Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine monohydrate is a cheap white powder that refills the fast energy muscles burn in the first seconds of hard effort, which in a crisis means hauling water, splitting wood and digging, and it helps hold muscle when the calories run short. The field guide puts it in the stockpile for that and for the clearer thinking it supports under stress and lost sleep. Dry, it's one of the most stable things on the shelf: 10 or more years sealed, against a label of 2 to 3.

Plain creatine monohydrate powder, unflavored, in a sealed tub or bag; micronized dissolves more easily and keeps the same. Skip the blends, the flavored mixes and the liquids, which do not keep. A kilogram is 200 days at 5 grams, costs little, and is the right unit to store. A desiccant packet in every container.

Airtight with a desiccant, cool and dry, and a dry scoop every time. Moisture is the only thing that degrades it: in water or in a humid tub it slowly converts to creatinine, which is harmless and useless. Sealed bags or tubs inside a bucket with a desiccant are a decade's store. It takes a Mylar bag; the absorber is not needed, the desiccant is.

Good creatine is a free-flowing white powder with no smell. Hard clumps that will not break up, a yellow tint or an ammonia smell mean it has taken on moisture and started to break down; it's not dangerous but it is weaker. Slight caking that breaks with a spoon is fine. Mixed creatine should be drunk the day it's mixed.

About 5 grams a day, a level teaspoon, stirred into water or anything you drink, with plenty of water alongside; up to 10 for larger people or for the brain benefit, the field guide says, and it pairs with electrolytes. There is no need to load; a daily dose saturates the muscles in three to four weeks. It's not a stimulant and does nothing on the day you start. Avoid it with kidney disease without medical guidance, and keep drinking water. The book's framing is work capacity: the person who can keep swinging the maul on day ten is the one who ate enough and kept their muscle.

Nothing changes; a scoop in a cup of water. In a long outage the physical work goes up and the food goes down, which is exactly the situation it is stored for.

Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.