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  1. #1
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    Default Lower Sugar Snacks

    I'm not diabetic or anything... It just seems like every time I come home after a 3-5 day trip on the trail, I crave sweets and I'm guessing its probably due to the large % of sugar in my diet on the trail (think ProBars, ClifBars, gorp, Poptarts, etc)

    Anyone have any suggestions on some good low sugar (maybe savory) snacks/breakfast go-tos? I'm talking beef jerky, nuts, etc... (but the more options the better and healthy food gets you bonus points).

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    Maybe you're craving sweets because you body is trying to rebuild it's depleted carbs from the hike?
    Maybe all the carbs you ate on the trail weren't enough?

    As for low-carb snacks:
    Meats: jerky of all kinds and varieties, pepperoni sticks of all kinds, lunch meats, SPAM
    Cheeses: string cheese, all kinds of other cheeses, cottage cheese
    Eggs: all kinds, though hard boiled make the best snacks
    Salads: your imagination is the limit. I like steak salads, chicken salads, egg salads
    Nuts: mixed nuts, peanuts, all kinds of nuts - whatever the store has
    Chopped veggie sticks including carrots, celery, parsnips, turnips
    There are some low carb/no-sugar-added yogurts

    When my son was diagnosed with diabetes, we just started walking the grocery store isles for creative ideas. It was really a lot of fun and became somewhat of a hobby to find new ideas for low carb (not just low sugar) snacks.

    Atkin's Diet ideas would be low sugar as well as low carb. Do you count fruit as low sugar? Geez, if fruit counts you can keep eating new things forever.

    I assume low sugar/high carb isn't what you're after? Like all kinds of no-sugar-added crackers, breads, pretzels, you name it.

    With diet restrictions, grocery stores start becoming fun like outdoor stores where you spend hours shopping and thinking up new ideas and ways of doing things.

    Have fun.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  3. #3
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    Interesting point to me because I avoid sugary snacks on the trail. Raisins, Fig Newtons maybe, but nothing with much added sugar. I always hike or bike with a bag of cashews and a bag of raisins--fruit for a quick energy burst, nuts for longer-lasting fat and protein. Mix them together and all's well. Add some bread (bagel, tortilla) with cheese or meat or eggs every once in a while during the day.

    For breakfast, add rolled oats to your nuts and raisins to make muesli. Add water or milk (Nido instant on trail) and it does not have to be cooked--rolled oats are already cooked in processing. Have a couple of Fig Newtons while striking camp if you want a real quick start.

    It's easy enough to stay away from the Little Debbies/Hostess/Honeybuns and the pricier Powerbars and Clif bars.
    "Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning

  4. #4

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    Seeds - pumpkin(also called pepitas), sunflower, chia(also sometimes labeled as Saba), hemp, sesame, flax

    Ahhh, you noticed the high sugar content in some of the more popular so called nutritional and trail bars as well as the convenient but nutritionally dismal all too common on the trail Pop Tarts too. Good for you. Some bars get more than 1/2 their total calories from sugar. It's one of the first things I look for in my nutritional trail bars - low/lower sugar content. I'm an ingredient and nutritional panel reader myself. I avoid these high sugar bars as much as I can. But, don't despair. There are bars low/lower in sugar. You'll findthm if you look beyond th Target,

    GORP, used to mean good old raisins and peanuts but it often is applied to trail mixes in general. There are an infinite possible combinations of tasty trail mixes low in sugar by making your own. Tip: avoid prepackaged trail mixes. Most contain much added sugar.

    http://blog.fooducate.com/2009/08/06...ide-the-label/

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    Slightly off topic, but probably worth noting: Low carb, high protein, slower to digest foods, like nuts, cheese, and jerky can be a big problem for people at high exertion levels or high altitudes where our digestive systems slow down. Starchy, easy to digest carbs (like bagels mentioned above, or maltodextrin gels) can play a crucial role at times on the trail (not so much after the fact and off the trail).

    I had to help a guy down off a mountain a few years ago because he had "hit the wall", was trying to feed his exhaustion with nuts and jerky (and power aide by the way - the high sugar also causes bloating and slow digestion) and was vomiting up everything he tried to eat. I literally saved the guys day with nothing more than a Hammer Gel packet that allowed him to get some digestible carbs into his system without regurgitation. I now carry a hammer gel packet in my first aid kit, and incidentally, it is the most commonly used item in my first aid kit for helping other people.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by nsherry61 View Post
    Slightly off topic, but probably worth noting: Low carb, high protein, slower to digest foods, like nuts, cheese, and jerky can be a big problem for people at high exertion levels or high altitudes where our digestive systems slow down. Starchy, easy to digest carbs (like bagels mentioned above, or maltodextrin gels) can play a crucial role at times on the trail (not so much after the fact and off the trail).

    I had to help a guy down off a mountain a few years ago because he had "hit the wall", was trying to feed his exhaustion with nuts and jerky (and power aide by the way - the high sugar also causes bloating and slow digestion) and was vomiting up everything he tried to eat. I literally saved the guys day with nothing more than a Hammer Gel packet that allowed him to get some digestible carbs into his system without regurgitation. I now carry a hammer gel packet in my first aid kit, and incidentally, it is the most commonly used item in my first aid kit for helping other people.
    Well said nsherry, it's commonly called "bonking" and it happens all the time, as you say, especially at altitude.

    I helped a buddy from Ohio climb his 1st 14er last summer (Bierstadt, easy walk-up)... he made it just fine and was happy as a lark, until we got about half way back down. He basically collapsed in a heap on the ground... I immediately fed him some sugar candy, made him feel better nearly instantly, I wasn't paying attention before this so I asked him what he was eating along the way and it was beef jerky and cheese; basically zero carbs. He said he hated sugars on the trail. He completely bonked and learned an important lesson and now carries and eats plenty of cookies with his other non-carb snacks.


    You gotta eat those sugars/carbs when exerting yourself.

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    I agree quick carbs are needed and it could be a good idea to have something packaged and stable (i.e., processed) in the pack, especially in winter, at altitude, and for first aid reasons if you hike with newbies. But on a day-to-day basis, why have processed, packaged, expensive bars and gels when there are natural fruit options like raisins and figs? That was rhetorical--I know people like candy.
    "Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning

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    This might be helpful. It is advise about what and how to eat when doing long duration hiking. The author is a long distance hiker with a PhD in nutrition.

    http://thru-hiker.com/articles/pack_light_eat_right.php

  9. #9

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    How can I avoid "hitting the wall"?
    "Hitting the wall" is due to depletion of muscle glycogen/carbohydrate. You feel like someone has put lead in your boots and it is major anguish to move. You've just run out of carbohydrate stores and the muscle has to rely solely on fat for energy. Fat requires oxygen, so you can only move as fast as oxygen gets supplied to your muscles, and there's no backup from carbohydrates. CURE: eat/drink carbohydrates. But better yet, PREVENT it from happening by feeding your body small frequent doses (25-50 grams every few hours) of carbohydrates throughout the day, thus conserving your stored carbohydrates. (Refer to Table 2 below, Trail Snacks.)
    To maintain energy levels over the long haul, snack on carbohydrate AND fat. Like M&M peanuts, GORP, PopTarts, crackers or granola bars. AVOID excessive amounts of the high sugar snacks, especially just before beginning your day--they may cause insulin levels to rise, which will work against you, locking your fat in storage, rather than making it available to your muscles. Proper training will make your muscles more efficient fat burners, thereby sparing glycogen.

    I like Brenda's take on this. Start early with your morning smallish snacks/meal eating small amounts(med handfuls) regularly of low sugar complex carbohydrates with some fiber foods with the drip method of noshing to PREVENT bonking in the first place rather than hitting the wall depleting muscle glycogen/carbohydrate stores and basically slamming a sugary gel. Most of those gels are mostly an artificial sugar, maltodextrin, a polysaccharide sugar popular among athletes desiring quickish rocket fuel like energy and made popular because the super abundance of corn in the U.S. and corn derived products.

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    Well presented Dogwood. One point I think might be worth raising . . .

    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    . . . rather than hitting the wall depleting muscle glycogen/carbohydrate stores and basically slamming a sugary gel. Most of those gels are mostly an artificial sugar, maltodextrin, a polysaccharide sugar popular among athletes desiring quickish rocket fuel like energy . . .
    All gels are not even close to being the same. They are not all rocket fuel, for instance the maltidextrin blend in gu is a very slow and steady burn that wont help you if you need rocket fuel, and also won't cause you to crash from eating it. Many of the gels really do have corn sugars in them and are not really the best (check the labels). Hammer Gel by contrast got its name from a different maltidextrin blend that combines some great up-front "Hammer fuel" with a slow burn tail more like gu, so you get the pick-me-up, but not the crash at end. The key that really made the gels popular was that they were maltidextrin based instead of sugar based so athletes could consume them and not get bloated and sick like they frequently do with sugar based carbs (especially fructose). There are lots of different maltidextrins that digest (turn into sugar) at different rates, so a good food designer can really fine tune the digestion curve to meet an athletes carb needs in a given sport at a given time.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

  11. #11
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    Thanks everyone!

    I guess I should've said avoid refined/artificially made sugars (I just don't want to overload on it). Fruit is my go to when it comes to quick energy.

    And definitely going to the store and grabbing some stuff for homemade GORP with seeds, nuts, and dried fruits. I've also heard, even though they have refined sugars, Peanut M&Ms are a go-to, because they have fat, protein, high calorie density, AND a fair amount of carbs so I might throw some in there.

    Eggs are something I haven't tried yet, because I was skeptical how long they would last bouncing around in the egg carrier and in my pack and because I bring a MSR dualist pot (I think that is what its called) and not a pan.

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    These Epic bars are not bad. 6ish to 9ish grams of sugar.

  13. #13
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    Cool

    I think it was my annual visit to my doctor at Christmas in 2012. My blood work came back & he was concerned that my glucose level up to 125 from my normal 90-95. WAKE UP CALL!
    I immediately stopped dumping copious amounts of the White Crystals of Death in too many daily cups of coffee. Switched to 2 measured teaspoons of Agave Nectar in 2 cups of coffee daily.
    BHAM! I lost 35+ pounds. More importantly, I have kept it off.
    Now I can carry anything I please when I go backpacking and be under my old weight. That is the way to become an Ultralight Backpacker. Take 35+ pounds off of YOU!
    Do some internet research on agave nectar. It all sounded good to me. Moderation helps too.
    Yes, I have become more aware of the types of sweeteners in foods that I buy.

    One more time: Boone Barrs! Wildflower honey is their principle added sweetener. Not too bad for you. Call the Earth Fare stores in Atlanta and ask if they sell them. If not, ask them to get them! I get mine at the Earth Fare in Boone, NC. They taste great. Great for you. Very calorie dense. And they are made near the Trail. What's not to like?

    http://www.happymountainfoods.com/

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