survival food

[Daxsmith9]

Is beans a good prep for the only food if you have )prescribed) vitamins, minerals & protein?
Can you survive on that only.?

[Frnc]

I keep a few tins of butter beans. I'm not a fan of dried beans, as cooking them requires a lot of fuel. They do have protein, but you need to combine them with grains.

[jennyjj01]

Is beans a good prep for the only food if you have )prescribed) vitamins, minerals & protein?
Can you survive on that only.?

Just beans and a few supplements? An interesting prospect.

I don't know whether you mean baked beans In sauce or just either canned beans in water or rehydrated dried beans.

Five cans of baked beans per day, or 500g of dried beans will give you ample calories and lots of proteins and fibre but might lack a few essential proteins.i don't know how long you'd survive before your morale is broken or your flatulence persuades immediate family to kill you.
My preference would be to store just a bit more variety for living rather than surviving. Carbs and calories from rice, pasta, flour, oats and oils, augmented by baked beans and tinned tomatoes, then augment further as budget permits with some tinned meat and fish.
Aspire to live rather than survive

I'd love to read your report of trying it for a week.

[ForgeCorvus]

Could you survive on beans, protein and vitamins? Yes
Should you plan to? Yes and No
So, I'll start by saying that having a stash of anything like food is better then not...... A little research on here and a bit of planning would make it a much more pleasant experience.

You don't say if your protein is something like whey powder or tins of real food like fish, Spam or something like.

Also while most of us are a little shy about giving away too many details of our circumstances, a bit more about your living arrangements would help us to help you.
What works for a couple in a village bungalow wouldn't be as useful for a student in an HMO.


There is a well documented condition called "food fatigue" were people have been known to avoid eating because they can't face yet another bowl of plain boiled rice (or whatever their single food source is).

So Dax, tell us a bit more and we'll try to help as best we can.

ETA I had a look at your Introduction.
You're super rural with near zero mobile phone service and you have mobility issues.
So, anything we recommend needs to be available online or from your normal source of groceries. It needs to be easy to get because you'll probably have to keep it in rotation rather then "Buy & Forget"

Hows your dexterity, lifting and grip ?
No point suggesting 20kg buckets if you can't move them or whatever

[jennyjj01]

Is beans a good prep for the only food if you have )prescribed) vitamins, minerals & protein?
Can you survive on that only.?

Dax, please rejoin this thread.

What's your thinking behind this question? Are you thinking of a super-simplified food backup plan? If so, let's discuss the rationale, such as cost effectiveness or simplicity.
What sort of beans do you have in mind?
Do you think you'd want to just survive on beans in a bad situation? Food Fatigue is real and could drive you to despair post SHTF.

Would you be interested in trying it as an experiment?

I still, strongly suggest augmenting your beans with a cheap carb source such as rice or pasta.

A certain website says "Can I survive solely on rice and beans forever?
In theory, yes, you can survive indefinitely on rice and beans, as they contain carbohydrates, proteins, and some vitamins and minerals. "

What sort of food resilience do you practice now? I'll show you mine if you show me yours

[Daxsmith9]

The protein is PRESCRIBED with 1 AA missing (for medical reasons).
I get food online or mum gets it.
She can accry it despite being 79
I get ALL nutrients in my pill (except Omega 3)
Everything else is covered.

PRESCRIBED - Has many things in it but tsates OK. The vit/mineral pill is less tasty & large but its the only option wit the current supplement.
The one they prescribed before tasted like SH 1 T & after 1/2hr actually smelled like it
I couldn't take i 3 x a day

[jennyjj01]

The protein is PRESCRIBED with 1 AA missing (for medical reasons).
I get food online or mum gets it.
She can accry it despite being 79
I get ALL nutrients in my pill (except Omega 3)
Everything else is covered.

PRESCRIBED - Has many things in it but tsates OK. The vit/mineral pill is less tasty & large but its the only option wit the current supplement.
The one they prescribed before tasted like SH 1 T & after 1/2hr actually smelled like it
I couldn't take i 3 x a day

Hi,
I'm trying to understand your situation. What's your normal diet like? Do you currently just live on beans and tablets/pills? or do you have a regular diet and happen to take the supplements as well. Sounds like you mainly need to store some Calorie and fibre sources as pills won't do that.
Remember if TSHTF, prescriptions might be unavailable.
There's an adage " Store what you eat, Eat what you store" which applies except for a few things like 'store powdered milk if you normally drink milk'.

For example, I eat a regular diet, except one day a week when I use some ingredients from my reserves. My reserves comprise the sorts of food I normally eat ( Cooking sauces. rice, pasta, tinned beans and tomatoes etc) but my reserves also include powdered milk, Corned Beef, Cheese sauce sachets and dried beans and chickpeas which I seldom eat, but which would be precious in a crisis.
You've been a prepper for a while: What, if any food reserves do you have set aside?

Hope you've set some aside for your mum

[GillyBee]

Hi Daxsmith9

If you are using a prescribed protein blend with one amino acid missing (Phenylalanine maybe?) then you would need to do some very serious research as to what amino acids are present in any foods you plan to use for survival. Beans and rice is a classic survival blend that provides a reasonable amount of protein but it won't do you much good if it contains an amino acid you cant tolerate. You may do better looking at something low protein like rice to bulk out your prescribed food.
Beans may work fine for your mum. In that case, I would suggest researching some simple "beans and rice" recipes such as Caribbean rice'npeas or Indian Kitcheree or dhal and rice. Once you have something that you/your mum is happy to eat and that you can prepare easily, you can work out what else you need e.g. cans of beans and packet rice or dried beans and rice and the means to cook them such as a bistro stove which works well for just heating cans and packets up. For dried beans a pressure cooker will save a lot of energy in the cooking.

[Daxsmith9]

I am on the supplement for PKU
I have a reasonably normal diet.
I do blood tests regularly fpr PHe & Tyr.
I also have Diabetes (T2) & another large number of related complications (there are over 130 complications of PKU)
I have around 20ish issues incl. Psoriasis, Epilepsy etc

I have a large pile of various foods & a water filter (Zerowater) as well as purification tabslets

[jennyjj01]

I am on the supplement for PKU
I have a reasonably normal diet.
I have a large pile of various foods & a water filter (Zerowater) as well as purification tabslets

Your medical situation is far more complex than your original question implied.

If you have a dietitian assigned to your treatment, maybe ask them what minimalist diet would be healthy for you if, say, you were short of money or housebound.

For many of us, a stash of beans and rice would be a superb basis for an extended pantry. But that may be very unhealthy for you as your PKU might see you effectively poisoned by the combination of amino acids in beans. As I understand it, you need a low protein diet with only, or mainly your prescribed protein pills.