How Much Food Storage Is Too Much?

Good morning, everyone! Just wondering today if there's an amount of food storage that crosses the "that's just simply ridiculous" line? How much do the rest of you have? Like how long would your family actually be able to live on what you have in storage?

I'm asking because I have a propensity to over-do things like that. I know without a doubt that I'd go overboard and then stop cold. As it stands now, I have emergency storage for natural disasters because we sure do have a number of them possible in my area. I have maybe 5 days' worth in storage at all times.... but when it comes to something bigger than a flood, tornado, blizzard, etc. I'm sorely lacking and I know that.

Is there any kind of guideline? Of course I've researched it, but like everything else, there are such varying and conflicting recomendations.

 

If you have space then there is no realistic limit other than your wallet!

But do bear in mind that buying so much of a single item that it spoils before use is too much and a waste of food and money!

I base my amounts on approx. one years worth of everything but the basic staple that for me is rice and I have three years worth of that!

 

Sounds like a good plan, Keith... thank you. I do rotate what I have, so I guess I'm off to a good start. The thing I've noticed myself doing (don't laugh, I'm learning, I'm learning! ) is buying items that I think would be good in a disaster scenario, but it's not the type of thing my family normally eats because it's loaded with fat, calories, sodium, or whatever... so there it sits until the expiration passes. Significantly well after it passes sometimes actually... it gets tossed, and I feel very wasteful at that point.

I *have* been stocking up on more dry options, though, so that's one thing I'm doing right. It's good to rotate those, too, yes? Not just canned goods?

The thing that got me wondering about this is I remembered what one of my friends did years ago.... he bought one of those.... uh... well gee, I don't know the term, but it was a LOT of dry storage that arrived in huge crates or boxes and cost him around $5k. I was shocked at the time, and frankly I still am. Five grand and it all just sits there and if I'm not mistaken, I *think* it had a shelf life of a decade and I do believe that time is up now, or about to be.

 

I think this comes back to my recent bartering post. If you store up enough booze, then you will likely be able to barter for food pretty easily and live like a king. Of course, the dangerous side to bartering and having anything of value is that organized crime and various lowlifes may try to rob you. If you have ever seen those reality shows, like the Colony, those are a perfect example of how marauders may seek to overtake even colonies of survivors.

I would imagine that the biblical manna would be a good resource for food storage. I bet if you stored up something like tons of protein rich seeds, and nuts, and dried fruit; that you'd have months of energy and strength. Maybe vacuum seal it all and keep it frozen. It helps that I live in a very cold climate with long winters. I could probably build a bunker outside underground and store stuff for long periods of time cheap.

 

The traditional rule is enough to last for one year (of things that will actually last for one year--I'd exclude anything that needs refrigeration).

Have I ever stockpiled that much? No, but when I had the money I came close!

If you watch for sales on canned fruit and veg, peanut butter, etc., you'll also save a lot on ordinary shopping bills by stockpiling when the price is right

 

i haven't yet come close to, "that's just simply ridiculous" line? yet.but working on it.....im thinking that i might have some where between 6 months.to a year in foods..and that be in store bought foods and emergency foods(25 year self life.)..as far as to much goes.maybe over 1 or 2 years of food,just for everyday life.maybe,.but thats only if the person aint a prepper,or what ever..

i agree with what Keith says here.If certain products are going to foul before you can use them, then you have too much.
thats why i'll stock up only to a certain amount of "store bought" canned foods..my other canned foods is home canned.on acount they'll last longer.as long as their properly stored,in the proper location.the boucket in the pic.i have 5 of them.the emergency foods are getting divided up.and put into them,.there they'll stay untill needed..

DSCN1912 by JimLE posted May 30, 2017 at 4:22 PM

 

I guess it can get to be too much. My Mama had a room in her house that we called Macy's. She had rows of shelves like in a store and probably could have feed the entire family for a couple of years. We lived in a coastal area and did eat a lot of seafood but a five gallon bucket of crab boil was a little excessive. They had lived through the depression and my Dad especially had suffered. We might not have had fancy cars or clothes but we always ate good and he never had to worry about running out of food. They often had as much as 20 pounds of coffee in Macy's.

I figure I have about 6 months stored right now but am about to up grade that.

 

I tend to be pragmatic in my approach to most things. What's the number of people you need to feed? We have 6. Start tracking how much your group consumes in a week, month, year. Trust me it's alot. At normal nutrition levels my Fam needs 12 thousand calories per day. 360,000 per month. 4,380,000 annually.
Replacement items will be needed for any items that require refrigeration. Either canned or dehydrated.
Mostly storing items that you use normally reduces waste as you rotate thru your stores.
The question of how much is really a question of how long you need to survive times calories times people. I feel like 12 months should be a minimum for us, 18 months would be ideal.

 

Sure you can survive on less than 2000 calories. I used that number as a reference point to do the math. Bugging in at our homestead would require us to ramp up our manual efforts. We should be pretty busy with our chores, animals & gardening. Add in security, wood cutting, water pumping, Etc, it will add up to a solid days work needing ample of nutrition.

 

How much a person needs is variable both person to person and from time to time. Right now we actually require more than we will 6 months into a disaster scenario. The body including the digestive system can get into shape and become more effective and efficient. In times of plenty we eat more and our system digests less effectively simply because there is always more incoming. I did a little looking at the various commercial emergency food systems to see what they were offering for a daily calorie count and also looked into various medical requirements. WHAT A MESS!!!

Evidently this like so many things is totally dependent on who you ask and what their area of interest is. In synopsis, in good times they claim that people need from 2100 to 2700 calories a day for healthy normally active civilized people. But when you go to the question of survival it changes dramatically. to 1200 to 1500 per day. Most of the emergency food supply people are pretty cagey about the calories but from what I found most are in the "survival" ranges a little above 1200 calories a day for the long term kits.

For the short term the stretch it out as long as possible on as little as possible the average civilized human that isn't doing heavy labor can live for up to six months on 400 calorie a day. This is what they generally use for lifeboat rations. The reason for the "civilized" is that most of us in the western world tend to have some body fat even when we are in good shape. This is important and the 400 calories allow your body to use this fat effective. With ZERO intake a fat person can starve to death nearly as fast as a skinny person. While they do have fat their bodies are less efficient in the use and so they become deficient in the necessary needs of the organs to function faster.

People in shape can live longer on less up to a point. Being fat does not necessary mean that you are not in shape. When I was at my biggest I was walking 5 moles or more every day. I put my wife through college loading trucks for a dollar a thousand pounds. I made as much as 750 a week and was an OX. At 250 lbs I was still above the rim on a basketball goal. Most of the huge heavy weight power lifters can dunk a basketball!! I've see a 5' 10" 300 pound power lifter dunk over a 6' 6" basketball player. It was hilarious!!

I like many big people am this way because I have a slow metabolism. My heart beats slow and I breathe slow. I can make the alarms go of when I am hooked up to the machines before surgery and have done so several times just for laughs. In order for me to lose weight I finally had gastric bypass surgery. I still am a big boy but not as big as I used to be. I'm 64 years old 6' 2" and weigh 225 with a 48" chest nd a 36" waist. I can still fast for a week with no issues and still live on 2 breaths a minute with a standing heart beat in the low 40s occasionally dipping during meditation.

In an emergency I will have no problems with eating a little less than 1000 calories a day for most of the year. I had a very good friend that was 6' and weighed 125 pounds that ate constantly and would get faint if he missed a meal. When we would go fishing together he brought a cooler full of food and Dr. Peppers and I would bring a stick of jerky and water. EVERYONE is different. The thing that each person needs to do is find out what YOU need and prepare with that in mind.

 

Absolutely correct. I've been on a Low Carb diet for months & I feel fantastic. Healthy fats & healthy protein. I get my very limited carbs from fresh veggies. Eating about 1200 calories per day on average in one meal a day. My body fat is going down & lean body mass is increasing. Inflammation issues are nearly gone. Digestive issues are non existent for me at this point.
Eating like this now, I should be in great shape & totally prepared if SHTF

 

Too much? When the issue is one of the food going to waste.

Before expiration date's arrival, donate surfeit foods to charities.

One should be eating that which they put back. Rotate your pantry -- same for the root cellar.

Y'know what, I went to the web to find a picture of a root cellar. Couldn't find one. What the dickens! I thought I'd be overwhelmed with images. Speaks to the times. I have olfactory memories of over a half century running thru me mind right this minute, dirt basements, steps leading down beneath buildings, potato sprouts, jelly jars, ... My kin were past poor, but they didn't go hungry.

I don't even know the number of folk for whom my maternal grandmother filled supper tables -- relatives, the kid next door who became a noted local personality (even though his own mom wouldn't feed him), neighbors, ... . She and her sisters maintained gardens and canned for winter. And she also patched their clothing ... to include my holey-kneed jeans.

 

I did real well on a version of the Atkins and caveman diet where I ate mostly meat and natural raw vegetables, nuts and fruits. It pumps up your energy levels as your body becomes adapted to it and you move into ketosis and is metabolizing fat instead of depending on carbohydrate fixes. Glycolysis is what most people operate on most of the time. This is what makes you have sugar highs followed by crashes. Ketosis offers you a more steady flow of energy. While people that are eating three meals a day based mostly on carbohydrates then to have a more fluctuating energy level as the body is focusing on operation totally on sugars in the blood and trying to make fat. When you run out of that sugar in your blood you lag and need to eat.

One reason I have little trouble with fasting is that I live in mostly a state of ketosis. I only eat once a day and tend to avoid sugars and such. What most people feel that they think of as serious hunger is actually their body trying to shift from operating in a state of glycolysis into a state of ketosis.

These two states are how our bodies evolved to deal with the fact that carbohydrates are hard to come by for parts of the year and then are common for parts of the year. When berries, fruits, nuts, and seeds are ripe and plentiful we eat endlessly and put fat away. Carbs make you hungry!! When they are gone we lived mostly on meats. There are precious few carbs available in the winter. When you start eating meat you find that you become less hungry. This is called being sated and no matter how much you eat of carbs you are never sated. When you are sated you get sleepy laid back and lazy. Your body is saving energy and tells you to take it easy.

This is the best mode of operation for your body in the winters and the worst parts of summer when food is harder to come by. While the high energy levels of glycolysis is better when there is a lot of available easy to get food.

 

Western nutrition so called experts push carbs and sugar. They are packed into everything. Then the experts are shocked at the rates of obesity & diabetes. But continue to deny any correlation.
How I eat now feels totally natural for me. I never feel like I'm starving. I eat when I'm hungry, I don't when I'm not. When I am hungry it takes surprisingly little food to satisfy. I love it.

 

The food pyramid thing...it's upside down and that is why people are overweight and diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions.

When my Daughter was pregnant she had gestational diabetes and they sent her to a nutritionist. That crazy witch had her on a low fat high carb diet that was making things worse plus making her miserable. Finally she just started ignoring her and eating what her body wanted and presto she got better. She went and the nutritionist asked her what she had for lunch and she told her that she had had a 4 ounce piece of lean meat, a small salad with a fat free low calorie dressing and a slice of bread. The nutritionist thought that this was pretty good. Then my daughter told her that she thought so too and planned on having a quarter pound mustard whooper hamburger and toss the top bun really often from now on. The witch went ape and that was the end of going to see Her!!

They are mindless and spout things that they are just saying by rote. They act like fast food is so awful but a whopper is a lean flame broiled 4 oz piece of ground beef with a letice,tomato onion and pickle salad on bread. Done with mustard it is a pretty healthy meal especially if you throw the top half of the bun away to limit the carbs.

 

I haven't eaten bread in many months. I eat a variety of fresh veggies everyday. Balancing healthy fats & good quality proteins. All whole foods. The only thing I track is the carb intake that averages about 15 grams per day & never exceeds 20. Super simple eating lifestyle.
I truly feel wonderful.