Health and Safety

Food choice is personal, and the personal is often political. Telling someone how to eat comes across with the same arrogance of someone telling you how to live. For this reason the following article is intended to supplement your current long distance trail diet (vegetarian or meat based), not force you to completely rethink it. The idea is to share food concerns and solutions that other trail hikers have used to help maintain their body while on the trail, in other words, how to eat healthy on the trail. Unlike other guides available on the internet (linked to at the end of this article), this primer specifically focuses on eating healthy food during a long distance hike like the Appalachian Trail.
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Ok, ok. The Official word on what it is and what to do. Just in the interest of not killing people that can't tell when we're joking:
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1) DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION
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Forward by SGT Rock.

I'm adding this article because it has some great info about what Giardia really is and how dangerous, or sometimes lack of danger, it really poses. I know that it says "With Particular Attention to the Sierra Nevada " so it should be noted that some parts of this article are written based on data from that area and not the Appalachian Mountain chain. Some things from that article can be inferred to the Appalachians, and others may not necessarily apply. Until someone publishes a study about the Appalachians in particular, there is not much data out there at this time about overall water quality along its length. But again, some of the types of areas specific to human usage could be argued to have corresponding areas in the Appalachian chain.
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About me: I grew up in Texas and went to med school there in Galveston. After which, I walked the PCT from So Cal to Canada in 2003 between my internship and residency in Emergency Medicine in Boston, MA.

Introduction:
I began thinking about writing this guide about 4 years ago while plodding my way up the PCT. Then, in 2006, I passed out a survey on the AT and PCT to see what were the most common injuries and illnesses, and from that and my own experience came this guide. I also leaned heavily on a few excellent and thorough texts and websites that I recommend if you’re interested in learning more (they are listed at the end). In the interest of keeping the guide light and useful, I purposely did not dwell on disaster injuries, like “I fell off a cliff and broke my_____”. If this happens make the crooked things straight and get help.
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