It’s easy to look at the food in our bug-out bags and think that its only purpose is to keep our stomachs from grumbling for three days. But our bug-out bag food serves a higher purpose than simply keeping our stomachs from reminding us we haven’t eaten in a few hours.
In the last two posts in the series, we’ve talked about our Semi-Annual Bug-Out-Bag Check and Swap Out and Whether or not we Should Upgrade Our Equipment. We’ve also discussed 5 Criteria for Bug-Out-Bag Food for the Family But even though there are criteria that make it easier to choose food for our bug-out bags, we need to take it a step further and talk about what the purpose for our bug-out bag food is.
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So as we jump into this blog post, I need to ask you a question. When you are stressed, what is the first thing that you reach for, think about, or need?
Three Purposes of Food that we put into our Bug Out Bags
I know I’m not the only person around who when life gets stressful, one of, if not my very first tendency, is to reach for food. Is there anyone else out there who does the same thing? And that is the missing consideration that I’ve seen as most people put together their bug-out bags.
Let’s face it, when it comes to the topic of bug-out bags, it’s easy just to take our cues from men as to what we need to really be prepared in the instance that we need to bug out. But men think differently than we do. On the whole, as women, we tend to do a better job nurturing those around us – and food is a definite part of nurturing that gets forgotten by men.
The three purposes served by the food we put in our bug-out bags are Comfort, Fuel, and Satiation.
Let’s dive into each of these.
The first purpose our bug-out bag food – Comfort
When you are bugging out you are likely going to be at a high level of stress. I know because I’ve had to bug-out three times, and each time there was stress involved. When we are under stress, we do much better if we have comfort foods to help calm our nerves.
So when we talk about bug-out bag food as comfort food, start by asking your spouse and your kids what foods sound good to them when they are stressed. Make a list of these foods. Add your foods to the list as well. If there is any possible way, you should include at least some of these foods in your bug-out bag.
When you choose which comfort foods to include, you need to take certain restrictions into consideration. What kinds of restrictions?
Temperature 
If you don’t keep your bug-out bag food in your refrigerator, you will be battling temperatures. Even if you don’t have air conditioning in your car while you’re traveling – temperature becomes an issue.
What do you need to look out for? Foods that melt. Chocolate anyone? Icecream? Cheese? But look for shelf-stable alternatives. Is there something that is shelf-stable that is a good stand-in for chocolate? Would hot chocolate hit their spot instead of a chocolate bar? If they are into gourmet chocolates, maybe gourmet flavored hot chocolate packets would hit their spot? If you can keep them from being crushed – maybe M&M’s would be an option for your chocolate lover.
Okay, do you have a child (or is it you) for whom ice cream is where it’s at? You obviously can’t carry ice cream in a bug-out bag. Or can you? (Oh I so wish I had emojis for my blog posts) You actually CAN carry ice cream in your bug-out bag. Have you heard of freeze-dried ice cream? There are even freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches!
Other things that people may crave that you need to find bug-out bag alternatives include:
- cheese – This is a great way to put cheese into bug-out bags.
- fruit – Try freeze-dried alternatives – apples, mixed fruit, strawberries, pears
- fruit – Try fruit leathers
- mashed potatoes – Yes! These are single-servings in packets, and you can get cheddar and bacon, garlic, and sour cream and chive mashed potatoes!
- Oreos – Yes! They have single-serving sizes of Oreos.
Space
When we talk about space, we need to look for single-serving alternatives in different packaging. Do your kids drink orange juice for breakfast? And maybe OJ is something that brings your kids (or you or hubby) comfort. I’ve heard people before say, that you should repackage a big bulk container of Tang yourself at home. And you can, but, these can accidentally open. I personally prefer something like Tang singles – that are perfect for adding to a bottle of water. And you get just the right amount of powder.
So if you are looking for comfort foods, make sure that you are looking at the single-serving sizes – whether for drinks like lemonade, iced tea packets or soups, or even cookies.
Shelf Life
It should go without saying that you should always make sure that the products that you.
The Second Purpose of our bug-out bag food is satiety. 
Again, when we listen to the men, it’s easy for us to forget that our bodies need to actually be satisfied. When I was younger – in terms of my prepping journey – I was looking into Datrex bars. They have a lot of calories in a small quantity of food. All I could see at that time was that it was high-calorie in a small package. On top of that, it was easily transportable. Another win for a bug-out bag. At that point, the cost point was prohibitive, so I never purchased them.
But here is the problem with something like that. It may give your body calories, but you could easily be missing out on satiety – the feeling of being full (or at least not really hungry).
SO when you plan your food for your bug-out bag, you need to make sure that you’re not only making sure that you’re taking care of your family’s need for comfort, but also for fullness.
What might this look like?
I had a discussion with my kids when it came to bug-out bag food. My middle boy told me outright, that one packet of oatmeal for breakfast was a non-starter. Not because he was unwilling to eat flavored oatmeal, but because ONE packet wouldn’t satisfy him. I asked him if two packets would work. He said, “Yes.”
Growing kids (and sometimes even us and our husbands) need a certain quantity of food or they (we) tend to get Hangry. Our stomach doesn’t care if we put food into it an hour ago. If we didn’t fulfill our need for feeling satisfied, then we will have problems.
A good way to make sure that you are helping your body to feel full is to drink enough water both between meals, but also before meals! If you can drink a bottle of water 5-10 minutes before a meal, your stomach will register fuller when you eat. But then you need to make sure that you are eating will continue that feeling of being satisfied.
The last purpose our bug-out bag food is fuel.
This is the single item that most people focus on. And it IS important! If you are bugging out, you may need to expend more energy than you normally would. It’s possible. And your body needs fuel in order to work WELL. Sure it can function on smaller quantities of lesser quality food, but it won’t function optimally – and this is also what we want to consider.
Fuel means macro-nutrients
What are macro-nutrients? We’re talking carbohydrates, protein, and fats. These are the three main macro-nutrients. When you plan your bug-out bag fuel – you do need to keep these in mind. If you’re a diabetic (another post coming soon specifically for you guys!) that’s going to look different than if you don’t have diabetes, but no matter, which category you fall into you need consider these three categories.
Carbohydrates tend to give you energy, but when you eat refined sugars without coupling those with a good quality protein and/or fat, you’ll actually cause your energy to crash. Carbs are your short-burn fuel.
Fat is a good long-burn fuel. You won’t get a lot of up-front energy from fats, but you’ll get energy over a period of time. This is why pairing a high-quality fat with a high-quality carb is often a great mix.
This is why I LOVE Larabars! They couple good, healthy fats with good quality carbohydrates. Their Peanut Butter Cookie Larabars are nothing but peanuts, dates, and salt. Their Apple Pie Larabars have dates, walnuts, raisins, unsweetened apples, and cinnamon. Pecan Pie Larabars contain only dates, pecans, and almonds. My favorite is the Lemon Larabars.
Protein is good to keep your muscles from atrophying – or declining. This is less of a concern over the short-term than during a long-term situation. So while it is good to get protein all the time, I’m less worried about it during a bug-out situation than I am every day. Unless your diabetic, in which case protein is essential.
Fuel means dense calories
When you are looking at how to fuel your body during a short-term crisis – and that’s really what bugging out is – you want to make sure that your calories are dense as opposed to empty. Yes, you may have empty calories in your comfort foods – depending on the food – but we shouldn’t major there.
Empty calories are often found in foods with a lot of sugar, or corn syrup, white flour, shortening and margarine.
What you need to look for are whole foods like nuts, meat (tuna packets, meat sticks, pulled pork packets, beef jerky), fruits (dehydrated or freeze-dried), healthy breakfasts like oatmeal or grits packets, or healthy bars (Larabars or Rx bars).
Quick recap
So there are three main purposes for food in your bug-out bag: Comfort, Satiety, and Fuel. Each is important. Major on fuel, be mindful of satiety, and throw in a comfort food or two.
What About You?
What purpose or purposes of bug-out bag foods have you not considered before? How are you going to adapt the food in your bug-out bag to reflect what you’ve learned? Leave a comment below letting us know, so that we can all be better prepared.
You’ve got this, Mama!
