how long could you seriously live off of dried food ?

[surfivor]

 If you had to eat mostly dried stuff, how long could you do it and how would it effect your health ?

 Lets assume you had some vitamin pills, or ate some berries for vitamins. You had some essential oils maybe as well stuff like that that is not too hard to store either ..

 I have eaten freeze dried food back packing and it seems like it is not the best thing to eat all the time.

 So there are two types of dried foods and my question pertains to both, so in a way there are two questions:

 1. how long could you live on your basic dried beans, rice and so on ?
 2. how long could you live on freeze dried stuff ?

 I suppose you could go a long time, but maybe it would not be fun ..

[nkawtg]

As with any food, what you eat is more important that whether it's dried.
With dryng or freeze drying, (correct me if I'm wrong) no or little food quality is lost, ie vitamins and nutrients.
So if your eating beans and rice whether fresh or freeze dried, it's the same.
Either one is not a balanced meal.
As long as the meal is well balanced, I don't see a time limit for how long you can consume these types of meals.

When they can make a good freeze dried coney dog, I'll be happy.

[surfivor]

As with any food, what you eat is more important that whether it's dried.
With dryng or freeze drying, (correct me if I'm wrong) no or little food quality is lost, ie vitamins and nutrients.
So if your eating beans and rice whether fresh or freeze dried, it's the same.
Either one is not a balanced meal.
As long as the meal is well balanced, I don't see a time limit for how long you can consume these types of meals.

When they can make a good freeze dried coney dog, I'll be happy.

 When I have been on long trips and eaten alot of freeze dried stuff with a good variety, I didn't feel like I was eating optimally healthy because my stomach or intestines seemed to have extra gas or something .. I wasn't sick, hard to describe exactly maybe. Even just going camping, if I can bring fresh veggies it makes my stomach feel better. I remember just a few weeks ago, I felt kind of lousy, went into town and got some supplies, then I was able to stir fried up some salmon with fresh snow peas, broccoli, onions, and terrikai sauce and I felt like a million dollars ..

 I seemed to recall when I got back to civilization after say just a 1 week canoe trip or something in the wilderness, I just couldn't wait to go to a sub shop and eat something that wasn't freeze dried, regular dried, canned or what have you.


 but if people think freeze dried is not much different than regular dried, then I won't be afraid to order more freeze dried as it is convenient to know it is well sealed and ready to go. No work to do on my end if I am busy etc. I already have quite a bit of freeze dried stuff as it is .. 4 cases of the big cans of mountain house (6 cans per case)

[Dainty]

My answer: as long as I had to.

We are, after all, talking about survival. And while you ideally want your survival to be comfortable, such as having foods that agree with you, honestly I'd rather live with extra gas than die of starvation. Then again, that's just me.

Are you talking about prepackaged dried food with a multitude of ingredients? My guess would be your body objects to one of the additives.

[surfivor]

My answer: as long as I had to.

We are, after all, talking about survival. And while you ideally want your survival to be comfortable, such as having foods that agree with you, honestly I'd rather live with extra gas than die of starvation. Then again, that's just me.

Are you talking about prepackaged dried food with a multitude of ingredients? My guess would be your body objects to one of the additives.

 I don't know, I have eaten spaghetti, pasta primavera, chicken this or that. I try to eat stuff that has less meat in it but some kind of protein ..

 yea, I know there's starvation too. I'm just not sure what life would be like eating dried food every day for a year or two ..

One thing I will say is that I am not sure I always see myself eating what I store as I don't really eat freeze dried food unless I have to. On the other hand. I am 48 and if mountain house can store for 25 or 30 years I will be 75 or 80 when it expires. Possibly I could sell it or give it away in 15 to 20 years ..

 I am not sure if it is stored in places that are either colder or warmer than typical room temperature if it will effect storage life. I have been keeping it in my mother's basement for now. If I had to store it at my condo, it gets hot in there in the summer when I am not around and my BOL has no heated storage, though maybe a root cellar could work if I built one ..




 On the

[Dainty]

I don't know, I have eaten spaghetti, pasta primavera, chicken this or that. I try to eat stuff that has less meat in it but some kind of protein ..

I went to the Mountain House website and looked at some of the ingredients lists of their entrees. There's a lot of what I personally consider "junk" in there.

I doubt you would have the same problem if you made up an entree from scratch out of basic ingredients.

[OKGranny]

Beans and rice together make a balanced diet and you can change up the taste drastically by varying the spices. If you have beans and rice you more than likely have a garden so there is your fresh, frozen, canned, dried veggies and all without additives you have trouble pronouncing. I personally can't eat  days of the freeze dried stuff. It doesn't like me and after three days I'd kill for a salad. Well, maybe not literally but close. We tried that a few times on camping trips cause it's light weight and convenient. Gas, bloating, discomfort for the sake of convenience just doesn't make sense to me.

[lavendereagle]

Surfivor,

I am the same way! I hate processed food it slows me down way down. When I eat alot of fresh fruit and veggies I feel much better. Things that store well and help me are dried fruits, nuts but they can't have additives or they make me feel that yuck feeling. Larbar are also good. Hope this helps you.

[TNVolunteer]

I don't seem to mind the stuff too bad, but then again I haven't tried extending living off it in about 12 years.  I did a bunch of 2+week hikes all through college and later, relied predominantly on freeze dried, probably about 60% of the meals.  We were burning so many calories though we were eating a bunch of other stuff too.  Nothing was quite like getting into a town to re-provision.  A good meal was always had along with a pint of ice cream.  We would always get something fresh frozen from a local grocery store for the first meal out of town.  By the time you made it to camp, it was fairly thawed and ready to cook.  All with a loaf of bread attached somewhere to the back pack.

[Tactical Hippie]

if you look at a lot of 3rd world counties, their diet consist of mainly rice.  The get very little meat and almost no veggies.  I'm not sure how healthy or what their average lifespan is, but if you have no other choice, I'm sure you could survive for just about as long as you had to.

[OKGranny]

if you look at a lot of 3rd world counties, their diet consist of mainly rice.  The get very little meat and almost no veggies.  I'm not sure how healthy or what their average lifespan is, but if you have no other choice, I'm sure you could survive for just about as long as you had to.

Some of them have longer average life spans than the average in America, not a lot, it depends on so many other factors.

[Tactical Hippie]

Some of them have longer average life spans than the average in America, not a lot, it depends on so many other factors.

I know Asian countries have rice as a main staple and typically long life spans.  They also have a great climate for meat and vegetable production there as well.

  The African countries that depend on rice being shipped in for their populations are the ones I would guess are the most unhealthy yet are sustained by rice and rice alone.   This is pure speculation but it makes sense in my mind. 

[average_joe]

Surfivor, correct me if I'm wrong, aren't you a vegetarian? If you are that might be why you feel bad. You could look into the vegetarian mre's if that is the case. Another thing that might help is increasing your water intake, it helps with food digestion. You might also look into adding something like Bean-o to your preps and take one prior to eating your meal.

[eph2]

The vitamin content is well preserved in dry or freeze-dried food but you loose live enzymes.  Add some simple sprouts to your diet and that will really help balance things out.  Sprouting seeds and grains can be stored long term and only take a few days and a window sill.  There is a huge variety available.  I always think that variety improves health.  Just don't pack your sprouting seeds with oxygen absorbers.

[surfivor]

Surfivor, correct me if I'm wrong, aren't you a vegetarian? If you are that might be why you feel bad. You could look into the vegetarian mre's if that is the case. Another thing that might help is increasing your water intake, it helps with food digestion. You might also look into adding something like Bean-o to your preps and take one prior to eating your meal.

 I am close to a vegitarian, but not strictly ..

[sdcharger]

Comparing how your body reacts to eating backpacking food for long periods of time while backpacking is a very limited concept.  Unless you are in the worst case bug out on foot scenario.

If you were hunkered down somewhere and you were not burning 5000 calories per day, then perhaps your body would react differently.

I suggest making your own meals out of dehydrated and freeze dried items and eating it for a week while doing your regular activities, not an increased activity level.  Control what goes into the food and keep it fairly simple.

[Roadracer]

I think a better question is "How long would it be 'til you hang yourself from eating only dried food"?

 

RR

[Smith]

 1. how long could you live on your basic dried beans, rice and so on ?
 2. how long could you live on freeze dried stuff ?

 I suppose you could go a long time, but maybe it would not be fun ..

You can definitely live on rice and beans for a long while but you would need to supplement that diet with fats and vitamins. You can use an antacid, or use some baking soda to cut down on the gas.

If you had to do it, of course, it would also be great to get some simple spices so that you don't end up hanging yourself (you may fail to survive if you have a mental breakdown from eating rice and beans and rice and beans and rice and beans for months on end). Different types of beans/rice would probably be a welcome change in that situation as well.

Thinking creatively you could be alright. Snatch and boil some greens from the great outdoors to supplement, and set up those squirrel traps just in case you get lucky. Mix in some dried onion and you have the basics of good eatin'

[chrisdfw]

I love beans and rice. But what makes it a complete meal is the supplement.

Bacon is a good one. Sausage works as well. Something to add some fat and protein to the mix. It really doesn't require much to make it complete, but you need fats and other proteins. Additionally, who wouldn't rather have a little bacon, sausage, or ham in their beans and rice.

Beans and rice are my primary staples that I store because of the long life and cost, but I also have a couple cases of canned bacon and a case of #10 cans of freeze dried ground beef.

Meat is great but on a calories per dollar standpoint for storage food, it is a difficult proposition. Still, I keep my freezer really full and that would be my primary source of meat beyond what I could obtain for the first 6 months of a SHTF type event. (solar panels, batteries, wind generator, inverter, and a generator should keep me good until I empty the freezer)