lemon.jpg
Lemon crystals. I buy them in bulk on Amazon and they're amazingly cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/True-Citrus/b...in=True+Citrus
Everything is easy until you do it.
Some good info in your last two posts TXAggie and Jayne.
To say "simple sugars aren't bad they're just fuel" totally ignores what I've repeatedly been saying on this thread. AGAIN taking sugar out of it's WHOLE FOOD MATRIX highly refining it causes problems nutritionally and in the human body. The LONG LIST of health problems associated with HIGH SUGAR and artificial sweetener consumption, which is rampant in the western diet, is WELL DOCUMENTED! Sugar and artificial sweeteners can be toxic not just in the sense of the individual substances but in the sheer amount they are consumed. *These problems don't all simply go away because we're consuming 4000-6000 cals/daily while exercising! Massive over consumption of sweet food like substances is a HUGE health problem for the U. S. public! For example, refined sugars alone have a pro-inflammatory response that opens the doors to so many health problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, digestive disorders, etc. Some would go so far to label refined sugar as an anti-nutrient because they way it reacts in the body.
Using simple sugars as fuel outside of the WHOLE FOOD MATRIX EASILY results in an assortment of health and nutritional issues.
Water can be flavored just as easily without having to habitually succumb to making it sweet. Several examples have been given. Interestingly flavoring water by diluting with a ginger turmeric tea, only very moderately sweetening if wanting a bit of sweetness, has the reverse effects of having anti-inflammatory properties, which might be appreciated by the pain pill and anti -inflammatory(NSAID, Ibuprofen, etc) abusers ON TRAIL, aids digestion, which MANY consuming a western diet have issue with, stimulates the immune system, which again can be appreciated in the context of LD hiking, improves blood circulation, again possibly appreciated on trail, and can have other potential trail benefits. It can be made EASILY yourself into a darn tasty drink or buy in ready to go tea bags. http://www.healthyandnaturalworld.co...ic-ginger-tea/ PLUS all the ingredients if making yourself can be added to foods.
Since someone else brought up fruit I will note two things about it that sometime get lost in all this. The sugar/sweetness in fruit - fructose - is in a REAL WHOLE FOOD MATRIX accompanied by fiber that mediates the sugar assimilation hence blood sugar spikes and of course has the natural nutrients in it. Nothing needs to be added. Nothing has been "engineered" by the highly processed packaged highly refined food industry "scientists." Food hasn't been turned into food like laboratory products that have additives, artificial ingredients, etc in it. This is the way Nature, the Creator, or whatever has intelligently evolutionary designed it over millennia. This is what I mean by nutrients, including calories, within the whole food matrix. Consuming the sugar in fruit when eating the whole fruit and nothing but the fruit(no fruit cups packed in sugary syrups) for an otherwise healthy individual in "reasonable" amounts is much less of an issue than when the simple sugars are concentrated taken out of their WHOLE FOOD MATRIX as what happens turning an apple into massively sweet and sugary apple juice or turning grapes into grape juice OR WITH THESE SUGARY AND ARTIFICIALLY SWEETENER CONTAINING DRINK MIXES BASED ON SUGAR/SWEETNESS CONSUMPTION.
What I'm saying is the more processed the food is often the worse it is nutritionally. So much so that sometimes the "engineers" will put nutrients back in by fortifying the substances touting nutritional aspects. OFTEN packaged powder drink flavorings are over and over engineered around HIGH sugar or sweetness(through artificial sweeteners) content and consumption. WHY? WHY is it that so many think of flavoring water by only adding sugar or artificial sweeteners to it? Could it be because that's what they're habituated to to UNNATURAL DEGREES and intentionally triggered to crave by the "engineers" so they get addicted and buy more product NOT because the substances are "nutritious?"
I'd like to address and discuss more of the content of your posts but I don't want to get too far off the topic.
Lime crystals as well.Originally Posted by Second Half
Been around since forever. Supermarkets. Amazon not required.
Wayne
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Sweet bacon flavored water available in smoked or maple versions sweetened with sucalose(Splenda) and acesulfame k? UMM, sounds delicious with a poop tart, hooey bun, or fried pork rinds.
Just plain old bulk-powder Gatorade, the ~100 cal/oz weight goes right into the other food/calorie daily allotment, so I'm not seeing this big "weight penalty" talked about below, though is does bring down the overall calorie/ounce average slightly.
Those electrolytes are extremely important. I mix mine roughly half strength compared to pre-mixed stuff. Maybe 1-2 ounces a day is all I use, mixed with maybe half of my day's drinking water. I sometimes carry those sugar-free flavorings when I can't get Gatorade powder, but those truly are a weight penalty. Crystal light ain't too bad. My wife likes and carries Tang.
There are a few flavors of Nuun tablets I like, the others taste like medicine... my problem is I can never remember which flavors I like!
Yup the lime are great too. Haven't tried the orange or grapefruit but I imagine they're of equal quality.
Yes they're in supermarkets but it's a couple bucks for a box of 7 packs. The 500-pack bulk box on Amazon is $23.00. Orders of magnitude cheaper.
Just make sure you get the crystals only. The "lemonades" and such with artificial sweeteners are terrible.
Everything is easy until you do it.
I never get bored of water.
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It is a wt penalty in context of the wt for the lack of nutrients it provides. It's a huge wt penalty in context of habitually adding a sugar or artificial sweetener based flavoring consuming 4-10+ oz sugar/artificial sweetener based powders daily. This has been previously noted. It penalizes our palettes to crave and addict to sugar and sweetness to an even higher degree than natural evolution. Consumers are being exploited. How much nutritionally dismal food wt does this wt have to be before it's seen as a penalty especially in context of all the hemming and hawing and ultra anal-izing attempting to decrease a miniscule amount of gear wt recognizing it as a wt penalty? Note what an increasing number of the most advanced UL LD hikers and some of the FKTers in various backpacking communities are consuming! An increasing number are saving consumable wt by electing to consume a more nutrient dense diet beyond just narrowly looking at cal/oz ratios. Anyone concerned with health and performance able to navigate the dung heap of food industry marketing are aware of the impact of diet so one doesn't have to be an advanced ULer or FKTer to acknowledge this and make changes to their trail consumption.
AGAIN food is more than calories. Food is about nutrients...a wide spectrum of nutrients... OFTEN HAVING VERY DIFFERENT RESULTS WHEN CONSUMED SYNERGISTICALLY "NATURALLY" WITHIN CONTEXT OF THEIR WHOLE FOOD MATRIX! In context were talking about a flavoring, a flavoring that is mainly nutritionally denatured refined sugar or artificial sweeteners. And, even though there are added electrolytes which are hyped to get us to think we need these from a so called convenient "scientifically based" powder they can be obtained in other ways quite easily in the foods we eat on trail or other ways that are perhaps less wt WHILE PROVIDING ADDITIONAL HEALTH BENEFITS.
In short, I'm saying there are better, perhaps more convenient wt saving GREATER nutritional profile health beneficial ways to flavor water deliciously then simply adding some sugar, artificial ingredients, and hyped electrolytes that are what these many powders consists.
WHY? Maybe, because you're not addicted or accustomed to craving sweetness in all you drink or eat?
I'm with you Greenlight. Nothing so refreshing as clean nothing added water fresh from a cool spring or mountain stream. Look forward to it every time my feet take to a hike. How beautiful and wise Nature - the Creator, whatever, is.
We recently noted that we do agree on a lot of things, but on this nutrition-Nazi thing, we differ! I do concur that proper nutrition is very important in life and on the trail, and you certainly know a lot about it, but the point you and others miss is that pure sugar as part of your daily life ON THE TRAIL* is just fine, and in fact highly desired. As a certain modest percentage of your calories, that is. If taken gradually throughout the day that is, to avoid spike and crashes. And again, those electrolytes are critical. Gatorade (and lots of other similar "sport drinks") is a very smart mix of simple sugars and electrolytes for consumption during exercise.
So DW, ramble on! I won't give you grief, but I will express my valid and measured opinions.
Edit: * while actually hiking
Last edited by colorado_rob; 04-22-2017 at 16:00.
Yes I to have somehow survived all these years in just water. Even in the USMC, working construction .
Thom
No, you can't. You were just lucky. You need sugary/sweet water "sports drinks" powder with electrolytes which is a fancy "sports science" sounding name for component ions EASILY obtained in a healthy natural diet. While we do indeed need electrolytes we DO NOT NEED an electrolyte drink mix to properly hydrate and increase performance....even in the context of long hrs of LD hiking.
If asked of 100 random people to name three or four electrolytes I'll assert less than 25 can.
The two main electrolytes lost through sweating are Na+ and Cl- which are obtained in table salt dissolved in water. It's not like "salt" isn't more than adequately abundant in common trail foods. Heck a common burger and fries typically have these electrolytes in ready abundance so that's how easy it is to find these electrolytes in COMMON food but fit for the trail.
K+ is another main electrolyte easy to replace with trail foods such as dried apricots, bananas, cheese, many greens(spinach, Swiss chard, kale, etc), beans, fish, coconut(chips are delish and naturally sweet with no added sugar containing other common main electrolytes lost in sweat with a high cal/oz ratio - all why it was recommended as a powder mix, if that's your approach, to add to drinking water on trail), various easy to carry small vegetables.
I can go on and on mentioning COMMON trail food high in often a wide spectrum of electrolytes with Mg++, Ca++, HCO3-, HPO4-, trace copper, zinc, etc so this marketed 'ade" hype that we need a sports drink is VERY MUCH NOT TRUE! Obtaining a huge amount of electrolytes can be had easily in more than adequate amounts for LD hikers in trail ready foods
And while we're replenishing electrolytes in REAL FOOD we're getting a host of other nutritional benefits. No absolute need for an electrolyte sports drink!
Here's another approach to add flavor to water/while drinking water that is so simple. One excellent approach to feeling satiated and being regularly energized without bonking is grazing while backpacking...that is consuming small amounts of food, perhaps a small handful or so at a time. It's easy enough to sip plain clean refreshing water, which is what our bodies truly prefer, as we're grazing. This solves the flavoring desires of water while also addressing maintaining nutritional needs, energy, and satiation. The electrolytes can be in the food! WOW, how uncomplicated it can be drinking water with some flavor from the food.
I've never done hikes longer than a few weeks in one piece, so my experience is a bit limited.
I always prefer pure water, and enjoy it the most. In the Alps where I'm living we have, what is called "the best water in the world".
But in the desert where I do most of my longer hikes many times the only water available is of medium to poor quality only, its smelly and "salty". Salty means not only NaCl, but various other salts too.
Its hard to force down enough of this poor quality water to stay hydrated properly.
What I've learned from the locals is, to put some herbs into the drinking bottle, to give the water a nice smell, by this overriding the poor taste. The herbs that fit best for this purpose are Chamomile, Mint and Wormwood (there are more, but don't know the English names of them).
When hiking in the desert mountains, you pass through various vegetation zones throughout the day, so you might find an ever changing mix of those herbs.
Applying this trick helps me a lot, but still I get bored or even disgusted by poor water at times. For this reason I carry a few small envelopes of simple kids sherbet, that I fill my drinking bottle with to help me to gulp down water in great amounts.
I would never carry sherbet or any other stuff to flavor my drinking water for a whole hike.
Regarding Electrolytes, I'm with Dogwood here. Its all in the food anyway (and you may add a few beers when in town). Basically I never got the idea behind all this "Sports Drinks" and such, other than somebody is trying to make money with.
On trails like the AT and in National Parks in umpteen hiker boxes one of the most commonly discarded items found are powdered drink mixes like Crystal Light, Gatorade, Kool-aid, etc. I'll assert this is done by hikers, largely thru-hikers, who realize the excess wt these powders entail are not worth it as they find other ways to get their electrolytes, LIKE THROUGH CONSUMPTION OF FOOD, which offers the potential for much more nutritional benefits, and ween themselves off always desiring sweetness in liquids.
We used the small packs of no-sugar flavoring quite often. One thing to keep in mind though is that most of the water on the trail tastes much better than any municipal water you will drink. She may like it after all.
So Dogwood, are you saying that sugar and artificial sweeteners are not good even on the trail?
Perhaps the flavor additive makes a bigger difference than I thought, but I tried their green apple flavor and found it to be disgusting. The taste isn't very much like apple, and the aspartame left a sickly sweet aftertaste.
Sugar is a broad term. As previously stated we need sugar but in the form of glucose and glycogen which our bodies typically already readily obtain when carbohydrates in food are broken down which can be accessed as we regularly graze as backpackers. It's important to have good gut health(probiotics is the recommended start), enzyme containing food, and not allowing to get into such a depleted energy state in the first place(which can be achieved through pre activity and continued grazing). More glucose is converted from sugars of varying types already typically rampantly abundant in common trail foods. With a reasonably "natural" backpacking diet and health we don't need to consume foods with added sugar, sugary food like products, or sweet flavorings for water to obtain energy, electrolytes, glucose, or glycogen given this context.
I'm not opening up the pandora's box of artificial sweeteners controversy. I've already veered into the deep end of the OP.
Here, here. This is what I use. Lime and Grapefruit are good too. Each packet is like one slice of lemon. I add two or three packets per liter of water. I love a touch of sour in my water on the trail.
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