Iron and Vitamin Supplements for your BOB

Not actually Erin.

Picture by KJ Photography

& is used with permission.

I am some degree of anemic. I base this upon my observed experiences over several years (mentioned here and here on my personal blog) where the introduction of 25-50 mg of iron via a supplement is enough to combat feelings of lethargy and brain fog.

I'm going to stop you right there. I can already hear the comments being typed in:

1. You don't need supplements, just cook everything in a cast iron pan!
2. Be careful, you don't want to overdose on iron!
3. Are you sure it isn't [X]? You should get that checked / use this other supplement instead. 

Yes, I've heard all this before. Here are my answers:

1. I'm really skeptical about the amount of iron that will leach into my food through cast iron cooking, and even if it did work, I'm not going to eat exclusively from cast iron for the rest of my life. 
2. You're right, iron poisoning is nasty stuff. However, iron overdose only begins at 20 mg iron per kg of ingester (me), and a lethal dose is 60 mg/kg. So if I weigh 60 kg, that means I can safely ingest 1200mg of iron before it has any adverse effect on me. That's twenty-four times my daily dose, so even if I eat a big steak (6 mg iron in a 250g [8 ounce] steak), I'm nowhere near the danger zone. 
3. Yes, I'm sure. I've been like this since 2012, but here's a more recent example: I briefly ran out of iron this week and was unable to take it for two days. The first day I was all right, but on the second I crashed like a rock into a pond. I had no energy and no desire to do anything except stay in bed. Then more iron arrived, I took it, and I immediately perked up. 

So based on all this, it is vital that I have iron supplements in my various Bug Out and Get Home Bags. I'm going to need energy in a disaster scenario, and that's not the time to find out if I can get the proper nutrition to carry me through.

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I require a dose higher than most supplements provide (typically between 10 and 15 mg), so this is what I take on a daily basis. At $11 for 90 capsules, Vitamin Shoppe Comfort Iron is a very economical way for me to keep my energy on an even keel.

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However, for my BOB and GHB I have this. It's slightly more expensive, but it's chewable and it also contains 100 mg of Vitamin C, which is also a good thing to have in an emergency as it boosts your body's immune system and prevents diseases like scurvy. 

Even if you don't have anemia, it's a good idea to have some form of multivitamin in your Bug Out and Get Home Bags. I recommend Centrum multivitamins; not only do they have a good spread of ingredients, but they come tailored for the specific chemistries of men, women, and adults 50+. If you have children in your family, don't forget to pack vitamins for them, too.