How to store food for specific diets for emergencies

This article originally appeared on ‘The Survivalist Blog‘ but it appears it has been taken down from their website. So here is the full article below.

There are many people who choose to be on a specific diet for a variety of reasons. It could be medical, could be personal or religious choices. Whatever the reason, if it excludes certain items such as carbs, sodium or meat, it may seem impossible to accommodate for specific foods for your food storage needs.

As preppers, the food storage staples that we mainly hear of are beans & rice, but many diets won’t allow for grains or beans. So what are people who want to remain on a specific diet supposed to do?

In this article I’m going to provide you some tips and suggestions on how you can prep for different types of diets.

Low sodium:

There are plenty of canned foods these days that don’t add any salt. You’ll see cans of corn, peas and green beans for example, that say ‘no salt added’, those are great low sodium options. SPAM even has low sodium options!

Freeze dried meals can be very high in sodium and unfortunately just won’t work for those who have to have low sodium. The best thing to do would be to dehydrate your own foods. Dehydrated foods won’t last as long as freeze dried, but if you’re doing it yourself, then it’d be easy to eat and rotate as needed.

Gardening is going to be a great bug in solution to get fresh, low sodium food. One thing you will have to consider is how you’re going to preserve foods. You can preserve off-grid by canning foods on a BBQ, just as long as you have the appropriate canning supplies and enough fuel to last the entire canning process.

Sprouting is another great and effective way to get nutritious and low sodium food and you can produce it inside of a canning jar. It’s incredibly easy and delicious!

Canned fruit with no or low added sugar is another great option.

Nuts, beans, pasta and rice are still on the table for a low sodium diet.

Unsweetened oatmeal is also a great option.

Natural peanut butter is a great source of protein (you can easily make your own, just make sure you have peanuts and oil. Mashing them without a food processor and blender will be more time consuming, but it can be done).

Low/no carbs:

My husband is currently on the Keto diet and he has thought long and hard about foods that he could eat to stay in Keto. You’d be surprised how many carbs are in just about everything we eat, even foods you wouldn’t expect such as vegetables and fruits. Fruits can be especially deceiving as we’re basically raised to believe fruits are healthy for you. While this is true, if you’re doing the keto diet you have to pay special attention to carbs. My husband has limited his carb intake to 25 grams a day, some people on Keto go as high as 100 grams, it all depends on personal preference and body chemistry.

Here are some keto friendly ideas:

Pemmican – making your own pemmican can be a great way to get a large amount of protein and the shelf life is incredibly long. This is something you can make yourself from home!

Make your own dehydrated food – this includes jerky, green beans, ground beef, etc. Anything with high protein and low in carbs can easily be made into dehydrated food.

Shelf stable cheese – Shelf stable cheese like Bega, is incredibly high in sodium, but it is a great option to still have cheese around that you can eat straight from the can. Freeze dried cheese is not a great option just for eating straight.

SPAM, beans, canned spinach, canned vienna sausages, low carb protein bars, canned/bagged chicken, canned/bagged tuna, canned/bagged salmon, canned beef, canned pork, canned green beans, etc.

Nuts are a great keto friendly snack, Brazil nuts and Pecans are particularly good as they have some of the lowest carbs among nuts.

Eggs are a great option as well. If you have chickens and you’re able to bug in, you can have a long term egg supply, as long as you prep for taking care of your chickens. Another egg option would be to dehydrate your own eggs or even buy freeze dried eggs.

Almond butter is packed with healthy fats and fiber and makes a great addition to any keto friendly prep.

Low or no carb protein shakes are also something to consider, especially if it could be a meal replacement. Something to think about though, a lot of people drink protein or meal replacement shakes with milk, I wouldn’t plan my prepping expecting to have a refrigerator to keep milk from going bad. It’s always a good idea to plan on shakes that can be made with water.

Paleo:

Paleo is all about fresh foods and healthy oils such as almond oil, coconut oil and avocado oil. Unfortunately for prepping, food storage and ‘fresh’ don’t really go hand-in-hand. But don’t let that discourage you. While there might be quite a lot of restrictions for the Paleo diet, it’s not impossible.

Paleo restricts any grains, dairy and beans. So this means no traditional rice or beans. There’s definitely no artificial sweeteners or sweets in general. You also can’t have fatty meats like SPAM or hot dogs, and no peanut butter.

Here’s a list of foods that would work for the Paleo diet:

Canned salmon or canned tuna
Nuts such as sunflower seeds, pistachios, almonds, cashews and walnuts
Canned vegetables (spinach and asparagus are probably the best options), make sure to get the canned vegetables that contain no or low salt.
Canned fruits (with no added sugar)
Canned meats such as beef or pork
Dehydrating your own foods to put together Paleo approached meals will probably be one of the best options. This way you know where the food has come from and you can make incredible meals from dehydrated food.
Grass-fed jerky is also a great option, you can buy this or there are many homemade Paleo jerky recipes online.

Additionally, oils such as coconut oil are shelf stable and can last up to 2 years stored. But be careful with some oils such as almond oil as they needs to stay cool, you need to plan ahead if you live somewhere warm where your food preps may potentially be subjected to summer heat.

You can definitely get creative with this diet, it’s just about proper planning. Get to know the foods you eat and do some research on the best practices for storing them.

Vegetarian/Vegan:

If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, it’s quite possible to prep foods necessary for your diet.

Black beans
Chickpeas
Lentils
Almonds (and other nuts such as walnuts, pecans, cashews, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds)
Peanut butter
Whole grain products
Canned spinach
Dried foods, dried beans, dried peas
Dehydrating your own fruits, vegetables and beans is going to be one of the best food storage options.
There is a company called ‘Outdoor Herbivore’ that caters to vegan and vegetarian freeze dried food and it is pretty tasty.

Additions:

Spices could be key to a lot of these meals. The type of spices will depend on the type of diet you’re on. For example, if you’re on the low sodium diet, you probably won’t be using a lot of salt, but you may want some other spices such as basil, nutmeg or cinnamon.

For other diets, you can store salt, pepper and any other spices that you will want/need to amp up the flavor of these foods.

You’ll also want to consider any additional drink mixes. If you want something other than water, will your diet allow for black coffee or black tea? If so, then make sure to add those in with your food preps.

Conclusion:

I won’t be going into every single diet option, but these are just some ideas to get you started and thinking. If you have a particular diet, then there are ways you can still fill your food storage supply without compromising your diet or values.

Being on any diet isn’t impossible to plan for. Since we’re preppers, we can plan now to have certain foods around when we need them during an emergency or disaster.

No matter what diet you are or are not on, food storage needs also greatly depends on the situation. Will these be stored in your home where you can easily rotate it? Will it be stored at a bug out location where it won’t be as easy? Will these go into your BOB? Make sure they’re properly packaged to last as long as you need them to and make sure you’re rotating food appropriately.

Do keep in mind, though, in an emergency or disaster, even if you do plan to have certain foods around for your specific diet, there might come a time when you need to break that diet, or maybe even change to a completely different diet to accommodate the food that is available.

Prepping food on a diet isn’t impossible, it just requires proper planning. Good luck!