Hot answers tagged food
22
The conclusion is not correct. Some bacteria produce toxins which are not destroyed by heat, for example Staphylococcus. See this link for more information.
Note that this is not strictly an outdoors issue. Even at home, you should not keep fresh meat in your fridge too long before cooking it, as it gives time for bacteria to produce toxins. The ...
11
Cheese:
Long time. Especially hard cheeses. You can just cut any mold off the edge that might creep up. Cheeses sealed in cheese wax (gouda) are a good bet.
I've had extra-sharp cheddar un-refrigerated in the AZ desert for 8+ days, in the rocky mountains for 15+ days with no issues (aside from sweat.)
Blocks last longer than a pile of shredded cheese.
Be ...
11
Depending on your activity level, access to water, etc, the types of food you carry should change accordingly. Some points to consider:
Dehydrated foods are great in that they are light-weight since they have no water in them. But they might not be a wise choice if you are dry camping with no water available (e.g. in the desert) since you would just have ...
10
A recent article on The Out Side Out blog by Reiner Thoni ("Fast and Light" Plant Based Nutrition for Mountaineering) has quite a bit of detail on this, and goes well into the details of a balanced diet and some options for variety.
The following is quoted verbatim:
Carbohydrates - replacing the glycogen reserves - 4cal/gram
Lets start with ...
9
Here are a few things I look for:
Bars that don't melt when they're warm. Anything with chocolate will become gooey in the summer
Bars that don't freeze easily when its cold. I've found that Powerbars just become little frozen bricks anytime its below freezing.
I like bars with all natural ingredients. Not for abstract health reasons, but just that bars ...
8
This has now been brought up on skeptics.stackexchange.com.
Presumably you were looking at the contraindication for before surgery:
Not recommended for:
Upcoming Surgical Procedure
Large amounts of garlic may increase the risk of bleeding by thinning your blood.
Thinning the blood like that is precisely the same effect that makes it ...
8
There are two types of water-based concerns while doing strenuous activity in the desert: dehydration and hyponatremia.
Dehydration occurs when your body is not getting enough water, and is the most common. Symptoms include irritability, headache, lack of energy, bright yellow/orange and infrequent urine. You lose water while you sweat, but in hot climates ...
8
A fuller history: They are were approved for a few years (2004-2007) for use in Yosemite, which is a proving ground for bear-resistant containers. In 2007 I believe there were a couple incidents where bears were able to puncture an Ursack and "suck" food out of it. This led Yosemite to ban them from the park (and ultimately some other national parks ...
7
Peanut butter has good calories. Dried beans are good too though they take a long time to prep and cook. You can home dry any vegetable - carrots, tomatoes, corn, mushrooms etc. I also take tomato leathers - mix canned tomato sauce and paste then prep like a fruit leather - and add to boiling water to make tomato sauce. I believe you can also buy dried TVP ...
7
The big guideline for you will be water content. Dried food, with little or no water, won't freeze. Fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs, peanut butter and so on probably will. In most cases, freezing will hurt the quality (consider a raw egg, raw apple, or raw carrot) and certainly repeated freeze-thaw cycles will do so. Your dried meat, fruit and veg should be ...
6
Most of the food I take on trips is low in sodium content by design, so I usually specifically plan on taking some overly salty foods. Like Jerky, although I have done Pringles on some shorter trips.
I used to also take several small disposable salt packets and put one or two in my water bottle when filling up. That much wasn't taste-able, but I was always ...
6
I use a film canister for salt when backpacking. I have had people tell me that same story about poisons leaching from the plastic into the food, but nobody is able to substantiate that. The canisters I have are labeled HDPE (high density polyethelene). Plenty of food-touching things are made from HDPE, so that by itself shouldn't be a issue. Of course ...
6
Caloric intake is certainly the largest factor. Calories are energy.
If you are on a low fat diet normally and a very fit individual, you'll likely need to increase your fat intake. However the primary concern is that you are getting fats, so if you are already, you should be fine.
Drink more water! It's very counter intuitive, but you dehydrate faster ...
5
I made a 272-mile hike through the Sawtooth Mountains and this was my diet (which worked well for me):
2-3 oatmeal packets in the morning
trail mix as a snack
top roman with powdered chili for lunch
then rice or mashed potatoes with a few seasonings mixed in for flavor such as garlic, herb, butter, cinnamon etc...
Rice, mashed potatoes, dehydrated milk, ...
5
Your blood and body need sodium, potassium and various other solutes in order to function (without the correct potassium levels, your heart will start to fail etc)
In a hot country, where you may sweat a lot, and top up your liquids by drinking water, you lose these solutes quite rapidly. The quantities you require are generally a lot higher than you might ...
5
You propose packing food deeply in your backpack. I'd specifically recommend against that. Bears (and other wild animals) have vastly more acute senses of smell than humans, and they won't hesitate to chew through your pack to get at anything buried there. Even if there aren't bears in an area, there are likely to be some kind of varmints (squirrels, ...
4
According to Kodak, there are no toxic materials to leach out or offgas from the containers themselves, but they are not rated for materials that contact food or other items you may consume (pills, etc). The containers are not subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for materials that contact food or drugs nor Consumer Product Safety ...
4
I've never tried it myself, but I met people trekking (sorry, tramping) in New Zealand who had pre-scrambled eggs with them, on the 5 day Heaphy track. They were cooked quite hard, and so could be easily carried in a freezer bag without worrying about breaking them, and then warmed up, or eaten as is.
It was only day 2, so perhaps they didn't expect to keep ...
4
About 30 years ago, my husband and I spent a couple years cruising Mexico on our sailboat. I was very careful to keep our mayonnaise in the refrigerator, however, a scientist and his wife on another boat, never refrigerated theirs and told me that if you are careful to always use a clean utensil when dipping into it and never introduce protein into the mayo, ...
4
For pure calorific content, you cant beat Kendall Mint Cake.
Its basically glucose, sugar and some mint essence, stores very well, is light, cheap and you can even make some yourself easily enough. There's a reason Edmund Hillary took it to Everest :-)
Id also take lots of beef jerky, which is great protein for the weight.
Various flavours and substitutes ...
4
Couscous is one of the best sources of carbohydrate I've found. It's much denser than most forms of pasta so takes up less space, and can be cooked using much less fuel. Mixed with a packet of dried soup or even just chilli powder it's reasonably palatable, or you can chuck in anything else you can find (meat, veg, etc).
4
I don't think that a limited diet will cause you health issues. (caveat, I'm not a doctor...)
But, keep in mind that hiking is typically a strenuous activity. You need energy, and lots of it. You need short-term energy, medium-term, and long-term. A meal of whole-wheat pasta with some tuna or salmon from a pouch and some added olive oil and salt will ...
4
First, sorry to hear the diagnosis, but you are not alone. I've shopped out many a trip for gluten-free clients, and, fortunately, it is surprisingly easy to replace just about every back-country meal** with a gluten free alternative.
Quinoa. Corn. Rice. Potato. Soy... there are lots of substitutes.
Most large grocery stores in the US are getting better ...
4
According to Yosemite Park's website, bears have lost fear towards humans and will try to get food from whatever is the easiest way.
This usually means that it's easier to break a car's window of wreck a campsite than going hunting.
They have a keen sense of smell and will follow not just food, but products with various scents that we wouldn't think of as ...
4
I think the regulations are so strict because the park service wants to keep a level of discipline about how hikers manage their food, so that none is accidentally left in a pack, and the oils and crumbs from food don't contaminate a pack. This avoids scenarios where food was left in a pack unintentionally.
Bears don't hunt humans except in rare cases ...
3
There is no simple algorithm to calculate calory needs. It depends on many conditions, such as the intensity of the trek, the temperature and humidity, your metabolism, what you are wearing etc.
My typical calory usage (70kg weight) in mountains measured in Crna Gora in August, route between 20 and 30 GOTs (1 GOT is 1 km distance or 100 m elevation) was ...
3
Honestly, I think taste is most important. There have been times before where eating hardly anything but energy bars for a few days makes starving to death seem appealing.
Jerky is pretty good, as DavidR mentioned, just don't ever bring that unless you have access to virtually unlimited water. Jerky is loaded with salt and your kidneys will be in turbo-mode ...
3
One other difference - in the winter, your food and water can freeze during the day. Make sure that your lunch (or anything else you'd eat without cooking) is something that you can actually chew when its frozen. Also, camelback-style water bladders can be a little more difficult to use, as the water in the tube can freeze up.
3
Personal anecdotal experience:
hard cheese:
lasts about a week in cool climate
boiled eggs:
lasts 3 (maybe up to 5 days) before they start to get weird
unboiled eggs:
I have never even thought of taking them backpacking, but I know they are safe for two weeks unrefrigerated. (This might be a joke to try to carry with you though?)
hummus:
about a week, ...
3
I follow a paleotic diet (which is gluten-free) for fairly similar reasons. I will give you some of my recommendations; I have tried them all myself except for the hard boiled eggs:
Beef jerky/pemiccan: it is very nutritious. It's my number 1 recommendation for food on the trail (regardless of whether you have celiac disease or not). You can make it ...
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