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Mycotoxins and Their Danger

By Terrance Franklin


There comes a time in everyone's life when we leave the house and start to learn the way to live alone. An unavoidable part of this quest is leaving food unprotected in the fridge or kitchen for too much time, creating something which appears like it came from a science fiction film and smells like it came from a horror video. What you are witnessing is mold, which may possess some serious results on your decision of survival foods.

The reason that mold emits a smell so terrible is mainly because different molds give out various types of chemicals through their metabolic process. Most of these are poisons referred to as mycotoxins. Penicillin, the very first great anti-biotic is a mycotoxin, incredibly fatal to bacteria which it would compete with for food. But additionally, there are toxins affecting people.

One of the the most widespread is a mold named fusarium. Fusarium, like many molds, prefers darker, damp areas which is why it occurs in several grains. When grains are in silage, like they are in large agrobusiness farms, it is the excellent condition for molds such as Fusarium to thrive. Studies show that almost all corn and an adequate amount of wheat in the US has detectable levels of tricothecenes, the mycotoxin produced by fusarium mold.

Now what?

Is it truly so terrible though? What's wrong with a bit of mold? Well firstly, it is deadly to the point of being chosen as a biological tool. Tricothecenes are actually used repeatedly in the 20th century with disastrous outcomes. During the cold war, tricothecenes under the code name 'Yellow Rain' were chosen by the Soviet Union to lead to the deaths of countless numbers in South East Asia.

Make no mistake, they are poisons of the very potent sort. Very small amounts have shown to result in complications ranging from kidney damage to cancer. Plus they are present in plenty of the grain eaten nowadays. The capability to detect mycotoxins has existed ever since the mid 1980s however studies have shown contamination in food globally. For something that could cause consequences on micrograms per day, there are quantities as high as milligrams for each kilogram present in grain all over the earth.

What can you do

As a prepper, there are actions to take in order to avoid releasing the toxins into your life, ranging from light to extreme. Setting out, it is advisable to ensure that you store grains (and all sorts of food items) perfectly. Vacuum sealing and using oxygen absorbers is important. The next thing will be to prevent getting grain from bulk manufactured farms. The larger the operations, a lot more likely it is to keep grain in silage.

And for those prepared to take it to the maximum, the final action is eliminating whole grains from the preparations. This is yet another vote for homesteading, food you grow yourself will be fresh. In case your grains get compromised (or already come to you contaminated) storage is not likely to make them better. Plenty of mycotoxins could turn a life sustaining solution into a deadly poison.




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