Natural foods are a necessity for some people. It's really funny that you mentioned this as we are going through a trial and error ritual here for the past few days.
My grandson who is four, was satan! He just tore his brother's wooden crib in pieces, and it was an expensive sturdy crib! That's only one thing. He disrupted my poor daughter's spirit.No matter what she did, he wouldn't stop being a destructo force, throwing horrible tantrums and always crying and screaming at the top of his lungs. Afraid to have him labelled for life as ADHD by a doctor, and have him put on Ritalin or some other drug. She searched and searched for information on ADHD and treating it the natural way. So far these past three days have been a miracle. She took all the crap from her kitchen, boxes, bags, fruit snacks, yogurt and the likes out of her home. It is now a trial and error finding out what he can and cannot eat.
In our mad search we found out that food dyes especially blue1 and red 40 are the worst things that kids could eat. It's made from petroleum imported from China! No regulations on food coloring by the FDA of course. We also found out the REGULAR yogurt, not light has apartame (Nutrasweet) added as a sweetner!!!! They snuck it in there!
There are ways to preserve and dehydrate real natural foods. You just have to do some research.
As for the miracle of my little angel grandson the past few days, well....that natural food miracle the way we are supposed to eat, speaks for itself!

All natural foods are better for us. Earlier generations ate food without the preservatives that are in today's fast food, and the chemicals were also absent. And yes they survived, but the average lifespan was also much shorter (other conditions obviously contributed too). Did you know that vegetarianism was endorsed in the United States in 1838 by the American Health Convention? In fact, a high percentage of the population at that time did not eat meat. There were very little food related health concerns that that time too. ex.allergies to certain foods

When it comes to surviving, opening up the canned beans and such is probably inevitable. I'd eat preservatives if I had to. It just isnt the best for the body.

There are certainly things I can't eat and pepper is one of them. I used to love it but now it gives me heartburn.

A lot of people don't like gluten. It doesn't bother me. Nutrasweet gives me a headache.

I grew up on a farm, actually more than one and my grandmother had a natural farm, and food tasted much better from her farm.

They rarely got sick.

One of the favorite dishes I remember was corned pork. You never see it but you make it in a crock like corned beef and it tastes amazing.

Unfortunately with production farming and mass production of foods and mass marketing you have to accept processing to make the food safe.

When you grow your own and mil your own cows, you are extra careful to keep everything clean and wholesome.

Not so in large scale production farming where money is the master.

I think though since it would be good information to know, I am going to look into modern methods of preserving foods.

Rather than slice meat and pack it in a barrel full of salt, maybe there is a better method.

You know when the SHTF salt is going to be in short supply. Each family might have used 100 pounds a year or more before refrigeration.