Baked beans...

[sethorly]

At the risk of getting people's blood boiling, I'd like to gently question the preppers' staple, cans of baked beans.

Sainsbury's baked beans vs Sainsbury's baked beans & pork sausages

Calories (Crucial difference - if preps do not include enough calories you will get lack of energy and weight loss.)
beans = 358 calories (2k needed per day for medium activity = 5.6 cans per day for reference)
beans+pork = 502 calories (4 cans per day)

Fat (Fat great for the cold, as the body digests it inefficiently, producing lots of heat.)
beans = 2.6g
beans+pork = 15.6g

Carbs (No significant difference.)
beans = 56.4g
beans+pork = 56.2g

Sugars (No significant difference.)
beans = 21g
beans+pork = 20.6g

Salt (RDA = recommended daily allowance. Which is better depends on other food available - salt is vital survival food for body to function normally.)
beans = 3g (50% RDA)
beans+pork = 4.72g (78% RDA)

Protein (50g - 100g per day for an average male to maintain weight.)
beans = 18g
beans+pork = 26.4g

Summary (but I'd be pleased to be educated / change my mind) : Preppers need to eat meat.

[Deeps]

One size doesn't fit all mate, both in our diets or what we prep for. It certainly doesn't have to be baked beans versus meat, and what happens if the zombies have eaten all the animals.

[sethorly]

We'll all have to catch and eat dogs and cats. Just waiting for flames now

[Brambles]

Nextdoor's Dog eats it's own poo, I would much rather a nice bowl of Walnuts.

[itsybitsy]

I'm pretty confident that we're never going to be in the position where we have to eat dogs/cats or animal excrement, so I'm not really giving much thought to the 'sausages or no sausages' debate, personally.

[pseudonym]

Baked beans, already cooked, come in a sauce, can be added to other items to make a balanced diet, what's not to like?

[Yorkshire Andy]

t, what's not to like?

The after effects

Noe where did I put that s10

[sion_1990]

good old beans n pork, I have a pile of both! however I wouldn't have though people were planning on surviving on 5 cans of beans a day, more likely beans and pasta, or beans and rice, etc. I've got something like 5kg of rice and 6kg pasta stored away as well as my beans

[sethorly]

My point with the 5.6 / 4 cans per day is that if we store meat then it means we have to store less of anything else. Put another way, for the same storage space we could store more calories, and therefore store more day's worth, if we store meat.

I don't have a problem with beans - rather just pointing out that lots of the food preps I hear about (especially on the dehydrating thread) (fruit, veg, beans/pulses, rice/pasta) don't include a calorie count, which quite possibly means that the preps are not as good as intended. The best method I've seen so far for getting enough calories is eating meat.

So meat plays a vital role in my food preps and I'm just explaining my reasoning to see from your responses whether it is sound.

As an example of a possible alternative, Sainsbury's macaroni cheese has a high calorie count, but it tastes utterly disgusting. I've bought pretty much every can going in all aisles, and nothing beats meat, but canned curries are fantastic, with fish not bad either. Everything else is pretty awful for calories (especially fruit and veg), such that you'd need to eat a huge amount to get 2k per day.

If there are vegetarians or vegans on here, what do you eat to get calories? Brambles said walnuts (thanks!) so I researched those, and 100g of walnuts are about 654 calories, lasting 6 months in the fridge and 1 year in the freezer (but much less in a pantry or cupboard). Any way of storing nuts for significantly longer? Bear in mind the average shelf life for the cans mentioned above are at least 2 years.

[jansman]

It is horses for courses , if you will forgive the pun. I enjoy meat ; in moderation. My wife is semi- vegetarian. So we eat a very varied diet, to say the least. We have a lovely Cajun rice and bean dish that we enjoy on a regular basis. Whilst living and working in Spain last year we had some lovely local food ( and boy ! We were in the sticks), a good bit of it vegetarian, and a lot containing beans. What we know as broad beans. Very tasty and damn filling.

As a result of that trip we incorporate a lot of beans and a lot more salads into our diet now. I am back out in Spain to do a job soon, and one of the local lads has promised me a couple of varieties of their staple beans. I shall be growing them for storage.

Meat is a useful part of the diet, but not essential IMO, as many in the world live with little or none.

By trade I am a Butcher/ Slaughterman (most of the time) and down the years I have worked with fellas who have lived on very high meat diets, and suffered health problems as a result. The problem with stored meats ( tinned) is that they are highly processed and full of salt. Don't get me wrong, I have much of this in store, and we use it too.

My own storage is based on stored rice , pasta and beans ,canned fish and meats and canned veg. BUT , hand in hand with vegetables and fruits grown in my garden. Most important for balance.