Survival Nutrition

[Patriot Prepper]

Just a thought, but protein is usually not the most important nutrient for preppers. Protein is easy to store.

What's more difficult is getting quality healthy fats. Contrary to popular opinion, your body needs fat - quality fat. Americans get too much junk fat, and that is unhealthy. Storing quality fat is a challenge. Eating skinless chicken breasts over a long period without getting enough fat causes a nutritional imbalance that could lead to damage to the brain and nervous system. Many quality fats go rancid quickly even when properly stored.

Also keep in mind that the majority of the word's populations do not eat meat or much of it. Billions of people eat little or no meat. We are not carnivores and do not have a nutritional need for flesh foods.

Everyone in our retreat has learned how to live in an extremely high level of health without the use of meat products. We are not vegetarians but we can easily live without meat indefinitely.

I went without any meat products for over 7 years and for 2 of those years, only ate raw food. No meat, chicken, fish, eggs, or cheese, milk etc.

I am 60 years old and do not have health issues. I have not been to a doctor in over 35 years and do not take any prescription or over the counter drugs. Feel great and am full of energy.

I am only mentioning this because flesh products in the first several years are not the best strategy. I believe if there is a WROL or TEOTWAWKI situation, there will possibly be hoards of people trying to steal you food and supplies. Cooking and using fire gives off a scent and will attract those people.

Detoxifying your body and getting it to adapt to alternative protein sources is an easier prepper lifestyle. If law and order is eventually reestablished, you can then go back to cooking and eating flesh products. Today, I eat flesh products on a limited basis. When TSHTF I will go to a different diet.

I have lived weeks at a time with high energy using nothing more than water and a handful of bee pollen or spirulina, etc. Training your body to overcome hunger can be a life preserving discipline. When people start changing their diets or restricting food intake, they will get negative reactions as toxins are released into the system. I have also live on nothing but pure water for several weeks and sustained a high energy level. Being able to do that in a survival situation could save your life. Most people get very bent out of shape when they go without food for a day or two.

i am only bringing this up, because many preppers have not really thought about this. Take control of your body, discipline yourself, and prepare for survival, by learning how to get super healthy, and live with less food while maintaining strength and energy. When you detoxify and train your body, and eat quality food, you metabolism becomes more efficient.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

The fat is very important to the diet. Many mountain men, settlers and others discuss the need for it in their stories and journals. Bear is one critter that came up alot in my readings that provided fat. The northern folks discuss salmon alot too. Many cultures get it from oils in plants.

[Klayton]

Oil/Fat is a huge part of nutrition.
May I suggest peanuts.

[Grantmeliberty]

I fully agree with the intent of the OP that nutrition is crucial to survival, but I would suggest that a vegetarian/vegan diet may not be optimum for long term health. There is a very serious issue of B-12 deficiency in vegetarians and vegans, and as I have recently learned, the commonly used supplement, cyancobalamin is not easily or readily used by the body. The optimum form of B-12, and that which is sold in Japan, is methylcobalamin, and I have recently ordered that form to replace the inferior form I had been using.
Dr. Mercola, whose health website, www.mercola.com has a lot of great information regarding healthy diets, and he himself had been on a strict vegan diet many years ago and found that his health was declining. He now advocates a form of the Paleo diet/lifestyle, which is comprised of 55 ot 65 percent high quality fats, 15 to 20 percent protein and a small amount of carbs from vegetables or potatoes or white rice.
The Weston Price foundation http://www.westonaprice.org/ had great information to help optimize your health based on the research of Dr Price, who analyzed the diets of many aboriginal cultures to understand how they maintaine such good health and bone and dental structure.
I myself am 62, in excellent health, and have not needed any medications aside from antibiotics for 2 or 3 infections during the last 40 years.
I do use quite a few supplements, including about 4000 mg of Vitamin C daily. I believe that supplementing with Vitamin C is crucial to heart and musculo-skeletal health. Linus Pauling's research and protocol for heart disease is at this site http://www.paulingtherapy.com/
As far as fats are concerned, I use coconut oil, high quality olive oil, butter, and whatever fats are on the meats that I eat. Lard, tallow, and butter can be easily stored for long term use, and coconut oil, unlike other oils, has an unlimited shelf life because the lauric acid which comprises almost 50 percent of its content is anti-bacterial, so it won't turn rancid. It is also beneficial for treating skin problems.
Quality fats are our friends, sugar is the enemy of our health, and though I have some sugar and quite a bit of honey stored, I don't plan on using it at any rapid rate.
Unfermented soy is an anti-nutrient, especially in its GMO form, and I will only eat fermented soy products such as miso and tempeh because that is the only beneficial form.

[Benn Gleck]

I fully agree with the intent of the OP that nutrition is crucial to survival, but I would suggest that a vegetarian/vegan diet may not be optimum for long term health. There is a very serious issue of B-12 deficiency in vegetarians and vegans, and as I have recently learned, the commonly used supplement, cyancobalamin is not easily or readily used by the body. The optimum form of B-12, and that which is sold in Japan, is methylcobalamin, and I have recently ordered that form to replace the inferior form I had been using.
Dr. Mercola, whose health website, www.mercola.com has a lot of great information regarding healthy diets, and he himself had been on a strict vegan diet many years ago and found that his health was declining. He now advocates a form of the Paleo diet/lifestyle, which is comprised of 55 ot 65 percent high quality fats, 15 to 20 percent protein and a small amount of carbs from vegetables or potatoes or white rice.
The Weston Price foundation http://www.westonaprice.org/ had great information to help optimize your health based on the research of Dr Price, who analyzed the diets of many aboriginal cultures to understand how they maintaine such good health and bone and dental structure.
I myself am 62, in excellent health, and have not needed any medications aside from antibiotics for 2 or 3 infections during the last 40 years.
I do use quite a few supplements, including about 4000 mg of Vitamin C daily. I believe that supplementing with Vitamin C is crucial to heart and musculo-skeletal health. Linus Pauling's research and protocol for heart disease is at this site http://www.paulingtherapy.com/
As far as fats are concerned, I use coconut oil, high quality olive oil, butter, and whatever fats are on the meats that I eat. Lard, tallow, and butter can be easily stored for long term use, and coconut oil, unlike other oils, has an unlimited shelf life because the lauric acid which comprises almost 50 percent of its content is anti-bacterial, so it won't turn rancid. It is also beneficial for treating skin problems.
Quality fats are our friends, sugar is the enemy of our health, and though I have some sugar and quite a bit of honey stored, I don't plan on using it at any rapid rate.
Unfermented soy is an anti-nutrient, especially in its GMO form, and I will only eat fermented soy products such as miso and tempeh because that is the only beneficial form.

Thats a lot of good info there Grant! Thanks for the links.

As an aside, the most famous (or infamous) non-flesh eating (vegetarian) was Adolf Hitler. He was also a big advocate of animal rights.

[Klayton]

Still say, God gave me incisors and canines for a reason, that along with the bowels 1/4 the length of herbivores has me pretty much saying YA IM A MEAT EATER!!!

[Patriot Prepper]

I fully agree with the intent of the OP that nutrition is crucial to survival, but I would suggest that a vegetarian/vegan diet may not be optimum for long term health. There is a very serious issue of B-12 deficiency in vegetarians and vegans, and as I have recently learned, the commonly used supplement, cyancobalamin is not easily or readily used by the body. The optimum form of B-12, and that which is sold in Japan, is methylcobalamin, and I have recently ordered that form to replace the inferior form I had been using.
Dr. Mercola, whose health website, www.mercola.com has a lot of great information regarding healthy diets, and he himself had been on a strict vegan diet many years ago and found that his health was declining. He now advocates a form of the Paleo diet/lifestyle, which is comprised of 55 ot 65 percent high quality fats, 15 to 20 percent protein and a small amount of carbs from vegetables or potatoes or white rice.
The Weston Price foundation http://www.westonaprice.org/ had great information to help optimize your health based on the research of Dr Price, who analyzed the diets of many aboriginal cultures to understand how they maintaine such good health and bone and dental structure.
I myself am 62, in excellent health, and have not needed any medications aside from antibiotics for 2 or 3 infections during the last 40 years.
I do use quite a few supplements, including about 4000 mg of Vitamin C daily. I believe that supplementing with Vitamin C is crucial to heart and musculo-skeletal health. Linus Pauling's research and protocol for heart disease is at this site http://www.paulingtherapy.com/
As far as fats are concerned, I use coconut oil, high quality olive oil, butter, and whatever fats are on the meats that I eat. Lard, tallow, and butter can be easily stored for long term use, and coconut oil, unlike other oils, has an unlimited shelf life because the lauric acid which comprises almost 50 percent of its content is anti-bacterial, so it won't turn rancid. It is also beneficial for treating skin problems.
Quality fats are our friends, sugar is the enemy of our health, and though I have some sugar and quite a bit of honey stored, I don't plan on using it at any rapid rate.
Unfermented soy is an anti-nutrient, especially in its GMO form, and I will only eat fermented soy products such as miso and tempeh because that is the only beneficial form.

Thanks for pointing out the B12 issue. Your body stores a considerable amount of B12 and often as several years worth. Also B12 is available from from home grown fruits and vegetables that are not washed, plus sea vegetables like kelp, as well as supplementation. Seldom is B12 and issue with vegetarians who follow healthy regiments.

Most Americans obtain the majority of their vitamin B12 intake from animal products. Although most people associate vitamin B12 deficiency with vegan diets, the majority of cases occur among people who regularly consume animal products. So, it should come as no surprise that vitamin B12 deficiency can occur in vegans.

The body only needs small amounts of vitamin B12 because our bodies do a great job of recycling (and storing) this essential nutrient.

A person living in the a primitive natural environment who consumes fresh fruits and vegetables that are not fastidiously washed as most people do today would never experience B12 deficiencies.

Even in the modern environment, with our fastidious food cleanliness, a person consuming a vegan diet may never experience the need for vitamin B12 supplementation. Even the small amounts of B12 commonly found in the nodules of organically-grown root vegetables, and the small amounts produced by the bacteria in our own mouths, may be enough to sustain many of us. A very little of this substance can go a long way. For those who switch to a vegan diet, for example, there are usually stores of B12 in the liver that can last for several years, or even decades.

The point of this thread is to awaken people to the need to get healthy now. Also to not be obsessed with PROTEIN. And to be aware of the security (OPSEC) issues that cooking food, hunting animals, etc entail. Also note that many forms of meat may not contain EFA in the right proportions.

Also note the need to detoxify the body, so that it operated metabolic efficient manner, where you can go without food for extended periods without cleansing reactions.

I am not talking from a text book about this subject, but from direct experience with myself and others.

[Patriot Prepper]

Still say, God gave me incisors and canines for a reason, that along with the bowels 1/4 the length of herbivores has me pretty much saying YA IM A MEAT EATER!!!

I am not defending or recommending that you become a committed vegetarian. Today, I am not 100% vegetarian. But the ability to subside without flesh foods in a TEOTWAWKI could help save your life. Also consumption of meat is not a healthy dietary practice, especially considering the quality of the meat and the amount consumed without regard to more healthy fruits and vegetables.

Regarding whether humans are carnivores or herbivores, most evidence points to us having more in common with herbivores.

TEN PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CARNIVORES (MEAT EATERS) AND HERBIVORES (PLANT EATERS).

1. A carnivore's teeth are long, sharp and pointed. These are tools that are useful for the task of piercing into flesh. Omnivore's (meat and plant eaters) teeth are similar to that of carnivores. Man's, as well as other herbivore's teeth are not pointed, but flat edged. These are useful tools for biting, crushing and grinding. Your incisors are actually quite useful for biting into carrots and apples.

2. A carnivore's jaws move up and down with minimal sideways motion. The jaw motion of an omnivore is similar. These are tools that are useful for the tasks of shearing, ripping and tearing flesh and swallowing it whole. Omnivores swallow their food whole and/or with simple crushing. Man's, as well as other herbivore's jaws cannot shear, but have good side to side and back to front motion. These are tools that are useful for extensive chewing, crushing and grinding of grains and other high fiber foods. Animal flesh cannot be crushed, ground and chewed with the tools Yahweh gave man without some degenerating process such as cooking or frying.

3. A carnivore or omnivore's saliva does not contain digestive enzymes. Man's, as well as other herbivore's saliva is alkaline, containing carbohydrate digestive enzymes.

4. A carnivore's stomach secretes powerful digestive enzymes with about 10 times the amount of hydrochloric acid than a human or herbivore. The pH is less than or equal to "1" with food in the stomach, for a carnivore or omnivore. For humans or other herbivores, the pH ranges from 4 to 5 with food in the stomach. Hence, man must prepare his meats with laborious cooking or frying methods. E. Coli bacteria, salmonella, campylobacter, trichina worms [parasites] or other pathogens would not survive in the stomach of a lion.

5. A carnivore's or omnivore's small intestine is three to six times the length of its trunk. This is a tool designed for rapid elimination of food that rots quickly. Man's, as well as other herbivore's small intestines are 10 to 12 times the length of their body, and winds itself back and forth in random directions. This is a tool designed for keeping food in it for long enough periods of time so that all the valuable nutrients and minerals can be extracted from it before it enters the large intestine.

6. A carnivore's or omnivore's large intestine is relatively short and simple, like a pipe. This passage is also relatively smooth and runs fairly straight so that fatty wastes high in cholesterol can easily slide out before they start to putrefy. Man's, as well as other herbivore's large intestines, or colons, are puckered and pouched, an apparatus that runs in three directions (ascending, traversing and descending), designed to hold wastes that originally were foods high in water content. This is so that the fluids can be extracted from these wastes, now that all the useful nutrients and minerals have been extracted and the long journey through the small intestine is over. Substances high in fat and cholesterol that have been putrefying for hours during their long stay in the small intestine tend to get stuck in the pockets that line the large intestine.

7. Animal flesh, composed of the most highly complex type of protein that exists, requires vast amounts of uric acid to process. Uric acid is released into the system in amounts necessary to break proteins down into amino acids. Uric acid is a toxic substance responsible for the aging process and must be flushed out and dealt with. That is one of the jobs of the liver. In relative terms, a carnivore's liver is a tool designed with the capacity to eliminate ten times as much uric acid as the liver of man or other plant eater.

8. A predator has a gait, large paws and claws, which enable him to hunt, chase and trap his prey. These are tools meant to kill. Man's gait, as well as other herbivore's is designed only for mobility. Examine your hand, fingers and fingernails. Is this an apparatus properly designed for catching, trapping, killing and ripping apart cattle, hogs, chicken and fish? How does this work for picking fruit from trees or harvesting vegetables? The foods your hands were meant to gather are typically, high in water content, high also in fiber to sweep the wastes out of those intestines, and collectively contain every vitamin and mineral necessary to sustain human life.

9. A carnivore's frame of mind is totally geared for hunting and killing. Man's frame of mind is compassionate, friendly and reveres life. When the lion spots another furry animal, something might instinctively click in his head that tells him to hurry up and get dinner. When man spots a furry animal, rather than show his children how to take its life and eat it, a more likely instinct is to pull over, get the camera out and take a picture. Put a young baby chick and an apple in a crib with a six-month-old baby. What will he instinctively attempt to eat and play with?

10. Man is not a natural hunter. Every predator, in order to go hunting, MUST be hungry. Man cannot go hunting if he IS hungry! He must have a meal first. Hunger must precede a predator to go hunting. Hunger must follow man's desire to go hunting, it cannot precede it.

If you were a carnivore, when you saw a rabbit you would chase it then rip it apart with your incisors and eat it without cooking it. Man is and always has been a herbivore. Most humans do not consume meat or large quantities like Americans. Look at heath statistics and you will see that meat eating is not healthy.

And Elohim (God) said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so."
Gen. 1:29, 30.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

10. Man is not a natural hunter. Every predator, in order to go hunting, MUST be hungry. Man cannot go hunting if he IS hungry! He must have a meal first. Hunger must precede a predator to go hunting. Hunger must follow man's desire to go hunting, it cannot precede it. That is only because of our enviroment, when you put man into wilderness survival and we go back to living off the land within days you see the switch where we begin to activley hunt and gather as hunger sets in rather than just laying around eating cheetos in front of the tv (kinda like i'm doing now LOL) and the remainder of time is spent making life better, fire, shelter, water etc

If you were a carnivore, when you saw a rabbit you would chase it then rip it apart with your incisors and eat it without cooking it.

but Klayton does:) LOL

[Patriot Prepper]

but Klayton does:) LOL

Once thing for sure - ZOMBIES eat MEAT.

We as humans are probably not in our natural environment as God intended us to be. I really doubt that man was chasing rabbits and ripping them apart in the Garden of Eden. Maybe it was his fall from grace.

Humans are more acclimated to eating fruit and vegetables than killing and eating meat. I was not in the Garden of Eden and I was never a cave man, but I do know that the soil was richer in the past, and the air had a higher oxygen content. The fruit was not the type of fruit that we eat today - it was full of high levels of nutrition. Man has continued to produce a sweeter and sweeter fruit, and one that has less nutritional value. Also we eat types of fruit that is not the most ideal. Some of the highest quality soils come from areas that were covered with volcanic ash at some point or that are continually flooded with high mineral water from mountain areas. It is difficult to impossible to obtain the best and highest level of nutritional food today. Our farming methods, as well as meat raising methods, are geared towards quantity versus quality.

The meat eating habit is thought to have its roots in the movement of man from a natural tropical or coastal region to other areas.

As human beings we are all in a state of ill health to some degree or another. What is really important is the fact that there are methods and people who are able to heal persons that modern medicine and doctors have given a death sentence.

I do know as a fact, that man does not need to have meat to live or to be healthy. As previously stated, the majority of the almost 7 billion humans on earth do not eat meat or eat very little. It is not healthy to eat large quantities. It is simply toxic.

[Klayton]

I do appreciate the comments, but ((steps on soap box)) just a slight variance.

1) never stated I was a carnivore, I stated I eat meat, omnivores (which is what humans are classified as) eat meat (and yes veggies).

2) number 5 in your post is slightly incorrect, our bowels do not reach 10-12 times our body length im 5'6" so that would be at a minimum of 50+ feet. Last time I checked my A&P textbook, small bowel = 20 feet, and large bowel = 5 feet, thats 25 in total, of course that is approximated. And yes we do have a longer bowel system than carnivores, but we also have a MUCH MUCH shorter and less complex system than dedicated herbivores. We are in the middle, we are omnivores.

3) number 10, pretty sure there were some really hungry cavemen and women, out there that did NOT eat before every hunt. Can I prove this? yes as soon as Matt gives me back my DeLorean time machine... :)

But thank you for the post, LOVE reading others points-of-view.

[WiseOwl]

Thanks guys for this thread.

Patriot, man, thanks for the knowledge. If you dont mind, I am going to copy your posts and paste them into an email to a good friend of mine. He too is into the more "green" diet but eats meat maybe once, twice a week.

Good stuff sir.

[goatlady]

I'm with PatriotPrepper on this topic. I only eat a small amount of either chicken, salmon, turkey,venison, goose, or quail once or twice a week. Been eating this way for 30 years with absolutely no nutritionally related health problems and still going strong every day in my 7th decade on my homestead by myself. I eat maybe 4-6 eggs a month, never drink any milk, do eat cheese everyday for lunch with a fruit. Absolutely cannot put beef or pork in my digestive system, it make me physicall ill. Heavy, heavy on the greens especially broccoli, spinach, chards. More pasta and rice than taters. Hardly every have "sweets" as in desserts - every now and then I'll make a lemon bundt cake, keep 2-3 slices and take the rest to the neighbors. I weight now what I weighed when I was 22 years old, have no arthritis, not stooped over like lots of ladies my age, still flexible enough to do a full lotus every once in a while and can touch my palms flat on the floor without bending my knees. It's a good eating plan for me and has and will serve me well the rest of my life.

[trkarl]

Once thing for sure - ZOMBIES eat MEAT.


Humans are more acclimated to eating fruit and vegetables than killing and eating meat. I was not in the Garden of Eden and I was never a cave man, but I do know that the soil was richer in the past, and the air had a higher oxygen content. The fruit was not the type of fruit that we eat today - it was full of high levels of nutrition. Man has continued to produce a sweeter and sweeter fruit, and one that has less nutritional value. Also we eat types of fruit that is not the most ideal. Some of the highest quality soils come from areas that were covered with volcanic ash at some point or that are continually flooded with high mineral water from mountain areas. It is difficult to impossible to obtain the best and highest level of nutritional food today. Our farming methods, as well as meat raising methods, are geared towards quantity versus quality.

I completely agree with the condition of our soils which is why last year I began heavily amending my raised beds with Azomite. Getting the proper amount of minerals is extremely important for good health imho. And getting them from greens and organically grown foods as much as possible is the best way to get them.

http://www.azomite.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60&Itemid=41#where%20does%20azomite%20come%20from

"Where does AZOMITE

[PerryJeff]

Thanks Much I have tons of good info printed to go through and learn!!!! Awesome thread!!