Food Storage: Professional Trainer, Patrick Linehan, Explains What to Store for Optimal Health

Hey, Provident Preppers, I'm Kylene. And I'm Jonathan. Today we're talking about food storage and how important it is that you customize that to your own needs. Don't build it around somebody else's needs, build it around the needs of you and your family. So today we have a special treat for you. We have interviewed Patrick Linehan and he is a personal trainer and a prepper. In fact, he has his own YouTube channel and he does a lot of things like that. So you might wanna go on over there and check out some of the things that he's done. But he's also written a post for us actually, which is on our website, the providentprepper.org that you might wanna look at. Traditionally, the recommendation for preppers is a diet that is very high in carbohydrates. However, that's not the best diet for everybody. Diabetics, that's totally the wrong diet. And so when we talked to Patrick, his diet plan is different. Yes, you still need carbohydrates, but you need protein and you need fats and you need to balance them appropriately. And he's got some great ideas about what to store, how long it will store. And I think this might be a really good thing for you to not necessarily go just off of what Patrick has to say, but take it and look at what your healthiest diet is, what you would like to be able to eat and store that, because it might be different than anything anybody else does. And one of the reasons why we store such a high carbohydrate diet is because those foods are cheap and they last a really, really long time. So if you're doing a healthy diet, a lot of those foods are going to be, need to be rotated more regularly. So let's talk to Patrick. Hey Provider Preppers, we are excited today to have Patrick Linehan with us. Patrick is all things nutrition and fitness. He knows his stuff and as preppers, that's part of our job is to be fit and healthy as much as we can. We all have little struggles, but we all need to be fit so that we can take care of whatever needs to happen in a crisis situation. And one of the reasons why we invited Patrick on today is because not everyone eats or should eat the normal high carbohydrate food storage diet. So we've had a lot of requests for things like, well, if I'm on keto, how do I store food? Or if I'm on this diet or that diet. And so Patrick has agreed to come on and share with us a really great way to do food storage when you're not eating the traditional high carbohydrate diet that so many of us are on. So Patrick, tell us a little bit about yourself and your qualifications and why you're so awesome. Well, I don't know about that. That's, you guys set a high standard for me to try anything, but I am a licensed strength and conditioning coach, sports nutritionist, certified youth nutrition specialist, and just a foodie in general. I love food. I mean, anything food. So that's my passion is food. And I mean, I've helped everyone from Olympic athletes, professional athletes, all the way to obese people. My main, like I said, I am a licensed strength and conditioning coach, but my main focus is nutrition and more specifically customized nutrition. Everything I do is very customized for the individual client because there's, I mean, there's just so many variables that are particular to each individual that determine how that individual is gonna process and utilize the nutrients that they eat. So yeah, everything I do is very personalized. That's what I focus on. Excellent. And one of the things that I'm excited about is you have a little bit of, maybe a lot of interest in prepping. So that gives you a perspective that I think is very valuable today. Yeah, absolutely. So Patrick, if you could sum up what, like if you could put a label on what you think the healthy diet is, what would it be? Ooh, as far as a label, like a title, I often laugh at the titles that they come up with for some of these diets, because you have the Paleo diets, things like that, that they mark, it's all marketing, right? These labels that they put on diets that are, it's like, oh, you mean eat natural raw foods. Yeah, that's kind of what we were supposed to do from day one, but they slapped this new title on it and sell millions of copies. So, but generally speaking, you want high fiber, high fiber carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are not the enemy. Carbohydrates should not be run away from. They've been vilified oftentimes in the fitness and diet community, but carbohydrates are a necessity. It's just what type of carbohydrates you eat, what you eat them with, and what times of day you eat them, and things like that that play a significant role. But fiber-rich carbohydrates, lean proteins, and healthy fats. I mean, those are your three main areas. Those are the macronutrients, they're called, and there's micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals, but that you need to focus on as well. But if you're getting the right sources of those three main categories, the vitamins and minerals kind of tend to take care of themselves. Okay, so let's, I know when we had talked before, you had talked about how the diet actually changes. It's very specific to the person, right? And so we've got three examples for you. Okay, we'll start with me because I'm the biggest problem child, right? I am in my late 50s. I have MS, so I cannot eat anything that's preservative. I can't have caffeine. I can't have artificial sweeteners. I can't have sugar. I can't have rice. I can't have potatoes. There's a lot of things that I can't have. I need to eat a super clean diet. And tell me, how would you have me eat? What should I do? So that's actually, I mean, clients like that can be hard to work with, but they're also, in your case, very easy because so many people are, you know, they're so used to eating processed foods all the time that to get them away from that is a struggle in and of itself. Forget the, you know, combining the proper ratios of foods together at meal. I mean, just to get them off that junk is one thing, but if you already, I can't eat those things, it's like, oh, yes, finally, that's actually a good thing. That's not how I feel about it. Oh, I understand, I understand. To answer that question more specifically, like if you were my client, we would get more detail. For example, what's your body type? And the way to categorize that, I mean, there's technical definitions that I would use in my head, but the way that I explain it to clients and how I would ask you is, if you were to do nothing, no exercise, not pay specific attention to what you're eating, how would your body naturally gravitate? What would your body naturally do? Would you gain weight quickly? Would you tend to add weight? Would you kind of, oh, it doesn't really matter what I eat or what I do, I kind of stay the same. Some people, you know, if they're not constantly working out and eating, they lose weight a lot. They just shrink really easy. So what category would you- Oh, gain weight, absolutely gain weight, yeah. So the next question that I would ask is, what is your goal? So the reason that's important and the reason why your listeners should, if they're looking for a diet or a nutrition plan or how to construct their nutrition, why it's so important is because let's say you, for example, have an exact twin. Everything else is about you is the same. You have another woman that's the same age, has MS, can't have dairy, or can't have all these certain things, but one of them, you know, wants to lose weight and the other one's like, well, I want to do this. I want to reach this particular goal. If you have two different goals and that's, you have two completely different eating plans, even though everything else about you is exactly the same. So what would be your goal with your nutrition plan? My ultimate goal is health. I want to be healthy. I think that it would be great to lose a little bit of weight and look better, but health is what really matters to me. I just want to, I want to feel good. And I want to be, I don't want to be in a wheelchair. That's my goal. It's a great goal. I agree. And I'm a huge proponent of that because even with my Olympic athletes and professional athletes, one thing I always tell them and, you know, bodybuilders, people that are into the aesthetics of working out and nutrition is good aesthetics, good fitness, good looks, doesn't always mean optimal health, but optimal health will always mean the other, right? You'll always look good if you aim at optimal health. You can look good by, I mean, people do a lot of dangerous things with drugs and supplements and things that, you know, they might look fit, but their heart's ready to explode. Or, you know, there's different physical things that are wrong with them. But if you aim for optimal health, if that's your goal, the weight loss, the fat loss, the aesthetics, the health, I mean, all that will fall in line. So that's good to know. The other question I would ask you is what's your daily energy expenditure like? Do you exercise? And if you do, how long do you, you know, are you sedentary? Are you in front of the computer all day? Or are you, you know, what's your daily routine like? So it all depends. Having MS, some days I can't function well, right? And it's just a day where I'm barely, I'm barely able to do the daily tasks of living. For the most part, if I'm stressed with work, I'll spend some days where most of the days I'm behind the computer. When my life is working the way that I like it to, we are walking every day. We have, we were training, doing some weight training three times a week. In the wintertime, it's easier for me to stay on schedule because I'm actually on the treadmill instead of going outside. And I do a lot of gardening. I love to be in my garden. I do a lot of, it's a huge garden. So there's a lot of manual labor with shoveling and bending and stooping and harvesting and all kinds of using all the muscles of my body in the garden. So I would not say I'm highly active. I can't run. Most of that's due to lack of coordination, right? The brain and the body don't work really well together. It's like that. But walking is great. We can go on nice long walks and most of the time I'm fine. Yeah. And she does very well in the garden. That's her real happy place. So, and she's busy, perhaps not aerobically. She's not getting the heart rate up, but she's there in the sunshine, the fresh air and very active. So yeah. Okay, good. And that's, again, for you and for your listeners, how you can see how extremely important that is, because again, just that one variable in and of itself, let's say like, again, you have a twin, everything about you is exactly the same, but one of you is very active all day and one of you not so much. You can see just that one variable, how drastically that would affect your nutritional requirements. Right. It's very important. So anybody that tries to suggest a diet or a nutritional intake plan for anybody without asking these questions, you can see why so many diets fail, right? Yeah. One of the other things about me is I don't usually ever eat breakfast. I usually, my goal is to wait till about noon, but I kind of, if I'm hungry or that day, I will, or I have something in the afternoon, I will eat at nine or 10. But for the most part, I do intermittent fasting. Oh yeah, good. So you're doing it on purpose, then are you usually hungry in the morning or you're just not hungry? I'm never hungry at breakfast time. But I think I've just been doing this for so long that that might be just the way my body is. I don't know. Nutritional, I mean, intermittent fasting is an awesome tool. It's, that's a good thing. If done right, of course, but yes. The next thing I would ask is, and you can give me hypothetical numbers here if you want, because I know you have thousands of people listening. You don't have to be completely truthful, girl, but the next thing I would typically ask is your height and weight, is I would have you keep a food log for three days. I mean, if I was working with you as a, you know, one-on-one intense client, keep a food log for three days. Do you have any idea now how much, let's say protein, just as an example, you can get in a day or how many, you know, grams of- I can tell you, I can tell you that, but I can tell you that I crave protein like crazy. Ben, who is our 16-year-old son, won't eat meat. And so every once in a while he'll do fish and Johnny eats a little bit of meat, but I'm like craving protein. So like the little snack bags of rotisserie chicken that I keep in the freezer, I will have at least one of those a day. So I am, and whether it's on a salad or I can't do gluten. And so, you know, it's with some vegetables or- Yeah, and like I said earlier, it's actually a relief sometimes to work with somebody like that because fruits and vegetables, I mean, those are, that should be everybody's primary carbohydrate source, generally speaking, or at least a lot of it. We rely so much on grains and we'll get into that, and I'm sure in the Prepper community that we rely so much on that, that we tend to miss the importance of fruits and vegetables. But for you, a starting point would be probably around 100 grams of carbohydrates, 125 grams of protein, and around 55-ish to 60 grams of fat. That would be a starting point. Again, we, and then where we would go from there is going about your daily routine is when to eat those, in what conjunction with each other, because that makes all the difference in the world. A lot of people, when they hear their nutritional numbers that I would give them, they're like, oh man, that seems like a lot of food. Or some are just the opposite, like, wow, that's it? But the magic happens in the combination of foods. That changes everything, and how you combine foods and what types of carbohydrates you're eating, what types of protein, what types of fat, and how you couple those together, because how you eat those together in that consumption and digestion process, hormones are released. I mean, it affects everything, leptin, insulin, cortisol, even testosterone and estrogen. I mean, how you couple those foods affect all those hormones in your body, and that is what, like I said, where the magic happens in how you combine those foods. So we would, if you were my client, we would work together to see, okay, like you said, I don't usually eat in the morning right away, I eat later on, and depending on your schedule, we would say, okay, then for your first meal, this, for your second meal, couple this, for your third meal, couple this, to be able to hit those numbers by the end of the day. Again, for you, the carbohydrate sources would be primarily fruits and vegetables. The protein sources, I'm sorry, did you say you don't eat meat? Oh, you do. Oh, no, I eat meat. Ben, our 16-year-old doesn't eat meat. Gotcha, so your protein- So family meals are challenging. Yeah, so your protein intake would be pretty easy. I mean, you could supplement, if it seemed like a lot, and it was like, man, I don't think I can eat that much, you could supplement with protein supplements. The fats would be probably fairly easy, especially if you're eating meat, depending on what cuts of meat that you, when you're cooking with oils and things like that, that adds up really fast. So let's talk a little bit, before I move on to Jonathan, about food storage for me, right? So if I'm looking at being able to store the right foods so that I'm okay, now, I haven't been able to find a protein powder yet that hadn't, didn't have something in it I can't have. So I just have to be really careful that way. But I would be storing freeze-dried meats, canned meats. Would TVP be a good protein, or is it just, it's all soy-based? A lot of people recommend soy for a vegetarian source of protein, but I don't wanna miss the forest through the trees here. Soy can be, but soy is also a very highly abused crop, very highly abused crop. I mean, it's made in such abundance that everything is so chemically treated and GMO-laced that it can cause problems. So, I mean, depending on the source, yeah, it can be, it can be a good. Potentially. I wouldn't overdo it depending on, again, the hormone levels is what affects so much in our fitness, our weight loss, our mental ability, our cognitive, I mean, everything. So another problem with soy is that an overconsumption of it can really affect estrogen levels in both men and women. So men, I tend to shy away from it. Not completely, but men especially need to be very careful of it because it can really spike, not insulin, estrogen levels. So then back to my food storage. Canned meats, which can store for five to seven years, freeze-dried meats for up to 25, and that's pretty much my concentrated protein, right? You'll get additional trace amounts from your vegetables also, but yes, those are your primary protein sources. Eggs also, I know you guys have the homesteaders as well, so egg is another source of protein. Okay, and we probably should bring that up right now. And that is that when you're on this kind of a diet, there's nothing better that you can do than to be growing your own garden with your fresh fruits and vegetables and having chickens because eggs are a great source of protein and fat. And a lot of times in a survival diet, that's what we're missing. So I don't kill my chickens. I can't do it. I just can't. And so, but the eggs are a fabulous source for us and we can just continually have that source of food. Absolutely. Yeah, and when we're talking about food storage, I'm a big proponent of food storage. I probably have more food storage than most, but I'm also a huge proponent of what you're saying. You have to have a resupply plan. To produce is far better than storing and consuming. You gotta produce. So yes, chickens, eggs, if you have animals that you actually can kill, then- I know, I know. And one of the things that we do with our freeze dryer, we talked to you a little bit about how fantastic freeze drying is, and that's not a possibility for everyone, but we, when our chickens are producing a lot, we freeze dry the extra eggs. And we freeze dry those raw. We just blend them just slightly so that the whites and the yolks are mixed. And then we freeze dry them. And when you reconstitute them, like you cannot tell the difference. They have about a 10 year sort of shelf life because they are kind of high in fat, but what a great thing to have in your food storage. And then in addition to that, we have lots of freeze dried fruits and vegetables. We have some dehydrated fruits and vegetables, and then we have some canned. Canned is lower on my list. I think they're just not as nutritious, but we have the home bottle stuff, and I think that's better than store processed. I don't know, but we do have a lot of that. And we have a lot that we put in our freezer too. We put some of our food storage in our freezer, recognizing that it's vulnerable. But like the fruits and berries, and you've got like kale and all kinds of different stuff like that. So when I'm looking at a food storage plan for me personally, that's kind of what it would look like. Am I correct? Yeah, that's awesome. Actually, in fact, I've been meaning to do freeze dried eggs myself and I'm scared because I've seen the horror stories of them exploding in the machine. So I haven't done it yet, but. No, so the only thing you have to do with that, when you blend them together, don't blend them on a high, just barely do it on low and do it just till they're barely mixed. Otherwise they get this like real foamy airy thing and you don't want that. So just, and that's the trick, but they turn out incredibly well, incredibly well. Okay. Everything you mentioned, yep. Fruits, vegetables, you got your protein sources. What about, do you have any sensitivities or anything to fat sources? Let's say nuts, seeds, avocado, oils, anything like that? No, I'm blessed there. So nuts, and nuts are great. They just have a shorter shelf life, right? So we have to rotate through them, but that's okay because when that's something we're eating all the time, it's okay to rotate through it. Right? And we planted nut trees in our property. So we will have the ability to harvest and refresh our supplies. Nice. So do we kind of have that covered then? Yep. Okay. So now on to Johnny. Now you got to answer all the questions faster than I did. Okay. All right. Here we go. So just a little bit about me. I'm very, very big into fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds. I do love my grains. I love whole wheat waffles. I love whole wheat bread. He's addicted to peanut butter sandwiches. Oh, and I do love peanut butter. Every meal is followed by a peanut butter sandwich, but it's very specific. It's a piece of bread with peanut butter on half of it and then fold it over. Right. Usually with a little jam, but anyway, so yeah, I do try and eat helpfully. I do like fish as mama mentioned, but I try and only do that maybe once or twice a week just because I'm concerned about the buildup of some of the toxins that can be in fish depending on how they're raised and how old they are. But so yeah. And he eats very little meat. Yeah. Can I address the toxins in the fish thing real quick? Yes, please do. I'm glad you brought it up because there's two problems with toxins, not just in fish, but just in general, with processed foods and things of that sort is that not only is the toxin, the preservative, those things harmful in and of themselves, but they prolong the harmfulness because they inhibit the absorption of the beneficial nutrients that you do eat. For example, I mean, this is why I'm a big proponent of treat meals and not keep days like you hear on most diets, because the problem is when you eat a lot of processed foods or a lot of high fatty, ultra processed fats foods, like what we would consider junk food is not only is there the negative effect of the consumption of that food itself, but those chemicals and that stuff that takes a long time to digest and get through your intestines and clear out of your body is inhibiting the absorption of the beneficial and nutrient dense foods that you eat after that. So for example, on a cheat day, for example, you spend the whole day eating a bunch of junk food. Not only do you reap the consequences of all those added calories and fat and just the individual consequences of those foods, but by the time you get all that out of you and through your intestine, I mean, you're three, four, five days down the line to where you're, let's say the next day you're eating broccoli and you're eating your vegetables and you're eating all that stuff. Well, your body's not absorbing that because the microvilli in your intestinal tract that absorb all the nutrients, and you know, think of it as blades of grass. All that, those blades of grass where food passes through and that's what absorbs all your nutrients. When you dunk it down, it's like pouring a bucket of oil on a lawn. You know, those blades are not there anymore to absorb those nutrients. So when you, even the next day, two days, three days, four days later when you're eating their nutrient dense foods, you're not getting the nutrients from it. So you have the added consequences for days to come and then that's why diets with cheat days do so horribly because you spend one day on a cheat, you think, oh, it's one day, I deserve a cheat, right? And then you spend the next five days not getting the nutrients from those. So it's just a constant cycle. By the time you get it cleared out, you're at your next cheat day already, right? That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, if you're doing one cheat day a week, it sounds like you might have one day where you're actually getting nutrients and then you wipe it out again. So it's- Yeah, there's a big, I mean, this is another thing that a lot of diet and nutrition people miss the forest through the trees is there's a big difference between nutrients in a food, a food being nutritious, and your body actually digesting, absorbing, and utilizing those nutrients. Those are two very different things. Went down a rabbit hole there a little bit, sorry. No, we're okay. I think it's important information. We need to understand that, especially as we're looking at really challenging times and we've got to go into this with our bodies as healthy as they can be because we can't afford to have all the other, I mean, another pandemic, right? We can't afford to not be healthy enough to make it through things like that. Yeah, I mean, it's just any health issues are gonna exacerbate any potential catastrophe that we face. I mean, it's just makes it that much more difficult when you don't have the health to be able to face it. Your body type, kind of like I asked Kyleen, if you did nothing, what would your body naturally gravitate towards? What would it do? Probably would tend to gain just a little. Okay. I at one point was 20 pounds heavier than I am now. And so it takes some work for me to, and of course at that point in time, I wasn't as concerned about diet. I kind of ate whatever and if we ate out and if I wanted to go to McDonald's for lunch or whatever, it just, it wasn't as big a deal. And then I, 20, well, 15 years ago, started thinking, okay, I'm at an age where I've got to fix this. I've got to, I don't want to go into my later years already compromised and in a bad place. So I have substantially cleaned up my diet. McDonald's is never an option. No. Never. So, and that's, you know, and I like where I am. I like all the fresh fruits and vegetables. That's how, that's my happy place. You know, when I'm eating fresh fruits and vegetables and a peanut butter sandwich, but that's where I feel good. And that's what makes me tick well. Yeah. Okay. So again, you guys make it easy for some people. It's like pulling, oh, fruits and vegetables, you know, like I have to eat fruits and vegetables, but that's awesome. Okay. So energy expenditure, do you, you said you were working out about three times a week to some kind of resistance training, but what's, what are you, where are you at now? I still try and work out three times a week aerobically. And then I, I do some pushups and sit ups in there. I'm not really doing a whole lot with the weights just recently, but I'm very active, physically active in the yard. Not, not as much as Kyleen, but so yeah, I do, I do try and get the aerobic in there, you know, push myself a little bit and then just generally being active around, around the house and the yard. Do you make a conscious effort now? I know you say, you don't try not to eat meat, right? Or, and not fish very often. Yeah. You know, fish once or once or maybe twice a week. I eat a lot of salmon once or twice a week with rice and with peas. Yeah. It's a, it's a thing. It's kind of a thing. Like rice and peas and salmon. Yeah. And yeah, I don't, I don't eat a lot of meat. Okay. Do you make any other conscious efforts to get protein sources? Do you have other protein sources that you know of? Nuts. Nuts. Well, fat. Nuts and seeds. And I do enjoy beans, dry beans. Lots of beans. Pinto beans, white beans, black beans. Every single day. If I could, yeah. Every day. I love, I love beans. That, along with the fruits and veggies, that's something that, that really makes me tick. It makes me feel good. Oh, it makes him tick, all right. It hasn't been that bad. And she has to admit that. So getting very personal here. I'm glad you brought up beans because those are one of those foods that people say are high in protein, quote unquote, but that are, and in comparison to other plant-based foods or grain type foods, they are, but you're still with beans getting anywhere from, depending on the type of bean, three to six or seven times the amount of carbohydrates per serving than you are protein. So just. Just kind of have to weigh that all out. So what I'm looking at. You gotta weigh that out when it comes to, I just, and for your viewers as well, when they're, you know, when it comes to preparedness, one of, that's a big preparedness item that most people stock is beans. And they think, oh, there's my protein source. Well, not so much. Cause if you were to have to eat enough beans to get yourself the amount of protein that you need in a day, you'd also be consuming, like I said, three to six times that amount in carbohydrates, which is a bad ratio. So you definitely need to, we'll find a way to supplement your protein intake to get it up there so that your ratio, your balance is where it needs to be. I think the other thing is he can't do dairy. And so there's no, there's nothing coming. I do dairy. I love dairy. But there's none coming in for him. Like that's not an option in his diet. Yeah. Okay. That's easy too. Cause I'm, I'm a proponent of that as well. That's easy. I love the taste of dairy. I love the taste of dairy, but yeah, I don't eat too much dairy either. So that's easy. Okay. So let me do some math for you real quick. Do the nuts do a good job of, of kind of providing some of that protein, having some almonds and as long as they're not roasted with salt and such. That's, that's another one that typically gets kind of missed the forest through the trees type thing with a lot of people that recommend them as a protein source. They do have considerable protein, but they have, they're primarily, I would view them primarily as a fat source because they have more fat than they do protein. So again, you're, if you're in the scenario where you're relying on nuts for your protein source, and let's say you, we do the calculations and you say, I need this much protein. Okay. So that takes this much nuts. But if you were to eat that much, you're getting twice as much fat as you are protein. So even though you did get your protein, you wait now you're way up here on your fats. Does that, if that makes sense? So they're, they're a good food source and they can help contribute to your protein, but we need to just make sure that those balances are correct. So that again, all those hormone levels and it comes into the digestion and utilization of the nutrients, not just what you eat. So, oh, and your goal, what are you happy where you're at? Would you want to add some lean muscle? Are you trying to lose some fat or do you have any specific goal in mind? I do want to lose a little bit of fat. I'm not into bulking up at all. I'm at a place where if she doesn't like me now, then I don't want to put on a bunch of muscle that's, and I don't feel a need to put on muscle. I can do what I need to around the yard and I'm very happy. So, you know, if anything, I would lose a few pounds of fat because I'm still carrying a little bit that I would like to unload, but overall, I'm pretty happy where I am. Okay, so a starting point for you, what we would approximately start with would be 105 grams of carbohydrates, 140 ish grams of protein and 46 to 50 grams of fat. And like I said, that's using formulas that I've constructed over the years of helping so many people and so many different centers. That's why I ask all these questions because like I said, they all affect, but even within that, I think there's, I forget the number, but using my formulas, it comes out to like one in 300,000 different differences of potential calculations that could come out for any specific individual. But even within that, we would monitor your progress and how you feel and your progress over time. And we would adjust that as necessary, but that would be our starting point based on just the starting information. And then as far as the types of food, what you're eating now is awesome. We would need to, fruits and vegetables are your main carbohydrate source. You got grains, you like grains, so you're definitely not gonna have any problem meeting your carbohydrate requirements. Your fats, you like nuts and seeds, right? And I'm sure, Kyleen, when you cook with oils, things like that, a little bit of drizzling oil on something, you're probably gonna have no problem reaching your fat goal. We would just need to supplement your protein intake. And if it's not meat-based, then like she was saying, there's soy-based products. I would just shy away from overdoing it with that for the estrogen reasons. But protein powders, protein, I tend to shy away from bars for the same reason. You have this marketing tactic where people call things a protein bar, but if you actually look at it, it's far more carbohydrates and fat than it is protein. So it definitely has more protein than a typical candy bar, so they call it a protein bar because they add protein in it. But as far as how much protein it has compared to the other nutrients, it's severely skewed usually. So we would add a protein, probably a powder that's primarily protein in it. No carbohydrates or fat in it because you've already got those taken care of. That would supplement and bring up your ratios to where they need to be. Okay. Let's talk about the protein powder for just a second because we are talking about food storage, right? If you were using a protein powder on a regular basis, do you know what the actual shelf life is? I assume, because proteins denature in storage, right? And you've got the problem with fats in them because fats go rancid in storage. Do you know how long they would last on the shelf? Well, good question. It's gonna depend largely on those things that you just said I mean, because there are proteins out there that have a higher fat content on purpose because depending on the certain types of day and things like that, a high fat protein powder might actually benefit you. It's just, you have to eat at the right time of day. But with the type of protein that I would recommend at least in this particular scenario, we would be using primarily strictly protein with very little carbohydrates or fat in it. That's gonna have the longest shelf life. And I haven't stretched mine to the point of, I'm afraid this is gonna go bad and I need to throw it away. But I've had mine up to two years and they were fine as far as taste, as far as texture, as far as I didn't notice any difference in actually consuming them. Like, oh man, I'm starting to lose muscle mass. Like, I don't think that protein content, it looks like that protein content has degraded significantly. Typically in those, the listed shelf life, you know, the stamp on the actual container is anywhere from 18 to 24 months after the date of actual packaging. So by the time it gets on the shelf and you buy it, you usually have, you know, a good 12 to 18 months usually at least on it. But in a cool dry place, it'll last longer. That's the best buy date and the purchase date usually, but they'll last longer than that. Right. So, and that's another proponent for, you know, store what you eat and eat what you store, right? If you are gonna be taking this on a regular basis, then you buy enough for a year and you have it for 18 months or whatever it is your goal is and then continually utilize it, right? And so that we are always keeping it fresh and you have plenty of backup. Okay, was there anything else we need to talk about, about John or are we? Cause his food storage plan would be very similar to what we talked about for mine, only we'd be adding for the protein powder for yours. Cause the original container should be fine if it's only a short term food storage item, you can't get 30 years out of it. So why are you package it? Yeah. We wanted to talk just a little bit about Ben because he's a challenge. He's, he looks amazingly healthy, amazingly thin. I don't know all of his technical things, but I would love to know how to get more protein in that kid when he won't eat meat and he doesn't eat dairy. He eats absolutely no sugar. Well, that's not true. He'll eat honey, right? So he'll eat honey or maple syrup and then he just does lots of fruits and vegetables. So what, but it's interesting cause suddenly, you know, he's starting to notice that now that he's working and going to school, he doesn't have enough oomph to make it through the day. I think it's really, it's just interesting. So for a while he was fine and now you can tell, man, some protein for that kid would be really helpful. What would you recommend for somebody like that? Is he, now you said he's in pretty good shape. Is he an athlete? Is he active all day? He does weight training every day at school. Other than that, I wouldn't say he's an athlete. He doesn't, well, he loves Frisbee. Like him and his friends will go out and play football or play Frisbee. They're way into Frisbee, but he doesn't participate in any of the high school sports. Okay. So what about- But he's pretty fit. He is very fit. Very fit. He doesn't, does he enjoy, you know, edamame, soybeans, tofu, any protein source other than eggs? I think he'd probably totally eat tofu. I think he would. It means I have to cook it. So- No eggs though? He won't do the eggs either? He will eat eggs just very little bit. Okay. And smoothies? He will absolutely do smoothies. He'll drink, as long as I promise him I didn't put any sugar in it or anything, like any dairy, he'll drink it. Okay. So yeah, we definitely do smoothies. So yeah, a big handful of fresh spinach in that smoothie. Spinach is a good one that not only does it add, I mean, it's nominal protein because you'd have to use pounds of it to get tons of protein, but it will add some. And the flavor in a smoothie, you can't even taste it. You know, tossing in a protein powder in there. And I know you shop at, you mentioned Costco earlier. They have a collagen now that will add protein. It has virtually no flavor. Flavor becomes an issue with him. I mean, if he's picky, I don't know, but then the collagen is another way without adding the flavor. Collagen is animal based though, right? Oh yes, you're right. He said no animal based for him, right? He's just, yeah. Okay. Which is fine. We all make our own choices, right? And so I try and be really respectful of, I'll just cook him what it is that he'll, he feels comfortable eating. So, but like the protein powders, I think we have some that it's a vegetarian one, but then a lot of mad sugar. Like why, why do you do this? Yeah, there's several plant based ones that, that, I mean, I don't know if you want me to say their names now. They're not paying you to advertise, but. You can totally say them if you want. There's Garden of Life is a good brand that has a protein that's just very nominal ingredients with anything else as far as it's very low carbohydrate and low fat. And most of the protein sources in there are actually sprout, come from sprouted grains, not just, so it's, it's very easy on the digestive tract. It's very bioavailable. It's utilized in the body very easily. P protein is another one that's typically low in fat and carbohydrates. So the, all you, you know, that would only come into effect if you're being very specific on your nutrient balance and hormonal balance and stuff like that. So that's another one, any brand really, except when you get into, you just gotta be careful, obviously, of the different flavorings and stuff. They put in there, once they start adding all that stuff and it changes things, but you can get an organic, basic P protein and it's very flavorless. So for picky people, it does good in smoothies. So when we were talking about food storage, right? And what we can store. So you're talking about P protein, is that just grinding peas into a flour or do they do something else to that? They extract, there's a process that extracts specifically the protein from that. I'm not very well versed on what that, how that machinery or what it does. And that's okay. So, okay. Cause I was wondering if storing peas, cause peas can be 30 years, right? Dried peas, peas, they can have a really long shelf life in if that had more protein in it. Anyway, okay. You can, yeah, you can definitely grind those even into a powder. The difference is that you're going to get that flavor with the whole protein. But if the person doesn't mind. Why don't you run down food storage wise, what you would store for proteins in your food storage? For me personally, my protein consists of, we have freezers where we rotate through. That's our first line of defense for protein. We have freezers where we rotate through the meat in those freezers and we're constantly restocking it. And then we freeze dry lots of meats. That is more long-term, obviously. We have some canned, store-bought canned, which will last three to five years probably. And then the protein powders, we have that for about two years worth of that, that we rotate through. So the freeze-dry is more long-term, pretty much every, the freezer, the cans, even to the cans to a certain degree. And the protein powder is all we rotate through. Okay. And just so that I can put this out there, our local food bank will take canned meats five years past the best if used by date or best, yeah, best if used by date. So it goes to show that they do have a longer shelf life. You always want to use them fresher, right? I'm not saying keep them on the shelf that long, but in case you find that can in the back of your cupboard. Yeah, yeah. There's a good chance that it's still good. The freeze-dried meat that we, like we talked about earlier, the shelf life will obviously be altered somewhat by how much the fat content of it. Different meats are gonna have a different, depending on how much fat is in there. But there's ways around that, like we were talking about earlier, is rinsing it and stuff before freeze-drying it to extend that life a little bit. Yeah. And freeze-dried meat, we talked about this just a little bit, but wow, is it just so good because the quality once it's rehydrated is so similar to the original, the texture and it really is good. Okay, so now when you think about food storage, shelf-stable fats, what would you store for shelf-stable fats? That's probably definitely the most difficult one just because of things becoming rancid. All of our fats, I think, we rotate through. So we have about 15 to 18 months worth of oils that we rotate through. Freeze-drying typically doesn't work well with things like avocado or high-fat foods, but nuts and seeds, like we were talking about earlier, will usually last far beyond their listed shelf life. And if you're gonna rotate through them anyway, that's another one. Avocado, things like that, but again, not shelf-stable. But like we were saying earlier, which is input to preparedness community, just as, if not maybe more important than shelf-stable storing foods is actually producing those foods. So if you have plants and trees and things like that throw an avocado one in there, that's a good healthy power. And nut trees, like you said, you'd have. And those eggs. Eggs are a good source of fat that you can produce. And that's, I know- Exactly, and they will actually freeze-dry. Yes, yes. Right, yeah, right. And you can have, okay, you also can store dried eggs. You can buy them. I, they smell horrible. You open that container and I'm like, I'm not gonna eat this. The sulfur smell is just really intense. And so for me personally, but the freeze-dried eggs, they don't smell at all. They don't. They're beautiful. They don't stink. Okay. So just to go back to the oils, olive oil, avocado oil. Are there some that you particularly like and recommend? Avocado oil is good for more for high temperature cooking. Olive oil is good too. Obviously the more natural, you need to know your sources of where you're getting it from. The cleaner, cold press is ideal because heat degrades the nutritional content of oils, which is why they don't, part of the reason they don't last on the shelf. But even the manufacturing process can damage the nutrient content of the oil because they use, it generates heat. So if you can get cold press, that's even better. I know that ultra-processed oils and fats will last on the shelf longer. Things like Crisco and those ultra-processed oils, but not only are they not healthy, but then we go back to the issue I was telling you about earlier, as far as the difference between consuming something and actually absorbing and utilizing nutrients. So you can say, oh, I got plenty of fats. Crisco, this will last forever on the shelf. Having a nutrient on the shelf and having it and consuming it, and oh, that's high calories, that's a lot of calories, it's fat, it's high, having those calories, quote unquote, and actually your body actually being able to absorb and utilize the nutrients is two totally different things. So if you're gonna eat garbage and very highly processed foods, again, that's not only about the damage that it's doing in and of itself, but it's also inhibiting the absorption and utilization of other nutrient-dense foods that you're eating. So let's talk just a little bit about coconut oil. I actually really like to cook with coconut oil, and I know that there's two different camps on it, but it has a super long shelf life. I have not had any of it go rancid yet. How do you feel about coconut oil? I like it. I like, we use it for a lot of different stuff. I mean, I'm married with five little girls and they use it for, I mean, skin care, they use it in their hair, we use it for cooking, we use it for a lot of different stuff. So coconut oil, I like it. It's got so many uses. And that one's good because of that really long shelf life, so. So, but again, you just gotta be careful of each oil that you use, watching its smoke point, and you don't want to, different oils do better at different temperatures. So different oils have different smoke points. So once you heat certain oils to a certain point, you break apart those triglycerides, you break apart their molecular structure, basically, and they become very harmful and you don't want to eat them at that point. So you just gotta do your research on whatever oils you choose and don't heat them past certain points. Different, like I said, avocado oil, I believe is better at higher, grapeseed oil is better at high temperatures. Just watch that. Okay, and then the carbohydrates that you would recommend people store. Yeah, that's the easy one. I mean, that's the one we all put in mylar in buckets, right? Corn, beans, rice, wheat, oats. That's the easy one. That's the, what preppers tend to have, you know, by the caseloads. But fruits and vegetables are carbohydrate sources too. And those, if at all possible, even if you have to do canned stuff from the store, you know, it's definitely not as good as dried or freeze-dried or something like that for long-term storage, but better than nothing. But yes, fruits and vegetables, again, grow your own if at all possible, but as far as shelf-stable, freeze-drying is probably the best when it comes to that. But those are carbohydrate sources that are gonna be far more nutritionally beneficial to you than some of the other grains. Again, it's not just about calorie consumption, it's about nutrient absorption. So fruits and vegetables definitely do not shy away from those, those are gonna be very, very important. And for those of you who don't have a garden or to do in the wintertime, sprouting, store seeds so that you can sprout or you can grow microgreens, you can grow those in any house, right? And or any apartment or any place. So I would definitely say, make sure you have some seeds to do that so you've got some of those fresh greens. So Patrick, if somebody would like to hire you to help them and be their personal trainer or to be able to coach them a little bit on some of the foods that they should eat, how do they contact you? Email is probably best, project5plife at gmail.com or you can check out my Project 5P YouTube channel, leave a comment or send a message there. And yeah, we can get rolling. There is, okay, do you have any final words for our audience? Just like you said, the two main things that I focus on and that I encourage others to focus on is focus on health when it comes to nutrition, health, the rest, the weight loss, the aesthetics, all that will take care of itself if you focus primarily on health. And number two, the other thing is just remember above all things, there's a huge difference between consuming nutrients and actually absorbing and utilizing them, those are two very different things. Thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us, Patrick. We really appreciate all that you do. Thank you. And everybody, go over to his YouTube channel and subscribe. We'll leave a link in the description of this video and I think it would be a great plan to go and subscribe and learn a little bit more from Patrick. Awesome, thank you, guys. Well, there you have it. And we wanna thank Patrick for sharing this information with us. And if you would like to have Patrick as your own personal trainer, we'll leave his contact information in the description of this video. But for the question of the day, what is your ideal diet? And what are you doing to make sure that you have the foods that you can eat stored in your food storage? Comment below. And thanks for being part of the solution.