Some thoughts on food

Every preparedness article you will ever read will have something about how much food to have on hand, and most 2-3 day kits on the market come with some kind of ration bar. In my experience this is something that everyone just knows, but no one really thinks about too much. Being someone who likes food, it’s something I may have given more thought to and I wanted to share some of what I’ve figured out with you.

If I’m going to assume that for a unknown number of days I’m going to have to live off one single thing, there are a few things I want to know ahead of time. How does it taste? Because if it tastes like complete ass I’d rather just die then try to live off it for a week. How do I feel after eating it? What kind of reaction do my guts have to it? For example that last thing I want to have in my emergency kit is something that’s going to give me a stomach ache or the squirts. You know what I’m talking about. Gross. So this kind of thing is worth thinking about. Perhaps I’m the only one thinking about it because when looking at the stuff that comes in most kits or is branded as survival rations, the only thing people seem to talk about is the shelf life.

After some serious scientific tinkering and mass research I’ve come to the following conclusion: The longer something will last the worse it tastes. Twinkies are the sole exception to this rule, but I wouldn’t advise trying to live off nothing but Twinkies for more than a week or two. So for the topic of conversation here I’m going to break this into two specific categories – the stuff that lasts a long time and the stuff that tastes good.

For starters lets talk about the eternal storage pure ration options. In the photo above I’ve got a package of Mayday 2400 Calorie Food Bars which are the kind of thing you find in most pre-packed kits. These also come in 3600 Calorie
and 1200 Calorie versions but it seems like the 2400 is what most kits come with. Well how may calories do you actually need in a day? As far as I can tell there’s no real agreement on this and it varies from person to person, however this calculator can probably give you a good ballpark idea. So these Mayday bars are everywhere, the problem is they are really not good. Like, yuk. I suppose if you were starving they would be welcomed, but they really aren’t something I can see anyone looking forward to eating. The only reason they are so popular is that they have a 5 year shelf life.

Also with a 5 year shelf life and much much tastier are the food bars by Datrex. They tend to be a little more expensive but if you do a taste test between these and the Mayday bars you will know where that extra few cents went. The higher end kits made by the folks at Mother Eagle use these and I think they are a pretty good choice if you are only focusing on shelf life. Another thing to consider are the near endless options in the world of M.R.E. but that would be a whole post on it’s own so I’ll leave it for another time. If you are a fan then go for it.

One thing worth noting is that both the Mayday and Datrex bars are vegan.

Here’s my argument against worrying about shelf life – if you are going to buy a chunk for disaster prep there are only two options of what will happen: Either there will be a situation where you need it before it expires, or there won’t. So what happens if at the end of 5 years you haven’t had a need for the 2 week supply of these bars you have, what are you going to do with them all? Throwing them out is kind of a waste, but no one really wants to eat them by choice so you are stuck trying to decide what to do. It’s for this reason that I tend to lean towards options that don’t last quite as long but taste really good and I probably eat them on my own anyway. This works for me because as long as I keep a general idea in my mind (or written down somewhere) about when I bought them then I always have something fairly good on hand.

For years Clif Bars were my main choice and I still tend to have one or two in just about all my bags and bust them out anytime I’m on the road and a little hungry. My single reservation with them is that they are not designed to be meal replacements and at around 250 calories they work much better for for short periods of time or quick energy bursts. If you know you are going to have a real meal for dinner but not sure about the rest of the day, these are a great option. Depending on where you buy them, they usually have a “best before” date that is about a year out, though given their all vegan and organic content I’m sure a little longer wouldn’t hurt you.

A better option that I’ve come across recently are the Probar Whole Food Nutrition Bars. A sales guy at REI actually turned me onto them and I’m really glad he did. These also have about a year shelf life, are all natural and packed with fruits and nuts. Super good ingredients means they actually taste really good and unlike Clif Bars, these have the added bonus of being designed as meal replacements. They are close to 400 calories each and come in a variety of flavors. Again the added quality ups the price a little, but I’ve figured out about the cheapest way to get them I think. In stores they are around $3.50 each, however Amazon now has a subscription option were you can opt to have a box of 12 sent to you on the 1st of every month and it’s about $24 which drops the price down to $2 each. That’s still more expensive than some other options, but the trade off is you get something that tastes really good, is good for you, and if you don’t need for an emergency you will be happy to eat anyway.

In fact I recommend the subscription option simply because you will want some around for yourself in the meantime. I’m opting for it myself because I keep buying them and eating them before I get a chance to put them into my bags. Again, this is a perfect example why shelf life isn’t of the utmost importance to me. I’d rather have plenty of something I eat all the time then excess of things I don’t want to eat ever.