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.
There is a reason that mold emits a smell so terrible and would make you truly sick if you were to eat that piece of bread/pizza/whatever is. It is simply because various molds generate different kinds of chemical substances through their metabolism. Most of these are toxins called mycotoins. Penicillin, the first fantastic antibiotic is a mycotoxin, amazingly dangerous to bacteria which it would compete with for food. But there are also mycotoxins which affect 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.
What can you do?
Is it truly so terrible though? What's wrong with a little mold? Well firstly, it is fatal to the point of being used as a form of biological warfare. Tricothecenes have been used repeatedly in the 20th century with harmful results. During the cold war, tricothecenes under the code name 'Yellow Rain' were chosen by the Soviet Union to bring about the deaths of countless numbers in Southeast 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 steps you can take to prevent releasing mycotoxins into your life, which range from light to extreme. Starting up, it is best to ensure that you keep grains (as well as foods) properly. Vacuum sealing and making use of oxygen absorbers is very important. The next thing would be to avoid getting grain from mass produced farms. The larger the operations, the more likely it is to maintain 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.
There is a reason that mold emits a smell so terrible and would make you truly sick if you were to eat that piece of bread/pizza/whatever is. It is simply because various molds generate different kinds of chemical substances through their metabolism. Most of these are toxins called mycotoins. Penicillin, the first fantastic antibiotic is a mycotoxin, amazingly dangerous to bacteria which it would compete with for food. But there are also mycotoxins which affect 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.
What can you do?
Is it truly so terrible though? What's wrong with a little mold? Well firstly, it is fatal to the point of being used as a form of biological warfare. Tricothecenes have been used repeatedly in the 20th century with harmful results. During the cold war, tricothecenes under the code name 'Yellow Rain' were chosen by the Soviet Union to bring about the deaths of countless numbers in Southeast 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 steps you can take to prevent releasing mycotoxins into your life, which range from light to extreme. Starting up, it is best to ensure that you keep grains (as well as foods) properly. Vacuum sealing and making use of oxygen absorbers is very important. The next thing would be to avoid getting grain from mass produced farms. The larger the operations, the more likely it is to maintain 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.
About the Author:
Thank you so much for reading! Terrance Franklin writes about nutrition and survival on a variety of sites on the web. For more information on survival foods, be sure to check out http://survivalfoodshq.weebly.com/. And for even deeper reading, follow the link at http://mysurvivalfoods.tumblr.com/
0 komentar on Mycotoxins and Their Danger :
Posting Komentar