Non-pershable food is a great investment in any circumstance. It doesn't have to be a doomsday - it could just be a hurricane, a flood, or something like that. You could even take it camping. It will probably rise in value as a commodity. You could sell it. In a worst case scenario, if you never have the need to use it and can't sell it, you could still... eat it and save money over eating out.
Most of the NON-perishable food that I looked at has ingredients of worse than cardboard. Really, it could kill you from the various anti-nutrition components. Surely, it would keep you alive in an emergency... but i would NOT recommend eating it for the purpose of saving money b/c when you end up with various negative health outcomes, it is just NOT worth the savings.
I think you're thinking of those ration bars that are made of sugar and flour. The ration bars are only for extreme circumstances of life and death for short timeframes. There are other food kits that are actual food, which are a more longer term solution. Half of what I was buying was MRE (meals ready to eat) that military troops eat for months while on deployment. I used to love them.
Actually, you are correct that the first thing that popped in my head were the various kinds of "nutrition" ration bars that NOT only have sugar and flour, but they contain bad oils as well (soy oils and hydrogenated oils - which are forms of transfat - which the body does NOT tolerate well).
I just googled MRE ingredients, and I was trying to figure out whether my statement regarding anti-nutrients would stand for those foods as well, and there is NOT a lot of specifics about the ingredients.. like what kinds of oils are contained therein. They probably contain transfats b/c transfats store longer and they are replacement/substitutes for saturated fats. Our bodies tolerate saturated fats well, but NOT transfats b/c transfats are not natural substitutes that are forced into form.
In the end, I would NOT consider MREs as nutritious, even though the human body may tolerate them more and on a longer basis and have fewer anti-nutrient's as the bars. I remain concerned about eating any foods on a regular basis that are intended for long-term preservation b/c some of the preservatives that are contained therein can cause various forms of additional inflammation in the body.
A young strong troup may be able to tolerate some of that abuse more than other people who may NOT be as young and strong.. Surely, good for troups to be eating food rather than NOT eating.
Anyhow, back to BTC.... we are getting more and more merchant acceptance of BTC which does allow more and more avenues to spend BTC. Yes, we should all be spending our BTC, when possible, and if BTC prices seem to be too low when we spend the BTC, then we should be replacing that BTC as soon as we spend it. On the other hand, if the prices are high when we spend the BTC, then we may NOT need to replace the BTC at the then current market rates.