Survival Food – Your Ultimate Guide

Survival Food

In this world, we are bound to be faced with emergencies that stem from natural calamities and unforeseen crisis. At times like those, you will need to have an emergency kit that will see you through the crisis. This may be pre-packed or can be made while you are struggling to survive. In this article, you will find the useful tips on what you should do under what circumstances. This includes forest a food, the best foods to stock up on and the quantities.

These foods are designed to last for long and they come in many forms: powder, paste, bricks and frozen. There are more traditional methods like salted and smoked. So, dive in and explore the world of the foods that you will need for such situations.

Stock Up On Food

This is the most important thing to do. It would be very good if you were to be prepared for such situations in case they happen. In this way, you will not have to struggle too much when the bad luck hits. Being prepared will give you the chances that you need to survive. It will make the difference between surviving or the worst case, death due to lack of essential food for your body. So, you should be up to date on emergency food and make sure that you update the old supplies frequently because calamities never warn us when they are going to hit.

Top 10 Essential Foods That You Should Store

These will include foods that have high nutrition content and a large amount of energy packed into small packets. They include:

1. Beans

These are the most famous and most common survival foods that you will need. They come in ether cans or as dried beans. They contain a very high content of protein and a fair share of minerals and vitamins. When you compare dried beans and canned beans you will find that dried beans will come in larger packets weighing less.

They have a very long shelf life and when stored properly in food-grade containers, with dried ice, they can last up to a decade. Also, all dried beans can be stored including red beans and lentils among others. So, whether dried or canned, beans make a great source of food that will help you survive the long weeks of a crisis.

2. Rice

Rice is very long lasting when it has been dried, and it can go a along way in helping you get through a crisis. It contains a lot of mineral and vitamins. It also has a high calorie and protein level.

However, there is one disadvantage with dried rice though, it takes so long to cook and sometimes can go take 30-60 minutes to boil. That’s why when you are stocking; you should consider brown rice cereal which takes less than 10 minutes to cook. If you want to store rice properly, you will have to put it in an airtight dry place with no moisture.

3. Peanut Butter

This is one food that maximizes on nutrient content. It is used in hunger stricken areas all the time to help the victims of malnutrition and hunger crisis. The content is impressive as it encapsulates a lot.

You will only need to take a little each day to survive for a long time in a situation where food is lacking.

4. Flours

These may include all types of dried and properly stored and packaged flours. The best is perhaps cornmeal because of the carbohydrates which make up a large part of its constitution. It also has oil which makes it last for as long as 20 months with proper care.

5. Canned Veggies and Fruits

Despite appearing to be very useful, they are in fact not very easy to carry around when you compare them with the calories they pack. However, with the proper balance in diet, you can use them with no worries of having more output than input energy.

Also, they have a shelf life of over 4 years except for the tomatoes which can go bad easily as they are very acidic.

6. Canned Meat

If you are surviving outside, you will need to know how to get food from the surroundings. You can learn how to hunt for fresh meat. However, canned meats make a great source of food.

They can also last for between 7-10 years depending on the way they are stored.

7. Lard

This may sound like a disgusting and unappetizing source of food but it is actually one of the really useful sources. Also, when you are surviving, you may want to refrain from being picky about what you eat. When you buy lard, store it in a cool, dry and dark place for maximum shelf time which can go from 24-36 months.

8. Chocolate and Energy Bars

There are so many brands of these all over the markets nowadays and they all provide something for you to sustain on. When shopping for these, you will have to be careful to only select those with high nutrition content and a lot of calories to maximize on their effectiveness.

9. Dried Meat or Jerky

This has been the longest serving survival food used by explorers and natives of less civilized eras and continents all over the world. It is dried and preserved properly to make it last longer. It is so much tastier than canned meat and very easy to carry.

10. Sugar and Salt

Salt can be used as a preservative and can be used to add taste to horrible but useful food that you will need in the jungle. Sugar, whether brown or white, is very important because of the energy that is packed in it. It can be made to last up to a decade with the proper storage.

How to Make Your Own Survival Food

There are life skills that you will need when surviving and they will have to include how to make your own food. This is because you can run and hunt and all that but if you can’t make food, you will most certainly end up on the dead end of the apocalypse. These steps will guide you through that:

Collection of Food

This is in case you did not carry any food. You will need to be able to learn from the surroundings. There is food you can hunt and catch and herbs you can gather. It’s the old hunting and gathering system all over again. You will need to know how to get the food first.

Identification of Edible Food

If you are outside, you may be forced to gather things like mushrooms and herbs of various kinds. This necessitates that you be able to know what can and cannot be eaten. You will find in this article the identification of potentially harmful food.

How to Prepare It

Some of the food you might need to cook and some of it you can eat raw. This will ensure that you get to eat proper food that is not harmful to you. Some of it might be harmful when raw and perfectly fine when cooked and vice versa. You might need to salt, smoke or boil it before you can eat it.

Storage for Future

This food that you have collected and which is now in your possession will need to serve you for as long as is possible. The best way to do this will be to know how to preserve it. Most of the meats can be preserved by smoking and salting. Other delicates will need to be eaten before they go bad. And some, you can dry.

If You Have Food Already

For example rice and beans that will need to be boiled or moistened first. These are also very important and it will be good if you know what to do. Don’t overcook and leach out the minerals and don’t undercook either.

What Can You Eat In a Forest?

There is quite a lot you can eat in the forest. But first, you will need to know if you have to catch your food or pick it. With enough water and strength you can learn how. You will also be able to explore the varieties and after you have done this, you can balance out your meals to get the proper diet.

Some of the foods will include

• wild berries,
• mushrooms,
• herbs and fruits
• deer
• rabbits
• fish

Meat and fish will provide you with protein and pretty much all that you need to survive. However, if you are new to the forest, just stick to the plants first to make sure you have enough energy to go hunting.

You are also advised that if you really want meat and you are a newbie in the forest, DO NOT try hunting your food. You should try trapping it instead. This is easier, safer and less time consuming. Once you get adjusted to the forest environment, you can be able to see the potential that it contains and you can in this way be able to feed yourself. You have to be careful of dangers that lurk in the forest though. These include poisonous animals and plants and aggressive animals too. When you get to know what is to be avoided and what can be picked, you will be able to survive in the forest by eating your way through it carefully.

How to Identify Poisonous Mushrooms and Berries

There is only a few ways you can identify these. That is if you have seen them before or you have read and seen pictures.

There are a few things that you can look at to know what is edible and what is not. When you find plants that have milky sap, it means that they are poison and you can’t touch those. However, there are plants that are mimickers of others and they can be mistaken for their edible counterparts. This means that you will have to know the following to eat what is safe:

• learn which ones are poisonous and which ones are not
• know what they look like
• differentiate them from their look-alikes

I believe that the best way t be safe is to know beforehand what can and what cannot be eaten. It’s the only way that you can be really sure about what you can eat. Mushrooms are really tricky and you will need to go for practice foraging if you really care about the future implications.

How to Test If a plant Is Edible and Not Poisonous

These are the steps that you can use to test if a plant can or cannot be eaten.

• Find a plant that is in huge supply. It would be really silly if you test a plant and find that there’s so little of it that you can eat.
• For 8 hours prior to the test, do not eat anything but just take clean water. This is a very important step because you will not want to be confused about whether the plant is safe or not.
• Test the plant to see if it is poisonous when touched. You have to do this with your hand which sounds risky but I didn’t say rub it all over, just a simple touch on exposed skin ill tell you what you need to know.
• Cook the plant if it has passed the ‘touch test’ and do the ‘mouth test’. This is a little more delicate. You hold the plant to your mouth without swallowing for up to 180 seconds. If it tingles or irritates, don’t eat it.
• If it passes the lip test, out it in your mouth and crunch on it but don’t swallow. Wait to see if the juice will irritate your mouth.
• If it passes this test, you can swallow a little bit of it and see if it is okay. And then comes the long 8 hour wait to see if it works.
• If you feel like you are getting a stomach upset or pain in the abdomen, make yourself vomit everything out to be safe and purify your system with plenty of water

NOTE: You will need to test the plant in parts as in stem, stalk, leaves and any berries it might have to see which parts are edible. The procedure above applies to all of them.

Best Food to Stock up in Emergencies

1. The Most Appropriate

When you are stocking up for emergencies, you will need to have relevant food for all the needs that are in the group or family. For example, there are those people who are on a special diet and allergic too. They will need to have their own appropriate food stocked. Also, you will consider children and the kind of diet that they will need during such crises. Mothers who are nursing will need liquid formula because at those times, they will be producing barely enough milk to feed the babies directly.

2. The Most Nutritious

Food doesn’t have to be just stuff you can eat. Yes it has to be edible but you need to pack food that is full of nutrients and packed with energy. This way, you can prolong the time of survival and increase your chances.

3. Long Lasting food

You will not want to carry around food that will go bad in a short time. Therefore, dried, canned and pasteurized foods are best.

4. Ready To Eat Food

When you carry food, make sure that as much of it as possible is edible without cooking. Make it food that can be eaten straight from the can or drank straight from the bottle.

5. Easy To Carry

When you are considering options, you may have to walk from one place to another and this will necessitate that you have food that you can carry without straining so much.

How Much Water and Food Should You Have Stocked Up For Emergencies

The way to really be sure is to stock up as much as you can. Be like a squirrel hoarding up for winter. But if you have to have a minimum amount, here are some ideas: You will need to have enough to drink per person per day. If you have enough to spare, you can use it for cooking and washing. One person should consume at least 4 liters of water daily on a healthy basis. As for food, make sure it’s enough to fill their bellies and enough give them enough strength to walk around daily.

Conclusion

This is the ultimate survival guide on food and nutrition. It has detailed and highlighted on all the important parts and will be useful if you want to know anything about the art of surviving in the jungle, at home or anywhere during a crisis.