Good advice! Most of the lifeboat-ration-type foods are indeed just calories, not something you would want to live on long term. That's not a bad thing necessarily. They're compact and will keep you going. Unfortunately the SAD (Standard American Diet) isn't much better than e-rations, nutrition-wise!

In keeping with the compact food theme, I think the Survival Caps aren't bad, either. Kind of a 'food pill' of sorts, kind of like a large malted milk ball without the coating. They are somewhere between bland and somewhat pleasant and supposedly have better nutrition than many other survival foods. They don't provide a huge amount of calories but may be a good lightweight supplement to other foods.

Food isn't the most critical thing to have in a survival kit geared to "typical" survival situations, but if you have room it certainly can't hurt! When out hiking or camping I prefer to have the food I'd normally eat anyways. For food storage at home I would rather just keep the food I normally eat and some canned stuff in the pantry.

All that said, I do like having Datrex and MH stuff in my gear.