Freeze-dried Foods, A Tool to Help Boost Your Immune System

Cold season is now upon us and there seems to be a proliferation of viruses.  On average, an adult has 2 colds per year.  While they are not usually life threatening, they cause a great deal of suffering and lost days of work.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could decrease our chances of catching colds and flu or even lessen the effects or duration of these viruses?   Doctors and nutritionists tell us that by eating a balanced diet, including at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, we can do just that.

Why Are Fruits and Vegetables So Important in Boosting our Immune System?

Many fruits and vegetables are rich in Vitamin A, C, E and flavonoids.

What are Flavonoids?

Flavonoids are chemical substances in food that act as Antioxidants.  Antioxidants stop free radicals from damaging healthy cells.  Free radicals come from the body’s natural use of oxygen, as well as environmental elements such as pollution and smoking.  They tend to weaken our body’s defense system.

We all know it is important to have a balanced diet, but more often than not, we just do not eat the right foods.  People tend to eat fewer fruits and vegetables in the winter because there are less fresh fruits and vegetables available.  Often they are expensive, lacking in quality or just not available.  Unfortunately, this is just the opposite of what we should be doing.  Cold weather, pollution, lack of sun light etc. take a tole on our immune systems.  If we are not careful, our immune system suffers.  This is just the type of situation that those nasty little viruses are looking for.

How Can Freeze-Dried Foods Help Us Get the Nutrition Needed to Build a Healthy Immune System?

1.   They maintain the same vitamin, mineral and antioxidant content as fresh foods

2.   They are very appealing to the taste, maintain the same color and aroma as fresh foods

3.   They are edible just as they are and make healthy, nutritious snacks

4.   They are lightweight and easy to store in a handbag or backpack, making them easy to eat on the go

5.   They can easily be reconstituted and used in your own recipes.  They are lifesavers when you haven’t had time to shop for fresh ingredients

6.   They have a shelf live of 25 years when the can is unopened

7.   No preservatives are added

8.   They are available in a great variety at all times of the year

There is nothing more valuable to you than good health.  Let Shelf Reliance Thrive Foods help you and your family boost your immune systems.  It is a great way to get those important fruits and vegetables into your diet.  Please click the link below to go to my Shelf Reliance website where you can shop for your favorite foods and have them shipped directly to your home. 

susansakurai.shelfreliance.com

Emergency Food Storage - How Do I Educate Myself

It is very important that you take time to educate yourself on the aspects of how to store and prepare your food storage.  You may have just what you need to survive an emergency right in your own home.  However, if you don’t know how to use it or even more important, how to maximize its potential, what good is it? 

I have found that it is essential to study the following when planning and building a food storage plan:

1.   How much to food to store. 

·      Refer to a food storage calculator – see Thrive Planner at susansakurai.shelfreliance.com

·      Calculate your own plan using your own recipes, then compare amounts with a food storage calculator

2.   Basic Nutrition

·      http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid-full-story/index.html     

    3.  Where to store your food storage

·      Refer to my post – “Emergency Food Storage – Where Do I Store It”

·      Refer to http://survivalacres.com/information/shelflife.html

    4.  Shelf Live of Food

·     Refer to susansakurai.shelfreliance.com

·     Refer to http://survivalacres.com/information/shelflife.html

    5.  What Affects Storage Life

·     http://shop.conserva.de/long-term-food/What-factors-affect-the-shelf-life-of-foodstuffs

The websites listed above are only a few of many that offer good information on these topics.  Check the Internet and library for more information.

The above information can be learned from studying websites, articles and books.  However, don’t stop there.  The rest of the knowledge that you need comes from personal experience.

1.    Find simple recipes that can be made from your food storage that your family will enjoy.  Try them out on them.  If they won’t eat something now, they won’t eat it in an emergency.

2.    Experiment with quantity of food a recipe makes.  You want to make just enough for your needs.  You may not be able to store leftovers and you certainly don’t want to waste food.

3.    If you have stored whole grains and most people do, experiment with cooking them.  Find recipes and cooking methods that you like.

4.    Experiment with the characteristics of different storage food ingredients.  For example, do you know how freeze-dried foods can be substituted for caned or fresh ingredients

5.    Experiment with different cooking methods that are available to you – grill, campfire, solar oven, etc.

6.    Identify any special equipment you will need

Education is important.  If you take time to educate yourself and put your knowledge into practice before the emergency situation occurs, you will be much better prepared to handle the unexpected.  Don’t think of your food storage experience as difficult or unpleasant.  Rather, think of it as something you can learn and have fun with.  Your attitude will transfer to your family, so make the best of it.

Emergency Food Storage for Short and Long Term Needs

Building and maintaining a viable food storage program requires knowledge and determination.  When I first started working on my food storage plan, I had no idea of where to begin.  In order to be successful, you need to educate yourself in:

1.   The nutritional needs of your family. 

2.   Storage properties of various types of foods

3.   Equipment and preparation methods that can be used in emergency situations

4.   Recipes that are adaptable to emergency situations.

How much food do I need to store

• At least a 2 weeks supply is recommended by FEMA
• Other organizations recommend up to 1 year’s supply of food

What kind of foods is best to store

1. Foods that are high in calories and nutrition
2. Require no refrigeration
3. Require no special preparation
4. Special consideration needs to be made for babies, elderly, nursing mothers and those who require special dietary needs

When I first began building my food storage, it was popular to simply follow one of the plans put out by various organizations.  These plans usually calculated a persons needs by age and sex length of time.  The plan would give you the number of pounds of grains, legumes, cooking oil, powdered milk, salt, sugar or honey and water a person needed for the given time.  The exactness of this type of plan gave people security in that nothing was left to your imagination.  However, when people got to thinking about surviving on that type of plan, it was obvious that surviving would not be pleasant.  Most people in today’s society are not used to eating in the manner that those types of foods alone would provide.  As time passes, it has become a more acceptable philosophy to store what you eat on a regular basis.  This makes food storage more palatable and desirable.

Sources of knowledge that will help you with your food storage plan:

1.  Food Guide Pyramid – Gives average daily guidelines for a healthy diet

2.  Food Storage Calculator (many can be found on line) – gives quantities needed by age, sex and sometimes activity level

Where do I begin?  Make a Plan.

1. Access the needs of your family – How many adults, how many children, any special needs, time period for which you want your storage to last
2. Create a list of food storage menus.  These should be menus that your family enjoys and is used to eating.  The menus should contain ingredients that are easy to store.  For example, a Chef Salad is not adaptable for food storage because you cannot store fresh lettuce.  On the other hand, menu items such as beef stew have ingredients that can readily be stored.  Menus containing commonly used ingredients are best suited to food storage programs.
3. From your list of menus, make a list of ingredients.  These are the ingredients you will need for your food storage.
4. Calculate approximate amounts of the ingredients that you will need for the length of time you food storage will last.  Compare this to the amounts suggested on a food storage calculator.
5. Consider all of the types of food available for storage and there costs and storage shelf life

Start Building Your Food Storage

1.     Make a weekly or monthly budget for food storage

2.     Start with the basics and consistently add to you food storage weekly or monthly

3.     Buy a variety of food storage items along rather than buying a large quantity of one item.

4.     Make sure you are storing all of the items you need. Don’t forget the oil, yeast, soda, baking powder, powdered milk, salt, spices, etc.

5.     It is wise to store vitamins and other medications you use

6.     Don’t forget to store stress relieving foods such as sweets or candy

7.     Be determined – if you stop for a period of time, it is easy to get off track

8.     Find a good place in your home to store your food storage

9.     After you have some food storage on hand, established a plan to rotate your storage.  The best way is to store what you eat and to eat what you store.

10.  Evaluate your storage plan as you rotate it.  Don’t be afraid to add new items and discontinue those you are not using up.

11.  Variety is important to avoid food fatigue

I highly recommend visiting http://EzineArticles.com/1308085 to see how adding a few items to your storage can improve the variety of what you can make from it.

I don’t recommend that you put all your eggs in one food storage basket.  It is best to have packaged, canned, bottled and freeze-dried foods in your storage plan.  Each has its benefits.  My favorite is freeze-dried food.  Although it is a little more expensive, it offers the benefits of high quality nutrition, rich taste and smell, beautiful color and an extended shelf life.  Not only this but it is very convenient to use.

Please visit my Shelf Reliance website at:

susansakurai.shelfreliance.com

to find out more about the benefits of Thrive freeze-dried products or to purchase them.

Home Food Storage for Emergency Situations

We never know when an emergency situation will come up.  But there is one thing for certain.  Emergencies happen everyday.  Are you prepared?  When the subject of Emergencies come up, we all tend to think of natural disasters.  However, natural disasters are only part of the picture.  Many emergencies can be more personal.  However, it is still important to prepare for them as they can be almost as devastating.

Types of Emergencies in which Food Storage is important:

1. Natural Disasters

• Earthquake
• Flood
• Hurricane
• Tornado
• Volcano Eruptions
• Winter Storms
• Fires

2.  Medical Emergencies

• Pandemic
• Long term illness

3.  Economic Emergencies

• Loss of Job
• Can’t Work due to injury
• Not enough economic resources in retirement

How much Food Do I need to keep on hand?

FEMA recommends keeping at least a two-week supply of food on hand and more in the case of longer lasting emergency situations.

What foods are best to store?

• Foods that you and your family like and eat on a regular basis
• Foods that are high in calories and nutrition
• Foods that don’t require refrigeration
• Foods that don’t require a lot of additional water for preparation (unless you store water for that purpose)
• Foods that are simple to prepare or can be eaten without additional preparation
• Foods with long shelf lives

I once had a friend who told me that she had almost completed purchasing the foods necessary for a year’s food storage plan.  She said that she only needed to purchase 30lbs. of soy beans.  When I asked her what she was going to do with the soybeans, she said she had no idea.  While soybeans are a great source of protein, most people are not in the habit of eating them or do they know how to prepare them.

What should you know about the foods you store?

• Does my family like it
• How to prepare it
• Do I need any special equipment to prepare it
• Can it be prepared in a reasonable amount of time under emergency conditions
• Is it nutritious
• How long will it last

Shelf Reliance offers a wonderful line of foods specifically prepared for storage. 

• Grains
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Dairy
• Meats & Beans
• Basics
• Prepared Meals

They are healthy, delicious, long lasting and affordable.  Many of the foods are freeze-dried.  This opens up a variety of options for preparation.  Many store for up to 25 years when unopened.  They are easy to substitute into your regular recipes and are fast and convenient to use.  Please go to my website to learn more about Shelf Reliance Thrive foods at:

susansakurai.shelfreliance.com

It is possible to purchase Shelf Reliance products directly from my site and have them shipped straight to your home.