Review: Life Caps

Life Caps are a new and fairly recent product on the market in the emergency preparedness category. I’ve heard of them on a few websites, and then I attended an emergency preparedness fair last weekend where several women were recommending them. The product is promoted as an “emergency preparedness pill”—you take one capsule three times daily, along with drinking plenty of water, in order to provide your body the nutrients it needs throughout the day. The creators claim that these pills satisfy your body’s needs such that you aren’t hungry for food, which is ideal in an emergency scenario if you don’t have access to your normal daily amount of food. I got a bottle early this week and decided to give them a try. I’ve heard from a few other people who have used them, and apparently they’ve felt great, had plenty of energy, didn’t feel hungry, and even lost weight (though Life Caps are not positioned as a weight loss product). Since I’m skin and bones already, that part wasn’t too alluring. For my “experiment” I wanted to simulate a realistic food consumption situation that might occur in an emergency. I cannot picture a scenario where I would have no food available, since my bugout bags and locations have food prepared for me and my family. Thus, I saw no point in abstaining from food altogether while testing the Life Caps out. What I did instead was to consume the types and amount of food I might have available in an emergency situation while also taking the Life Caps pills. Today and yesterday, I took a capsule at each normal mealtime, drank plenty of water throughout the day, and ate small portions of food—two small muffins for breakfast, a piece of fruit for lunch, a granola bar for an afternoon snack, and then a small dinner dish in the evening. The amount of food I ate was probably 1/3 – 1/4 of the amount I would normally eat, yet I felt content and did not have any hunger pangs. One might argue that the increase in my average water consumption was a contributing factor, and I would agree. So, it’s hard to ascribe one specific effect to the Life Caps themselves when other factors in my diet were changing as a result of the experiment as well. But in times past when I’ve had a lot of water to drink, I still craved a healthy portion of food to go along with it. This time around, the little food I had (in addition to the pills) seemed to be enough. The product’s website features a video with the creator who (as he claims) used the capsules alone (with water, of course) for 17 days and felt he was running at a 90% capacity. Again, I can’t envision a scenario where I would have to go this long (or even one day) without access to food. But hey, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to have these “super vitamins” (as I call them) to supplement your nutrition and help however they might. Note that the Life Caps do not contain any stimulants that are so popular these days in energy drinks and the like. If the stated ingredients are to be believed, then these pills are simply mega-vitamins that boost your nutritional intake. If that’s the case, it might be a good idea to compare them to other similar products in terms of price and shelf life. I’m told that the company is willing to offer discounts for group buys, for what its worth. So, the million dollar question: would I recommend Life Caps to others for inclusion in their preparedness supplies? Well, first I would recommend actually storing real food. Once that is all squared away, I do think it’s wise to have vitamins and supplements on hand as well to round out the nutritional value of whatever you’ll be consuming. Life Caps claim to get the nutrients into the bloodstream quickly (they are gelatin capsules with powder inside, as opposed to hard, compact vitamins that must be digested and broken down). Perhaps that’s the advantage that sets them apart from the rest. At this point, I’m still a little ambivalent.