Beans and Rice a Complete Protein for your storage

Beans and rice

The other day, I wrote an article on How Much Food to Store in Your Preps? The article suggested starting your food storage with the basics recommended by the LDS Church.  This consists of primarily Wheat, white rice, corn, other grains and beans.  Now this is designed to keep you alive and healthy it is not a very tasty diet.  The article then tells you to supplement this with other storage.  The idea being that this is a quick and inexpensive way to get a lot of food in a hurry.

As a result of this article, I have received questions regarding a possible lack of protein in the diet.  While I do supplement my storage with meat, milk and other proteins, beans and rice can make a complete protein.  Keep in mind that in many third world counties that beans and rice are the primary source of protein and they are strong healthy people.

Beans and rice are a complete protein.

The ratio of beans and rice should be about even.  People in the poorer countries tend to bulk up on rice, as beans cost more, so that this is not as healthy.

Legumes

Legumes are one of highest in protein for non-animal foods containing between 20%-35%.  They consist primarily of beans, peas, and lentils.  Legumes by themselves are not a complete protein, but when combined with other grains (corn, rice) become a complete protein.  Beans contain all the essential amino acids, except methionine.  Methionine is found in corn, rice, or meat.  Beans are also full of fiber, starch,  potassium, folate, iron, manganese and magnesium, and they are cholesterol and fat-free.

See also  Reconstitution of Dehydrated fruits and vegetables;

Legumes include Beans of all types, a partial list includes

  • Adzuki
  • Black eye peas
  • Black turtle beans
  • Chickpeas or garbanzo beans
  • Great northern
  • Kidney beans
  • Lentils
  • Lima beans
  • Pinto beans
  • Soybeans
  • White beans

However while rice and beans  provide enough protein you need fruits and vegetables to provide other vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients.  If you choose this route don’t just stop when you get your beans and rice, keep adding a variety of various foods.

Howard

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6 thoughts on “Beans and Rice a Complete Protein for your storage”

  1. While this is certainly true, it should be stressed that animal fats, and omega 3 fatty acids are TREMENDOUSLY important to muscle regeneration and brain functions.

    You did mention that meat is important, but I just want to stress this even more. I will suggest that additional animal protein and omega 3 (fish oil) supplements are stored.

    A point to note (that I have directly experienced), is the way the body utilizes carbohydrates vs proteins and fats. To make things short, carbohydrates are chains of sugar. Your brain lives on sugar, which is why breads, potatoes etc. are a favourite of many. However over the long term, and when food is not plentiful, you will get the feeling of boom and bust- i.e. a big bowl of oatmeal or beans and rice makes you feel full- then before your next meal you feel “starving” and have depleted energy. Animal fats allow your body to more evenly utilize this fuel, and you get a more even feeling of satiety.

    This has been noted and experienced by many on long range expeditions and high intensity activities like mountaineering. It takes more work to collect and store these things, however if you have to subsist on them they provide more calories for weight and you need a smaller quantity to feel full.

    In the end you store what you can, just adding in some experience.

  2. I agree with you completely, it is best to store a good protein like meat, and I do. But for those of you who are short of cash and need a lot of food in a hurry, this is one way to go. It will kept you alive, but listen to Common Sense and as you can add more meats and variety to your preps as you can afford it.
    Howard

    1. Why do you say that meat has ‘good protein’. Studies have shown that plant protein is far healthier and has none of the detrimental side effects of animal based protein (Read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell). Animal protein promotes/causes cancer growth and many other diseases while plant protein show absolutely no correlation with those diseases…

      1. Quoting from “The Big Fat Surprise” on the flaws of the China Study:

        Vegetarian diets generally have not been shown to help people live longer. The 2007 report by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, discussed in the last chapter, found that “in no case” was the evidence for the consumption of fruits and vegetables in the prevention of cancer “judged to be convincing.” And despite the fact that vegetarians tend to be “compliers” who follow doctors’ orders and are generally more aware of their health, meaning that they should live longer than other people, many studies have found this not to be true. Indeed, in the largest observational study on vegetarians, which followed 63,550 middle-aged men and women in Europe for a decade, overall mortality for vegetarians and nonvegetarians turned out to be the same.VII

        VII. This result came out a few years before the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study findings on red meat and disease, but it did not, unsurprisingly, get the same number of headlines. Nor has it received the same level of publicity as the China Study, the subject of at least eight books and cookbooks since 1990, by the nutritional biochemist T. Colin Campbell, who argues in favor of a vegan diet. These books are based on one epidemiological study, with a number of significant methodological problems, that was never published in a peer-reviewed issue of a scientific journal. Campbell’s two papers were instead published as part of conference proceedings in journal “supplements,” which are subject to little or no peer review (Campbell and Junshi 1994; Campbell, Parpia, and Chen 1998; Masterjohn 2005, on the “significant methodological problems”).

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  3. Taste and palatability are also important long term, which is why I recommended in a previous post that you include a mixture of dry seasonings and spices in your preps. Particularly if you will use any quantity of unconventional or game meat which the family isn’t used to, having a variety of different spices adds variety, and many also have medicinal value.

    My experience has also been that many grub lists for stored food are deficient in fats and oils. Tinned olive oil, or lard keep well, and there are also sources for good quality tinned butter (Red Feather) and cheese (Bega) which are of high quality. I have allowed a tin of each per month (1 case) as “comfort food” in my preps. Also consider that many freeze dried and dehydrated items depend upon soy protein, which is OPK if your system tolerates it. While I have some soy protein in various flavors in my preps I also keep “real meat” in both tinned and free dried form, which is available from various vendors Howard has mentioned before.

    Key is to stock what your famil;y eats already and to rotate your preps. If your family has never eaten curried rice and lentils or Cajun red beans and rice, don’t depend upon them in your preps unless you start experimenting with them now. I have found it helpful to experiment with my small 1.5L Hawkins pressure cooker and to cook one meal per week, usually on Wednesdays when the backup generator does its auto startup, just to refine the small quality recipes and to get used to using my dehydrated food stores.
    Everyone in the family should learn to start a fire, gather water and to cook a meal for the family. A weekly family home evening without computer or TV is a great time to practice this.

  4. Have been making refried beans in the crockpot overnight and then adding rice to them and spreading on Tostadas round shells.
    Then putting shredded cheese on top and microwaving it for one minute. Then topping that with diced up fresh greens (baby spinach, lettuce, leaks, and cilantro) and putting fresh diced tomatoes on top of that.
    My husband and I love to have those for an easy I hope healthy breakfast. Seems to keep us full. Have been trying different things during this stay at home time during the pandemic.

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