Multi-vitamins in the PSK or FSK?

Looking back over people's lists, I noticed there ain't many of us that tote any sort of multi vitamin around with us.

Anyone else see a significant desire in adding this to their packs?

Well, I take them every day, so I guess that it just makes sense to take some along...

I keep these stocked in my survival kit all the time. I'm 50/50 interested in survival/primitive living. Getting meat is relatively easy to do but properly identifying edible plants enough to have a balanced diet can be darn tricky for a student like me so I hedge my bet with some multivitamins in my survival kit whih I always carry as sort of a safety net.

IMHO most people can pretty well do without vitamin supplementation for a few days without harm. A week or three without vitamins, even assuming a limited and nutritionally inadequate diet, should do little harm in most cases.

That said, according to some reports most Americans are not meeting even their minimum daily requirements of calcium, magnesium, zinc and vitamin-D.

A friend who works at a mental health admissions clinic says that it is standard practice for them to dose homeless ranters with oral B-vitamins and fish oil. He says that even a single dose gives a great improvement in mental health status in almost half the cases.

For people who are chronically short on these compounds or people with metabolic imbalances that make them need more than normal a lack of these can cause them to act erratically, becoming depressed and/or paranoid. I have noticed that if I take fish oil and a large dose of mixed Bs when I'm feeling down I feel much better in a few hours. Could be real or placebo effect. Gift horse - Mouth. YMMV.

The good news is that full array of minerals, Bs, fish oil and plain old multivitamins are cheap and compact. A couple of multivitamins can be shoehorned into just about any survival kit.

Long term vitamin-C and D may be issues even for people who have no underlying issues. People in cold climates may have problems getting enough sun exposure to keep up with their needs for vitamin-D and when things get tough the first thing to fall from diets are the fresh fruits and vegetables. At a minimum a bottle or two of Vitamin C and D should be in any long term kit.

More widely, especially for kids, a multivitamin could help keep them healthy by making up for an unbalanced diet. Couldn't hurt the adults either. Good multivitamins are available for a couple of cents each. Cheap insurance.

I keep a supply of multivitamins, multi-mineral tablets (calcium, magnesium and zinc combined), B-50, C, and fish oil in stock for long term contingencies. They may or may not make any difference but it gives you some options and something to work with to fight off known long term nutritional problems like C and D deficiencies. Not too shabby in my book for such a small investment.

For the duration of a PSK, the only meds I'd want are immodium, bendryl and an OTC analgesic. Even for a bug out bag, I don't see the need- I carry E'merg'n'C in my gear for the electrolytes, the vitamins are just a perk. In the time frames in question, you probably aren't going to get stuck by vitamin deficiencies.

That being said, for my digging in stuff, I've got the next bottle of my daily multivitamin on hand already, and bottle lasts me a couple of months.

The timeframes envisioned and the limited space available in a PSK or BOB would not seem to invite vitamins or other supplements into play. Longer term survival caches, bug-in caches, etc. include timeframes and volumes that make vitamins and supplements not unreasonable - if you think they make sense given whatever diet you have included in your planning.

Check the ingredients in whatever rations you include in your BOB. Many are fortified with vitamins and minerals already.

Dad the doctor always told me: (1) that a good diet eliminated the need for such things in the vast majority of people - eating right for life was cheaper than supplementing a poor diet, and (2) the vast majority of ingredients in commercial vitamins and supplements were in quantities and forms that could not be absorbed before they were eliminated from the system - so using them was a poor investment for little return - see (1).

Maybe we should spend time assembling dietary suggestions based on wild foods for long term survival. I believe even the FDA has tables of the nutritional value and contents of many wild foods.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Excellent idea!

I keep a single multivitamin tablet in my PSK.

Here are some sources I know of for a few vitamins that were mentioned:

Vitamin C: needles from many nontoxic coniferous trees (chew them or make a tea) I've munched on pine and hemlock myself as a trail snack. If you want to know what it tastes like, take a big, concentrated whiff of your live Christmas tree, and then imagine eating it. (Please, don't eat your tree until Christmas is over! )

Vitamin D: sunlight on your skin (10 minutes/day), eggs

The internal organs of animals are often high in vitamins, but some are high enough in concentration to be toxic, so be careful.

I think it is always far more preferable to garner all needed nutrients from a healthy diet. I too could use a refresher/supplement on my knowledge of wild plant edibles, especially in this region.

I agree that if you are going to take any sort of multivitamin, get the best you can find and afford. It doesn't seem that one or two once-daily multi-vitamin pills is going to be cumbersome for a PSK, so maybe it is just cheap insurance to have on hand.

I carry plenty of fat on my body, so not too worried about running out of calories for an extended period if need be, but I would want something to keep my metabolism up. A multivitamin can help sustain the energy level without the bulk of any caloric food uptake. You still get mighty hungry, but you can keep going.

Ohiohiker, rose hips also presumably have lots of "C", as do red peppers, of course. But I try to be careful picking wild red berries thinking they're rose hips........

I don't take a multivitamin, never have, but was concerned about availability of food variety during a crisis and after my food stores are exhausted. So I bought the Super Spectrum from Nitro-Pak-

http://www.nitro-pak.com/product_info.php?products_id=1022

Long Storage life claimed (10 years), and full array of additives.

I also purchased the Chocolate Survival Tabs early on in my preparedness plans-

http://www.brigadeqm.com/cgi-bin/tame.exe/store/level4c.tam?M5COPY.ctx=27062&M5.ctx=27062

They make some pretty fantastic claims, never tried them, also a 10 year shelf life claimed.

My last worst case additive in case Hummingbird and Schnauzer are all that's around.

Both claim to be safe on an empty stomach, in fact the chocolate tabs are meant to be total meal replacement, 180 in a bottle, 12 a day @ 240 calories each theoretically would be 15 days of total nutrition/caloric needs?
Seems pretty fantastic, but if $25 gets me and my wifee 7 days of nutrition and caloric support, what did I have to lose?

One thing about daily vitamins. My wife read recently (or maybe heard on TV, I forget) that your body can't actually use all of the good stuff in a daily multi-vitamin if it is taken whole. Better to split the pill in half and take one morning, the other in the evening. That way you will get full benefit of the vitamins contained in the pill...

Good idea, that's how I usually take mine anyways.

Well, I would disagree with that conclusion, qualified by saying that a cheap multivitamin most likely doesn't break down in your digestive system as well as the best ones will.

This is not to say I would advocate anyone taking multi-vitamins on a regular and extended basis, but that for survival purposes, there is something to be gained from their consumption for a small price paid in bulk and weight.