Fat – More Important and Harder to Find Than You Think (in an Austere Setting), by Garand69

The mantra from low information preppers has always been “Beans and Rice!”, and for good reason, it store’s fantastically with minimum effort, and the combination of the two provides a complete protein profile for your body to survive. So as most preppers start their journey, Rice and Beans it is, but as they inform themselves down the road, the minimal approach dissipates and they start adding other essentials, and then a few niceties, and then usually some proper equipment to do even more, like pressure canners, dehydrators, freeze dryers etc etc.

But what about fat?

WWII provided the medical community way too many cadavers to autopsy, and what they found was our young soldiers were loaded with arterial plaques, but why?? The “Scientific Consensus” was fat is bad for the diet. As we all have come to learn, there is nothing “Scientific, about a “Scientific Consensus”, but it stuck, and drastically effected the quality of life for Americans ever since. Most dietitians today, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary deem “FAT BAD!” just as much as a Never Trumper screeches “ORANGE MAN BAD!” The truth of the matter was, processed sugars added to the industrialized World’s diet around the turn of the Century, combined with man made fats had far more to do with the damage than REAL fats. We need REAL fats in our diet, here is why.

So lets briefly look at fats and the nervous system. The make up of the brain in a typical 55 yr old is this..

Grey Matter = Water 82.3%, Total Lipids 39.6%,  Non-Lipid Residue 60.4%

White Matter = Water 75.2%, Total Lipids 64.6%, Non-Lipid Residue 35.4%

Myelin = Water 0%, Total Lipids 78%, Non-Lipid Residue 22%

(note: Water percentage is based on live-ish weight, all other percentages are based on dry weight)

Of the Total Lipids, the highest contributor to the Lipid Combination is Cholesterol.. Wait What?? Yes it is true, Cholesterol is a major building block and repair material for your entire body, you need it!

Good news, if you are eating an adequate calorie/well balanced diet, your body makes the vast majority of it own fats, with the exception of Omega 3’s and Omega 6’s (more on those later). But, if your caloric intake is below your needs, or, your diet does not have the proper combination of proteins and nutrients to produce fat at a “replacement rate”, you will lose fat and you will lose the ability to produce the building blocks of your Central Nervous system as well as maintain your body’s ability to maintain and repair damage. Now initially, this isn’t too bad, we all can stand to lose a couple two tree pounds, but what about “Year 2” or “Year 3” of “Post SHTF”? Hell, for those less prepared, it may be “Month 3”.

Grey Matter and White Matter is already built, so to speak, and while it does need regular maintenance, Myelin gets burned up the most, and needs constant maintenance. Myelin is essentially the insulation on your body’s wiring loom and it affects how fast signals travel through your nerve cells. Have you ever partied a little to hardy, and the next morning you have the “Shakes”? You fried the insulation on your wiring loom, and you need to rebuild it. Hard core alcoholics, shakes are even worse, and eventually develop serious memory issues, all the way up to full blown dementia.

The more healthy your Mylin is, the faster and more accurate the message goes through the Stimulus-Brain-Response process. The weaker the Myelin is, your brain will receive a slower and less accurate stimulus, and therefor may respond with inaccurate signals to the system required for a proper response. This could be the hormone process, where your brain gets sluggish in signaling hormone production. Or it could be as simple as thought process, which would slow/cloud your decision making abilities, or how about energy production, needed to fuel your muscles as rapidly as possible. I don’t know about you, but if I am about to get into a fire fight, I am going to want all the Testosterone, Rapid Thought Process, and Energy Production I can get. And after I win that fight, I am going to need all that good cholesterol in my system to start the repair process immediately!

For the love of Pete Garand, enough with the mumbo jumbo, get to the point, I got things to do!!

Jeesh, rough crowd. OK, we have established that Fat is not only good, it is essential, so how much is enough? And how do we get enough in an austere environment??

First I will call BS on “Dietary Guidelines” regarding fat as written in Government stone since 1980, and updated every few years, to give another self-important bureaucrat street cred because their name is on a piece of paper. In 1980, 30-35% of your calories should come from Fats, they have tweaked down and or made more specific recommendation on the types of fats since then. The current Keto Diet for weight loss, brings that number up to 60% Fat, 30% Protein 10% Carbs. I am not a dietitian, but I am going to shoot for 40% Fat 40% Protein 20% carbs.

So, based on the fact that fats, regardless of source, are 9 calories per gram. A 2000 calorie per day Diet (which would be starvation in a physical SHTF environment), a 40-40-20 Diet would need a total of 89 grams of Fat per day, 2667gr per month, 32,449gr per year, or, 71 ½ lbs of Fat per year, per person.

One of the big problems with there recommendations is the types of fats that they deem “healthy and unhealthy”, so I will make this quick and simple.

ANY Fat that needed a chemistry professor to conjure up is BAD for you, this includes ALL “Seed/Vegetable Oils”, ie; Canola (aka rapeseed oil), Corn, Cottonseed, Grapeseed, Soybean, Sunflower, Safflower, Rice Bran, and Peanut Oils. As well as all Hydrogenated Fats (even if only Partially Hydrogenated)They are all over processed which includes a heat process, which make them the quickest to go rancid. They are also very high in Omega 6 oils, which is bad for inflammation and all sorts of maladies. These garbage oils are already present in EVERYTHING processed, so there is certainly no reason to intentionally add them to your diet. If you are going to consume seeds, and you should, eat the whole seeds. If the recipe calls for Vegetable Shortening, use Lard.

Good Oils/Fats and Shelf Life

Step one in determining if a fat is good for you and how long it’s shelf-life is this, was it used 5000 + years ago? If it was, that means it was a simple process to go from Substance A to Substance B. Olive, Avocado, Coconut, and Palm Oils can all be transformed from there natural state with nothing more than a press and a filtering process. Filtering is important, because for a fat/oil to have shelf-life, it must be moisture and contaminant free.

“Filtering right after milling quickly removes all the bioactive moisture that remains in the oil, resulting in better preservation of the positive fruity flavors of the oil.”  OliveOil.com

Things that cause short shelf-life are easy. The presence of; Moisture, Oxygen, Heat, Sunlight, and Contaminants will all drastically shorten shelf-life. All oils will turn rancid sooner or later. The more processed they are the sooner rancidity occurs. When buying oils for long-term storage I prefer metal cans of cold pressed oils. I have used cans of Olive oil years past their expiration dates with no ill outcomes, but always give the sniff test and visual exam if it is older. The next best choice is opaque glass bottles.

What about Animals Fats?

Animals Fats have a disadvantage with shelf-life life due to the necessary rendering process requiring heat. BUT, you can easily add life-span to animal fats by storing them in glass mason jars with minimal head space, in a cool dark location. Just try to avoid overheating and use sterile and dry jars. Also use smaller pint jars, so that  you use up the fat quickly after opening the jar. Store bought Lard is great for this, but of course if you are processing your own animals, that’s even better. But plan the entire day around the operation, you do not want to over heat the fat, but if you do, use it first (Darkest color, use first). If you do your part, one year non-refrigerated shelf-life should be no problem. Look up the many video’s on YouBoob on Rendering Fat.  I save all of my fats acquired through cooking,then reuse them the next time I am cooking with a fat.

What about those Omega 3’s and 6’s that our body cannot produce?

Well the best sources for Omega 3’s is cold water fish, something most of the country will not have access to post SHTF…. BUT, a great source of those Omega 3 Fatty acids and Protein can come in a very shelf stable can filled with Tuna, Sardines, Herring, Mackerel, Anchovies and other canned cold water fish. Packed in water in theory has a longer shelf-life, but packed in oil doubles down on providing fats into your diet, so don’t waste the oil, use it.

The best sources for Omega 6’s is Olive/Avocado oil, Seeds/Nuts, and Olives in brine. Because seed/nuts have oil content they can go rancid, so repackage them in mylar pouches with O2 absorbers for maximum shelf-life, and go with a variety. Peanut butter is also a survivalist winner with it’s fat/protein profile, but sadly the best shelf-life has some of that bad fat I have been talking about, I am making an exception here, peanut butter is just too solid of a performer not to have on the shelf., but “All Natural” Does not have the shelf life needed for long term storage. Olives in brine on the other hand have a very long shelf-life, and most of their calories come from fat. Some will complain about the amount of sodium, but fret not, your brain needs sodium to fire on all 8, and in a Post SHTF situation, where will you get it?

OK Garand, that info is fine and dandy up to about “Year 1.5”, what about “Year 2” post SHTF, I have used up all of the fat on the shelf, now what?

Well, this is where things get dicey without proper planning.

If you were in Florida or on the Left Coast, you might be able to plant some Olive and Avocado trees for future needs and go Salmon fishing.

How about raising critters? The two “easiest” sources of fat to raise on a small scale would be Chickens and/or Goats. Easiest is in the eye of the beholder though, being a city slicker I know one thing for sure, if you are caring for any animal, whether it’s a dog or a chicken, things have to be taken into consideration, especially when the animal your raising is on the menu of area predators (2, 4 , or no legged). But chicken eggs provide fat as well as all sorts of good things and of course chicken meat is a healthy protein for sure, just don’t forget you need a Rooster for protection as well as maintaining flock numbers. Goats, while requiring more effort, produce fat and other good stuff in the milk, which can be fermented or cultured for even more needed good nutrition, and you would have goat on the menu once a year, maybe twice if the doe had twins. The time to educate yourself on raising animals for food is four years ago, get at it! P.S. Sadly Rabbits are too lean for any Fat considerations, though they do certainly provide protein.

Out in the wild…

Wild game is notoriously lean, your not going to get much out of Bambi (if you can even find one by “Year 2”, so waste nothing. Whenever possible slowly cook down bones, cartilage, tendons of any animal you harvested and make a soup rich in collagen.  Pound for pound, the two best single sources for fat in the wild are Raccoon and Beaver. Many recipes for them call for parboiling before roasting so that the meat is less greasy. If you go that route, be sure to render the fat and use it later.

Research how to make Pemmican and Erbswurst both are fat based and have extremely long shelf life. Raccoon and beaver are perfect critters for that, and you would have a stable nutritious food that requires no refrigeration, and you could start making that now in the “Good Times”

Lastly, What did the natives in your AO eat to survive? I looked up my area, Northeastern Illinois, and the primary source was the fresh water clams and fish out of the streams and rivers. Well that pretty much screws me, because every inch of the water system here has multiple shit treatment plants and or farm run off. Fresh Water clams being the filter of the waterways would be the most contaminated. West coast had seals and salmon, east coast had the bounty of the Atlantic including lobster, the middle, buffalo, beaver and Bears oh my.. We don’t have that anymore folks, you need to prepare for the lack of dietary fat now, before the balloon goes up.

Have a Good One!

G69