Is stockpiling oats an easy way to survive this pandemic?

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goldfish21
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09 Apr 2020, 2:22 pm

How is a stockpile of oats going to help anything virus related? :?

Stay home. Minimize contact with anything and anyone outside your home. Don’t touch your face. Wash your hands with soap frequently. Etc. That’s how you avoid getting sick.

As for food, a variety of healthy foods full of vitamins will help boost your immune system far better than a diet consisting solely of oats. Why stockpile one type of food vs buying a decent supply of a mix of foods? :?


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Persephone29
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09 Apr 2020, 7:34 pm

About a year ago I kept having an intrusive thought: buy beans, buy rice, stockpile some dried sources of vitamin C. I would put a crazy request on every grocery list. My husband got mad, I asked him to please just listen to me. He's glad he did. I think it was God.


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goldfish21
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09 Apr 2020, 8:02 pm

Besides supplement pills/chewables, what are dried sources of vitamin C?


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09 Apr 2020, 8:06 pm

Around January I started buying extra non perishable food like pasta when I saw it on sale.
I can stay home for a few more weeks and not even go out for groceries.
Dried apricots are my dried fruit source of vitamin C.
Normally I buy two cartons of fresh OJ that last nearly three weeks.
When that is gone I have cranberry-raspberry juice that doesn't need refrigeration for another week.
I have canned yams I bought for 58 cents a can. More vitamin C.



goldfish21
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09 Apr 2020, 9:33 pm

We didn’t have to stock up F all because we’re always well stocked. Last summer I spent $800 on groceries in 2 days for just myself - many non perishable staples that I still have a lot of.

A couple days ago I made the grocery run for our household. There are 3 of us living here. My cart full of groceries cost $725 and will last for weeks. But we could have gone for probably 2-3 months without shopping at all as there’s always ~$3k+ worth of food here, maybe more.

It’s weird to me that some people shop for groceries every week or even weirder every day. I usually buy a quite a lot at once and then don’t have to swing by a store for ~ a few weeks when I’ll run out of something or want to grab some fresh produce.

Grocery shopping is a chore. It’s a waste of time I’d rather waste at the beach drinking beer watching the sunset. 8) Why anyone would want to waste time and gas going to a grocery store every day, or every few days, or even every week is completely beyond me. :?

Also, obvi we take full advantage of buying virtually everything in bulk at lower unit prices - economies of scale. Plus, if there’s ever an earthquake or a global pandemic you don’t have to worry about wondering what you’re going to eat for the next while. :)

Lol when we were disinfecting very grocery item my dad looked to the couple dozen cans of tuna I bought and said “Now that’s hoarding,” and my mom told him “Uuuuh, no, that’s how he shops.” She’s not wrong. Why would I buy a few cans and have to go back there next week? :? Especially during this time when we’re supposed to minimize trips out.


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Persephone29
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10 Apr 2020, 6:02 pm

goldfish21 wrote:
Besides supplement pills/chewables, what are dried sources of vitamin C?



Vacuum packed dried fruits


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BTDT
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10 Apr 2020, 6:26 pm

Back when things were normal I'd shop a couple times a week to get fresh seafood, like locally harvested clams and scallops.



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11 Apr 2020, 9:12 am

BTDT wrote:
Back when things were normal I'd shop a couple times a week to get fresh seafood, like locally harvested clams and scallops.



Mmmm, sounds really good, especially now.


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The_Face_of_Boo
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11 Apr 2020, 10:02 am

Peanut butter is a great source of protein; and can last long.



The_Face_of_Boo
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11 Apr 2020, 10:06 am

goldfish21 wrote:
We didn’t have to stock up F all because we’re always well stocked. Last summer I spent $800 on groceries in 2 days for just myself - many non perishable staples that I still have a lot of.

A couple days ago I made the grocery run for our household. There are 3 of us living here. My cart full of groceries cost $725 and will last for weeks. But we could have gone for probably 2-3 months without shopping at all as there’s always ~$3k+ worth of food here, maybe more.

It’s weird to me that some people shop for groceries every week or even weirder every day. I usually buy a quite a lot at once and then don’t have to swing by a store for ~ a few weeks when I’ll run out of something or want to grab some fresh produce.

Grocery shopping is a chore. It’s a waste of time I’d rather waste at the beach drinking beer watching the sunset. 8) Why anyone would want to waste time and gas going to a grocery store every day, or every few days, or even every week is completely beyond me. :?

Also, obvi we take full advantage of buying virtually everything in bulk at lower unit prices - economies of scale. Plus, if there’s ever an earthquake or a global pandemic you don’t have to worry about wondering what you’re going to eat for the next while. :)

Lol when we were disinfecting very grocery item my dad looked to the couple dozen cans of tuna I bought and said “Now that’s hoarding,” and my mom told him “Uuuuh, no, that’s how he shops.” She’s not wrong. Why would I buy a few cans and have to go back there next week? :? Especially during this time when we’re supposed to minimize trips out.



Tuna is not a very healthy choice for this situation btw, scientists recommend eating tuna only twice a month due to its high level mercury.
Switch to sardines, same health benefits but much less mercury.



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11 Apr 2020, 10:38 am

My experience of stockpiling food is that you do it, then just crave fresh food. I usually eat pasta about 5 times a week, at the moment I'm eating potatoes, parsnips, carrots, more now than ever before. I haven't eaten pasta for about 3 weeks.



Last edited by Sahn on 11 Apr 2020, 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

goldfish21
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11 Apr 2020, 10:41 am

The_Face_of_Boo wrote:
Tuna is not a very healthy choice for this situation btw, scientists recommend eating tuna only twice a month due to its high level mercury.
Switch to sardines, same health benefits but much less mercury.


I also bought 8-10 cans of salmon.

Several years ago when my gut health wasn’t good at all I would buy salmon only for this reason. But my digestive health is better and salmon has risen quite a bit in price so over the last couple years I started buying a bit of tuna here and there, then more. This time I think I bought the most tuna vs salmon because neither was on sale - with the exception of one brand of sockeye salmon, which was still $4/can, which I still find expensive - although I’ve seen it as high as almost $8/can at one store once for the same brand. :shock: lol f right off! (No wonder seniors eat cat food sometimes.. Jesus! 8 bucks for a can of fish??)

There’s approx twice the protein in a cam of salmon than tuna, but they’re more than twice the price.

When I have canned fish I’ll sometimes just have one or the other but often mix one or two cans of salmon + a can of tuna and then eat it for several meals that day. And sometimes I’ll only do this once in a week or two period, others I’ll eat the same thing daily for several days. Just depends what I feel like.

A few dozens cans of fish will last me for probably a few months or more at my current rate of consumption. I’m not going to work right now during this craziness so don’t have a need to make up something quick and convenient for lunches.

I don’t mind sardines or herring. I sometimes buy sardines packed with jalapeños, but again, usually will buy a couple dozen when they’re on sale bs paying full price. I just eat them straight out of the tin with a spoon or maybe scoop them onto a thin rice cake, but they’re not the same consistency of fish that easily mixes up with mayo and salt & pepper with a fork to make a dip or sandwich filling.

Good point, though, about the mercury content - I used to avoid tuna completely for ~5 years or so for that reason but have since relaxed a lot. I really don’t think a couple dozen cans of tuna over a few months or so is going to turn me mad as a hatter. :)


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11 Apr 2020, 12:43 pm

Variety helps. I have half dozen cans each of sardines and tuna, plus some clams, mackerel, and salmon. :D
I have plenty of pasta and pasta sauce, but I've been eating freshly steamed rice for the past few weeks.



goldfish21
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11 Apr 2020, 1:10 pm

BTDT wrote:
Variety helps. I have half dozen cans each of sardines and tuna, plus some clams, mackerel, and salmon. :D
I have plenty of pasta and pasta sauce, but I've been eating freshly steamed rice for the past few weeks.


Indeed it does!

Yes, I just bought a couple dozen cans of tuna, but that was a small % of my $725 grocery cart full. And there’s plenty of variety in the ~$3k worth of food here at all times.

I only ever eat the same thing routinely for breakfast etc out of autistic routine tendencies, not because I don’t have many options for variety. Or because I make a huge batch of something, like a 15-18 egg omelette loaded with goodness, and split it out into lunches for the week.

Yesterday I made a giant batch of gluten free pineapple bacon pancakes loaded with all kinds of goodness. After we ate, these are the leftovers:

Image


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29 Apr 2020, 3:39 pm

goldfish21 wrote:
It’s weird to me that some people shop for groceries every week or even weirder every day. I usually buy a quite a lot at once and then don’t have to swing by a store for ~ a few weeks when I’ll run out of something or want to grab some fresh produce.

Grocery shopping is a chore. It’s a waste of time I’d rather waste at the beach drinking beer watching the sunset. 8) Why anyone would want to waste time and gas going to a grocery store every day, or every few days, or even every week is completely beyond me. :?


In normal times, I have the exact opposite grocery shopping strategy from you, but for a similar reason! I hate having to spend any length of of time in a supermarket. So instead of having a weekly shop for a whole load of stuff, I just pop in and pick up a few items on my way back from work, pretty much every day. Works for me- I rarely run out of anything, and I had decently stocked cupboards when all this blew up. I am not enjoying my new regime of normal-person-style weekly shops one bit.

It helps that we still have small local supermarkets round here- less crowded, less badly hit by the bogroll bandits, less sensory overload, less ground to cover to locate everything in (which is good, as I am easily confused). No room for trolleys, though- my arms are knackered afterwards.

The emergency food buffer I assembled in March included a lot of tortillas. Oddly enough, no-one else seemd to want them, even though they have a respectable shelf-life and are very versatile.


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29 Apr 2020, 3:59 pm

PhosphorusDecree wrote:
Oats are a pretty good addition to a stockpile- they keep well, don't take up too much space, and they're an excellent wholegrain carbohydrate. Add UHT milk and you've got protein too. Only trouble is, they don't go that well with meat, vegetables etc. Oats have a lot of vitamins and minerals for a grain, but not enough to meet your daily needs on their own.

So for a balanced diet you'd need some other kind of carbs as well, plus tinned veg or meat to have with it. Couscous is a good one. Not the sachets of ready-cooked stuff, but dried. Dried couscous cooks in 5 minutes- just pour boiling water on it and stick a lid on top. A 500g pack of couscous is enough for 10 meals. Plus, the panic-buyers don't seem to be targeting it. Very glad I had some in the house- it got me through the first week when my brain wasn't really up to cooking.


My Dad bought a 25 pound bag of organic rolled oats a few years ago and stored it in a few food safe plastic containers with lids. They ended up becoming infested with tiny little bugs. I assume the insect eggs were in the oats when he purchased them. Maybe not that big of a deal, but when he'd cook the oats the bugs (extremely small beetles) would float to the surface. He wanted to give us some of the oats and I refused and he was irritated by that and thought we should eat the oats bugs and all anyway..