The recommended daily allowances that nutritionists use are based on the minimum amount needed by the segment of the population that has the greatest

[NotMeantForTheCity]

nutritional need for each nutrient. For example, pregnant women need the most calcium, so the minimum amount needed by pregnant women determines the RDA for the entire human population.

There is no RDA for fats other than it is recommended that nobody get more than 30% (if I remember right) of their daily calorie intake from fat. This ignores the fact that some vitamins are only soluble in fat, which means they have to be mixed with fat in order to be transported in the blood stream. It's a similar situation with protein- protein should account for a certain percentage of your daily calorie intake.

I'm not aware of any serving sizes that are defined by law, and serving sizes aren't even standardized by the food processing industry. My mother owned a neighborhood grocery store back in the 1980s and she stocked snack chips in 2 different size packages. But, even with identical brands and products both package sizes were labeled as having just 1 serving.

So what does all of this mean when it comes to preparing a food stockpile? It is more common for preppers to stock what they can get and then figure out how to use it, or does anybody start with recipes and menus they want and then stockpile foods accordingly?

I'm wondering if some kind of mathematical model could be devised to calculate what should be stockpiled to meet a given menu plan that would meet the real world nutritional needs of the people in a given group of preppers?

Suppose the nutrient content of every food that could be stockpiled is determined on a per calorie basis, such as cheddar cheese has X amount of calcium for every calorie while orange juice has Y amount of calcium per calorie. Then if you need to consume all of your day's calcium in a 2,000 calorie diet, you could use arithmetic to determine how much cheese and orange juice you need, while adjusting other food items so you don't end up taking in more calcium than you need?

 

[Supervisor42]

This is a very complicated question that you have touched on.
Even how many calories per person will I need to sustain 4 people?
It depends greatly on what they are doing.
If you are sustaining a POS like me, that lays on his bed watching TV (or folks in a fallout shelter), 1200 cal/day is plenty.
If you have young people swinging axes and working firewood, 2500+ cals.
When we were young and throwing haybales by the hundreds each day, we burned over 3500 cals/day and fat in our diet was just diesel fuel that we badly needed .

 

[NotMeantForTheCity]

This is a very complicated question that you have touched on.
Even how many calories per person will I need to sustain 4 people?
It depends greatly on what they are doing.
If you are sustaining a POS like me, that lays on his bed watching TV (or folks in a fallout shelter), 1200 cal/day is plenty.
If you have young people swinging axes and working firewood, 2500+ cals.
When we were young and throwing haybales by the hundreds each day, we burned over 3500 cals/day and fat in our diet was just diesel fuel that we badly needed .

Back in the 1960s civil defense officials recommended that fallout shelters be stocked with enough food to give every occupant 2000 calories per day without making any provisions for the occupants' age, gender or health conditions. If I had to guess, I'd say that most Americans now consume 3-6,000 calories per day so 2000 a day would seem like starvation.

 

[Supervisor42]

Back in the 1960s civil defense officials recommended that fallout shelters be stocked with enough food to give every occupant 2000 calories per day without making any provisions for the occupants' age, gender or health conditions. If I had to guess, I'd say that most Americans now consume 3-6,000 calories per day so 2000 a day would seem like starvation.

...And that is why we have so many overweight people today.
Most modern people do far less 'calorie-spending' than years ago.
I generally run on 1400-1500 calories each day and maintain my weight.

 

[Peanut]

This is a great book. The lds people know food storage, every aspect. Guidelines for building your own systems, as basic or detailed as you wish.

I like having hard copies of books. I have a pdf copy of the lds book and a hard copy too, 508 pages.

I'd start with figuring out what you're prepping for and how many folks you intend to feed. Food like this is measured in pounds not calories, when building a supply.

Having been in the military and fed rations with specific caloric count, I can say 2000 calories a day are a lot. Even for a young healthy guy. But during times of heavy physical labor 3500 weren't enough.

These days I live on about 800-1000 calories a day. Plenty for what I do most of the time. Up until 2018 I had cattle. I ate a lot more, especially during hay season. I grew and cut my own hay. But still, for my age 1500c were plenty for working hay.

 

[INresponse]

I now have serious doubts about FDA and AMA and other groups like them. They used to tell people, especially those who had bypass surgery, to cut fat and not eat red meat. When my father had bypass surgery in ‘86 they gave him a big list of can and can’t eat. My uncle had bypass surgery a year ago and they didn’t give him any diet advice. But also recently the heart association admitted that a low fat high carb diet was bad advice and that the body actually needs fats and leas carbs to be healthy.
Remember the no eggs argument, then brown eggs were OK but not white eggs? The color of the egg shell has little difference in the make up of the actual egg.
I don’t know, but I don’t trust much of what they say anymore.

 

[Backwater Herbalist]

This is a great book. The lds people know food storage, every aspect. Guidelines for building your own systems, as basic or detailed as you wish.

I like having hard copies of of books. I have a pdf copy of the lds book and a hard copy, 508 pages.

I'd start with figuring out what you're prepping for and how many folks you intend to feed. Food like this is measured in pounds not calories when building a supply.

Having been in the military and fed rations with specific caloric count, I can say 2000 calories a day are a lot. Even for a young healthy guy. But during times of heavy physical labor 3500 weren't enough.

These days I live on about 800-1000 calories a day. Plenty for what I do most of the time. Up until 2018 I had cattle. I ate a lot more, especially during hay season. I grew and cut my own hay. But still, for my age 1500c were plenty.

View attachment 103200

I've been meaning to pick up a copy of this book, it's tops on my list to purchase next.
We plan to have generational living set-up in our home, which comes with it's own headaches but I truly believe that it's going to happen with the way it looks things are going.
I have to plan for my husband and I who are in our 50's and early 60's, young adults, children, and possibly the needs of pregnancy on our homestead. I just don't know how I would be able to do it well without this book to help out. I prefer the hardbound books-easier to pull and keep notes in.

 

[Morgan101]

I would suggest getting a Bulk Food Recommendations By Caloric Content Chart.

There are literally dozens of them on line. You can customize your food storage to your own family's needs.

JMHO? I would treat all family members the same when it came to determining calories, and prepare portions the same size for everybody. Again, JMHO, but that would keep peace in the household during difficult times.

 

[UrbanHunter]

nutritional need for each nutrient. For example, pregnant women need the most calcium, so the minimum amount needed by pregnant women determines the RDA for the entire human population.

There is no RDA for fats other than it is recommended that nobody get more than 30% (if I remember right) of their daily calorie intake from fat. This ignores the fact that some vitamins are only soluble in fat, which means they have to be mixed with fat in order to be transported in the blood stream. It's a similar situation with protein- protein should account for a certain percentage of your daily calorie intake.

I'm not aware of any serving sizes that are defined by law, and serving sizes aren't even standardized by the food processing industry. My mother owned a neighborhood grocery store back in the 1980s and she stocked snack chips in 2 different size packages. But, even with identical brands and products both package sizes were labeled as having just 1 serving.

So what does all of this mean when it comes to preparing a food stockpile? It is more common for preppers to stock what they can get and then figure out how to use it, or does anybody start with recipes and menus they want and then stockpile foods accordingly?

I'm wondering if some kind of mathematical model could be devised to calculate what should be stockpiled to meet a given menu plan that would meet the real world nutritional needs of the people in a given group of preppers?

Suppose the nutrient content of every food that could be stockpiled is determined on a per calorie basis, such as cheddar cheese has X amount of calcium for every calorie while orange juice has Y amount of calcium per calorie. Then if you need to consume all of your day's calcium in a 2,000 calorie diet, you could use arithmetic to determine how much cheese and orange juice you need, while adjusting other food items so you don't end up taking in more calcium than you need?

Back in the 70s-80s the LDS church put their recommendations into a Basic program that calculated a families annual needs by the make up of the family (infants, children, teens, adults). It broke things down to the food group basics fats/oils, sugars, grains, ....

I was lucky enough to gain access to an old copy of the program (on a 5 1/4 disk) and still had a functioning copy of basic, from that I was able to make a version in MS Excel to calculate what we needed for a month or some other unit of time. I used variables so I could change my family composition and my target time horizon. Eventually, I made my food inventory in excel, and then started linking the items in my food storage to the old basic food groups in my food storage spreadsheet. This has worked fairly well for me, it has let me set my targets, and then add up all that I have to assess my stores and identify any holes (shortages) that I had... the trouble is that nothing is static, you have to constantly be adding to or removing things, the volumes of the items change (16 oz cans turned into 14 1/2 oz cans). I still track everything using pounds as a common unit, however that is not helpful to our European neighbors who use kilograms as a basic measure...

As for package serving size, I just bought 2 different batter mixes, both 32 oz boxes, one had 1/2 cup serving size (~60g), on had a 1/3 cup serving size(~34g), both were report nutritional values based on "serving size" which as you pointed out can be very misleading...

Returning to your question, what is the more common way for preppers to stock up. Well they are a very individualistic group and I would guess there are as many different was as there are preppers. I personally set my horizon (3 months, 6 months, a year, something else) and my family size to identify my "targets". I use an eat what you store and store what you eat approach with a First In First Out (FIFO) inventory control so nothing is ever any older than my last time horizon target. I date everything with a sharpie as soon as in comes in from the shopping trip. This is important because companies switched from an "expiration date" (based on food quality) to an arbitrary "best by date" that is typically less than 2 years. Knowing when I got something is more important to me than the "best by date" hidden on the bottom of the box.

 

[angie_nrs]

I think much of the nutritional value has been stripped of foods in the grocery store. Even the fresh fruits and veges are mass produced using commercial fertilizers and preservatives. I think that entire process takes many of the micronutrients and minerals out of the food and adds harmful substances.

That's why I buy our beef from a local farmer and try to grow a lot of our own veges or purchase from a farmers market. I realize that doesn't necessarily side step the chemicals, but I think it's much better than the grocery store. I don't use chemical fertilizer but instead use composted materials if possible with my own garden and occasionally change out my soil. My garden doesn't always produce well, but what it does produce is pure.

I think many ailments today are caused by a lack of nutrients or essential vitamins. It's good to listen to your body and try to figure out what it's trying to tell you. For example, when I get eye twitches or heart palpatations, I know I need to supplement my magnesium. It always solves the problem for me.

 

[Bacpacker]

I like that spreadsheet idea Urban. I use spread sheets for all kinds of stuff, both at work and home. This is something I need to work on.

 

[Caribou]

I've looked at the LDS and other sources. It's great information and I can't recommend strongly enough. I had problems with space. I designated shelf space for each item. when there was a hole I bought more of that item. It didn't seem to matter how much of this or that I had or how Manu calories they added up to if my available space was used up, that was what I had. At an early point I had set minimums on each item. That space was designated. If there was more space in that row I filled the row with that item. Having extra was fine. Adding a different item in that row would just hide a product.

I date items when they enter my pantry, FIFO. I don't worry too much about expiration dates. It is obvious when things are bad. About 6 months or a year ago I finished a jar of peanut butter that entered my pantry in 2013. I have eaten home canned salmon that was 20 years old.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I've looked at the LDS and other sources. It's great information and I can't recommend strongly enough. I had problems with space. I designated shelf space for each item. when there was a hole I bought more of that item. It didn't seem to matter how much of this or that I had or how Manu calories they added up to if my available space was used up, that was what I had. At an early point I had set minimums on each item. That space was designated. If there was more space in that row I filled the row with that item. Having extra was fine. Adding a different item in that row would just hide a product.

I date items when they enter my pantry, FIFO. I don't worry too much about expiration dates. It is obvious when things are bad. About 6 months or a year ago I finished a jar of peanut butter that entered my pantry in 2013. I have eaten home canned salmon that was 20 years old.

Yes, shelf space is always an issue when doing food storage. When we moved in here we knew we didn't have enough. We planned to keep our rental for 1 month after we got our home... During that time I did a lot of work to get the house ready to move in. The basement was half finished giving me a 60'X20' space to fill, I put in wood shelves along the 60' exterior wall, 2' deep, floor to ceiling. Then I made a 3' wide walking space and put in another 2' wide row of shelves floor to ceiling the entire length save 2-3' wide walk through's. So that gave me about 100' of floor to ceiling shelves, food storage got 1/3 of that space, other storage items (TP/cleaning supplies/hygiene) got a chunk of what was left, there is about 8' of holiday storage, and the rest is camping gear and emergency supplies. 20 years later all those shelves are full, and I have had to add 5 of those 6' high 2'X4' adjustable wire shelves to house additional food storage and canning supplies.

Storage space is like money, you can always find a way to use it....

 

[Buffalo]

I like that spreadsheet idea Urban. I use spread sheets for all kinds of stuff, both at work and home. This is something I need to work on.

Piggybacking off of @UrbanHunter's post. Here is a shareable link to the storage spreadsheet I built for my family several years ago. I spent weeks researching caloric needs and where and how to get them. This spreadsheet is probably overkill for the vast majority of people, but it has really helped both myself and my wife understand what we need to store and why.

Feel free to access the template. You will want to open the file in google sheets and either download it for Excel or make a copy and save it to your google sheets drive in order to be able to input your data into it and save it.

Link to Storage Sheet

 

[NotMeantForTheCity]

I would think that the more people you have to prep for, the easier it would be to prep. If a single person is to have an adequate and varied diet and not go broke, he'd have to store far more of certain items than he would need. A single box of mac and cheese, for example, has multiple servings so either the excess is wasted, or the person has to eat the same thing for several meals in a row.

But, the more people you need to prep for, the more variety you'll need to store. I eat very little mayo, but someone in a group is bound to want it. Also, the more people you have to prep for the more time and labor it would take to manage what is stored.

So I wonder what the happy medium is? What would be the optimal size group to prep for?

 

[Supervisor42]

So I wonder what the happy medium is? What would be the optimal size group to prep for?

That opens up a big can of worms.
Many people are surprised how many 'friends' that will appear on their front porch when the SHTF .
We are lucky that we get to practice this whenever a hurricane hits, so we get a peek at who's gonna come.
Many people do not prep at all because they know they will only have go over to "Doug's" house.
If you are 'Doug', you need to know.
(no, you cannot run your neighbors off with gunfire)
Edit: Fortunately most of our neighbors are preppers too, and if they show up on the front porch, they are bringing food if we need any .

 

[UrbanHunter]

That opens up a big can of worms.
Many people do not prep at all because they know they will only have go over to "Doug's" house.
If you are 'Doug', you need to know.

It is amazing how quickly you can become 'Doug', all the planning in the world can be undone by letting the wrong person in on your preparations, loose lips sink ships can easily be applied to planning for SHTF events. And your own kids may be your biggest leak.

When I was a young kid my sister would bring her "friends" over when our parents weren't home, one day there was a break-in and a lot of iron went missing, including some of my tools. Years later I saw a wrench in the trunk of one of her friends car's. (I had painted my tools using 3 colors so they were easy to spot).

A couple of years after we moved into our house someone from church who helped me unload the van, commented in church that if things went SHTF, he was coming over to my house, saying, "You should see that basement?" So for the past 20 years on one goes downstairs at my house and we don't talk about prepping outside the house.....

As for size of your prepping group, I plan for more than just us, but I could use everything if I were a lone wolf. Remember, you don't have to eat the whole box at 1 time, but you do need to learn math to make single servings. Having small canning jars can allow you to easily eat half and save half...

 

[FarmOR]

Based upon my farming experience of the last 18 years; starting out certified organic for six years and evolving away from that into no-till. I've learned a lot about the most basic and fundamental part: the soil. And the matter that really matters - organic matter (OM).

Rather than going down the rabbit hole of why I quit organic and am suspicious of everything labeled organic, probably the most significant reason was the utter destruction it does to the soil organic matter. You resort to pulling metal through the soil early and often. Soil organic matter is a living organism. It's analogous to the skin on your body. How healthy would you be if you were constantly raking deep furrows on your skin?

I can tend to go to far on the side road stories? But I'm trying to share a little hard earned experience and how I concluded that the carrots you eat today don't match up to the carrots nutrition of yesteryear. The organic matter has been depleted for decades.

About four years after going not-till I saw improvement in my soil. The observable improvement that farmers develop greater awareness too. The feel, tilth, smell, color, and how many earthworms come up in a shovel full! And in case you forget what dead soil is like, just walk over the property line to the neighbors field and compare that soil? For a little more skeptics ammunition, send soil samples in for testing. My SOM (soil organic matter) grew from less than one percent to consistently over two percent and better areas of 4%.

"do you know how many truck loads of organic matter you'd have to buy just to raise your som only one percent?" One of my immediate skeptics was my field man. He is a commissioned fertilizer salesman. This is his paradigm. He said that the whole story I was telling him, just a bunch of BS. So I asked him: "do you know where the bulk of the mass of a growing tree comes from?" "It comes outta thin air. Provided that the tree was planted in healthy soil and has water, but organic matter grows from the air if we keep the soil conditions right."

 

[Supervisor42]

It is amazing how quickly you can become 'Doug', all the planning in the world can be undone by letting the wrong person in on your preparations, loose lips sink ships can easily be applied to planning for SHTF events. And your own kids may be your biggest leak. ...
A couple of years after we moved into our house someone from church who helped me unload the van, commented in church that if things went SHTF, he was coming over to my house, saying, "You should see that basement!" So for the past 20 years no one goes downstairs at my house and we don't talk about prepping outside the house.....

You nailed it with that one!
It is only natural for people that have put great effort into something, to be proud of it and want to show it off.
Showing it to just one wrong person is the same as showing it to 20 others that you would never let see it.
...BTW, if SHTF you can expect me and all my friends at your house!
(Just kidding, but you get my point)

 

[NotMeantForTheCity]

(no, you cannot run your neighbors off with gunfire)

Cabin-in-the-wood types, who think a gun is the first and only solution to any crisis situation, give the 2nd Amendment a bad name.

 

[angie_nrs]

I would think that the more people you have to prep for, the easier it would be to prep.
A single box of mac and cheese, for example, has multiple servings so either the excess is wasted, or the person has to eat the same thing for several meals in a row.
What would be the optimal size group to prep for?

The more people, the more difficult as far as I'm concerned. More mouths means more food.

With only hubby and I to cook for, I often times will use a half box of stuffing, pasta roni, rice, or mac and cheese for the two of us. I use half the ingredients in the box and tape the seasoning packet back up and put it in the lazy susan with a sharpie of 1/2 on the outside of the box. It reduces overeating and leftovers. However, since the recent shrinkflation of packages, it's not typically an issue anymore. It doesn't stretch as much as it used to. But even the 10# cans of stuff can be reduced to the amount that you need for however many you need to feed and sealed back up for later.

The optimal size group is the amount of people you are prepping for. For me, it's just two of us, but I have extra for kids and extended family if need be. I'm not going to be too generous, but I'll do what I can for our family.....if I like them. LOL! During SHTF would be a good time to be in my good graces. Ha ha.