There are a couple of common approaches to storing food. One approach stores staple foods: rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc. Another approach is to store food categorized by meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. The latter is typical of commercially-prepared food designed specifically for prepping. The former is typical of the do-it-yourself approach. In either case, I suggest that you also consider whether you are storing sufficient
quantities of each macronutrient: protein, fat, carbohydrates. These three nutrients are needed in relatively large quantities in the diet, hence the name “macro” nutrient.
Carbs are perhaps the easiest macronutrient to store. White rice, white pasta, plain dehydrated mashed potato flakes, pearled barley, all keep very well in long-term storage, and each is high in carbohydrates. So even if you buy commercially-prepared stored food, you can and should add a large quantity of rice, pasta, etc. — as an additional source of carbs. For survival purposes, carbs are the most important macronutrient; it provide dietary energy to get through the day.
Protein is included in all of the aforementioned carb sources. So if you have rice, pasta, dehydrated potato flakes, and perhaps some pearled barley, you have a good start toward your daily protein needs. But none of those sources is ideal as a sole protein source. Rice, pasta, and barley are each low in lysine, an essential amino acid. The potato flakes are a complete protein, with all essential amino acid in good proportions, but they are low in total protein, at about 2% once the flakes or granules are rehydrated. So you need other protein sources.
Dried legumes (beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas) are inexpensive, keep very
well, and complement the protein in most grains. They are high in lysine and high in total protein. Seeds, tree nuts, soy nuts, and peanuts are excellent sources of additional protein, but they do not keep well; the oils can go rancid after a year or two in storage. However, if you rotate your stored foods, you will not have a problem. Sunflower seeds, peanuts, and soy nuts are perhaps the least expensive of the seeds and nuts. And they each provide plenty of additional protein.
Dietary fat is often overlooked in stored foods. If you are presently (like me) living a rather sedentary lifestyle, while carrying a few too many excess pounds, you probably are thinking that a low fat diet is best. Maybe it is. But in any of a wide range of possible disaster scenarios, you and I will probably be much more physically active, needing more calories per day. Fat provides an essential nutrient as well as a dense source of dietary energy. So adding a few extra containers of vegetable oil to your stored food is a good idea.
Vegetable oil tends to have a ‘best by’ date from 1.5 to 2.0 years from the
date of purchase. But you will be better off rotating your stored vegetable oil so that it is used up in about one year. Canola oil has the best balance of essential fatty acids, about one third of the oil is essential fatty acids (omega-6 and omega-3), and the proportion of omega-6 to omega-3 fat is near idea at about 2 to 1. However, canola does not keep as well as some other oils. Camelina oil keeps for 2 years without refrigeration, and is high in omega-3 fat. Soybean oil has both essential fatty acids and keeps well. Corn oil is too high in omega-6 fat and too low in omega-3 fat. Olive oil is too low in essential fatty acids to be a good stored oil for prepping purposes.
As for the micronutrients, my suggestion is to store mainly the macronutrients, and obtain micronutrients from a small garden and from a good vitamin and mineral supplement. I’m not planning to live solely off of stored food. I plan to supplement stored food with food that I continue to buy and with some food from a garden. No matter how severe a disaster may be, it is unlikely that all commercial food sources will cease. So you should consider that you may have three sources of food: stored food, food that you grow, and food that you continue to buy, even if the prices are higher and the availability is sporadic.
Related Posts:
Storing Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
Survival Nutrition
Survival Nutrition: Complementary Proteins
– Thoreau





