Tips on eating when hiking

hiking


What the body needs is simple. It needs water more than anything else. In fact, you can survive without food for at least a week (not that I’m suggesting you try that), but water you must have on a regular basis or the body breaks down.
Don’t get me wrong. I think eating is a real highlight when I’m hungry. Especially after grinding out ten miles with a 45-pound pack. But what keeps me going and what keeps me happy is not all that difficult to pack and prepare.And I don’t think I’m alone on this one. Most anything you eat out there is going to taste great because you have a healthy hunger and, after all, you’re outdoors!

Here's a Simple menu  that will work for you
Breakfast
Coffee or cocoa and a Clif Bar (my favorite nutrition bar but there are a number of other brands).
Lunch 
This is really more like a series of snacks throughout the day. Nuts, dried fruit, perhaps another Clif Bar.With lots and lots of water. Maybe with Tang.
Dinner 
At night I want to relax and stuff my craw but I do not want to work at it.A freeze-dried dinner simmered in its own pouch by adding two cups of boiling water is my dream come true. Round it off with some chocolate for dessert and I’m there. 
It’s like this. I don’t backpack to feast on gourmet or even good cooking. Satisfy the basic needs and your basic preferences.You’ll probably be more than happy.

No stove, no cooking option 
You don’t need to cook to eat and drink properly. Eat the snack stuff listed under “Lunch” and drink water with or without flavoring.Think about it. No stove, no fuel, no cooking kit. No cooking, no clean-up. Less to pack and carry and less work. 

Eating utensils
 ● Durable backpacking plastic cup with measurements on the side. Metal cups burn lips.
 ● Fork,spoon and (maybe) a knife.You can buy light, durable plastic ones at an outdoor store.
 ● Forget about dishes! Eat out of the cup, pot or freezedried pouch.

Cookware kit 
Choose a kit that’s durable, lightweight, compact and easy to clean.You can’t beat stainless steel. Should come with a pot or two and a frying pan with a handle.

Cleaning Up 
Clean up with a small scrubbing sponge and use biodegradable soap, if need be.Wash 50 feet or more from the stream or lake. Pack out the food scraps or bury them away from your site. Pack out all food packaging! Cans do not burn!

Basic nutrition 
The food pyramid, from base to tip (you eat more from the groups at the base and less from those toward the tip):
 1. Carbohydrates – bread, pasta, cereal, grains.
 2. Complex sugars, vitamins minerals – fruits and vegetables.
 3. Dairy – milk, yogurt, cheese.
 4. Protein – meat, poultry, fish, eggs.
 5. Fats, sugars.

Carbohydrates (should comprise 40–50% of diet) 
Include simple and complex sugars to fuel body.They contain four calories per gram.
Simple sugars are sucrose and fructose.They are commonly found in candies and desserts. Simple sugars provide quick bursts of energy. Complex carbohydrates provide longer lasting sources of energy and are very important to outdoors people. Found in pasta, baked goods made of whole grains, rice and corn.

Proteins (should comprise 30–40% of your diet) 
Known as the “building blocks” of nutrition. Especially important for children or those recovering from illness or injury. Protein comes from meat, fish, eggs, peanuts and soybeans. Canned or dried meat (like beef jerky) are ideal for backpacking. Four calories per gram. 

Fats (less than 30% of your diet) 
Fats are found in plant and animal oils.They produce that wonderful feeling of fullness. Fats are the most difficult of foods for the body to convert into energy. Fats are especially good for cold weather hiking since they are a whopping nine calories per gram.
Note: Fats and proteins require more oxygen to burn than carbs.At higher altitudes (where oxygen is in short supply) you may need that oxygen for straining muscles.

Calories and food weight 
Backpacking may burn 4,000-5,000 calories a day. Street walking burns 300 calories per hour. Roughly figure 2–2.25 pounds of food to get 4,000 calories of energy.

Sample meals 
Most of these items are available in a typical food store.

Dayhikes 
Sandwiches of all sorts, cheese and crackers, dried fruit, granola and/or energy bars.

Overnights 
Breakfast
 ● Make cold cereal by mixing dried milk and water and pouring it over granola or muesli. Or add boiling water to instant oatmeal or cream of wheat.Add dried fruit.
 ● Instant breakfast
 ● Breakfast bars
 ● Dried eggs

Lunch 
Snack on this stuff during the day.Avoid eating one heavy meal in the middle of your trek.
 ● Dried fruit
 ● Granola
 ● Peanuts
 ● Chocolate chips
 ● Carob chips
 ● M&Ms
 ● Trail mix
 ● Nutrition bars (granola, Clif Bars, Power Bars)
 ● Crackers and cheese (cheese is OK for days at a time in your pack)
 ● Sandwiches of peanut butter with jam or honey
 ● Hard salami
 ● Sardines
 ● Canned fish or meat on crush-resistant bread like pita

Dinner 
Make one-pot dinners using noodle-based or rice-based mixes. Or start with instant rice, instant potatoes or noodles, add dried milk, margarine (which will keep in a plastic container for days) freeze-dried vegetables, a small can of meat or dried cheese, mix in herbs and dried soup mixes to taste.
 ● Macaroni and cheese, noodle or rice dinners.Add small cans of meat and freeze-dried vegetables.
 ● Cook meat that defrosts in your pack.
 ● Heat up cans of stew, chili, tamales.

Dessert
 ● Instant pudding
 ● Candy bars
 ● Freeze-dried ice cream

Soup and drinks
 ● Dried soup
 ● Instant coffee
 ● Tea
 ● Cocoa
 ● Bouillon
 ● Tang 

Freeze-dried (wondermeals!) 
Freeze-dried backpacking food is surprisingly good, varied and easy to prepare.You just pour boiling water into the pouch it comes in and let it simmer for a few minutes. Eat it out of the same pouch! The advent of eatable, inexpensive freeze-dried food has begged the question: why cook?

Noodles and Snickers 
Jonathan is a real mountain man. He spends his springs and summers hiking alone in the Sierras. His sister mails him food so he never has to leave the trail. She sends noodles and Snickers bars to outpost addresses that cater to hard-core backpackers like Jonathan.The noodles cost 20 cents a pound. I guess she gets a deal on the candy at Costco. I know what you’re thinking, but he looked healthy when I met him. On that day he hiked up and down two 12,000-foot passes. So much for the food pyramid. 
Parting words
 ● Eat things you don’t have to cook, like energy bars and trail mix.
 ● Cook items that require little preparation or cleanup like prepackaged, freeze-dried dinners.
 ● Energy bars and trail mix are found in most food stores. Freeze-dried backpacking meals are available through outdoor stores, catalogs or online.
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