Anonymous (who we are going to give the name "Mack" for the purposes of this post) left a comment on the post Wood Stoves and Preps, ......"25 lbs of rice at Costco = $15. A 5 gal bucket and lid from Walmart = $4. For $19 you get 25 lbs of stored rice which equals 67 cups of uncooked rice. One cup of uncooked rice when cooked equals two cups of cooked rice, enough for a meal for two people. There are 268 meals in 25 lbs of rice. Of course the meal would be improved with some meat and veggies but do not underestimate the value of a cup of cooked rice to a hungry person. For $100 you could have 5 five gallon buckets of rice, 1340 meals!!"
UrbanMan's comment: Great. Thanks for the lesson in rice per pound per meal. I am going to re-visit my bulk rice and see what I come up with.
Then Chris replied leaving this comment about rice,....."Rice is great to fill your belly, but it's low in calories, and has almost none of the vitamins and minerals you need to keep healthy. Even supplementing with beans and procured meats, a large supply of multivitamins will go a long way to keep your mind and body fully functional.".
Mack replies back "Chris you are absolutely correct. However when you are hungry rice is filling. When you are hunting and gathering for food rice makes the pickings a meal. I can gather a few greens or perhaps catch a fish but there is damned few edible and tasty carb foods out there to eat. Rice or wheat is the staple. And of course combine it with beans or other legumes to make a complete protein. The whole point of my post was not to claim you could live on rice alone but to show how cheap and easy it is for anyone to store a lot of meals for a little money. I also store wheat and freeze dried potatoes in various forms, but in everyday cooking when I'm planning a meal rice is the easiest and most satisfying carbohydrate choice for me and goes with any other food.
The problem I have with the multi-vitamin theory is it misleads people into thinking it is a solution. It is not. If you have multi vitamins and no food you have nothing. If you have food (a grain and legume) simple greens you can pick in your backyard and along the road will supplement most of your needed vitamins. I am preparing and my intent is to provide for anything and everything I might need and I will be storing no vitamins of any kind. I intend to get my essential nutrients from my food and I do indeed know what nutrients are in the foods I store and what nutrients are in the foods I can gather from the wild. Vitamins are a false crutch not a solution."
UrbanMan's comment: I think Chris and Mack are both right, and both wrong. Rice is undoubtedly one of the major staples in all Survivalist's food preps. It is so easily stored, cooked and like Mack say's, goes with everything. Chris is right that a nutritional supplement is necessary, as even the most well stocked preppers will not be able to get all the required vitamins, minerals and antioxidants from their foods, no matter how fresh they are. In a SHTF environment with minimal medical care available, personal health is going to vitally important. However, to put your faith in poor quality supplements is wasting your money and the time it takes to buy them. I have read study after study about the poor quality store bought supplements, and long ago stopped buying them. I have stocked one years supply (so far) of prescription grade vitamins and minerals, take them every day (as does my family) and using the first in, first out stockage plan will go into any collapse with at least one years supply. It's paying off so far as I haven't been sick in many years. Hopefully that would continue into a degraded collapse environment.
Food is important not just for the caloric (energy) value, but for a psychological value as well. I have vacuum packed small amounts of hard candy in my buckets to provide for a "treat" during hard times, but rice, beans, pasta, nuts, soup mixes are my bulk staples.
Showing posts with label Nutritional Supplements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nutritional Supplements. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Urban Survival Planning – Disease/Healthcare Medications after the Collapse
This post could alternatively be titled: Stocking Medications for the Collapse. If you are currently on any life saving or life altering prescriptions, have you thought about what you are doing to do in the event of a collapse of society as we know it and re-fills are no longer available? Part of your Urban Survival Plan has got to be preparing for this if and when catastrophe strikes.
Pharmacies will be some of the first places looted in the event of a large collapse. Some of that will of course be due to thugs looking to get a supply of over the counter stuff they can get high with and some people will be making the pilgrimage to the Walgreens, Albertsons, Wal-Marts, etc., in order to stock up on prescriptions they need to make life possible or even just bearable.
In the novel, One Second After by William Forstchen, after figuring out that the power ain’t coming back on the novel’s main character had to compete with many angry people to get an adequate stock of insulin for his young daughter.
Depending upon the time of year, storage is problematic as well, especially for medications requiring stable storage of the drug.
Disease is going to be a problem. Protocols from quarantining new people you encounter or are trying to absorb into the group; to how you handle new people or dead bodies; protocols for sanitary measures; field expedient means to initially treat injuries especially open wounds are all going to be very important. Much more important when you consider the probability of having a dwindling supply of medical material without any re-supply potential.
Animal feed stores or Veterinarian offices and supply shops may be a source of some medications, such as pain killers, muscle relaxers and anti-biotics, however if will require some training to be able to recognize what you have and convert animal units of delivery to human uses. Secondarily, the same scum bags looted Walgreens will also be at the local Vet Clinic.
We hope that you all reading this do not require a daily intake of life saving drugs like insulin for Diabetes Type I, as it will tough tot stock an adequate amount (we consider 6 months about minimum). However Diabetes II or adult on-set diabetes cam be controlled largely through nutrition.
The good thing, in a Collapse, is that there will be less junk to eat to compromise your health. The bad thing is that there will be less to eat. Most Americans can stand to lose a few pounds, but most people want a diet to be their idea.
A total change of diets may even be healthy for people suffering from high cholesterol, blood pressure and degenerative diseases that these.
Herb gardens with medicinal herbs may help alleviate a shortage of medications. The Urban Survival Seed Procurement and Stockade Plan should consider these herbs as well as regular vegetables.
The savvy Urban Survivor should also consider stocking vitamin, mineral and anti-oxidant supplements. One of the best ways to minimize health issues is to build your body’s immune systems with nutritional supplements. However not all nutritional supplements are the same. Virtually everything you buy off-the- shelf is a “food grade” product and not regulated for quality, potency – you are most likely throwing money away. Our plan is stocking six months worth of a pharmaceutical grade daily nutritional supplement. Each month that goes by we buy one month’s supply and place the new order at the back of the shelf. Same as what you should be doing with canned foods and other food stuffs in order to use the oldest item first. For more information on the supplements we recommend you can visit the following website: http://www.bobshehan.com
Again, we hope that the reader does not have a requirement to take life saving drugs each and every day. If so, the smart Urban Survivor planning for life after a collapse needs to solve the problem on how they are going to access and store these drugs.
Pharmacies will be some of the first places looted in the event of a large collapse. Some of that will of course be due to thugs looking to get a supply of over the counter stuff they can get high with and some people will be making the pilgrimage to the Walgreens, Albertsons, Wal-Marts, etc., in order to stock up on prescriptions they need to make life possible or even just bearable.
In the novel, One Second After by William Forstchen, after figuring out that the power ain’t coming back on the novel’s main character had to compete with many angry people to get an adequate stock of insulin for his young daughter.
Depending upon the time of year, storage is problematic as well, especially for medications requiring stable storage of the drug.
Disease is going to be a problem. Protocols from quarantining new people you encounter or are trying to absorb into the group; to how you handle new people or dead bodies; protocols for sanitary measures; field expedient means to initially treat injuries especially open wounds are all going to be very important. Much more important when you consider the probability of having a dwindling supply of medical material without any re-supply potential.
Animal feed stores or Veterinarian offices and supply shops may be a source of some medications, such as pain killers, muscle relaxers and anti-biotics, however if will require some training to be able to recognize what you have and convert animal units of delivery to human uses. Secondarily, the same scum bags looted Walgreens will also be at the local Vet Clinic.
We hope that you all reading this do not require a daily intake of life saving drugs like insulin for Diabetes Type I, as it will tough tot stock an adequate amount (we consider 6 months about minimum). However Diabetes II or adult on-set diabetes cam be controlled largely through nutrition.
The good thing, in a Collapse, is that there will be less junk to eat to compromise your health. The bad thing is that there will be less to eat. Most Americans can stand to lose a few pounds, but most people want a diet to be their idea.
A total change of diets may even be healthy for people suffering from high cholesterol, blood pressure and degenerative diseases that these.
Herb gardens with medicinal herbs may help alleviate a shortage of medications. The Urban Survival Seed Procurement and Stockade Plan should consider these herbs as well as regular vegetables.
The savvy Urban Survivor should also consider stocking vitamin, mineral and anti-oxidant supplements. One of the best ways to minimize health issues is to build your body’s immune systems with nutritional supplements. However not all nutritional supplements are the same. Virtually everything you buy off-the- shelf is a “food grade” product and not regulated for quality, potency – you are most likely throwing money away. Our plan is stocking six months worth of a pharmaceutical grade daily nutritional supplement. Each month that goes by we buy one month’s supply and place the new order at the back of the shelf. Same as what you should be doing with canned foods and other food stuffs in order to use the oldest item first. For more information on the supplements we recommend you can visit the following website: http://www.bobshehan.com
Again, we hope that the reader does not have a requirement to take life saving drugs each and every day. If so, the smart Urban Survivor planning for life after a collapse needs to solve the problem on how they are going to access and store these drugs.
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