Eating for energy

[rafe]

So far no one has mentioned increasing one's calorie intake by making, in a water bottle, sugary drinks, such as powdered Gatoraid or powdered mango flavor . Sometimes getting more calories matters. If it has no alternative, the body will fulfill its need for calories by consuming protein foods as fuel, instead of using them to maintain muscles. So, sometimes the effect of consuming lots of sugar and/or complex carbs on the trail, can be positive, as part of a more varied overall diet.

When hiking at relatively high altitude, above 9,000 feet in the Sierras, I've sometimes had my appetite drop and also been prone to dehydration. I've tried consuming sweet powdered drink mixtures to alleviate those problems.

Used to do that but gave it up. One issue with sugary drinks is the mold/mildew/black gunk that happens on any container they're in. Plus, of course, sugar weighs a lot, and there's no way to make it lighter. I do miss sweet drinks on the trail.

[RockDoc]

plus it's highly inflammatory and gives you diabetes.

[RockDoc]

and rots your teeth.

[WingedMonkey]

So far no one has mentioned increasing one's calorie intake by making, in a water bottle, sugary drinks, such as powdered Gatoraid or powdered mango flavor . Sometimes getting more calories matters. If it has no alternative, the body will fulfill its need for calories by consuming protein foods as fuel, instead of using them to maintain muscles. So, sometimes the effect of consuming lots of sugar and/or complex carbs on the trail, can be positive, as part of a more varied overall diet.

When hiking at relatively high altitude, above 9,000 feet in the Sierras, I've sometimes had my appetite drop and also been prone to dehydration. I've tried consuming sweet powdered drink mixtures to alleviate those problems.

Made my first thru-hike 20 years ago on Kool Aid every day and also brewed a quart of Sweet Tea every day.

Got me to Maine.

[Another Kevin]

I'm a short-sectioner, so I don't know how I'd react after more than a couple of weeks on trail. I've never been out long enough for 'hiker hunger' to kick in, but I certainly know how you can bonk if you're not eating. My issue is always finding foods that I can face eating when I'm exerting myself Out There. My appetite is ... unpredictable. A lot of the time, nothing in my pack looks good. I definitely fall in the 'frequent small meals during the day' camp, although I do like to make myself a good dinner. I almost never have something that would be a proper 'lunch' - just a lot of snacks.

When I most recently tried a short section (a little shy of 140 miles), I found that there were a fair number of snacks that I liked at home but couldn't face on the trail. One thing that I cobbled together and (surprisingly) enjoyed was a cheddar-cheese-and-coleslaw wrap. (Just cheese on a tortilla was dry enough to gag me.) The coleslaw was Harmony House dried cabbage, carrot, onion, green pepper, and whatever else looked good, enough water to reconstitute the veggies, and a plastic packet of Italian dressing. Or mix and match with jerky, summer sausage, pepperoni, pouch tuna, or sardines instead of the cheese. I'd make the coleslaw at a mid-morning rest break, and it would be reconstituted and ready to eat at the next break and be good for the day.

It's a little high-fat to be eating at home, but not too badly unbalanced for the trail: carbs, protein, and fiber are all in there. (The fiber helps solve the problem that I can't squat comfortably for very long, so want to do things expeditiously when I need to, not to put too fine a point on it.) It's also too salty for eating at home, but when I'm sweating, I need it. I need to wash my T-shirt and shorts often when hiking in summer, or they get encrusted and chafe.

Otherwise, I find that Clif bars, a no-peanuts dried fruit mix from Trader Joes, and M&M's are all things that I can usually manage to eat some of at a stop. I'll also sometimes have a bag of pretzels or Chex mix from a town stop, because sometimes I still wind up craving the salt, and figure that's my body telling me something.

I'm sure that Dogwood, Pedaling Fool, and RockDoc will tell me that I'm doing it all wrong - because we've corresponded in the past. But what I do works for me, mostly.

[Dogwood]

Doing things differently for me or you in that in works for each of us as far as we're aware of does not equate with either doing it wrong...at least in my mind. We can always know more though which hopefully is individually continually assimilated for the better. Jus opinions which we take info from or not no right or wrong for everyone under all circumstances when it comes to "Eating For Energy."

[CamelMan]

Doing things differently for me or you in that in works for each of us as far as we're aware of does not equate with either doing it wrong...at least in my mind.

Well, we're working with an omnivore's adaptability. There's lots of room for error, but that doesn't mean that some price won't be paid in the long run in terms of sticking to a healthy diet. Since we burn about a 50/50 mix of fat/sugar at rest and the percentage of sugar/glycogen burned increases with exercise intensity, you can probably eat anything and hike, but that doesn't say anything about whether it's a good idea to eat a certain diet on or off trail.

[Dogwood]

"...but that doesn't mean that some price won't be paid in the long run in terms of sticking to a healthy diet."

I would contend it's better said like this, ...but that doesn't mean that some price won't be paid in the long run in terms of (NOT) sticking to a healthy diet.

I'm of the strong opinion that calories consumed is definitely not what defines or epitomized "healthy" on or off trail! Approaching nutrition both on trail and off seeking to optimize OVERALL nutritional density not just isolating calories as the end all be all of health or nutrition, as some do in backpacking community, is a vastly better way to approach optimizing hiking performance. What one can "get by" with is not what all hikers are after!

[CamelMan]

^ Absolutely. I agree 100%. I know I'll be making compromises based on what's available, but I'm not going to like it, dammit! And you'll have to shove a honey bun in between my cold, dead lips before I'll eat it, LOL.

[Dogwood]

So un-Gatlinburg like. "Here little children, here we are children, come and get your lollipops, lollipops, icecream.... puppets, pizza..." Snickers, ramen and Poop Tarts. It tastes so good, so sweet.... but not always so good for a "healthy" you.

No hiker needs to pile on more inflammation from consuming crappy pro inflammatory food like substances than already resulting from the physicality of hiking.

[Another Kevin]

So un-Gatlinburg like. "Here little children, here we are children, come and get your lollipops, lollipops, icecream.... puppets, pizza..." Snickers, ramen and Poop Tarts. It tastes so good, so sweet.... but not always so good for a "healthy" you.

No hiker needs to pile on more inflammation from consuming crappy pro inflammatory food like substances than already resulting from the physicality of hiking.

I don't particularly like any of the foods you mentioned, with the exception of good pizza, which I have yet to encounter in a trail town, and perhaps the occasional ice cream (which I have to be careful with, I'll have one scoop and then stay off it for a few days, or I'll have problems).

I haven't had a Snickers or a bowl of ramen in years. If I'm going to have sweets on the trail, it's more likely to be a breakfast of steam-baked muffins or warm rice pudding, either of which I can fix over an alcohol stove. The rice pudding is made with leftover rice from the dal bhaat tarkari the night before. And I refuse to believe that dal bhaat tarkari isn't good nutrition for a hiker... it's what fuels the Sherpas, after all.

When I say "I eat what I damn please," bear in mind that my tastes tend to run to actual food. And then I don't worry too much about the nutrition numbers. They seem to work out ok. (I take a multivitamin because food that travels often loses micronutrients in the course of being preserved.)

[Dogwood]

dal bhaat tarkari

Yup. good stuff. No debate from me. An Indian college friend's mother used to make it with goat on the side on Fourth of July gatherings. Like you said it's REAL food. We can understand what the heck we are eating.

[Dogwood]

You know the movie I quoted from Kev? You have some snow on the roof. I'm sure you'd recognize it.

[Dogwood]

I was just looking for dehydrated Lentil Soup and Black Beans today to make some trail dinners. I'm not finding Fantastic Foods Dried Hummus anymore where I've found it in the past in mainstream grocery stores either.

[Miel]

I was just looking for dehydrated Lentil Soup and Black Beans today to make some trail dinners. I'm not finding Fantastic Foods Dried Hummus anymore where I've found it in the past in mainstream grocery stores either.

This:

http://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Worl...s+dried+hummus

[Dogwood]

that's it. I used to find dried hummus, along with dehydrated lentil bean and black bean Soup, more readily in bulk bins at Whole Foods but haven't seen it lately.