According to the Agriculture Department, your average person needs to eat about 4,000-5,500 kilojoules (or calories) per day to meet their daily nutritional requirements.
That’s around 800–1,100 grams of food!
Most people are not eating enough nutrition-packed foods and too many empty carbs such as white bread and pasta.
We also don’t consume the right balance of nutrients in our diets. Nutrient deficient diets can have negative effects on overall health and wellness.
It is important to emphasize that we all respond differently to diet and nutrition. Some people may feel better on less nutritious diets so it’s best to go into this process with your body and what feels natural for you.
When preparing my own food, I make sure to include lots of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and low fat milk. I try to use the minimum amount of processed foods and sugar needed to satisfy my hunger.
Food Storage Requirements
While some may think that buying just enough food to last a year is a great way to start prepping, it is not!
This isn’t very practical if you ever expect to go beyond one year without eating due to unexpected life events like job loss or house damage. Plus, there are costs associated with storing extra food that most people don’t take into account.
Food will incur special packaging fees, warehousing expenses, transportation charges, and of course, cost of goods sold when selling what you have left. All of these can add up quickly, especially in the beginning when your stockpile is small.
The average person needs around five years worth of supplies at any given time to meet their nutritional requirements. What’s important to note though, is that this doesn’t include non-food items like fuel, prep work materials, and research products. I have included a link to my favorite resources here so that you can easily find what you need.
I hope you enjoyed reading about how much food you need for long term storage! Let me know what you thought in the comments below? You can also follow us on all of our social media pages where we share recipe ideas and other fun tidbits.
Calculate Your Needs
Finding how many jars of pickles, jams, or whatever your like is an important part of ensuring that you have enough space to store your foods.
You can always go through your favorite recipes and determine what amounts of each ingredient you usually use and estimate how many pieces those make to get a good idea of how much stock you will run out of if you don’t purchase extra.
Another way to know how much you have is by looking at the shelf life of certain foods and figuring out how many months worth you have left. For example, if you only use one half cup of tomato sauce per week then you probably should invest in more bottle sizes of it.
And lastly, you can visit your local grocery stores or department stores to see if they offer free or cheap food storage containers. These could be helpful resources!
General tips: remember that even though you may not use all of your stored foods immediately, they are still edible so don’t throw them away but instead use them later when you will. Also, try to organize your storage according to color coded bins, natural grouping such as fruits or vegetables, and use lids where possible to preserve the contents longer.
Calculate Your Savings
Saving leftover foods is one of the best ways to ensure your larder never runs dry. While it may feel wasteful to throw out an entire batch of cookies, there’s usually enough left over in the pan or baking dish to save for later.
Many stores offer discounts on certain items if you buy a specific amount. For example, a lot of grocery chains have monthly specials on pasta or rice dishes. By taking advantage of these deals, you can easily save money in the long run!
You should also check out the clearance sections at supermarkets and meat-packing facilities. Many times, they will accept pastured cows “cull” (euthanized) carcasses as extra freezer stock. These resources are perfect for filling up your storage units!
Another way to use up all that excess food is to prepare it and put it away in recipes. When saving raw vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes, try roasting them first to make them more palatable and/or digestible.
When buying dried fruits and nuts, look for ones with higher nutritional content than those brand new products that seem overly expensive. This article has some great tips about how to store this hard currency.
We hope this guide inspired you to begin organizing your pantry, fridge, and freezer! Now that you know what sizes budgets are, you can get started putting together your own personal supply chain.
Why Store Food Properly?
Storing your most loved foods is an excellent way to ensure that your hungry stomach will not be disappointed when you run out of them.
Stocking up during sale seasons or grocery store events can also help limit how quickly your supplies are consumed, as these things are open to the public.
However, it is important to know what temperature different types of stored foods should be in order to taste their best later!
Making sure that your meat is cooked until done and that dried fruits and vegetables have enough time to rehydrate is key.
The Best Way To Store Foods
While there are many types of containers that can be used to store foods, we recommend avoiding plastic bags in general as well as glass jars with lids that have a closure that doesn’t remain tight all the way around.
This is because both plastic and oxygen are very permeable materials, which means they allow some amount of moisture and air to pass through, making your stored item less protected against oxidation or flavor changes caused by exposure to air.
In addition to this, it has been shown that plastics leach chemicals into what you store them in, including any additives in the container itself. These chemicals may migrate into and affect the contents of your jar.
Glass is not a good source of these same weaknesses, but it does lack one important trait: It cannot be heated safely above 250 degrees Fahrenheit, our preferred temperature for most home cooked meals. This means either heating the lid along with the bottle, which isn’t ideal since exposed liquid will evaporate, or leaving the top off, which doesn’t protect the content well.
We know that fermented vegetables and cultured supplements require adequate protection from oxygen to preserve their potency, so we don’t use glass bottles at Ancient Health Revival.
Storing Food Safely
While there are different guidelines about how many days most foods can be stored in ideal conditions, we can say with certainty that buying less food is not the way to save money in the long run.
If you love to cook, then it is smart to learn how to bake, roast, or cook some of your favorite recipes without any extra ingredients or supplies. This is especially important if you find yourself hungry at times!
You should also try to only buy what you need at this time. Buying too much food can quickly add up when repeated every week.
This article will talk more in depth about how to store your groceries safely so you don’t waste expensive product dates. Also, stay tuned for other tips like how to organize your grocery stores and bags efficiently.
Storage Tips For Different Types Of Foods
While it is always best to consume your least-favorite foods, this isn’t possible when you are planning on stocking up or preparing to re-enter the eating scene.
Most people don’t have enough stockpiles of food at home, so if you’re ever in a situation where there’s nothing edible around, it can be very difficult to survive.