charts for minimum intake of iodine & approximate amounts in food sources here

trying3216@reddit

I think they have iodine tablets. Check on storage. Also check expiration on the drops. Iodine in salt evaporates.

If you have beef in your preps it’s gonna give you tons of nutrients.

AlphaOctopus@reddit

You can get 456g of vit c powder (1g is like 1000% rec daily intake) off Amazon for like $20

I take it when I’m feeling run down or in cold season but was just laughing to myself today like I’m totally unprepared but least I got one thing covered.

mistergrumpalump@reddit

Dried seaweed is great for iodine and keeps well. There are many kinds. Kimchi or sauerkraut is simple to make and awesome for vitamin C. Rosehips are easy to identify, collect and dry for tea and very high in C, also.

Academic_Win6060@reddit

Forage and dry berries for winter. But also, grow cabbage - cabbage+salt= sauerkraut, which is almost the highest vitamin c containing food source! Plus it'll have all those good probiotics to keep the digestion moving once your diet and stress levels change.

One_Dragonfruit_7556@reddit

Bell peppers have a crazy amount of vitamin c and their not terribly hard to grow, perhaps adding them in with the sweet potatoes is a good idea

BookLuvr7@reddit

Vitamin C is ridiculously easy to forage. Pine needle tea can give you 4-5x the amount than in citrus juices.

Crazy_Raven_Lady@reddit

Dried seaweed is a good source of iodine. Vitamin c can be found in a lot of plants so worst case scenerio I’d be foraging berries and wild greens (I actually do this anyway.) But I also like to stay stocked up on a lot of vitamins/supplements.

Eredani@reddit

I have a few bags of Vitamin C drops in one of my medical bins. They are essentially hard candy. Very long shelf life.

My feeling is that you can avoid a lot of illnesses by taking a hefty amount of Vitamin C and D.

ChocolateOk7997@reddit

Dried berries for vitamin C. The husks of black walnuts supposedly concentrate Iodine, although I don't know how to extract it. Probably easier just to buy a few lbs of potassium iodide. Multivitamins are survival gold!

fenuxjde@reddit

Tomatoes are super easy to grow and high in vitamin c, it doesn't break down if they're dried or preserved.

Iodine doesn't really break down as quickly as you think it does, and iodized salt lasts indefinitely. It is also highly bioavailable from seafood, like canned tuna or dried seaweed.

Vitamin A is also readily available from natural sources.

Resident-Welcome3901@reddit

There are more than 400 nutrient/vitamin deficiency diseases. Multiple vitamins address forty or so. All are covered by a balanced diet. It’s natural for folks who live in the most affluent society in history to want to use that affluence to secure their future by storing food and goods against scarcity. But food, nutrients and vitamins don’t keep very well, so the practical approach is to develop a mutual assistance group including a variety of skills including the agricultural and animal husbandry knowledge and experience.