>>Deliberately going without food in a survival situation when food is readily available just seems counterintuitive to me. <<

Wow, I don't THINK I suggested anything like that- that was certainly never the intent. When you're in a survival situation, you do whatever helps you survive.. of course.

The point is that food is a fairly low priority in MOST cases. You're not going to starve in days, It takes weeks (at least), and if you're devoting all of your time in trying to find food because you're terrified of hunger (the fear is far worse than the hunger itself), you're using up time and resources that might be better used actually helping you live through the experience, rather than avoiding a little discomfort. In other words, you're out setting up a snare line, or fish lines when maybe you should be building a signal fire, or just walking out with that energy...

I also PERSONALLY feel that food items in a survival kit *generally* take up room and weight better used for other things.

Make your own choices, but, for my money, I have a fleece cap in my pouch that takes about as much room and less weight than two "power" (read SUGAR) bars, and I think it will probably do as much to stave off hypothermia... and certainly for a LOT longer. The point is not to ignore any resources available for survival when it happens, the point is to maximise the utility of the limited resources you set aside for that possibility.

Sugar (and simple carb) addiction is insidious, and when a person has lost most of the ability to convert other foods into the sugars the body really needs, he or she can quickly get into symptoms brought on by "low" glucose levels. This is not starvation, this is withdrawal, and simply feeding the addiction is not really an appropriate long-term solution.

Note that this person has also lost a lot of the ability to easily utilize their own body fat- same enzymes. Does that seem like a good thing to have lost for survival purposes?

If you allow your body to relearn how to maintain the needed enzymes to process "real" food, sugar withdrawal simply not a factor.

It's like attributing the symptoms of tobacco withdrawal to a healthy diet when a person quits smoking and starts eating healthy. The fact that the symptoms occur together does not establish cause-and-effect.

But, some people will never be convinced. Some will take sugar bars, magazines, decks of cards and a teddy bear. That's fine, it's your life, your kit, your decisions, do what you think best.