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View Full Version : Eating Junk On the trail



T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 09:18
Just an observation after reading journals of NOBO through hikers ... I understand that this is old news to most here but I am still puzzled at the prevalence of hikers eating bad food while on the trail. The amount of processed food (soda, burgers, fries etc...) consumed day in and day out is staggering. Most hikers pretty much hurry to check into a motel as often as possible and then hit the junk food establishments. Reading AT journals is more like reading Camino de Santiago trail logs but with lousy food choices.



I have yet to see a journal of someone who is really eating healthy food on a regular basis.

Lone Wolf
04-23-2012, 09:28
14 years of long distance walking and eating bad food probably contributed to my heart attack and quadruple by-pass

flemdawg1
04-23-2012, 09:38
Most hikers (or even Americans) equate healthy with their weight. If you're losing weight, then you need more food. Junk food is the cheapest fastest and tastiest way to restore those calories burned off while walking between town stops.

If I could find an organic pizza or burger stand in town I'd hit it.

Chaco Taco
04-23-2012, 09:40
Just an observation after reading journals of NOBO through hikers ... I understand that this is old news to most here but I am still puzzled at the prevalence of hikers eating bad food while on the trail. The amount of processed food (soda, burgers, fries etc...) consumed day in and day out is staggering. Most hikers pretty much hurry to check into a motel as often as possible and then hit the junk food establishments. Reading AT journals is more like reading Camino de Santiago trail logs but with lousy food choices.



I have yet to see a journal of someone who is really eating healthy food on a regular basis.
There are plenty of people that eat "healthy". Lots of people eat there own meals. I do agree that mostly you see and hear about the junk food.
Some places are trying to clean it up a bit as well. But when you have a greasy spoon right down the road, it's a no brainer. :)

RedBeerd
04-23-2012, 09:44
I follow a very healthy diet and preparing food for my Long Trail thru hike which is 1/5 of an AT hike is very time consuming! Makes it much harder but I dont think I have to settle for crap. If a healthy diet is important enough then people will make it work on the trail..hard to beat convenience and price to calorie ratio of junk food..id rather come out malnourished than eat processed junk for 5 months..

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 09:52
I wonder if it is even possible to find healthy food while in town along the AT. It must be a challenge.

flemdawg1
04-23-2012, 09:56
Yep, convenience is def a HUGE factor here. I have 2 big sections in the next month and a half. I could:
a. Spend the next few weeks spending lots of $ and time assembling organic ingredients. Then cooking dehydrating and bagging up healthy meals for maildrops.
b. Spend 30 minutes in Walmart the morning I leave buying Knorr sides, instant oatmeal, Snickers, and jerky. And it costs 1/3 of what it would've to cook from scratch organically.

In town I could hit a nice restaraunt that serves fresh veggies or the burger palace down the street for 1/4 the costs (there's tomato and lettuce, veggies right? & fries!).

Its all about convenience and costs!

Spokes
04-23-2012, 10:10
Hmmmm, come to think of it, I've never seen a chuck wagon on the trail or Jamie Oliver for that matter. However I once saw a wannabe thru hiker that carried fresh asparagus in a Nalgene bottle. Ranted on and on about living a healthy lifestyle. He never finished.

Old Boots
04-23-2012, 10:19
You have apparently not hiked the At or you would know how much you begin to obsess while hiking about pizza and burgers and steak and veggies and fruit. In town you just consume as much as you can because you know it may be a while before you have some again. It's just the way it is. For some folks that goes for beer as well, I might add.

WingedMonkey
04-23-2012, 10:27
The accepted standard today is for the hiker to carry as little food as possible and to cook as little as they can get by with, or they will be called a "camper".
This leads to the constant need to "hit town" as often as one is assessable. I see and read now of hikers hitching or shuttling to town just to get a burger or pizza or anything to eat, not to mention the use of cell phones to order one to the trail.
Some of the most often given advise is that you only need to carry two or three days of food now.
I personally am not happy with that many stops, but it works for others.
Probably won't kill you for five or six months, but if that diet was your style before AND after you hike, it might.

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 10:30
not apparent.

I have section hiked most of the Maine and New Hampshire AT and yes I have hiked long consecutive days (never more than 17 days in the row as my vacation did not allow for longer trips) and yes I know what it feels like when you get to a grocery store after 2 weeks in the woods, how you want to just bury your face in a fresh tomato and any other food that was not available on the trail.

But we're not really talking about that are we. Most hikers go 2 days and then they hit the town (repeat, repeat, repeat) unless there are longer sections.

lemon b
04-23-2012, 10:31
When one gets hungry enough they will eat whatever they can get their hands on. My experience is that after hiking for weeks I am powerless over food. I see it I eat it. Don't even think about the good for me end.

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 10:37
This obviously also falls under : if you don't eat healthy off the trail then you won't eat healthy on the trail. Just wondering who has through hiked and falls under these two categories? :

1.) Regularly eat healhy food when not hiking but when I through hiked I let my self go and ate anything in sight

2.) Regularly eat healhy food when not hiking but when I through hiked I managed to choose healthy food majority of the hiking time

flemdawg1
04-23-2012, 10:44
Define healthy.

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 10:47
Good Question. No fried foods, food without added chemicals, flavoring, coloring or preservatives.


Define healthy.

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 10:49
To expand the inquiry even more: Has anyone who has Celiac disease (Gluten Intolerance) through hiked the entire AT and how did they deal with it?

jeffmeh
04-23-2012, 10:52
Define healthy.

Bingo. We have Bingo.

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 10:57
Defined Above: No Fried Foods. No foods with added chemicals, flavoring, coloring or preservatives.



Bingo. We have Bingo.

Old Boots
04-23-2012, 11:09
I ate an average of 2 cliff bars and 4 snicker bars a day while hiking, instant oatmeal for breakfast, ramen and salmon knorr sides, tortillas with peanut butter and nutella. I never eat that stuff at home. I ran into 1 hiker for whom cooking on the trail was important. He had grains, pasta, nuts, veggies, spices and herbs and he carried a 70 lb. pack. It depends on what helps you HYOH.

oddbird
04-23-2012, 11:38
Well, I am not sure what you mean by healthy, but Oddbird is eating very little junk food because he is eating gluten and dairy free. No pizza, beer, or ice cream; but he does eat bacon & eggs and bunless burgers. He gets excited about fresh veg and fruit (broccoli, citrus, bananas) in town, but to maintain his weight (which takes about 4000 calories a day) the veg and fruit don't add a lot to the total calorie count. He's carrying most of his food and to get the most calories per ounce, he eats a lot of fat (pemmican and ghee) with GF pastas, dehydrated sweet potatoes, kale and pasta sauce, some hardtack. Details on the special diets thread.

-Mrs Oddbird

oddbird
04-23-2012, 11:43
Oh I see, I missed the definition of healthy and celiac query. I think Oddbird's food meets your criteria.
Are you planning to hike GF?
celiac.com has a thread http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/32109-celiac-appalachian-trail-thruhiker/

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 11:51
Thanks for a good reply Oddbird. I myself am somewhere in between with healthy and junk food but my wife has Celiac so I was just wondering how someone like her would have to deal with these requirements.

oddbird
04-23-2012, 12:41
I think a lot depends on her sensitivity level. Can she eat foods tested to 20ppm? or 10 or 5? Then start with the certification agency and check out their list of foods.
The next issue is - any additional intolerances? GlutenFreeWatchDog has a lot of test results for foods and may be worth a short subscription. You can also get home test kits for gluten.

Next, when she gets exposed to gluten, what is the reaction like and how to cope with it. For example, Oddbird tends to have trouble digesting fat after a "gluten mistake" but digestive enzymes help a lot with this issue.

Next, what are her particular celiac related side issues? Some people just eat GF and enjoy great health; others have on-going nutritional deficiencies. Oddbird's vitamin D is generally low, so he makes sure to cover that.

Finally, the logistics of food prep and maildrops. It might be possible without maildrops if you can eat 20 ppm foods, but I kind of doubt it. I don't have a lot of practical info at that level as Oddbird is healthy, happy at 5 ppm.

Oh and coconut - lots of coconut calories! He's found coconut milk ice cream in 2 trail towns so far.

louisb
04-23-2012, 13:13
All I can say is after reading a few trail journals the hikers are not the only ones craving burgers, pizza and beer. ;)

--louis

DaSchwartz
04-23-2012, 13:54
Now, on the AT, the biggest problem isn't eating healthy but just not eating enough calories. That's why men become string-beans on the trail. It is better to eat 5,000 calories of junk food a day then to eat 3,000 calories of "healthy" food while hiking.

Spokes
04-23-2012, 15:09
When the hell did everyone become gluten intolerant anyway?

BTW, those 1 lb. burgers at White House Landing has converted many a Vegan....

WingedMonkey
04-23-2012, 15:13
When the hell did everyone become gluten intolerant anyway?

BTW, those 1 lb. burgers at White House Landing has converted many a Vegan....

Right after they became lactose intolerant.

;)

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 15:13
Excuse me ?

You have obviously not lived with a person who has celiac disease. I can tell you that the 2 years it took to diagnose the disease properly were pure hell. My wife is a totally different person now that she is on a GF diet. The last 4 years have been awesome. :D




When the hell did everyone become gluten intolerant anyway?

Spokes
04-23-2012, 15:47
Excuse me ?

You have obviously not lived with a person who has celiac disease. I can tell you that the 2 years it took to diagnose the disease properly were pure hell. My wife is a totally different person now that she is on a GF diet. The last 4 years have been awesome. :D

...... I'm just glad this generation didn't live decades ago and travel with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Imagine telling them you're vegan, gluten free, and have a peanut allergy.

T.S.Kobzol
04-23-2012, 16:28
I know. We usually drowned the crazies as witches. Seriously though, did you even know that todays wheat is
not the same as wheat during Lewis and Clark era? Also, i think Clark ran out of white flour wert soon into the journey.

kayak karl
04-23-2012, 16:35
...... I'm just glad this generation didn't live decades ago and travel with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Imagine telling them you're vegan, gluten free, and have a peanut allergy.
not to worry. back then those people probably just died very young.

Spirit Walker
04-23-2012, 16:38
A lot of it has to do with what is available along the trail. Unless you are doing food maildrops, you are restricted to what you can find in the towns along the way. Much of that food is pretty unhealthy. Small town diners have lots of french fries, not a lot of good fresh vegetables. Add to that the fact that you get really hungry while hiking, so you are looking for calories first and foremost when you get to town plus there's a real sense of freedom that comes with the lifestyle (esp. the fact that you don't have to worry about gaining weight for once in your life). That said, after a while I found I really craved good salads and fresh fruit and vegetables, so a lot of my town meals were geared toward finding those. It wasn't easy. We still ate the pizza and ice cream to get the fat and calories we needed, but we also ate whatever 'good' food we could find.

Pony
04-23-2012, 18:13
When the hell did everyone become gluten intolerant anyway?

Having worked in restaurants for almost ten years, I noticed about the last 2-3 years everybody had gluten allergies. I spoke with the chef at the last restaurant that I worked in and he said we have Oprah to thank. Apparently she got everybody all stirred up about it and now a lot of people have it. I'm not saying that people don't have it, but I think there are a lot of people who claim to have it and don't. I had a lady make me take her steak back once because there were some onion frits on the plate. Coincidentally she was just difficult in general.

I thought beer, pizza, burgers and ice cream were the four hiker food groups.

Papa D
04-23-2012, 18:22
Define healthy.

Healthy can mean a lot of things - they include mental fitness, happiness and so forth. For this discussion, I would suggest that a "healthy person" is someone with a Body Mass Index of between 18 and 24 who can comfortably walk a 10 mile day on the trail with a medium pack without getting too worn out tired - - they are in decent aerobic health, they don't smoke cigarettes or have heart problems or un-treated medical issues. To me, this sounds like a "normal person" but it never ceases to amaze me how few Americans meet at least this minimum standard of health.

As for junk food, it is never my choice, but if I've put in a lot of trail miles and you offer me a little debbie, I'll probably have a bite or two.

MuddyWaters
04-23-2012, 18:54
very few people eat healthy anyway, no matter where they are.

I used to 10 yrs ago when I still lifted weight heavy.

Skinless chicken breast, egg whites, fresh vegetables, brown rice, pineapple, cottage cheese, skim milk, and some nuts was about 60% of my diet. The rest had to be made up with meal supplement shakes. I simply couldnt eat 2500+ cal/day of decent food. Much less 3000-4000 when trying to gain muscle.

You can starve trying to eat healthy. No sugar and no fat = low calories.

Odd Man Out
04-23-2012, 20:35
Defined Above: No Fried Foods. No foods with added chemicals, flavoring, coloring or preservatives.

No chemicals? Technically everything, including your food, is a chemical. You die without sodium chloride.
No flavoring? I often add Cinnamon, Turmeric, Coriander, Ginger, Paprika, Pepper etc... All very good for you.
No coloring? Chemicals such as lycopene, beta carotene, riboflavin, are healthy because they are full of color.
No preservatives? All civilizations developed in locations where grain was domesticated because it allowed them to produce beer, a beverage that is safe to drink due to the preservative effects of alcohol. Not to mention all those healthy chemicals (i.e. vitamins) from the yeast.

Perhaps you meant no added SYNTHETIC chemicals, flavoring, coloring or preservatives?

oddbird
04-24-2012, 08:31
There really are more people out there eating gluten free. May is celiac awareness month and the national support groups have been working hard to get the word out. The average diagnosis used to take 9-11 years. In Europe, they test children as they enter school. It is not a rare condition, it affects at least 1% of the population, although new studies seem to show an increase. Gluten intolerance (which is not auto-immune) is estimated to affect 6x as many people as celiac and the symptoms are sometimes even worse.


Researchers have estimated rates of celiac disease diagnosis in the United States as follows:
0.9 per 100,000 in 1950 to 1989
3.3 per 100,000 in the 1990s
9.1 per 100,000 in 2000 and 2001
20.6 per 100,000 in 2003
There have been increases in the diagnosis rate in all age groups. The increases have been larger, however, in older age groups (probably because in the past older people were never tested for celiac disease) and in females (for reasons that are not understood yet). (Jane Anderson - about.com)


You may have a friend or relative who should consider testing for celiac or gluten intolerance.
Not all the symptoms are digestive - infertility, migraines....
Here's a checklist
http://www.southernarizonaceliacsupport.org/disease/symptomchecksheet.pdf

-Mrs Oddbird

T.S.Kobzol
04-24-2012, 08:42
Yes I did mean SYNTHETIC. I thought it was implied but nevertheless thanks for the BLAST :)


No chemicals? Technically everything, including your food, is a chemical. You die without sodium chloride.
No flavoring? I often add Cinnamon, Turmeric, Coriander, Ginger, Paprika, Pepper etc... All very good for you.
No coloring? Chemicals such as lycopene, beta carotene, riboflavin, are healthy because they are full of color.
No preservatives? All civilizations developed in locations where grain was domesticated because it allowed them to produce beer, a beverage that is safe to drink due to the preservative effects of alcohol. Not to mention all those healthy chemicals (i.e. vitamins) from the yeast.

Perhaps you meant no added SYNTHETIC chemicals, flavoring, coloring or preservatives?

Pedaling Fool
04-24-2012, 08:55
Food in general is perfectly safe to eat nowadays. People can't use it as a crutch for their health problems, they only have themselves to blame, or in some cases their genes, i.e. mother nature.

Hikemor
04-24-2012, 09:30
A lot of factors at work
- Greater availablity of packaged vs. fresh foods at small resupply stores
- Lower cost of fast food meals vs. restaurant meals
- Need to "stock up" on fats in town vs. dehydrated trail food
- Trend toward shorter resupply intervals puts hikers in town more often
- Trail journalers are more likely to write about a meal prepared by others or shared with other hikers rather than that fantastic orange they got at Piggly Wiggly
- Trail magic offerings tend toward sugar/fats vs. veggies (Won't someone think of the hikers!) :rolleyes:

After about three weeks, anything you stick in your gob will be burned up quickly. Thats why a mid morning snack of a dozen doughnuts and a Bud tall boy is okay on the trail. At work, not so much.

T.S.Kobzol
04-24-2012, 09:31
Oh yeah. Perfectly Safe. And getting better with every co$t cutting substitution. :confused: I can't believe what I'm reading here.


Food in general is perfectly safe to eat nowadays. People can't use it as a crutch for their health problems, they only have themselves to blame, or in some cases their genes, i.e. mother nature.

Pedaling Fool
04-24-2012, 09:35
7 billion people and growing. That's just not natural with an animal our size.

T-Dubs
04-24-2012, 09:54
When the hell did everyone become gluten intolerant anyway?

When? Late 60s, early 70s. Part of the Green Revolution that feeds the world.
"So something happened to wheat in the 1970s during the efforts to generate a high-yield strain that required less fertilizer to make a 24-inch, rather than a 48-inch, stalk. Multiple other changes occurred, including changes in the structure of gluten, changes in wheat germ agglutinin, changes in alpha amylase (responsible for wheat allergy) . . . to name a few.

But chief among the changes in wheat were changes in the gliadin protein molecule. We know, for instance, that the Glia-alpha 9 sequence, absent from traditional wheat, can be found in virtually all modern wheat. This is likely the explanation underlying the four-fold increase in celiac disease over the past 50 years, since Glia-alpha 9 predictably triggers the immune reaction that leads to the intestinal destruction characteristic of celiac disease." http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

For me it's not just the gluten, but the concern about inflammation from the 'anti-nutrients' in our diets. I've come to the conclusion that systematic, low-grade inflammation is at the root cause of most disease and certain foods are major contributors to that condition. To that end, I try to avoid wheat*, seed oils and refined sugars. I'm not 100% compliant; rather on a path of avoidance. My joints feel better when I eat rice or tubers as a starch and use saturated fats daily (may be a placebo effect but I'm happy with the results)

http://nourishedkitchen.com/against-the-grain-10-reasons-to-give-up-grains/

* Nature's own original wheat has 14 chromosomes. Modern wheat has 42.

Pedaling Fool
04-24-2012, 10:56
Some people seem to have some kind of need to blame everything on humans, I don't understand that. It's like all the blame being casted on humans in the early/mid-2000's on the number and intensity of hurricanes, but haven't heard much about that since Katrina in 2005, how quickly we forget...The increase in hurricane damage is primarily from an increase in population, especially near the ocean.

So why can't an increase in allergies and other intolerances (primarily genetic) to food be the result of increase in human populations, thanks to advances in science and other things, people with these difficiencies can live a near normal life, but without modern society many of them would have died. That's just how nature works.

I'm not saying this explains all increases, I do believe we cause some problems, either as a result of stupidity or greed. However, (and I believe this accounts for most human screw-ups) also from unforseen results to our actions.

doritotex
04-24-2012, 11:09
Define healthy.YES! Us in the South need an explanation. Is it eating a honey bun without the sausage gravey?

oldbear
04-24-2012, 12:00
What I find most ironic is the unhealthy attitude that health food ppl have towards food
There's two types of unhealthy food : that which actually is unhealthy and that which is perceived to be
Luckily most food falls under the former type rather than the latter
There is nothing really unhealthy about a cheese pizza or a properly made french fry bc properly done deep fat frying is a dry cooking method
*Where one's baseline is regarding what kind of foods they find to be palatable
Anybody born in the US after 1965 or so has a palate that was condition by the high salt , high fat and high sugars of the convenience foods that they grew up eating.So quite naturally they seek out the familiar when they hit towns
* There is no substitute for calories
No explanation required
*The sometimes very negative practical aspects of the mantra of " go light go right "
In a world where it's a tacitly understood sin against the community to carry even one gram of gear that is not absolutely necessary ppl are discouraged by doctrine to carry food fuel and gear that allows them to cook a good meal
* The cooking skills of the indivual hiker
I'm a semi-retired formally educated professional chef that has taught culinary classes at the college level
I can cook pretty much anything But most ppl don't have the skills that I have and I think that it's very unrealistic to expect them to acquire them before they begin their thru hike

Spokes
04-24-2012, 13:31
YES! Us in the South need an explanation. Is it eating a honey bun without the sausage gravey?

Washing it down with a glass of sweet milk is healthier.