Nutritionally Dense foods for long term emergency

White rice and any non oily sort of grains and beans are among the best IMO. People say that white rice is unhealthy but an entire continent proves that theory quite inadequate. Grains like oats, corn, soybeans and brown rice have a much shorter shelf life. 6 to 12 months is average for oily grains like oats, corn, soybeans, brown rice, etc due to the fats going rancid which is often a wax or crayon like smell. If it smells like that, dont eat it.

The lower the fat content of the grain, the longer the storage. White rice and most beans will store 18 to 24 months. Sprouting seeds are also a solid investment. Being able to sprout micro greens or bean sprouts will extend the food supply and increase your vitamin intake quite a bit even without a light source as seeds dont require sunlight for until the stored energy in seed runs out which is beyond the sprouting stages.

Food can be extended beyond the aforementioned storage times by special processing/storage methods but most people wont be able to afford such things IMO or be able to successfully do it at home.

Honey stores well long term and definitely improves with age, in my experience. I find aged honey to be quite the delicacy. Honey is rich in nutrients and sweet things definitely improves morale in such situations.

Heirloom seeds are definitely valuable. Its hard to recommend precisely what to store as it doesnt matter if your family wont eat it, obviously.

Canned veggies should be used sparingly if worried about health due to the salt content.

Bottomline is while whole grains are ideal they just dont have great storage times compared to other items.

Canned Salmon stores for many years as do most tinned fish and are vital to good health. In bone salmon, has the benefit of natural calcium that will store long term as well.

 

Morgellon's disease appeared soon after GMO food went into high gear.

Science and medicine are still baffeled about this horribly wierd disease!

In addition to that - some professional researchers in Greenpeace apparently determined some GMO crops were killing off the honeybees by the billions, -without the pollinating honeybees many other crops will fail and hunger will come.... ironic!

All attempts failed at having congress require statements on food packaging to declare the contents of GMO food products.

Monstanto "Frankenseeds" is one of the biggest lobbies in Washington, and have a virtual army of lawyers and seemingly unlimited funds to fight any opposition to their agenda.

Go figger!...

 

Haven't you heard???? The elites and all legislators have a magic planet, with a magic space ship they are booked on at their disposal when they choose!! :nuts:

 

There are some special dietary needs that run in the B family that have made LT storage very challenging: Celiac/gluten intolerance. The thing about it is that the more severely damaged the GI tract is, the less it is able to absorb essential vitamins. Like B. Like D. So the wonderful, nutritionally dense wheat-based foods are literally the kiss of slow death for the gluten intolerant. Although gluten-free, soy aggravates things so TVP is right out. As is anything with high fructose corn syrup.

So instead we are putting back:
Millet
Quinoa
Rice-n-beans-n-lentils
Chia
Potatoes
Corn (+calcium hydroxide to make nixtamal)

I'm currently experimenting with millet and quinoa flours for making tortillas.

 

The grass grains like wheat can be stored for years. It's not so hard for the average person to round up some food-grade buckets (often free from bakeries and grocery stores) and put the wheat in there. Shake the bucket to "settle" the wheat and keep adding wheat (or whatever grain) until it's as full as you can get it. Then put the lid on and store in a cool place. We've eaten wheat that was more than 10 years old and stored this way. We've even used glass jars we saved from juice, salsa, and other foods, to store grains and beans. Nowdays we've tried to store a variety of grains and beans since it doesn't seem all that healthy to eat as much wheat as a typical American diet includes.

White rice, to me, is the standard of food storage. It keeps almost forever, and you can add just about anything to it (meat, veggies, fruit, sweetener or spices depending on the dish) to add nutrition. It's a good filler.

However, that's not to say that the nutritional content doesn't deteriorate over time, even if it's still edible and sproutable/plantable.

BizzyB, I see on your list "Potatoes"...do you mean as in storing them to eat and replant, or some other way of storing potatoes, such as canned or dried? And what is "Chia"?

 

Dried potatoes - slices and dices and flakes. Some comercial, some home dried. 5# of potatoes dries down to a VERY small volume. It's pretty amazing. I am planning to grow potatoes in the garden this year. Haven't done it before, so I figure it's time.

Chia is a remarkable little seed. Probably easier to google it than for me to list all of it's virtues. (Wiki) It's spendy, but a little goes a long way. It's also getting a trial run in the garden this year.

 

Is this the same chia of chia pet and chia head fame?

 

Same chia.

Oh and oats. I forgot oats off my list of non-gluteny storage items.

 

Bizzy, potatoes are easy to grow, and you're in a good climate for growing them! You'll do great!

Thanks for posting the link about Chia! It was very interesting to read about it. I do a lot of sprouting, and that's one of the things you can do with Chia, so maybe I'll give that a try.

Where does one get Chia seeds?

 

From the ads that invade the TV around Christmas time.

 

It's like other exotic seeds, there are many vendors online. I've ordered from Wilderness Family Naturals and also Raw Food World via their Amazon.com storefront. Happy with both.

 

We don't get "TV", so next Christmas can you record some of those commercials and mail me the DVD?

BizzyB, I've ordered stuff from Wilderness Family Naturals before, so I'll give them a look and see what they have.

Thanks, all.

 

I can do better than that! Merry Christmas!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzY7qQFij_M]YouTube - Original Chia Pet Commercal[/ame]

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_zwx6OXjMc]YouTube - The Chia Pet[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzY7qQFij_M]YouTube - Original Chia Pet Commercal[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDphoZk6RzE]YouTube - Chia Obama TV commercial[/ame]

Oops! posted at the same time as UncleJoe!!!!

 

Um....wow! Thanks, UncleJoe and mdprepper!

Now I can't stop laughing! You guys are too good to me!

I'll get two of those cute little critters and name one after each of you!