Five Best Foods for Emergency Prepping

  • Dried Grains
  • Dried Beans
  • Dried Cereal
  • Peanut Butter
  • Canned Fish

The world has never been more dependent on technology, so it’s a good idea to be ready with the top five foods for prepping for an emergency. The idea behind prepping is that your basic needs should be covered in case your utilities and essential services are unavailable for an extended period of time. In a survival situation, you won’t have room for luxuries, so the best foods for prepping are nutrient-dense, convenient and non-perishable.

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Dried Grains

Whether you like brown rice, quinoa or oatmeal, dried grains are some of the most nutrient-packed survival foods you can find. These foods require an abundant supply of fresh water, so it goes without saying that you should include a water purification system in your prepping setup. If you have room for only one type of survival food, you should make it a hearty grain like quinoa or brown rice. This type of food can sustain you for as long as necessary. Whole grains typically contain protein, carbohydrates, fat, and antioxidants. Quinoa is a superfood that contains a complete profile of essential amino acids.

Dried Beans

While quinoa may contain all the protein molecules needed to repair muscle and build new tissue, most other grains have to be paired with another protein source to fully sustain your health. Dried beans are one of the most convenient and nutrient-dense foods available to preppers. They provide a similar mix of macronutrients as whole grains, but they complement grains by completing the amino acid profile humans need to survive. Dried beans are ready to be cooked without soaking in water. Simply boil them for an hour to 90 minutes or until tender.

Dried Cereal

Dried cereal is another nutrient-rich food that takes up relatively little space and will sustain you for as long as necessary. Milk can be hard to come by in a survival situation, but cereal in the form of granola doesn’t need to be eaten with milk. The Swiss soak their oatmeal overnight in milk, water or juice, along with some dried fruit and nuts. This breakfast food is called muesli, and it doesn’t need to be cooked before it’s eaten.

Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is another food that can almost sustain you on its own for as long as necessary. It’s the most nutrient-dense food on this list, so very little space is required to store enough jars of peanut butter to keep you alive for months. A good tip to remember in a survival situation is to move around as little as possible so that you don’t need to eat a lot of calories to maintain your weight. Gaining weight in a survival situation would actually be a good thing. One jar of peanut butter has enough calories for two to three days, depending on your size and how much you exert yourself.

Canned Fish

The items on this list so far have been highly caloric, bland and nutritious. Canned fish, on the other hand, is low-calorie and flavorful. If you dislike the taste of canned fish, other types of canned meat are okay, too, as long as they’re not too high in sodium. If you don’t mind the taste of canned fish, choose oily, wild-caught species such as salmon and sardines. Most people think of tuna when they talk about canned fish, but tuna is less nutritious than sardines or salmon with the skin and bones, according to Consumer Reports.

You never know when disaster will strike, so preparing for survival is an essential skill to have. The five best foods for prepping will keep you healthy and energetic as you wait for help to arrive.