As stated in the introduction post to our “WHY DO PEOPLE BUILD A FOOD STORAGE?” series, we have found there are 5 main reasons people store food:

1. Natural Disasters
2. Economic Crisis
3. Health Benefits
4. Everyday Emergency
5. Religious Reasons

Today we will be talking about the third reason, Health Benefits, and encourage you to visit our Facebook Discussion on this topic. We learn so much more from each others real life experiences and opinions, so come on over and join the conversation. (You don’t need to be a member of facebook to read the discussions).

Here’s a confession – when we first started the blog, Julie was always a little bit sad that when it came time to start using and talking about the Long Term Food Storage Foods, she’d have to pretend to like it all.  She was under the impression that all Long Term Foods were for was making cookies and cakes – ya bread too, but mostly desserts.  While desserts are delicious,  you can’t live on them alone and they have a negative effect on fitting into some of your clothes… ahem… haha

Well now, she openly admits and is happy she was completely WRONG! Food Storage can be as healthy (or not) as you want it to be.  So don’t be so afraid of those Long Term Food Storage Items anymore – here are just a few ways they can have Health Benefits:

Grains- It’s recommended by the USDA that half of our daily grain intake consists of WHOLE grains. Storing grains such as wheat is one of the most effective ways of getting whole grains in your diet.  Here’s an example of how much better for you whole grains can be. When whole wheat is processed into refined white flour, the following nutrients are lost:
o Half of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids
o Virtually all of the vitamin E
o Fifty percent of the calcium
o Seventy percent of the phosphorus
o Eighty percent of the iron
o Ninety eight percent of the magnesium
o Fifty to 80 percent of the B vitamins

We like to use our WonderMill wheat grinders to make pizza, pancakes, bread, and all sorts of things with our whole wheat.

Legumes- Legumes are the magical fruit. You can learn more about their health benefits in our post we did about them.   They are low calorie,  low fat, high in protein, high in fiber etc.  While they are a little more intimidating to get started with, once you start using them and learning more about them you’ll find how versatile they can be! You can use mashed beans to replace the fat in recipes, ground dried beans to make bean flour for a very low-fat white sauce, or even sprout legumes to provide a healthy vegetable options. Sprouting a seed enhances its already high nutritional value (i.e. Oats when sprouted contain 600% more vitamin C).

Misc Baking Ingredients- The beauty of these long term food storage items is portion control! When you buy baked goods or processed foods you have no way of controlling how much sugar, preservatives, or salt go in your foods. When you’re making your foods from scratch you can control how much, or how little fits your families tastes and lifestyle.

Allergies or Other Dietary Restrictions- If you or a family member has food allergies or other dietary restrictions, food storage is even more important for you.  You have complete control over what goes into your cooking.  By making it from scratch you are saving lots of money over specialized foods from the grocery store.  And also, in case of a food shortage, you will already have foods on hand that are ok for your family to eat.

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