How to Store Emergency Food for The Keto Diet

The keto diet has become wildly popular over the years and for good reason. My husband lost well over 120 pounds within a year and a half of being on keto. He dropped his carb intake to 25 carbs or less a day and stuck with it. He was motivated and he absolutely loved the way he looked and felt.

The keto diet, or any low carb diet, isn’t just for weight loss. Many use it to manage diabetes, it may also help increase heart health and brain function. There are some great benefits when it comes to reducing your carb intake.

After a month of being on keto, my husband noticed an increase of energy, had less acne, his sinuses cleared up and he generally felt stronger and more eager to get up and do things.

It’s no wonder more and more people are choosing the keto diet, or at least a low carb diet. It’s been proven to show amazing benefits.

I’m not here to sell you on a low carb diet. For me, personally, an extremely low carb diet isn’t right for me. Maybe I could cut back on a few carbs, but in general, the keto diet wasn’t exactly right for me. But I sure supported my husband anyway I could.

But how do we store food for emergencies if we want to continue the keto diet?

It’s a lot more simple than we may think.

Let’s take a look at the types of foods that are recommended for the keto diet:

• Meat – meat ideas: canned meats, poultry and fish, spam, canned bacon, make jerky or store it for up to a year (rotate often), make your own pemmican, buy freeze dried meats, hunt for small game and fish and so on. Those tuna and chicken creation packets are also great choices for quick lunches or snacks.
• Vegetables – low carb vegetables: freeze dried broccoli, canned asparagus, pickling (and canning) zucchini, canned spinach, canned or freeze dried green beans. You can also grow your own low carb vegetables, such as kale, lettuce and cauliflower.
• Other protein options – powdered eggs or get your own egg laying chickens, store hard/waxed cheeses. Also, freeze dried cheeses and powdered cheeses are great options.
• Fats – olive oil, coconut oil, nuts (rotate often as they will spoil or grow your own nut trees), pumpkin seeds (grow your own pumpkins and eat the seeds). Ghee is another great option for fairly long term butter storage, you can even pressure can it yourself.
• Snacks – Quest has an amazing selection of protein bars for low carb diets which are delicious. Though I will say, they only last about a year. Head to your local grocery store, look at the carb count on the back of the snack bars, then try them out. They will most likely only last about a year or so, so rotate often.
• Protein shake – there are some great low carb protein shake options out there, such as Ketologie, Finaflex, Nature Fuel, Aloha, Ancient Nutrition and so on. Do a search for ‘low carb protein shake’. Protein powder can last about 1-2 years in cool/dry/dark place, do not mylar.
• Noodles – yes, you can still have noddles! Shirataki noodles are a great option for low carb diets.
• Cauliflower powder – cauliflower is a huge part a low carb diet. That and cream cheese. But I haven’t found a good way to preserve cream cheese yet (besides freezing). Cauliflower powder is a great substitute for regular flour. Can also be used whenever cauliflower is called for as a base in a lot of recipes. Meat + cauliflower powder = good! Store it in a mylar bag with oxygen absorber.
• Almond flour – of course, there’s also almond flour. You can store your own almonds and grind up the flour yourself. Almonds can be kept in the freezer to extend the shelf life.
• Sugar substitutes – many people on keto use sugar substitutes for baking such as stevia (you can grow your own stevia), xylitol, etc. Unfortunately, though honey is a popular choice for preppers, it’s not recommended for those on the keto diet. Neither is maple syrup.
• Coffee – read this article about how to store coffee.
• Low carb freeze dried meals – there are more companies coming out with low carb freeze dried meals. You may even be inspired by these companies to dehydrate your own similar meals and package them yourself in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. Here’s an article from Mountain House about some keto friendly camping meals. Check out Next Mile Meals where they specialize in keto friendly freeze dried meals. Lastly, Outdoor Pantry also has some low carb meal options.

Look at all those options! Many of these may need to be rotated often, every 1-2 years or so, but if you’re already eating these foods on a regular basis, then it shouldn’t be a problem to rotate.

You may also want to consider starting a garden that has many of the vegetables, seeds and fruits (like avocado) that you’d want to continue eating even when you’re unable to find them at the grocery store. Make sure to buy heirloom seeds.

Learning how to hunt and fish will also be huge asset to your overall ability to have the type of foods around that you desire. Having your own meat supply of chickens, pigs or other animals will also be a great asset, if you’re able to have livestock.

I do encourage you to store other varieties of foods that might be sprinkled in there occasionally, as long as you aren’t allergic. Such as some wheat pasta or even some rice or beans. Even types of fruits or vegetables that you may not eat all the time, but could be sprinkled in occasionally.

I would also highly recommend storing vitamins or some type of vitamin supplements. I think all preppers should do this.

We’re preppers, so prep! There’s no reason we can’t store the food that we want to eat in an emergency or disaster.

We shouldn’t have to survive when we can thrive because of proper preparedness.

With a little planning and forethought, the keto diet certainly can be possible in an emergency, natural disaster or even the end of the world.