> There are countless stories of survival in which individuals performed acts that previously would have
> been unthinkable to them – many having to do with food.

I believe there are also the converse stories, in which people were unable to eat "tainted" food even when their survival depended on it. Such people tend to die, of course.

I've heard this can happen if your diet gets too monotonous. If, for example, your preparation consists of buying tons of rice and tuna and nothing else, and when the disaster happens you remember you don't like fish and have to eat nothing but rice for 3 months, some people will lose the will to live. It just doesn't seem worth it any more.