Pros and Cons

Salted foods can preserve meats for a long time. Salted foods, if consumed on a regular basis (over years), however, also have a well documented reputation for causing cancers, especially stomach cancers. The traditional Japanese diet was high in salted fish (not as much today). The Japanese also had one of the highest rates of stomach cancers compared to other forms of cancer. Pickled foods also have a cancer-connected reputation.

Chemical Preservatives are not health promoting and cause a wide array of problems, from allergies to cancers (e.g. Nitrites).

Irradiation of food gives it an indefinite shelf life, which is wonderful for the food manufacturers, but not so great for you. The irrdadiation scrambles the DNA of the food, breaking gene links and all kinds of sensitive bond structures. After ingesting it, your body no longer recognizes it as normal food, the way it came from Nature. Rather, It reactes to it as a foreign, un-natural substance (e.g. subtle allergic reactions), which is exactly what it is.

It's probably unnecessary to say this, but the only type of alcohol that should be used for any form of food preservation is grain alcohol (ethanol). 100 proof Vodka, is 50% grain alcohol. I use it for a preservative and sterilizer all the time.

Don't forget about using Colloidal Silver. It's a powerful germicide. It can be useful for preservation purposes, e.g. Right after cooking hard boiled eggs, soak them for 30-45 minutes in a solution of colloidal silver. The silver will migrate through the shell. Take them on a long road trip or camping without any worries of refrigeration. I once experimented by cooking 6 hard boiled eggs. I preserved 3 of them with CS and left the other 3 untouched. I put all six of them out in the sun for 3 weeks. The regular eggs were totally black and foul smelling when cracked open. The CS preserved eggs, lost about 30% of their moisture, but otherwise, looked and smelled sweet as can be. Try it yourself!

Offered by Ed