High Carb Survival Rations When Fat Adapted

#1

I’m just refreshing my bug-out/bug-in bag, which has 3 days of food and water and 30 days of medication in it. Sydney’s not really an area with a lot of natural disasters, so I haven’t gone doomsday prepper, but we have had some floods cut off sections of Sydney for as long as 2 days and with extreme weather increasing in frequency and severity, it pays to be prepared, especially with young kids.

In my bag, most my food are MREs - very high carb. Obviously, if I’m using it, I’m not too concerned about breaking keto - if anything I’m not even in keto (targeting <50g/day, which I hit almost every day, and probably half the time I’m under 20g).

But I am curious if I am going to be able to digest and efficiently use high carb meals after months or years of low carb. Will I have digestive issues, or will the calories be malabsorbed, especially if I need to hike somewhere because floods have closed off roads?

On another tack, are there long life, high fat low carb meals that would be suitable for a bug out bag?

Would anyone else here describe themselves as well prepared for a natural disaster, or even a full blown prepper? Just curious. :slight_smile:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

Not even close to being prepared. My strategy consists of hoping to be at ground zero, so I won’t have to deal with any aftermath, lol!

But to answer your questions: Yes, the body is set up to switch to sugar-burning almost immediately. As I understand it from a couple of Dr. Phinney’s lectures, ahigh level of glucose in the bloodstream is a metabolic emergency that the body deals with pretty expeditiously. I imagine there must be some period of adaptation, because people who have fallen off the horse post about feeling terrible the next day, though I can’t imagine it’s very long.

As for keto foods, there are sausages and cheeses that are aged for quite some time before being eaten. If you could afford a whole salami or wheel of Edam (or whatever), that might be the way to go. I don’t know about canned meats, except that they do exist; what additives might be in them, I have no idea. Also, it strikes me that a whole salami or wheel of cheese might be rather large and heavy for a bug-out bag.

You are very wise to be prepared.

(Rob) #3

Not sure about MRE/Prepper meal equivalents, but if you are only worried about a few days rather than the end of days, maybe tuna in cans, flavored tuna in pouches, sachets of mayo (the high levels of preservatives are good in this case), low carb Quest bars (only in an apocalypse). Maybe packet soups?

(outlawpirate) #4

We live on the coast in Florida, so we are always hurricane/flood prepared. We have had a hurricane each of the past two years, with power outages, lack of fresh water and ransacked grocery stores. I stayed Keto throughout our recent hurricanes, which kept my energy up for post-hurricane clean-up. I also didn’t nervously eat through high carb snacks (like my Mom did) during the storms. I couldn’t imagine carb cravings and feeling hangry while suffering through post-hurricane heat without AC and all the other frustrations of post-disaster recovery. I wouldn’t want to have to rely on high-carb MRE’s until things got really desperate. For our past hurricanes we stocked up on beef jerked, pork rinds, summer sausage, Moon Cheese, tuna, canned corned beef, anchovies.

My husband has been interested in making pemmican for our prepper pantry. He bought some lard and freeze dried blueberries, but hasn’t made it yet.

Check it out:

“Pemmican is a nutritious, preserved food created by the women of Native American tribes. The term Pemmican is derived from pimii, the Cree-Chippewa word for fat. Pemmican consists of a mixture of cooked, dried and shredded buffalo meat, or fish, which is combined with melted fat.”

#5

I like the pemmican idea too.
But the most convenient way of doing that would be something tinned. Very long use by date, high protein, high fat, minimal carbs.

Actually the things that spring to mind are tins of corned beef (UK style, which is different from US corned beef), and Spam. Both have preservatives and a few carbs in, but are mainly meat. To my mind they are much better options for short term survival than anything starchy.

I watched a film last night where there was a house with a well stocked survivalist basement. Shelf after shelf of tinned meats, all in ziploc bags to prevent rust.

Makes me laugh every time I see an episode of Walking Dead where the characters head straight for the stale carby snack aisle instead of the tinned aisle.

#6

Thanks for the reply guys. @PaulL Good to know that I can still use glucose and refined carbs as an energy source in a pinch

Spam sounds like a good idea. 1/2 a day’s calories in one small ring pull can, 96g of it from fat. No can opener needed, and the lid can serve as a spoon :slight_smile:

Pemmican was kind of what I was thinking when I wrote this. I’ve seen some Russian army rations that was nothing more than fat, protein powder, sugar and flour baked into an oily biscuit. No nutrition, no enjoyment, just calories. But a whole day’s calories was the size of two decks of cards. Very compact.

In one of life’s ironies, a mate of mine was ordered to evacuate with zero notice today. He didn’t have a bag packed, and he has a 6 week old baby:

Unless the house burns down though, he’s at no risk. All supermarkets and pharmacies will be open away from the fire.

(Ken) #7

If pemmican can last for years sewn into a hide bag, then I’d think it would last much longer if vacuum sealed into plastic pouches. It’d be easy to put an entire day’s ration into one pouch.

So far, it’s never been around my house long enough for the need of that long of storage.

I may experiment next Winter with some venison and beef fat. It’d be convienent for portable rations for both myself and my bird dogs.

(Camille Yeager) #8

As another floridian I also try to have a good back up supply, i’ve got spam, vienna sausages, sardines, tuna, all meat chili, olives. I’d also like to try some pemmican, but will probably never get around to it. I also figure an extended fast might not be a bad idea in a disaster situation…

(Mike W.) #9

In this situation I would want as many calories as I can get in as small of a package as possible. In other words lots of fat.