Diarrhea is life threatening. In 2009, diarrhea was estimated to have caused 1.1 million deaths in people aged 5 and over and 1.5 million deaths in children under the age of 5.

When things get bad in America, and other places that are not use to hardship, many people will realize that they shouldn’t have been nearly as concerned about preparing for others to harm them as much as they should have been prepared to simply take care of themselves.

Here is an example; I know of a guy who is used to dining out at expensive restaurants, unashamedly eats steak and it’s trappings every night (when he is home), and enjoys it all very much. He prides himself as being “prepared” and so he has an abundant supply of dried and freeze dried foods stored.

What do you think is going to happen when things get bad and this person can’t make his daily trip to the grocer for his fresh food that he is accustomed too? What do you think will happen when this person is forced to suddenly and indefinitely change his diet to types of “food” that he has probably never even sampled before? What do you think will happen when he has eaten freeze dried potatoes prepared with cold water for two weeks straight? And being a nervous sort; couple a drastically changed diet with a legitimate reason to be nervous and what do you think might be the result? I won’t go into details but let’s just say; it probably won’t be pretty.

And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:
Deut 23:13

As I have said before, here on the Sustainable Living Blog, simple is good. As American’s, we need to return to simple. In order to avoid potentially life threatening problems like Diarrhea, this principle couldn’t apply any more, to any other subject, than to one’s diet.

Not only is Diarrhea dangerous for the victim, but there is also significant risk to caregivers, and others; Particularly when water and other sanitation supplies are in short supply or nonexistent. Add those conditions to a failed sewer or septic system and disaster is imminent.

Diarrhea is unpleasant to consider but left unabated, it’s a killer. Learn how to defeat this most worthy opponent.

I’ll see you out in the field,
Parson Rayphe