Letter Re: Protein Powders as Emergency Survival Foods

Mr. Rawles,
I’ve been following your site for some time and thoroughly enjoy it. The information provided here is outstanding. I’m writing to make a suggestion for a short term and possibly long term survival food.

A quick premise. I’ve been working out and lifting weights off and on for the last three to four years. I lifted weights when I was much younger and I needed to incorporate them to get back into shape. Now that I’m a little older and wiser I’ve been using the internet to find out more about fitness and physical development. I’m by no means one of the monster lifters you see at the gym but, I am relatively fit and what is termed a “hard gainer” or ectomorph somatype. That means gaining muscle mass is difficult for me as my metabolism burns through calories very easily. I’m the slender guy all women hate because I can eat and eat and not gain weight.

As I began to learn more and more about weight lifting techniques and routines I began to learn more about the types of nutrition that would benefit me to include protein powders, shakes, or meal replacement shakes/drinks as they are called.

Most are loaded, or claim to be loaded, with whey protein, as well as other nutrients needed for maintenance and development. These same nutrients are essential for consumption in an emergency and no one goes running to the store for them once the shelves are empty at the super market. Only your most hardcore lifter will be stocking up on mass quantities prior to or during an event/incident. If you come across this guy, stay out of his way. He’s apparently really serious about lifting. LOL

That being said, in an emergency you can buy them without having to fight off the mob at your local vitamin and supplement shop. Many of them recommend drinking them one or two hours before a workout to have nutrients available during your workout and then again within one hour of completing your workout to feed the muscle and begin repairing it from tearing it down. In two servings the caloric intake is between six hundred and one-thousand calories. Some are loaded with even more calories per serving and that can be very helpful for life sustaining nutrition. I can gulp one down very quickly. Those that have been in the military can attest to having limited time to eat and MRE let alone heat one up while on patrol.

All you need to make protein powders into a “meal” or “shake” is water or milk, a measuring cup, and a hand mixer or shaker. You don’t need power to cook or prepare it. Measure water or milk into your shaker add the powder and shake or mix well. You can even measure the powder into small individual ziplock snack bags and put those inside a shaker for storage in your B.O.B. or kit for emergency use.

Now be warned, some of the products I’ve tried taste awful. I know that what I enjoy as far as taste and flavor go more than likely isn’t the same as what anyone else is going to like or enjoy so, I’d advise buying some of the smaller containers to start and see if you can find one that you can enjoy if you intend to use them as an emergency food or supplement. Don’t buy any of the Ready To Drink or “RTD” products. These must be kept refrigerated for whatever reason and they taste horrible. The powders of the same product taste much better. I’ve no idea what they do to make the RTD shakes but, whatever it is they should just stop.

The one I’ve finally decided to use exclusively is Cytosport Muscle Milk. It can be a little more expensive than most but, I get three hundred calories from a serving of the powder with water. It comes in multiple flavors, tastes fantastic, like a shake should and when I mix it with milk it can almost double the calories per serving. Cytosport has multiple products and varying prices. Some are loaded with calories and that can be very helpful for life-sustaining nutrition.

No, it’s not loaded with a ton of sugar, even though in a stressful situation you’d burn through them quickly. Sugars are the enemy of weight lifters to a degree, and more than likely it will be loaded with essential vitamins and minerals needed for survival.

These can be utilized on patrols as well. Mixing the shakes with water and having them in a shaker in your pack makes for a fast meal while on the move. Leaves no garbage behind as you just toss the shaker back in your pack and keep moving. Two or three and an MRE and you can go for a couple days if need be. Where I am they have smaller shakers than I’m used to in the US. These would be very handy for just such a use. Just make sure if you make the shakes ahead of time, the lids/tops are on securely.

I can’t vouch for the shelf life of the powders. I’m sure that they are fairly stable and may store for quite a while. I would wager no one has ever asked companies that manufacture them to test to see how well they keep over time. Usually, they are produced and consumed. For myself, I’ll pack more than few of the large jugs away for when TSHTF.

When I buy them I do so mostly through the Internet. You can save a lot of money like that as opposed to buying in the store. In an emergency you’ll have to take what you can get if you haven’t already stocked some in. I buy the large five lb. jug and I get quite a few shakes from it. I’d estimate I get from thirty to forty shakes out of one jug going by the directions.

One more thing. When using these products and working out (or surviving TEOTWAWKI) your body will more often than not be burning up calories like a blowtorch burns through oxygen. Even without using this, more than likely you may experience some constipation. I know how a stressful or drastic change in environment can kick your body’s metabolism into hyper-drive. Even if you drink a gallon of water a day you can still get bound up. Be mindful of this or you’ll be very unhappy when the time comes to make a sitting head call. – D in Dubai

JWR Adds: I have read that liquid meal replacements that were originally developed for the elderly such as Ensure powder offer more complete and balanced nutrition than do the weight training liquid food supplements. In powder form, they are more compact for storage, and have a longer shelf life than the liquid form. They are also less likely to cause constipation than the weight training supplements.