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115K views 69 replies 38 participants last post by  Lawyerman 
#1 ·
I could use a review and suggestions.

I am setting up 1 year's worth of food per person (Adult). I calculated 2000 calories per day which leads to 730,000 calories per person, per year. I went for long term storage stuff but you should know I am also canning and growing in my BRAND NEW GARDEN! (Yes I am very excited that my garden will very soon be expanded to almost 2 acres)

So, for very basic survival what do you all think of this?








Total calorie needs/person: 730,000 calories per person



White rice: 300 pounds per person (450,000 calories) -$0.3518 per pound ($105.54)

1 cup uncooked rice : 600 calories
2.5 cups per pound : 1500 calories per pound

Pinto Beans: 150 pounds per person: (210,000 calories) - $0.4198 per pound ($62.97)

1 cup uncooked pinto beans : 700 calories
2 cups dry beans per pound : 1400 calories

Black Beans: 25 pounds per person: (34.000) -$0.7952 per pound ($19.88)

1 cup uncooked black beans: 680 calories
2 cups dry beans per pound : 1360 calories

Honey: 5 pounds honey: (6750 calories) - $56.40 per pound ($282.00)

1 cup honey : 1000 calories
1 1/3 cups per pound: 1350 calories

Wheat: 100 pounds per person: (140,000 calories) - $1.00 per pound (wheatsales.com) ($100)

1 pound wheat: 1400 calories

Salt: 10 pounds per person - $0.1552 per pound ($1.55)

Sugar: 25 pounds per person - $0. 5796 per pound ($14.43)



Total Estimated food costs per person: $586.37
 
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#2 ·
#3 ·
This is awesome . . . except I can't see what it includes. Maybe I am just a total moron, but when I go try and look up what is included, I can't seem to find it.

Any ideas what is included?

Also, I found the cost difference. They are planning for 1600 calories per day per person instead of 2000. Recalculated, it is almost a wash but the variety would be good if I could just figure out what the heck is in the buckets. LOL
 
#19 ·
I definately agree. 2,000 calories might be enough for bunker type survival where you'd mostly be sedantary. But for most of us, it's pitifully low because of the amount of labor we'll be doing.

Whenever putting away basics, I always suggest variety too. For example, don't just store white rice, when there are other varieties of rice and other grains such as wheat, barley, popcorn (makes the best cornmeal), etc. And pasta is a must!

Same with beans. Instead of just pintos, there are black beans, great northerns, garbanzos, etc.

Variety is not only important nutritionally, but for keeping the meals varied and interesting. Appetite fatigue can be dangerous.

Which of course also means that storing a variety of spices is important. If you store a basic 5 or 6, you limit yourself in what foods you can create. They say variety is the spice of life. I say spices are the variety of life.

There's no sense eating boring foods when there are cultures all around the world that use these same staple ingredients. You can have cajun food one meal, mexican the next, maybe middle eastern, indian or italian after that using the same basic staples. The only difference is in how they season the foods.

Then there's cooking methods. Today, it makes sense to make a big pot of beans and put the leftovers in the fridge or freezer. Without refrigeration, you can realistically only make as much as your group/family can eat in a single meal. That can be energy intensive unless you look into alternate cooking methods. Solar cooking is one option in sunny weather. Another is to make a highly insulated pot cozy. Start your soaked beans in a pressure cooker and transfer them to the pot cozy to finish cooking with their residual heat. This uses a LOT less cooking fuel. This also works with grains. And of course beans can be cracked or ground to make them cook even faster.
 
#7 ·
http://beprepared.com/article.asp?ai=369

Contents of the Year Supply of Grains and Legumes
Contents: Qty
Hard Red Wheat 2
Hard White Wheat 2
White Rice 2
Regular Rolled Oats 2
Pinto Beans 1
Black Beans 1

"This Year supply of grains and legumes is designed to provide more than the minimum recommended storage amounts of both grains and legumes for one person for a year † 318 pounds of grains and † 82 pounds of legumes. The Year Supply of Grains and Legumes is over 3,900 servings. About 1600 calories per day. "

You'll need to fill in with a few other items to come to 2000cal/day but this is a great start. Btw, shipping is EXTREMELY CHEAP through these guys. I'd bet $20/500 lbs if memory serves. And no tax outside Utah.
 
#16 ·
White rice is totally inferior to other grains and should be avoided in a low calorie diet, unless the rest of your food leans heavily on vegetables and fruits. And not any kind of vegetables and fruits, they have to be varied.

The only vitamin found in any significant amounts in rice is B6, or pyridoxine. But if you include beans and wheat, you won’t have any lack of B6 anyway. The minerals of significant amounts are zinc and copper, but they are at least twice as abundant in beans and wheat.
 
#23 ·
I combined the one year supply of grains and beans with the one year traditional supply which includes baking supplies, dairy, fruit, vegetables, seeds, etc. By using the beans and grains as your "fillers", you get a two year supply for just $1200, but still get the variety you need. At that price, I can afford to start using and learning to cook with it at less than groceries would cost. I'll also be supplementing with all the fresh fruits and veggies I can grow and preserve so expect it to last me longer than that. The only thing I've still been going to the grocery store once a month for is dairy, because you can live without shredded cheddar...but I won't until I HAVE to :D
 
#24 ·
Get something different to eat for breakfast, oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, Malt o Meal, a multi grain cereal. You're going to want a different taste. I'd consider some dried raisins, cranberries, etc to go with the cereal too. Fruit is higher in calories than veggies. Oatmeal will also make bread taste differently than with just wheat. Same for pancakes.
 
#25 ·
Honey: 5 pounds honey: (6750 calories) - $56.40 per pound ($282.00)

1 cup honey : 1000 calories
1 1/3 cups per pound: 1350 calories
Not sure were you got your numbers from. A gallon of honey is just under 12 pounds. I can get a gallon locally for about $25-30 dollars and gourmet honey for $55 for a gallon. Top-of-the-line, luxury honeys don't run anywhere near $50/pound.
 
#26 ·
Here's what I've found in terms of recommendations for a year of "basics":

Grains, 400 lbs per person (wheat, rice, corn, oats) (LDS)
Wheat, 70 lbs (GP) to 175 lbs (LDS) to 220 lbs per person (Rawles), 45 lbs per 6-gal pail=4-5 pails per person
Rice, 30lbs (Rawles) to 50lbs (LDS) to 70 lbs (GP) per person, 44 lbs per 6-gal pail=1-2 pail per person
Corn, 25 lbs (meal, LDS) to 30 lbs (GP) to 50 lbs per person (Rawles), 45 lbs per 6-gal pail=1 pail per person
Oats, 20 lbs (Rawles) to 25 lbs (LDS) per person, 25 lbs per 6-gal pail=1 pail per person

Beans, 60 lbs per person (LDS), about 40 lbs per 6-gal pail=1-2 pail per person

Fats and Oils
Oil (Olive or Vegatable) 8 qts (2 gal) per person (LDS)
Shortening, 4 lbs per person (LDS)
Peanut Butter, 4 lbs per person (LDS), 40 oz per jar = 10 jars per person
Canned butter
Mayonnaise, 2 qts per person (LDS)
Salad dressing, 1 qt per person (LDS)

Powdered Milk, 16-60 lbs per person (LDS?) or 20 lbs per person (Rawles), 29 lbs per 6-gal SUPERPAIL=1 per person

Honey or Sugars, 50 lbs (Rawles) to 60 lbs per person ( LDS)
Honey, 3 lbs per person (LDS)
Sugar, 40 lbs per person (LDS)
Brown sugar, 3 lbs per person (LDS)
Molasses, 1 lb per person (LDS)
Maple Syrup
Jams and jellies, 3 lbs per person (LDS)
Corn syrup, 3 lbs per person (LDS)
Powdered fruit drink mixes, 6 lbs per person (LDS)

Salt, 5-8 lbs (LDS) to 10 lbs per person (Rawles)
 
#28 ·
Burtenshaw,

There are a lot of recommendations on your list that you've attributed to the LDS that I haven't seen before such as the peanut butter or molasses. Where did you find this extended list? I'd love to see the source. I'm always trying to collect more information.

Thanks.
 
#49 ·
I should have listed my sources.
GP is for grandpappy. http://www.grandpappy.info/hfood1yr.htm
Rawles is James Wesley, Rawles. Info is from his blog http://www.survivalblog.com/newbies.html and his book "How to Survive the End Of The World As We Know It".
LDS is Latter Day Saints. While there is some info here http://www.providentliving.org/channel/0,11677,1706-1,00.html, I think I got most of the recommendations from this LDS Preparedness Manual http://www.abysmal.com/LDS/Preparedness/Preparedness.pdf. It may not be "OFFICIAL" LDS.
 
#33 ·
White Jasmine Rice is what I purchase. A serving of jasmine rice contains 200 mg of calcium or 20 percent of the daily value for calcium. It also has about 0.4 mg of iron or 2 percent of the daily value for iron. There is a reason the Asian culture eats rice everyday and it is because they do not intake much dairy products.
 
#34 ·
Converted rice is also a good prep idea because the parboiling process drives some of the nutrients from the bran into the grain before the bran is removed. It's quite a bit more nutritions than white rice, yet stores longer than brown rice. It also takes less time and fuel to cook.

I've known this for a while, yet I have only recently started to move into buying it. I have no idea why. I guess I've cooked with traditional foods so long that it's hard to adopt new things into my recipes.
 
#35 ·
I could use a review and suggestions.

I am setting up 1 year's worth of food per person (Adult). I calculated 2000 calories per day which leads to 730,000 calories per person, per year. I went for long term storage stuff but you should know I am also canning and growing in my BRAND NEW GARDEN! (Yes I am very excited that my garden will very soon be expanded to almost 2 acres)

So, for very basic survival what do you all think of this?

Total calorie needs/person: 730,000 calories per person


White rice: 300 pounds per person (450,000 calories) -$0.3518 per pound ($105.54)

1 cup uncooked rice : 600 calories
2.5 cups per pound : 1500 calories per pound

Pinto Beans: 150 pounds per person: (210,000 calories) - $0.4198 per pound ($62.97)

1 cup uncooked pinto beans : 700 calories
2 cups dry beans per pound : 1400 calories

Black Beans: 25 pounds per person: (34.000) -$0.7952 per pound ($19.88)

1 cup uncooked black beans: 680 calories
2 cups dry beans per pound : 1360 calories

Honey: 5 pounds honey: (6750 calories) - $56.40 per pound ($282.00)

1 cup honey : 1000 calories
1 1/3 cups per pound: 1350 calories

Wheat: 100 pounds per person: (140,000 calories) - $1.00 per pound (wheatsales.com) ($100)

1 pound wheat: 1400 calories

Salt: 10 pounds per person - $0.1552 per pound ($1.55)

Sugar: 25 pounds per person - $0. 5796 per pound ($14.43)

Total Estimated food costs per person: $586.37
You have no source of fats, which are important in SHTF.
You also can get better prices on wheat at least.
It comes down to more than calories...you have to balance out nutrients.
It looks good otherwise.

Try entering the above preps in this calculator and see how it stands as far as nutrients are concerned:
http://beprepared.com/article.asp?ai=608&sid=sboardsn&bhcd2=1282093339
 
#41 ·
I don’t merely aim to avoid hunger, but also want to prevent malnourishment. The big killer after WTSHTF might not be death by starvation, but possibly more probable death by disease.

Malnourishment makes you susceptible to disease. So prepping without any consideration of dietary balance is taking a huge risk. It is how I started out, however. But when your preps are well under way, I think it is wise to get on with more thought to how you score on vitamins, minerals and protein quality. Variety is of course a point to avoid food fatigue, but can’t take priority over nourishment. But there are other ways take care of food fatigue than to succumb to empty calories…

To build a long term food storage without considering the nutritional pros and cons of the different foodstuffs, is like buying a gun, but forget about the ammunition.

I think much controversy might just be a result of different time frames. If you consider three weeks or months worth of food a decent goal, then just ignore what I have just said. But if you think what might be needed, are food not just to last the three months of bugging in, but also the lost harvest of the first year, and the partially lost harvest of the next due to looting or your own lack of farming skills, then we are talking.
 
#42 ·
My 1 year per person mark is intended to suffice in the event that TSHTF say late summer forcing me and my family to survive until the following mid summer before crops can really be harvested. As I am hoping to get my garden to a point where it can easily supply us with plenty of vegetables, quinoa, potatoes, etc, plus the chickens can supply eggs and on rare occasions meat, plus I can hunt pretty much anywhere around me (Assuming city folk have not come up and killed everything; but that is a different topic), I should have a fairly varied diet.

I am also beginning to can this year and that would be added to the above list. So I intended this to be my "OH SH%#" stash rather then my, "This is all we need" stash.

Does that make sense?
 
#48 ·
Store what you eat is still the best advice.

However, also worthy of consideration is increasing the variety of what you eat, to include new foods, so that when SHTF comes, you have greater choices. I don't usually eat a lot of beans, but beans are not only a valuable protein food but they can also be sprouted and planted. So, seems to me that learning different ways to fix beans now would be helpful. In the meantime, I stock up on more beans, knowing I'll find the best ways to eat them. So, I have foods stored that I usually eat, and some I don't usually eat.
 
#50 ·
I could use a review and suggestions.

I am setting up 1 year's worth of food per person (Adult). I calculated 2000 calories per day which leads to 730,000 calories per person, per year. I went for long term storage stuff but you should know I am also canning and growing in my BRAND NEW GARDEN! (Yes I am very excited that my garden will very soon be expanded to almost 2 acres)

So, for very basic survival what do you all think of this?
Total calorie needs/person: 730,000 calories per person

White rice: 300 pounds per person (450,000 calories) -$0.3518 per pound ($105.54)

1 cup uncooked rice : 600 calories
2.5 cups per pound : 1500 calories per pound

Pinto Beans: 150 pounds per person: (210,000 calories) - $0.4198 per pound ($62.97)

1 cup uncooked pinto beans : 700 calories
2 cups dry beans per pound : 1400 calories

Black Beans: 25 pounds per person: (34.000) -$0.7952 per pound ($19.88)

1 cup uncooked black beans: 680 calories
2 cups dry beans per pound : 1360 calories

Honey: 5 pounds honey: (6750 calories) - $56.40 per pound ($282.00)

1 cup honey : 1000 calories
1 1/3 cups per pound: 1350 calories

Wheat: 100 pounds per person: (140,000 calories) - $1.00 per pound (wheatsales.com) ($100)

1 pound wheat: 1400 calories

Salt: 10 pounds per person - $0.1552 per pound ($1.55)

Sugar: 25 pounds per person - $0. 5796 per pound ($14.43)



Total Estimated food costs per person: $586.37
I just came across this thread. I'm surprised that in 2 and a half years no one spotted the math mistake.

The 25 pounds of sugar was not added into the calorie totals.

25 pounds of sugar has 43,875 calories. Not any nutriants, but will still burn.

This brings the grand total to 884,625 calories for the year (or 2,423 calories per day).
 
#53 ·
I agree with a lot of what has been already posted:

Spices, stuff to add variety, other grains being subbed in, increase to 3000 cals, etc.

I also agree with stuff like adding some stuff like Peanut Butter and the like.


I would like to suggest things like Quinoa as a grain substitute. It is multipurpose and cooks basically like rice.

I would also suggest at least a limited amount of Instant Rice. Some times, the ease and speed of cooking will be a serious advantage, and it can also be cooked directly in the pan with most canned goods and sauces.


I really would stress the variety angle though. There is a reason they used to serve bland, repetitive, basic meals in prison...it may sound good to go "Hey, when you're hungry you'll eat it" but when you are stressed and such from both the event and the day to day living with the effects of it, good food can make all the difference.
 
#54 ·
First, let me say that I totally agree that variety is best for long-term eating.

That said, a large portion of the globe's population gets 70-80% (or more) of its calories from one staple food only right now. Corn and rice are the big food staples of the world.

Gardens are great, but many 'casual' preppers probably aren't aware that there aren't that many calories in typical garden fare produce. Two common food exceptions to this would be potatoes and corn.

Personally, I'm planning on us getting around 75% of our calories from primarily rice with some pasta and oats on the side, with the rest mostly coming from canned foods (i.e. baked beans, green beans, various fruits, etc.). Will this give us a 'He-Man' diet that a health food junky would envy? Would I recommend this diet to normal people on a regular basis who can afford better? No, but it will definitely keep us alive and reasonably healthy. Truth be told, more than 50% of the world's population would probably be better off if they ate this all the time.
 
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