Eating Junk On the trail

[oddbird]

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/to...ail-thruhiker/

[T.S.Kobzol]

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]

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]

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]

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]

When the hell did everyone become gluten intolerant anyway?

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

[WingedMonkey]

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]

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.

When the hell did everyone become gluten intolerant anyway?

[Spokes]

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.

...... 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]

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]

...... 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.southernarizonaceliacsupp...checksheet.pdf

-Mrs Oddbird

[T.S.Kobzol]

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]

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]

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!)

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.