So the question that begs to be asked, is how important is sodium in these drinks? Surprisingly for some, the answer is that sodium is a critical element in these drinks.

When athletes work out hard, their bodies lose sodium, great quantities of sodium. In the human body, sodium helps perform several functions.  Among them, sodium works with potassium to balance the amount of water in the body.  Sodium is an integral to the conduction of nerve impulses and the contraction of muscles.  Without adequate sodium levels, a body cannot maintain it’s normal heart rhythm.  Sodium is important because it also keeps a sufficient volume of water in the blood. Ingestion of sodium during exercise helps prevent hyponatremia, a condition in which the concentration of sodium in the blood becomes dangerously low.  What we, the person sitting on the couch watching games and eating cookies, see is athletes grabbing legs and muscles due to cramping and spasms. What we don’t see is the athletes’ confusion, lethargy, fatigue, restlessness and irritability, and muscle weakness. Bottom line, sodium is needed to help athletes during stressful and physical activities.

Is there any question that during emergencies, when stress, pressure, and physical activity increase, that we will need more sodium in our diet? I have heard people express their concern with the amount of sodium in food storage.  Many may look at the nutritional facts on a freeze dried food pouch and think that the sodium levels per serving are too high.  In a standard, every day diet one should try to limit the amount of sodium that is taken into the body. In order to stay healthy, carefully watching and maintaining normal levels of sodium consumption is imperative. One reason that delicious staples of the American diet, like french fries, hamburgers, and pizza, aren’t healthy for you is the amount of sodium that they have in them. However, when it comes to emergency food, sodium not only helps food store longer but is necessary for many situations in which it will be eaten. During most disasters, stress levels increase rapidly and are very different than “normal” times. Stressful emergencies or disasters will cause a person to experience atypical physical activity, and usually demands an increased level of activity. It is necessary at these times to have adequate sodium in one’s diet to keep one’s body and mind healthy and active.  Losing your ability to think straight or have your muscles work properly would not be helpful during a crisis, it could potentially be fatal.

So as you are considering items for your emergency food storage, the amount of sodium in the meals needs to be evaluated based upon the conditions you would be facing should you be forced to rely on your reserves. Emergencies will likely push the body similar to the effort required for an athletic event, so more sodium in the diet is necessary. And ultimately, if I ever find myself in a situation having to solely rely on my food supply, I don’t think that eating a food that may be a little high in sodium is really going to concern me all that much.  I think my major concerns will be making sure that my family has everything that they need to survive.

As part of the training one of the instructors brought his emergency vest to show us what we should have available at all times. The instructor mentioned how he keeps this vest available in his home in the event that a situation arises where he or his family must evacuate their home immediately. It is also a vest that could be taken or used for most all first aid needs. I could imagine that the “situation” being referred to by the trainer could be anything from a hurricane or flood to riots or a car accident. If I could have nicknamed the vest, I would have called it the CIA super vest because it was created based upon all of the instructor’s training in the CIA. As the instructor pulled apart the CIA vest to show us the contents within I learned several points. One of the points was pertaining to the type of emergency food one should eat and have on hand during a disaster.

I guess that it is pretty obvious that in an emergency, what one eats is important.  From years of hunting deer, elk, pheasant, mountain lion, duck, geese, etc.,  I created a certain menu for what I eat while “out in the fields and mountains” and it mostly consisted of protein. I always keep nuts and jerky with me in my back pack while I hunt. It seems like the “mountain man” thing to do. What can be manlier than snacking on beef jerky? Well, as it turns out, the best thing one can be eating is carbs. Protein requires more energy and time for the body to break down, which is great for diets and losing weight but not good when one needs a shot of energy. This is the clear explanation as to why before participating in marathons or triathlons, athletes will eat a lot of pasta and “carbo-load”.

The great take away from this is that we all must be aware of what an emergency will be truly like and prepare accordingly. Instead of planning a steak dinner, you might want to think about a pasta bar. In thinking through this, many food storage companies will offer foods that are rich in carbohydrates and have fewer proteins.  Make sure that you have an appropriate, healthy balance of nutritional foods for your long term food storage, especially foods that are rich in carbs so that you can make it through the worst of times.

Have you ever been listening to the news and heard winter storm warnings and not know exactly what to expect?  How can we expect to be emergency preparedness experts if we don’t know exactly what to prepare for? In an effort to make sure that everyone is prepared for the inbound winter storms and weather, we put together a list of the most common terms that you can expect to hear on the radio or weather report.

First off, it is good to know the different levels of warnings that may come from the National Weather Service.

Outlook – This is the lowest level of warning.  An outlook means that hazardous weather may develop at some point over the next 7 days, with the emphasis being on the next 24-48 hours.

Advisory – This warning comes for “less serious” conditions that may cause significant inconvenience, but property and life are not truly threatened unless you are not using any caution at all. 

Watch – If a watch is issued, it is time to get serious about being ready for a storm.  This warning level implies that a major storm is happening, imminent, or very likely to occur with the 36 hours.

Warning – At the warning level, personal life and property may be threatened by the storm.  It is time to take protective measures and get out of the way of the storm. Get inside, have a warm fire and nice mug of hot chocolate.

Now that you know the levels of storm warnings, it is good to know exactly what is implied by some of the specific types of storms. Any of these below terms can and will be combined with the aforementioned warning levels, for example, you could see a Winter Weather Watch or Winter Weather Warning, depending on the severity of the winter weather.

Winter Weather – The oncoming weather will be a combination of at least two of the following conditions: snow, sleet, blowing snow, high winds, wind chill, extreme cold and freezing rain or hail.

Blizzard – Blizzards are classified as sustained winds or frequent gusts of at least 35 mph combined with heavy falling and/or blowing snows that reduces visibility to ¼ mile or less and last for a period of three hours or longer.  Typically, these types of storms create sub-zero (anytime temperature falls below -18°C) wind chills and are very dangerous.

Ice Storm – Heavy accumulations of freezing rain or ice.  An advisory usually means less than ¼ inch, whereas a warning will mean at least ¼ to ½ inches worth of freezing rain.

Lake Effect Snow – This storm is heavy lake-effect snowfall in short periods of time.  If a warning is issued, expect 6 inches within 12 hours or 8-10 inches within 24 hours.  Oftentimes, lake-effect snow can significantly reduce visibility.

Wind Chill or Extreme Cold – A strictly temperature weather condition, an advisory level warning means it is very cold outside whereas a warning indicates that dangerously low temperatures are happening and frostbite, hypothermia, and death are possible if exposed for too long.

You may hear of some other types of weather conditions that also get warnings issued, such as Heavy Snow, Sleet, or Blowing Snow. Pay attention to the level of warning that is issued, and you will have a good idea of how serious the weather could potentially be.

Getting prepared and ready for the winter storms isn’t too complicated.  As always, we would encourage you to have some emergency food on hand, in case you are stuck inside for a couple of days.  By knowing what the National Weather Service warnings mean and by having some survival supplies and gear stored away, you will be able to get through the worst storms of the winter. We also recommend that you have a couple of good movies or books on hand too!

In the realm of health and wellness the new dietary trend is based on gluten free eating, and there are a lot of reasons people are adopting the new diet. In athletics, many believe that a gluten free diet improves performance and recovery time, but the change in eating behavior is actually required for some people because of celiac disease (also known as gluten intolerance) or a more mild gluten sensitivity. Of course there are some who believe a gluten free diet will be the next thing to help trim the waistline. Whether you’re changing your diet to fit your lifestyle or to attain certain health benefits, cutting out gluten takes dedication and commitment, especially when you need to translate that into your emergency food storage plan.

First of all its worth noting that gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barely, and is as common in packaged foods and baked goods as flour or sugar. In other words, many of the items you pull off the shelves in your grocery store probably have gluten in them. Luckily, as demand for gluten free products has grown over the past few years (it’s now a multi billion dollar industry) the availability of better tasting gluten free products, and more of them, have started to emerge. That’s good news for those on gluten free diets, and for those looking to fold gluten free products into their emergency food storage plan.

If you’ve gone gluten free than you probably know already that it’s a requirement to become deft at reading the labels on any food package before you buy it because wheat free doesn’t always mean gluten free. In fact, food manufacturers add the protein as a thickening agent to an expansive number of products like soy sauce, veggie burgers, ice cream and even ketchup.

Because the process of attaining gluten free food is so research intensive, we’ve decided to compile a list of some delicious and nutrient-rich grains that can be added to your emergency food storage. As always, be aware that many grains are processed using the same equipment, and even naturally gluten free grains may contain traces of gluten. Always look for packages labeled “Gluten Free”, and check with the manufacturer when in doubt.

Grain Comparison Table

Why does Glenn Beck promote food storage?  Why does he have gold commercials on his program as well?  Are these really radical concepts?  What is so radical about food storage?  I have food storage, you should too.  It isn’t because we want the world to end and after it all goes up in smoke, we can pull out our gourmet freeze dried food storage and during our meal laugh at all of the carnage and destruction around us and say, “Ha ha, told you so… and I get a feast while the rest of you suffer.”  No, that is not it.  Food storage is to prepare for the “just in case”.  There are some things that as people we really believe in strongly, and we say we hope we are wrong, and we really do want to be wrong.  There are other things that we really believe in and we say we hope we are wrong, but we are still conflicted inside because we have an emotional attachment to our argument where we really cannot conceive of actually being wrong in any way, shape, or form.  I think Glenn Beck really does want to be wrong about needing food storage, and I want to be wrong about ever needing food storage, because that could possibly mean that there may at some point in the future come a time where we cannot access speedily and conveniently (like we do now) whatever groceries we want whenever we want.  And I or anyone else would have to be stupid to want for that to happen.  So in this case, I don’t have an emotional attachment, and I don’t think Glenn Beck does either, about having to be right about needing food storage.

I hope people get it — I hope that they understand and that they get food storage just in case they ever need it, and for whatever reason.  It is not very fun to speculate why food storage would be needed, let your individual imagination and inspiration help you to understand why it may be a necessity.  I’m not here to paint gruesome doomsday pictures or suggest awful scenarios to scare you into buying food storage.  In fact this is very much a common sense issue.  Nobody should be coerced into buying food storage, they should each decide to get it on their own accord and feel good about their own decisions.  The strange thing is that many won’t consider food storage because food, the material which sustains our very lives, is just taken for granted.  But shouldn’t the very thing that sustains our lives have a pretty high priority, and shouldn’t we have plenty of it (more than necessary for the moment, in fact)?  If we were going to battle we wouldn’t take for granted having enough (or adequate) arms and ammunition, because we know that without them we would be ill prepared to save our own lives and/or conquer the enemy.  Yet, it is considered radical and extreme (by extremists themselves, I guess?) that anybody should want to have an adequate supply of food storage.  Silly, why would you want to store food, something that could come in handy to what… save your life?

Thank you Glenn Beck for being a voice of warning about food storage, about gold, about political concerns.  Unless you are hiding beneath a rock, it isn’t hard to conceptualize that there may be need of these things, and that our world is changing at an ever-increasing rate of speed.  Food storage is anything but radical or extreme.

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Emergency food storage is not about fear mongering or scare tactics. It’s about emergency preparedness. You are preparing in advance so chaos and scarcity won’t ensue should a real emergency occur. But, these are the days wherein things that are right are called wrong, things that are wrong are called right, and the political spin doctors are working overtime. No wonder emergency food storage may be seen by some (who hang on every word of the mainstream media) as being “extreme”. When you live in a country that has a deficit of over $14 trillion, has over $75 trillion in unfunded liabilities, whose real unemployment is over 20 percent (Shadowstats.com), and where gold is over $1,200 denominated in the country’s currency, how would anybody with a little horse sense construe having some emergency food storage as being extreme? Unless they just don’t interpret the above figures as extreme!?

Common sense has become a very uncommon commodity. When bills more than a thousand pages long that are not even read have passage through Congress even considered, this is a huge red flag, and should give rise to concern and action on the part of individuals for protection. What more important action could we take to preserve our lives and freedoms than to protect ourselves from gross departure of our sacred constitutional principles by being self reliant and obtaining for ourselves and our families an emergency food storage supply to take car of our survival needs, and to secure our financial situation with constitutional money (gold and silver)? Common sense dictates: if you don’t take care of yourself, why should anyone else? What’s more – the future is uncertain – to beware and to prepare is nothing else if not logical.

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One of the reasons for storing emergency food is that food not only sustains us nutritionally, it is also great “normalizer” and an excellent balancing factor in the face of hardship. In the aftermath of an emergency if you are not cut off from a food source, your mind and spirit can be at least buoyed up and your power to endure enhanced. Think about it– people just tend to be in a better mood and more emotionally balanced when they have food in their bellies. I know a few people who when they get hungry are rather grumpy! Multiply that by a factor of 10 or more if you are hungry and despairing in the aftermath of a disaster. The tears would come a lot more easily. On the other hand, with food, the situation becomes more manageable. There is something about being satiated and our appetites being fed that counts a lot in “cooling our jets.”

Some think since our civilized society is so advanced that we would be able to weather any kind of emergency without disruption. Ask the Hurricane Katrina survivors if that’s true or not. It’s more close to NOT when it comes to hoping that Big Brother (Uncle Sam) is going to meet our every rescuing need. The government is woefully unable to fill such big shoes on such a wide scale. And we shouldn’t wait around expecting them to. Darwin had a few things right with his Theory of Evolution and Survival of the Fittest. In the case of having emergency food, you will be the “fittest” of a great number of people if you have it. There will be no regrets. Even if it only ever brought you peace of mind, emergency food would have done its job in my way of thinking.

You have the whole world at your feet right now at this moment. Yes, times are hard, but you have access to more food right now than you could ever consume in a lifetime. How sad would it be if you didn’t at least begin to obtain emergency food that could sustain you for a few week’s time? I dare say your WalMart is full of food enough for everybody right now, but in event of a major societal disruption (human caused or natural) it wouldn’t matter. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah built his ark. He was seen as a kook, but this shouldn’t bother you as much as your will to live should carry you forward to life sustaining emergency food accumulation.

Your emergency food supply can be very, very simple. Start out with a goal of a couple of weeks of emergency food. You can expand as resources allow. What is emergency food exactly? Emergency food may be nothing different from what you already eat on a daily basis. To make things simple it can be canned foods and items that require only easy preparation. You may also want to acquire some dehydrated and freeze dried emergency food selections. These two food choice types usually require only water and a heat source for reconstitution and they take very little time and effort to make ready for consumption. They also have the added benefit of storing for 5-plus years in many cases. A lot of people choose to add freeze dried and dehydrated foods to their emergency food storage pantry because they may not want to maintain/rotate them. They use them as an insurance policy. Whatever emergency food you should decide to gather, the important thing is that you get a start, even if it is slow and steady. Don’t be embarrassed or think you are under-doing it if it is only a can or a package at a time. Slow and steady wins the race!

Food is one of the main expenses of a family budget. If you can accumulate enough emergency food for both the short term and the long term (one year), you can weather many of life’s storms. If you should become financially strapped, such as a layoff, income loss due to physical illness that disables you for a time, etc., wouldn’t it make sense to have prepared in advance with emergency food “insurance”? You pay for health insurance and life insurance, why not look at food in the same light? Emergency food can in many different ways be your saving grace.

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