Health Nut

[Mother Natures Son]

Is it possible to eat healthy, well balanced meals on the trail without resorting to something like oodles of noodles or something similar? I once met a couple who were northbounding and were committed to a vegetarian diet. They ate nothing but lentils morning, noon, and night. At the half-way point the wife was ready to divorce the husband in order to get a good meal. True story!

[DapperD]

Is it possible to eat healthy, well balanced meals on the trail without resorting to something like oodles of noodles or something similar? I once met a couple who were northbounding and were committed to a vegetarian diet. They ate nothing but lentils morning, noon, and night. At the half-way point the wife was ready to divorce the husband in order to get a good meal. True story!

It's possible. Just takes time, effort, and of course money

[mweinstone]

instead of thinking about your hike as a life in a fenced in area with such and such foods,....think of the bigger picture. your still on earth . with all of the foods available as before you went to the trail. and cooking and long cooking meals havent become some sort of hurdle due to the trail. its all in your head. i dare any of you to set off from a town with nothing but freash foods. its not too heavy. its not too hard to find. its not to hard to prepare. its not too hard to bake or fry or saute or steam or roast or poach or stew or simmer. but its really really hard to just boil. just eat envelope foods. just live without bread and just suffer. thats hard.

[mweinstone]

and that way of eating goes hand in hand with hiking way to fast and with way to much enfissis on time. witch goes hand in hand with our sociatys mad craze for instant gratification.witch can only lead to the need for change. witch leads to the need to decide. witch is where we are now. decide now to eat or to suffer. one takes time and thaught. one is almost instant and takes no more thaught than filling a sandbucket in a sandbox.

[Pedaling Fool]

Is it possible to eat healthy, well balanced meals on the trail without resorting to something like oodles of noodles or something similar? I once met a couple who were northbounding and were committed to a vegetarian diet. They ate nothing but lentils morning, noon, and night. At the half-way point the wife was ready to divorce the husband in order to get a good meal. True story!

Yes, it's possible. I think I had very healthy meals with all my dehydrated foods, especially a great variety of veggies, but also different types of meats.

But all-in-all, I think too much misinformation is out there about what makes a healthy diet, I think a lot of "unhealthy" foods aren't so much as unhealthy, rather the poor health is primarily from overeating.

Too much of anything is bad; reminds me of people that say if all you eat is healthy stuff, such as fruits and veggies you can eat as much as you want and not worry about gaining weight. That may be true, but that doesn't mean it's healthy. You simply can't eat all you want of any type of food, in the case of eating too much veggies there is such a thing of getting too much fiber. Most people don't have to worry about this, but I do, in one sense I'm lucky because I love veggies and eat a lot, but I have to be careful because I have eaten to much and had issues with getting too much fiber.

Eating right is easy and all this talk about vegetarianism or eating organic, is mostly a bunch of BS.

[endubyu]

I'm not leaving for another 10 weeks and my dehydrator is running almost constantly. I have every intention of eating healthy, varied meals, buying fresh in towns and supplementing with dried. Dried apples are AWESOME btw - apple chips.

I like what Matty wrote about limitations or the lack thereof.

[sarbar]

That is how I eat. My diet is a mix of grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, olive oil, a little meat and fish and cheese. I don't eat anything with artificial flavors/colors and try to avoid preservatives.

So yeah, it can be done. Is it easy? Not at first but you get into the groove for both at home and trail.

[NCarolinaHiker]

I make bannock nearly every trip. Eating some bread does a lot of good when you're on trail for a longer trip. Throw in some fruit, or some meat, some cinnamon and sugar, or just a pinch of salt. Any way you slice it (pun intended), fresh made bread with your flavor of choice can't be beat. Like all things good, it's also a just add water food.

[garlic08]

I think my no-cook AT diet was pretty healthy. I bought as I hiked. With no fuel to carry leaving town, I felt justified in carrying some fresh fruit and veg, usually at least one piece of something fresh every day, maybe just a carrot. In addition to that, I ate whole grains (rolled oats), unprocessed raw nuts, dried fruit (raisins), hard cheeses, instant potatoes and peanut butter, all of which were easy to buy at stores. Not-so-healthy were more processed foods like white flour tortillas and crackers, but not so bad either compared to what most eat on the trail. It was easy enough to avoid processed sugars and fats. At town meals, I was sure to eat good salads and vegetable soups. A few pints of Ben & Jerrys didn't do too much harm, I believe.

Diet is important for a healthy hike. I also think good hydration and good resting habits are important, too. Probably most important is good hygiene habits like hand washing and keeping others' hands out of your food bag.

[Dicentra]

Very possible.

[Blissful]

There are so many choices now that it is much easier. Like the Farmer's Markets we have here give good varieties of mixes that have veggies in it to take, fortified trail mixes, soybeans, flax chips, sesame sticks, natural pb, dried bean mixes, etc. A good dehydrator allows you to be creative. That and a relaxed schedule that allows for occasional maildrops of wholesome foods you prepare when none are available from larger markets makes for a better trailside dining experience. You'll have much more energy, recoup quicker from injury and long miles, etc.