Top 10 Survival Foods
1.) Canned Alaskan Wild Salmon – Rich in protein and healthy fats like omega 3s. Look for “Alaskan Wild Salmon” and you’re likely to get salmon with minimal or no environmental contaminants that can sometimes show up in other canned fish from other parts of the world. Salmon may not be your thing today but realize the Inuit people (native people of Alaska and northern Canada) on a traditional diet are known for low rates of heart attack and stroke, which is attributed to their long term, continuous diet of fish. Like tuna fish, you can eat canned Alaskan wild salmon right out of the can, without cooking — though, if you have leftovers, it will have to be refrigerated where it will then keep for the next 3 – 4 days. If refrigeration isn’t an option, plan to share one can of salmon with 2-3 other people at a time, so nothing goes to waste.
2.) Brown Rice – High in calories and protein, as well as essential vitamins and minerals like iron. As a dry, non-perishable food, brown rice also has a long shelf life making it a great survival food. Brown rice has one problem though: Typically, it must be boiled for several minutes (30 minutes or longer — even up to 1 hour with some brands). During a long term emergency where no electricity is available, the last thing you want to do is use precious fuel to cook food for this length of time; whether that’s on a propane, butane, or wood burning stove. So, for an extended survival emergency, where you are stocking up your pantry, “brown rice hot cereal” is a far better choice because it cooks in just 5 – 8 minutes and is still packed with nutrients and high in calories (one cup of brown rice hot cereal provides 600 calories, 12 grams of protein, and 16% daily value for iron and is easily rationed out in to smaller portions).
Things to know about storage: Storing brown rice, and other grains, in a cool, dry place in an airtight container is important to maintain freshness. Store bought brands of brown rice and brown rice cereal may only have a shelf life of 3 – 6 months however. So, you will want a plan in place to cycle your brown rice cereal every 3 months so that it’s eaten in your home (makes an easy, healthy breakfast and is an alternative to sugar packed cereals).
Long term storage: Because of it’s 3 month shelf life, if you would prefer not to cycle your brown rice cereal, a better investment when it comes to brown rice for long term storage is to go with a freeze dried version from Wise Company or even Mountain House (with these companies you’re not limited to just brown rice).
Learn techniques to easily store survival food for several years
With that said, you can use the same techniques to store specific non perishable foods that big name food storage companies use like Wise Company and Mountain House use; many times you can do it cheaper (saving yourself quite a bit of money on long term survival food), which means you can afford to purchase a lot more food in bulk, specific food storage supplies (foil pouches and oxygen absorption packets) and the 5 gallon airtight buckets you will use as an outer container, storing several foil pouches of food at a time.
For complete instructions (and to find out the “amazing” shelf life you can get for several foods — we’re talking up to 10 – 25 years), read this article after you finish this one: The Best Emergency Food Methods For SHTF).
3.) Dried Beans – Kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, lima beans, pinto beans, and others are all high in calories, contain a fair amount of protein per serving, and also several essential vitamins and minerals. Dried beans come in packages larger than canned beans but for the amount you get weigh quite a bit less. The key difference is that you have to add water and let most beans soak for several hours before eating. Split peas, for example, have a much shorter soak time. Split peas are part of the dried bean family with many of the same vitamins and minerals. Finally, dried beans have a long shelf life. Dried beans will stay good in the back of your car, your office survival kit, and of course your pantry of survival foods at your home or cabin.
Concerned about having to feed a few other mouths during a time of disaster? A large supply of dried beans is relatively inexpensive for how many people you can feed and can go a long way and a great food to carry in a backpack, compared to canned food that you are better off leaving behind.
4.) Bulk Nuts – Look for the bulk seed/nut area of your grocery store, and specifically for unsalted, and unshelled (you want to choose survival foods not high in salt, as too much salt will make you thirsty and isn’t good for overall health). Peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, and a number of other nuts / seeds typically sold in supermarket bulk foods section are high in essential vitamins and minerals, essential fatty acids, and have a fair amount of protein. They’re also conveniently light-weight and a serving size may be as small as a 1/4 cup, so you’ll get many servings out of a large bag.
At the same time, invest in air-tight food storage containers, such as glass jars. You can extend storage life by then storing these in the refrigerator, those most bulk foods will store a good while, if kept in a cool, dark, place away from sunlight.
5.) Peanut Butter – It’s packed with protein and essential fatty acids, as well as contains many essential vitamins and minerals (such as copper and iron). For the best health, choose “natural” brands like Skippy Natural Peanut Butter (Skippy offers the best price I can find for buying in bulk off places like Amazon). Just a couple tablespoons a day of peanut butter can help a person survive a period of limited food intake (during a disaster, one of your strategies to survive needs to include an understanding that it’s time to cut calories — most people eat a lot more calories each day than they actually need to survive. Cutting calories means your food will last longer, at the same time helping you lose excess weight, making potential evacuation on foot at some point easier than if you’re carrying around extra pounds).
6.) Trail Mix – A favorite of hikers, trail mix has a variety of ingredients, raisins, peanuts and other nuts, and often pieces of chocolate, and sometimes dried fruit and berries. The simple sugars in the raisins, chocolate and dried fruits can be a quick mood booster and source of short term energy. Trail mix is a way to include dried fruits in your survival diet plan.
7.) Energy Bars and Chocolate Bars – There’s an energy bar nowadays for every taste. Look for brands with a high calorie count as well as plenty of protein and a wide range of nutrients. Chocolate bars – Chocolate can be a quick source of energy and a great morale booster, while also being generous in calories. (Chocolate is also likely to become a commodity in demand in the weeks and months following a disaster.)
8.) Beef Jerky – “Natural” brands of beef, turkey, etc. jerky do not contain any or as much of the harmful added ingredients seen in many commercial jerky brands. What is jerky? Jerky is a tasty form of dried meat. Dried meat, if you remember, is a long time proven survival food used by Native Americans and American pioneers alike, and also used by primitive tribes around the world. While these primitive tribes use smoking and sun drying methods to create “jerky”, today commercial methods of drying meat do this on a much larger scale. You have two choices: One is to buy the smaller serving packages, or to purchase your dried meat in bulk and have it shipped to you directly.
9.) Coffee / Instant Coffee – Have you ever tried to quit drinking coffee, after years of counting on it to get you up in the morning and through the day? If not you, someone in your party is likely to consider coffee (or simply caffeine) an essential, and may be tired, lethargic, and have headaches without the stuff. Coffee doesn’t have to be a top priority, but being able to grab it will be something more than one person in your party is likely to be thankful for. It’s a quick mood booster and good for morale. And it’s also something that could be traded like a commodity during a crises situation.
10.) Sea vegetables / Powdered Super Greens – A popular item selling in health foods stores today are the sea vegetables that come in powdered form, or pill. In a time of catastrophic disaster, most communities are going to be hurting for fresh produce. Sea vegetables are a super food, packed with vitamins and nutrients and health benefits that help boost immunity, provide tissue repair and wound healing, and can even have anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. What this means is that sea vegetables like kelp and chlorella and others are super foods. Though I list sea vegetables as number ten, they should probably be the number 1 survival food on this top ten list. The reason again is that fresh produce is likely to be in short supply or disappear completely in several areas, in a widespread emergency.
As a bottled supplement, these can go a long way to provide essential vitamins and minerals, and an assortment of beneficial health properties, in a time of emergency. So, it is the powdered supplement with a long-term shelf-life that I recommend as a key survival food.
brown rice has too much moisture. it goes to mold easily.
Don’t forget lentils, the same nutrient profile as dried beans and like split peas they require no soaking before cooking.
Nuts will not keep long, either. Like brown rice, they are high in fat/oil content and will go rancid. I had to throw out several pounds of unshelled peanuts because they went rancid and tasted horrible! While not as healthy normally, white rice has a longer storage ability. Nuts (and nut butters) are harder to keep for long term.