The story behind the discovery of b vitamins is a cautionary tale to any would-be prepper hoping to live for years on their trusty crate of ramen noodles, and one of the great mysteries of modern science. It all stemmed from the case of sailors in the Japanese Navy who were dying on extended tours at sea. Beriberi was the name of the disease, and with it came the symptoms of tremor, paralysis and eventually death.

Why B vitamins are part of your essential emergency supplies

B vitamins are essential to a number of different functions in the body related to metabolism and cell formation. This carries over from everything to maintaining muscle tone, to carrying out immune system functions, to stabilizing the nervous system. Without B Vitamins, muscles will wither, nerves will fade and the person will eventually die. This is what was taking place on the Japanese ships.

A hypothesis was formed by two doctors, Christiaan Eijkman and Sir Frederick Hopkins, that stated that the disease was caused by a deficiency in the diet. The soldiers who were most susceptible to beriberi were those of the lower ranks who were subsisting mostly on white rice. Officers who had a richer diet were much less susceptible to the disease. Through testing on chicken populations with brown rice (including the husk) instead of polished white rice, Eijkmann was able to reduce the incidence of beriberi in chickens significantly. Hopkins determined that there were ‘accessory factors’ in addition to proteins, carbohydrates and fats known at the time that contributed to human health. These accessory factors evolved into what we know today as vitamins and Eijkman and Hopkins were awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery.

Different forms, different sources

B Vitamins were originally known as a single vitamin due to their coexistence in a number of foods. It was only after the development of organic chemistry and imaging that scientists were able to identify a number of different molecules that  gave these foods their fortifying properties. Today, there are  eight commonly agreed upon B vitamins B1, B2,B3,B5,B6,B7,B9, and B12.

The best way to supplement B vitamins, in home and in the field

B vitamins are all water soluble, which has good and bad implications. The good news is that it’s almost impossible to have a dose of B vitamins that is too high, excess vitamins are flushed out in urine. If you have ever taken a multivitamin and noticed the color of your pee change, that’s because of B vitamins.

The bad news is that B vitamins must be taken very regularly as the body cannot store them in fat. This means that B vitamins must be worked into the diet. As the research of Eijkman suggested, refined grains such as white rice have many of the vitamins taken out in the refining process. Generally speaking, the closer a plant is to it’s natural form the more vitamins it will have, and this is true with B vitamins as it is with anything else. The best plant sources of B vitamins include asparagus, broccoli, spinach, beans and nuts.

However, plants should not  be relied upon as the only source of B vitamins. B12 is only available in animal sources and many vegetarians have issues with B12 deficiency. Almost any source of meat contains the full spectrum of B vitamins, including B12.

What does this mean for you, modern prepper? Don’t plan your survival around a sparse diet of easy to store, processed grains. If you do, make sure to supplement with meat, the vegetables mentioned above, or dietary supplements. B vitamin supplements are very easy to store and will keep you alive, strong and energetic in a post apocalyptic world. Don’t leave home without them!

Love it or hate it, Doomsday Preppers has brought a lot of attention to the post-collapse preparation community and arguably brought it to the mainstream. The numbers back it up, Doomsday Preppers was able to become one of the top rated shows on the National Geographic channel before even finishing the first season. It’s no surprise, it’s great entertainment to the average watcher.

There has been some backlash in the prepper community over the show. Sharp Entertainment, the company responsible for Doomsday Preppers has not shied away from portraying the subjects of the show as close to the edge, if not fully over it. This is what brings in the ratings and this is what people will continue to tune into, regardless of whether it portrays the community accurately or not.

Regardless of whether the show is doing justice to the prepper community, the fact that it’s reaching such heights of popularity are evidence to the fact that people all around the world are tuning into the concept of preparation. For putting a name to the fears that a lot of people knew they had but couldn’t categorize, I would argue that Doomsday Preppers is doing a lot to help out the average Joe. At the end of the day, a true prepper should be happy that others have the foresight to be more prepared in the case of a disaster, and if the show is bringing people to do that, then good on it. To criticize the show for portraying preppers as a bit over the edge is a bit snobby. I like to think the community is more welcoming than that.

Putting a gun to your daughter’s head may be questionable parenting, but those robin noises are unquestionably awesome

So with that being said, I would like to announce the introduction of a new series on the doomsday preppers. At BugOut Nutrition, we’re building a certain philosophy on preparation based on nutrition, optimal health and mobility. The goal of this series is to view Doomsday Preppers through that lens and see what sort of insights come out. There are many ridiculous moments on the show, but also moments of unique genius, and we mean to examine them all with an episode by episode series to explore what can be taken of value.

Equal parts user guide, critique and cliff notes, I hope by the end of the series we will all have learned something about preparation, had some laughs and bridged the gap between reality TV and reality. Stay tuned for more updates.

Remember when your mom used to tell you to eat your carrots to make sure you could see well? The reason was because of vitamin A. Now as you’ll see, her kindly advice was a bit misguided, but the principal still applies. Without Vitamin A, you will have a much tougher time surviving when the SHTF.

Why vitamin A is one of your essential emergency supplies

Going back to mom’s advice, Vitamin A is essential for maintaining eyesight. The scientific term for Vitamin A is retinol, which is related to retina, the layer in the back of your eye responsible for allowing you to see. Without retinol, your retina cannot function properly. This starts to be noticed in the form of night blindness, but eventually can lead to blindness.

It’s especially important for children under the age of 5, which need it for their growing bodies. Vitamin A deficiency affects 1/3rd of children worldwide and leads to an estimated 670,000 deaths and the blindness of up to 500,000 more. If you plan to survive with young children, it’s critical that vitamin A is one of your emergency supplies.

In addition to vision, Vitamin A plays a number of other roles in the body. It plays a big part in cellular health, which affects immune function, bone metabolism, and even the creation of blood cells. The fact that it was one of the first vitamins discovered is a testament to it’s visible effect on overall health.

Different forms, different sources

Brace yourself, this section is going to contain some biochemistry. As we mentioned before, the pure form of Vitamin A is retinol, which is actually an alcohol. This is not a stable form found in nature so the form you would consume is from a plant or animal source. The main animal source is retinyl palmate, found in fatty tissues and the main form found in plants is one of four types of carotene (derived from carrots, get it?).

The problem with carotene is that it is not readily converted into retinol within the body. Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, which means it is stored in fat. The fatty retinyl palmate is much closer to retinol than the carotenes you will find in plants. In the absence of fats, the absorption of carotenes can be as low as 1/12, less than 10%!

The best way to supplement vitamin A, in home and in the field

With this in mind, there is a very easy way to supplement Vitamin A both at home and in survival situations. It is also, in my humble opinion, quite a delicious option. The best source of Vitamin A available to most people is eating liver.

Because Vitamin A is fat soluble, there is the ability for the body to store it in the fat and use it as needed. Because of this, it does not need to be taken every day. While there is a recommended daily allowance of 3,000IU, this could easily be converted into a weekly allowance of 20,000IU. This equates to about 300 grams of liver a week, or half a pound. I am basing these numbers off of beef liver but there is Vitamin A is the liver of any animal you could think of; including fish (think cod liver oil).

This jives very well with a bugout strategy of living in the wild. Vitamin A supplementation is tricky from a ‘pantry survival’ perspective because many of the plant sources simply aren’t absorbed as well as animal sources. As you know by now, all nutrients were not created equal. So if you plan on staying in one place, remember to keep hunting in mind, unless you plan on being a post-apocalyptic Ray Charles.

 Centered on commonly available modern foods, the “contemporary” Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

(from wikipedia)

As you can imagine, as someone who has had a lifelong interest in nutrition, I have tried out my fair share of strange diets. From heavy bulking “see food diets” (you see food, you eat it. Yuk yuk yuk) to ultra low carb ketogenic diets, I have done almost all of them. Aside from drugs I’ve experimented with almost everything you can put in your body nutrition wise.

However, I ended up settling on a paleo diet which I’ve been eating for over two years now. Why did I stick with it? Paleo foods might be some of the best survival foods around. I have a few reasons why eating paleo is the best from a preparation perspective.

1. You’ll be doing it anyways

Preppers all around the world are obsessed what’s in their pantries. I don’t criticize, I think it’s a fine plan for many kinds of potential disasters. But the problem with this sort of strategy is that it’s dependent on the eventual return to civilization. What’s going to happen after infrastructure cuts down and you finish your last can of beans? You’re back to square one, living in the wild.

That’s if you have a choice. There are a lot of disaster scenarios in which you won’t be able to stay in your house. In the case of large scale civil unrest, you might not be able to defend your home. Sometimes it’s hard to think of what could happen if your house was attacked, but if you end up being the only person in the neighborhood with food things will turn Mad Max pretty quick.

Not a good discussion to get in with the neighbors

It’s probably not hard to guess but at BugOut Nutrition we’re fairly fond of, well, bugging out. There is food to be found in every climate in the world if you know where to look for it, it’s how we made it so far in the first place. By eating paleo, you’re one step closer to switching back to those roots if you need to.

2. Your health will be better

Paleo diets have been touted far and wide as one of the healthiest diets you can possibly eat. There are massive communities based around the results people can get from paleo style diets such as Mark’s Daily Apple. Check out some of the transformations people have seen when they go on paleo diets, they’re incredible.

Some of the stuff you can expect:

• Safe fat loss
• Improved muscle mass
• Clearer and healthier skin
• Improved mental performance
• Better energy and libido

3. You’ll have fun doing it

Finding out ways to eat paleo food has brought me into a lot of fun situations. A little while ago my girlfriend and I went into a deep dive with paleo cooking for a strict month of paleo cooking. We ended up having to go way outside of our comfort zones when it came to shopping, checking out all sorts of weird grocery stores, farmer’s markets and holes in the wall to get ingredients we had never heard of. Learning how to cook a different style makes every meal an adventure of sorts.

There’s a sense of satisfaction from making something like paleo spaghetti and meatballs , indulging in it and knowing that you’re making yourself healthier. You’ll never know until you try though – so give it a shot!

So far, we know that all nutrients are not created equal. Your multivitamin might not be doing a damn thing, and your might be eating calories that aren’t getting used by your body. Worst of all, you might realize you spent hundreds of dollars on a form of protein that will make you wish you had installed better ventilation in your fortress of solitude.

You’ve just opened pandora’s box. You might have been relying on the safety blanket of all calories being created equal or eating your multivitamins with a smile on your face hoping that the supermarket brand vitamin company has your best interest at heart. You’re out in the cold  now, looking for answers.

Fear not, dear reader, for JP is here to guide you to the promised land. A land where you’ll know exactly what your body needs, able to see through the labels, not unlike Neo in the matrix. A land of high performance, mental clarity and significantly less gas.

Anyways, before I get much more ahead of myself I would like to announce the introduction of a new series to guide you through all of the nuances of the most important nutrients in your life. In the essence of survival, there are a lot of questions you may have to be able to plan for the worst and still be in fighting shape.

These may include:

• What do I really need in terms of nutrients?
• What are the benefits of ______?
• What will happen if I go without _____?
• What are the best sources of ____ for my body?
• Where can I find ____ in nature?
• JP, do you know any cool stories about _____?

I’m planning to dedicate a post to the most important nutrients for survival and doing one per week to slowly but manageably increase your knowledge of the nutrients that keep you and your loved ones ticking. By the end of this series you will be equipped to make the best decisions in any situation regarding nutrition.

Here is a tentative list of the nutrients I’m planning to cover:

Vitamins: Vitamin A, the B Vitamins, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K

Amino acids: Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Valine

Minerals: Magnesium, Iron, Calcium, Iodine, Selenium, Copper

Stay tuned for more updates!

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all nutrients are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of conversion into usable materials for human metabolism

-Buddy Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson’s much less known nutritionist cousin)

It is no surprise Buddy was lost to the annals of history while his cousin was remembered. His conception of the sovereign nutrient, equal to all others was fundamentally flawed. However, many today still believe that all nutrients are indeed created equal.

This is true on a number of levels and stems from intellectual laziness. Teaching anything in detail is always going to be harder than putting things into neat little boxes. The easier the model we work with, the less we have to explain when we defend ourselves. We can shut out any questions and walk away with clean hands. But at the end of the day we are forced with reductionist thinking.

While this has been useful for giving millions access to basic knowledge of nutrition through public education, it becomes problematic when these simplified models are accepted as gospel. By believing these simplified models many people are leaving themselves in the dark, ignoring important realities while convincing themselves they are fine while they eat poor quality survival foods.

1. All calories are created equal

The definition of a calorie is derived from thermodynamics and is the measure of potential energy, the amount required to heat one gram of water one degree Celsius. The nutritional definition of calorie actually refers to the kilocalorie, which is 1000 calories. How do we determine how many calories is in a particular substance? We burn it, and see how much water it heats. It might sound ridiculous to think that the Food and Drug Administration is burning big macs to determine how many calories they contain, but it’s really not that far from the truth.

So fundamentally, the concept of a calorie is designed assuming the complete efficiency of a closed loop machine. There is no consideration to what happens to this food once it enters the human body, regardless of your age, genetic makeup, metabolism or anything else. Let’s take a ridiculous example: eating grass vs. eating rice. Grass is certainly a nutrient dense food and so is rice. You could have 2000 calories of grass or 2000 calories of corn. If you ate the grass, you would most likely not get anything out of it because the calories are contained within cellulose, a compound our body does not have the means to break down. If you ate your 2000 calories of grass per day diet you would eventually die because you weren’t getting enough calories to survive. However, your 2000 calories of rice diet would keep you alive for a very long time.

This is obviously a ridiculous answer but when you get down to smaller levels of difference it is true for the same reason. Eating cheez whiz is not going to be absorbed by your body as well as kraft singles, which aren’t going to be absorbed by your body as well as a nice ol’ brick of cheddar. Aside from the external problems with eating processed foods, there’s a distinct disadvantage of what your body can use, which is the important thing.

2. All macronutrients are created equal

It’s all about what your body can use. I’m going to use the example of protein here. Protein is identical to the carbohydrate but it has the difference of amino groups, which contain nitrogen, which is a gas (this will become important later). Like calories, there is a difference in dietary protein and  usable protein. You will only use what is digestible, the rest is broken down as a carbohydrate. This is why carbohydrates and protein both have 4 calories per gram.

So it’s all about which amino acids make it to your bloodstream. Eating meat, fish and poultry has a relatively high number of 32% while many protein supplements are much lower at 16%. That’s also assuming that the protein on the label is the protein that’s in it, which might not always be the case. Protein from vegetable sources such as beans can be even lower.

Remember that nitrogen I was talking about? Protein that isn’t usable will create free nitrogen. Now you know why beans make you fart. (You’re welcome).

3. All vitamins are created equal

There was an interesting study that came out last year that proved that vitamins do nothing for your health. However, I am a massive advocate of vitamins and recommend them to everyone in my life, most people in the online health movement spend hundreds of dollars per year on them. What gives?

Again, it comes down to what your body can use. Take for example, vitamin A. The main forms of vitamin A are beta carotene (found in plants) and retinyl palmate (found in animals). Beta carotene is easier and cheaper to produce, and for these reasons it’s no surprise that it’s the most common form you see in over the counter multivitamins. However, conservative estimates list that beta carotene is converted at a 4:1 rate at best which means the 100% vitamin A you’re getting on the label is really 25%.

Conclusion

It all comes down to what your body can use, whether it’s calories, macronutrients or vitamins. To go more in depth I’m planning on writing a series which will give you the tools to find out what is best for what your body will ACTUALLY use. Stay tuned.

Hello everyone. My name is JP Martin and thanks for taking the time for checking out my blog! Before we begin I would like to lay out some expectations for what to expect from BugOut Nutrition. But first, some definitions:

Bug out (v): to move away from your current location very quickly because your position has been compromised (origin: British army slang)

Nutrition (n): the science or study of, nutrition, specifically in humans

So in a literal sense what this blog is about is the study of nutrition to be used when bugging out, ie, getting out of dodge. Before you start thinking this is going to be five posts a week about how to pack your bug out bag six ways til Sunday, let me explain myself a bit further. When it comes down to it, bugging out is something that characterizes all sorts preppers, survivalists and those who wisely follow that old Boy Scout adage of being prepared. Whether you’re worried about civil unrest, natural disasters, terrorism or a zombie apocalypse, the ability to bug out is a central concept.

So I’m taking bug out as a catch all term to represent the whole notion of preparedness across all of the different names we may call ourselves. And to add the second half, I’m going to be focusing on the nutrition aspect of this sort of lifestyle. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll break out of the nutritional aspect to focus on general aspects of health, well-being and optimal performance.

When it comes to being prepared, there’s far more to being able to survive than the food in your pantry or the bag in your trunk (although in most cases, those could definitely use some work). Being prepared can be broken down into mind, body and even spirit if you want to get into it, and those that neglect any will be less prepared in the face of a disaster. In order to perform optimally, we have to live optimally as much as possible, which often starts with the food we put in our bodies.

I know what you might be saying. “JP, I don’t have the time for this. I have a bunker I can access via zipline, why should I bother? What if I never end up needing to run?” . Well, the consequence of preparing your body and mind without needing to use this is that you’ll just be living better! So many of us are focused to adding years to our life through preparedness that we ignore the aspect of adding life to our years. The good news is that by focusing on holistic nutrition and lifestyle, you’ll be able to do both!

At the end of the day this is what BugOut Nutrition is all about. We’ll be breaking down different aspects of nutrition both for survival scenarios and the day to day, as well as going into different aspects of physical and mental preparedness and cool tips gained from years of obsessive internet surfing.

So without further ado: Welcome to BugOut Nutrition