Getting Enough Vitamin C in Times of Deprivation
Mormons are big on food storage. Our most recent guidelines urge us to store a 3-months’ supply of the kinds of foods we eat every day and a 1-year’s supply of staples, the kind that last for years in sealed buckets (wheat, beans, etc.). One of the most difficult prospects in looking forward to living on our food storage is the lack of vitamin C, necessary for life. We can store grains and even cake mix, beans, and rice, but oranges are another thing all together.
We all remember the stories of the sea-faring men of old. They developed scurvy. Symptoms of scurvy begin with just feeling bad and lethargic. Then your gums go spongy and you lose your teeth. You begin to bleed from your mucous membranes, you develop spots on your skin, turn pale, and grow ever more depressed. Then comes jaundice, fever, neuropathy and death. Not too pretty.
Scurvy killed not only men at sea, but their passengers, as well. It was one of the diseases that killed Latter-day Saints in Winter Quarters, Nebraska, too. Direct evidence linking vitamin C deficiency to scurvy didn’t show up until 1932.
So How Can You Get Vitamin C into Your Food Storage?
If you are living on your emergency food storage and have no source of vitamin C, symptoms of scurvy begin to appear after about two months. The basic need is about 90 milligrams per day per person.
…stored foods with vitamin C include broccoli, orange juice or enriched powdered juice mixes, mandarin oranges, mangoes, green chiles, green peppers, peas, pineapple, potatoes, raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes, according to expert Leslie Probert.
Sauerkraut is another good source of vitamin C and can be stored in cans or bottles. However, many of the above items are hard to store. If you sense that your food storage is short on vitamin C, try storing vitamin C chewables in sealed containers at room temperature in a dark place. They will stay good for years.
One pill, ground and stirred into a drink, can provide adequate vitamin C for the whole family for a day. Plan on a pill a day for a year’s supply.