I recently had the “pleasure” of working on a Sunday. And besides the fact that I was missing church, I expected this to be a half day. With that in mind I had not brought a lunch, or money to buy one. I know, I know, I know… “prepper did what”? Well in my defense I did have 4 cups of instant noodle lunch available to me. When I realized I wasn’t going to be able to leave when expected, I busted out the cup-o-salt… I mean cup-o-noodles. The salt is what I am on about. When I bought this mess in a cup I was not on a survivalist mindset at all. This garbage has 1190mg of sodium. As my co-worker Scott said, “that’ll shrivel your tongue!” He was almost spot on. I had water available to me. I probably consumed close to 60 oz that day as well. But it did not help.

The lesson to myself and to knowledge I want to share with others is to be very aware of the contents of your food. Whether the food is dehydrated or canned or prepared and frozen, the nutritional value or lack there of is very important. Even canned foods can have high sodium contents for the sake of preservation. In the case of beans you can easily rinse them with clean water to reduce the salt.

So this also opens the questions of, what are viable alternatives to prepared foods for such a situation. I usually have packets of instant oatmeal available in my desk drawer and my back pack. But the body needs more than oatmeal. How does one prepare food in advance that has a decent shelf life? I think the real lesson, is to keep food in your pack at the ready for the day when you are without. Perhaps foil pack chicken, instant rice and a low-sodium soup mix.

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