Food Rationing

Yolanda said:

I was wondering if something does happen now and you have to start relying solely on your preps and stored supplies, do any of you have plans for food rationing? I am asking this as I have a concern with everyone in my family wanting to continue to eat the same amount of food as they do now.

How are you planning to deal with this?

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I only have my wife and I and our two grade schoolers at home. My grown son is solo and living about 500 miles from here, as is my grown daughter and grandson. They know they always have a standing invite to come back home if needed. Otherwise, we will just lock the storage room door and work out meals as appropriate. We don't have a rationing plan in mind, but would have to limit intake as time goes along depending on supplies and duration.

I am more worried about outsiders finding out that we have our own supplies. The city we live in is large without any food production of its own, and everything is trucked in. There is a 3 day supply on the shelf for residents and the many, many thousands of tourists here on a daily basis. As 'hoarding' is mentioned in the executive orders and such, it would not be wise to have anyone know you had more than a couple of days in the pantry.

G

Yolanda said:

I was wondering if something does happen now and you have to start relying solely on your preps and stored supplies, do any of you have plans for food rationing? I am asking this as I have a concern with everyone in my family wanting to continue to eat the same amount of food as they do now.

How are you planning to deal with this?

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Yolanda, I think this is a good question...

It's not the 'AMOUNT' you eat, since most of us eat WAY more than we should in both volume, and in calories.

You should find some information on Calorie content requirements for your area and season of year and consider those closely...

Caloric intake will differ greatly for the region you are in.
Very cold climates take a lot of calories to maintain body heat, while moderate or temperate areas might take only 1/4 of that daily content.

If you drastically reduce calories or volume of food you consume, consider adding fiber to the diet in the form of fiber pills or wafers.

A rapid change of diet, in either volume or number of fats and/or calories will play havoc with your digestive tract, and fiber not only helps make things move along, it will help with the 'Starving' feeling people will have a first when adjusting to the new diet.

An example that isn't advertised (they don't want you to make your own!) is 'Survival Bars'.
They are LOADED with fiber, and some contain caffeine to keep coffee junkies from loosing their minds.
Caffeine junkies usually rely on the natural laxative effect of it to maintain 'Regularity' and when it's removed, they are LOST!

I don't think storing caffeine pills is a bad idea.
They would be good to help with energy levels during long hours of work that will need to be done to survive comfortably if something catastrophic happens.

Caffeine is also a treatment for some types of Migraines & Cluster headaches, asthma attacks and low blood pressure situations due to allergic reactions, so it's not all bad for you.
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Anyway, restricted calorie diets, not a great idea, but restricted VOLUME diet isn't a bad idea right now!
(which most of it passes through undigested anyway)

Get enough calories to do the work you need to do,
Cut back on the volume of food,
And consider 'Fiber' to keep from feeling hungry and to keep things 'Regular'...

This is a great question of which I have thought a great deal about!

My initial planning is not to cook anymore than what is needed.

I have a penchant for simple meals. Beans, rice, and vegetables or stews, and soups.

As to the first category, my favorite is hamburger and beans over rice. That includes bell pepper and onion, seasonings, and ketchup. Home baked bread with canned butter. This is a two pot meal: 1 pot for the H&B and 1 pot for the rice. Easy to measure out and quite filling. Another commercially available food are the "Meals in a box" which are easy to fix, easy to clean up after, and will feed 4 people adequately.

As to the second category: I use canned meat for soups and stews along with crackers. Compared to the above listed type of meal, double rations would be in order for both the soup and stews.

There are other categories as well that I allow for, like BREAKFAST! I favor some powdered scrambled eggs, biscuits, grits, oatmeal, or cream of wheat. Pancakes w/syrup. I do want to get canned bacon to throw into this mix. Blueberry muffins are also on my list. I intend breakfast to be a mdium weight affair except for Sundays which would be a big breakfast that I first listed.

Another category I have is: Morale foods. This means popcorn or chocolate candies in the evenings while playing board games, cards, or whatever we are doing to entertain ourselves.

Having a large variety of seasonings is very important to keep the various food dishes from becoming BORING! Another very important item to keep a good supply of is VITAMINS! American food is not as nutritious as it once was. A plant pulls 64 vitamins & minerals from the soil,,the farmer only puts 3 of those into the soil when he plants in the spring!! I keep multi vitamins for children and adults on hand as well as many other vitamins such as vitamin C and others to try to compensate for what the food lacks as well as the ration size restricts.

If you get on to the internet for food rationing during WW2 in the UK you will be amazed at how little food the people had to live on. I was born in London during that war and I remember the rationing continuing for years after 1945. Meat in fact did not come off rationing until 1954!!
It was also a well known fact that the British people were healthier at the end of the war than they were before it. No doubt due to the small sugar ration and fats (butter, lard etc.) ration. Plenty of vegetables were eaten and there was something called a National Loaf which was much healthier than the white bread mainly eaten today. And lets' face it, many many people in this day and age eat far more than is necessary to keep body and soul together.
So rationing might not be such a bad thing just make sure you stock up on food which has the maximum health benefits and not junk food.
Hunger makes a good sauce.