The New Atkin's Diet

So now you have your primary HD weapon (shotgun with accessories and a stash of various hunting and HD ammunition) and you have hopefully focused some effort on creating a plan of survival focusing on the 6-C's of survival.  What's next?  How about food.  This one seems daunting at first but is truly not that difficult.  My family is currently working on our plan with the goal of having 3-6 months of food storage available.  From a medical standpoint you need to focus on having 2 solid calorie rich meals per day.  For adults shoot for 2000-2500 kilo-calories.  For kids figure 1000 kCal for every 5 years up to adult diets.  A survival situation like TEOTWAWKI will require a change in focus for most parents and adults.  #1 try to keep a variety of fruits and veggies but realize that you will need to spread these out over the week.  No one will likely be able to sustain a solid 5+ servings of fresh fruits/veggies per day during such a situation.  Your goal should be to offer members from all the categories of fruits and vegetables at least once during the week.  This may look like a can of green beans on Monday, a can of pumpkin on Tuesday, a can of crushed tomatoes on Wednesday, etc. . .   What you will need to focus on is proportions.

In survival situations fat and protein should represent a larger proportion of the meal than normal.  As a general rule people say to keep fat calories to less than 30% of your daily intake.  In a survival situation this should look more like 50% if possible.  The trade off here is that fats spoil easily.  You can mitigate this by canning your own high fat meals and by stocking up on some high fat content foods from the local Wally World.  Examples would include sardines, canned chilli's, spam, etc. . .  Protein is normally recommended to represent 20-30% of your diet and should increase to at least 30%.  Beans, canned meats, canned fish, dried meats, and soy all represent good choices.  Finally carbohydrates.  These certainly represent the majority of  our daily calorie intake in the US and the world.  They are cheap and easy to store and process and are a must for your pantry.  Stock up on rice, wheat, barley, and oats.  Learn how to make flat breads using your hands, some water, and a home made brick oven.  Finally you should have a 3 month stock of multivitamins (age appropriate and properly stored) to supplement nutrition during an emergency situation.  Don't overdo this as all vitamins have potential side-effects when used inappropriately.

The simple way to stock up is to simply add 10 dollars worth of supplies to each shopping trip.  Generally this is easily absorbed and probably won't even be noticed.  Just skip the checkout candy-bar and soda and drink some extra water instead.  Plan for 30% proteins, 20-30% carbohydrates and 40-50% fats and you'll be stocked for an emergency in no-time.

Check out these posts to help jump start you preparation.  Make it a family endeavor to add in some special family time.

Quick and Easy Jerky
Survival Mom's Blog on Food Preparation
Make Your Own Brick Oven
Bread Without An Oven - Excellent PDF reference with recipes and techniques to enjoy surviving

Dr. Jekyll