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Show Plenty Of Nutrients: Short On Energy "If Utahns had to live on their one year food supply, most would have plenty of nutrients nut-rients but they would be short on energy," says Dr. Von T. Mendenhall, extension food science specialist at Utah State University in Logan. AFTER SPENDING one full week traveling around the state using a computer to calculate cal-culate for people the nutritional nutrition-al value of their stored food supply and how many days it will last, Dr. Mendenhall found that not enough fat and carbohydrate sources of energy ener-gy are stored. "Most families have more than adequate amounts of protein pro-tein storage. And even though it's true that protein can supply energy; it's an expensive way to get it when sugars and starches star-ches provide calories for energy ener-gy at one-tenth the cost," Dr. Mendenhall explained. MORE PEANUT butter, margarine, nuts, honey, jams, jellies, dried fruits and vegetables, veget-ables, potatoes, corn and oats are suggested to be stored as additional energy providers. Dr. Mendenhall also noted that the majority of people don't rotate or use what they have stored on a regular basis. "Nutrients don't last forever, even if they are in a can or a plastic bag. A good food storage stor-age program is one that uses what is stored and replaces it on a regular basis," he advised. ANOTHER problem Dr. Mendenhall identified while completing food storage surveys sur-veys was that people hav e purchased pur-chased foods for storage that the family doesn't normally eat. It is extremely expensive and unwise to store any quantity quanti-ty of food that is not acceptable in the family food pattern. "Soybean products are " being stored by people who have never eaten them and dried beans are being stored by people who don't like them," Dr. Mendenhall observed. "They'll be surprised when they try to live off food they don't like or that their system isn't used to," he added. DR. MENDENHALL recalled recal-led an experiment when he and six other food scientists were testing a powdered soy protein. pro-tein. They consumed it in biscuits, bis-cuits, fruit drinks and other sources, and were asked to eat no other protein foods. "I lasted for only one day," Dr. Mendenhall remembered. "I had no problem eating it, but it wouldn't stay down. The nutrients don't benefit one very much when that happens. I would have needed to incorporate incor-porate the soy protein into my diet at low levels and built on it over a period of a year or so." STORE WHAT you eat and eat what you store is Dr. Men-denhall's Men-denhall's advice to keep foods in good condition and assure the family of foods they are accustomed to and like. |