If your gut’s not happy, You’re not happy. We tend to take our guts for granted, but if not taken care of they can ruin the best-laid prepping plans. How does the gut does its thing? What kinds of gut problems are associated with prepping? What can we do to avoid or manage these problems?
This is the first of a new series of PrepperMed 101 articles, each one planned to look at a different physiological system. I, Spice, teach human physiology and pathophysiology for a living. I am not a physician and this is not meant as medical advice — but we’re all better off for knowing how we work, eh?
The gut in a nutshell
You’ve got a single long tube running mouth to anus. Put food in at the top. Chop it into little chunks as it moves along, assisted by contributions from some organs off to the side. Pull out the valuable parts. Leave the rest in the tube, where they will support a mostly-friendly population of very small neighbors/tenants. Eject the residues. That’s the gut in a nutshell.
The following is a podcast we have made as a companion to this article
The major regions of the gut, shown where they belong. Image thanks to Blausen.com staff (2014). “Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014”. WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436., CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Because the gut is so long (about 32 ft of small intestine, 6 ft of large intestine), it’s considerably coiled around to make it fit in the abdomen.
Gut regions and jobs
The mouth chops big food items up enough to make them swallowable and moistens them with saliva. The esophagus drops the food through the chest, behind heart and lungs. The stomach is mostly for churning and storage, with some acid to kill hitchikers and a few enzymes to start digestion.
The main digestion — chopping of large molecules like proteins into smaller ones like amino acids — is done in the small intestine. The pancreas and liver make some digestive juices which drain through tubes to meet the food at the top of the small intestine. As the little molecules are freed, the small intestine wall picks them up and moves them into the blood.
By the time you get down to the large intestine, there’s not much left but undigestible fiber, plus extra salt and water. Quite a few microbes live in that large intestine, using as food the fibers we couldn’t digest. The extra water and salt is absorbed and whatever’s left can exit.
The gut and the prepper diet
I swear I can hear my gut microbes gasping in horror when I read the contents of most “emergency food supply” kits. Typical prepper food is calorie dense (not a problem) but low in fiber (problem). I’m looking at YOU, pasta/rice/dairy foods! Also, the food composition may not be what your gut and your neighbor/tenant microbes are used to.
The problem is, if you’re not used to a diet you may do a lousy job of digesting and absorbing it. That leads to problems that not only add to your misery but also suck your energy.
A very frequent gut problem is constipation from lack of fiber. This is made worse if you don’t have good access to drink; and more sneakily if you have plenty of water but don’t care for/aren’t used to drinking water so don’t drink enough. Low activity (buggin in, anyone?) promotes constipation as well. Although it sounds merely unpleasant, constipation can intensify to compaction if not addressed. Are their stool softeners in your emergency drug kit?
The flip side can also occur, and is more dangerous. Diarrhea often comes from infection, but just annoying your gut or its microbes can do it to. Besides being Highly unpleasant when you’re on the go, diarrhea can be life threatening. More on that by clicking here. Even mild diarrhea is debilitating and wastes nutrients. (It killed more Civil War soldiers than did bullets.)
Infections and the gut
And speaking of those infections…
Preppers are forever going on about water purification. And, I’m a prepper. Yeah. It’s that important; we’re going there. Or rather, click here if you want to read more about how to purify water.
The big reason preppers are so afire about water purification is that water-born parasites are a major health hazard. Major societal breakdowns with loss of sanitation and just drinking from a pristine-appearing stream in the wildlands have their own dangers. Short form; without water purification you’re at high risk of an infected gut.
Food poisoning is another mostly-gut issue. It’s also surprisingly common, with an incidence of about 1 in 6 Americans (per CDC) even without any emergency. And who hasn’t played the “I wonder if it’s still good?” game after a power outage? The less food one has available, the more “likely still good” that unrefrigerated stuff seems. Reduced hygiene also raises food poisoning risks; and low water supplies and lack of water heaters generally reduce hygiene.
Protecting your gut as a prep
Nobody wants to deal with an unhappy gut. That’s especially true when there’s already too many problems on your plate. Here are some ideas to help keep your gut and its tenants happy in trying times:
- Minimize diet shifts; particularly shifts away from fiber-rich foods such as whole grains and non-starchy vegetables. You can pack the oat-based energy bars in that go-bag as easily as the flour-based varieties. Going whole grain in our long-term foods is quite maneagable. Don’t up your fiber suddenly at once either though.
- Keep up with fluid intake and activity.
- Manage stress. Guts get deprived of blood during stress responses and nothing works as well.
- Replenishing friendly microbes is important following disturbances such as a bout of diarrhea or course of antibiotics. Fermented foods can be a good route to restock. Vinegar with the mother and jarred/canned pickled vegetables store well.
- Always make sure your water is pure.
- Remember the calories from a questionable food item are a bad trade for a case of food poisoning, and make decisions accordingly.
- Keep up good hygiene.
May you and your gut and your tenants stay happy and healthy!