Anyone Paleo or Primal do the AT?

[l84toff]

Wondering if there are any Primal or Paleo eaters in the house? This is not intended to be a what should you eat on the trail to stay healthy discussion, I'm not looking for arguments for or against eating grains, complex carbs or different diets in general. What I would like to know is if anyone here is Primal and has done the AT, either a thru or sections and what you did as far as food along the way? My initial thought is dehydrate most of my own meals ahead of time, although everything I read is that doing the entire trail with meals made ahead of time doesn't work because your tastes change. It also seems like a lot of drop boxes to mail out. But you could simply create a huge variety of meals so as not to get bored with your food and supplement with town stops for fresh produce and meat.

There has to be a way to do a thru hike primal (ish)..... I realize things look different on paper and when planning, I mean to me it looks possible, I'm just wondering if it's been done successfully...or not and how?

I have a feeling I'm going to hear a lot of crickets in this thread.

[Pingus]

Could only guess as to what 'paleo' or 'primal' means in this regard. I doubt I'm alone on this one.

[treesloth]

Could only guess as to what 'paleo' or 'primal' means in this regard. I doubt I'm alone on this one.

I'm sure L84toff will have more to add, but it's a relatively new way of nutrition and eating. Basically, eat like our early ancestors did. Since grains were introduced to our diets about 10K years ago, a belief is that our bodies have not genetically been able to adapt to them. Grain products (especially those found in processed foods) spike our insulin levels and cause inflammation, as do those with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). The more I learn about it, the more I realize how such products make us fat and keep us fat. The Atkins diet, though unhealthy, was proven to help people lose weight. Paleo takes it a step further by eliminating grains, sugars, processed foods and the like. The not-allowed foods are not unreasonable, but it takes some wherewithal to stick to it.

With this rationale, LD hikers eat loads of processed and high-sugar foods and inflame themselves on a daily basis. The only difference between them and someone who's not doing lots of rigorous activity daily is that they're not gaining weight. And how could they not eat this kind of stuff? You think I want to eat apples and almonds after hiking 20 miles? That takes some serious discipline if you ask me. The diet does allow meat products, but again, while on the trail this can be a difficult methodology to stick to.

I think that this will come more to light as we continue to learn more about it. There are people who keep themselves in fine physical shape, but still end up needing bypass surgery. Eating lots of high Glycemic Index foods may be the very result. Do your own research.

[Pingus]

Wow Treesloth. Not sure I need to do my own research now. Seems you pretty much nailed it. Thanks!

[Pingus]

Now gotta go sharpen my spears and find me a woolly mamoth...

[Rasty]

Didn't our ancestors die fairly young?

[treesloth]

Wow Treesloth. Not sure I need to do my own research now. Seems you pretty much nailed it. Thanks!

You're welcome. I suggested to do your own as mine not be 100% accurate; I still continue to find more info on it, but for my last reply I'm mainly paraphrasing from a book I read about a month or so ago.

[treesloth]

Didn't our ancestors die fairly young?

Absolutely! But I'm guessing heart disease and obesity wasn't the culprit.

[Pingus]

You're welcome. I suggested to do your own as mine not be 100% accurate; I still continue to find more info on it, but for my last reply I'm mainly paraphrasing from a book I read about a month or so ago.

Well it was a champion-caliber synopsis. Thank you again. .... Just kidding about the woolly mamoth thing.

[Pingus]

Didn't our ancestors die fairly young?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1I7KiCuAU4...dicarus222.jpg

[jeffmeh]

Wondering if there are any Primal or Paleo eaters in the house? This is not intended to be a what should you eat on the trail to stay healthy discussion, I'm not looking for arguments for or against eating grains, complex carbs or different diets in general. What I would like to know is if anyone here is Primal and has done the AT, either a thru or sections and what you did as far as food along the way? My initial thought is dehydrate most of my own meals ahead of time, although everything I read is that doing the entire trail with meals made ahead of time doesn't work because your tastes change. It also seems like a lot of drop boxes to mail out. But you could simply create a huge variety of meals so as not to get bored with your food and supplement with town stops for fresh produce and meat.

There has to be a way to do a thru hike primal (ish)..... I realize things look different on paper and when planning, I mean to me it looks possible, I'm just wondering if it's been done successfully...or not and how?

I have a feeling I'm going to hear a lot of crickets in this thread.

I have thought about it, and done a bunch of google searches, but I have not found much in terms of people who have actually kept to it for a full thru-hike.

You could make pemmican and live on it, but that would likely get pretty old.

I would expect that as a practical matter you would just moderate rather than eliminate the grains and legumes, unless you were really sensitive to something (e.g., celiac disease). And try to go for the ones that are less of a problem for you, e.g., favoring rice over wheat. I also would likely concede a bit of sugar and preservatives in something like jerky, and perhaps a larger "cheat" once or twice a week. I do think that you will be burning so many calories that moderate amounts would likely not be too problematic, unless you have an acute sensitivity.

That said, fill up with fresh food at town stops, carry some with you and eat it before it spoils, carry hard cheeses if you do dairy, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, coconut, coconut oil, etc. If there is something you really like that you will be unlikely to find, do a few mail drops with it.

The real challenge will be when you get to a resupply point that is just a convenience store with very few good choices.

I'm interested to see what you come up with. It is difficult enough to find good nutrition on the trail in sufficient caloric content, even if you define that much more broadly than paleo or primal.

[jeffmeh]

Also, you may want to post this in the Straight Through forum if it starts to veer way off-topic.

[The Old Boot]

Wondering if there are any Primal or Paleo eaters in the house? This is not intended to be a what should you eat on the trail to stay healthy discussion, I'm not looking for arguments for or against eating grains, complex carbs or different diets in general. What I would like to know is if anyone here is Primal and has done the AT, either a thru or sections and what you did as far as food along the way? My initial thought is dehydrate most of my own meals ahead of time, although everything I read is that doing the entire trail with meals made ahead of time doesn't work because your tastes change. It also seems like a lot of drop boxes to mail out. But you could simply create a huge variety of meals so as not to get bored with your food and supplement with town stops for fresh produce and meat.

There has to be a way to do a thru hike primal (ish)..... I realize things look different on paper and when planning, I mean to me it looks possible, I'm just wondering if it's been done successfully...or not and how?

I have a feeling I'm going to hear a lot of crickets in this thread.

Dietary restrictions aside, you've got a bigger problem in that mailing drop boxes across the border is extremely costly, unreliable in terms of time frames for delivery AND a lot of food stuffs just won't clear the border restrictions for food products.

IMO, as a fellow Canadian, the only choice you've got is to figure out what you can buy stateside and find someone down there to be your mail person. Plan on spending sufficient time stateside before you start your hike to deal with it all, some can be pre-purchased and drop shipped. You'll also save tremendous amounts of money on shipping charges.

[Feral Bill]

Didn't our ancestors die fairly young?

If you don't count childhood diseases and accidents as adults, maybe not. I'm not sure anyone really knows. Not a lot of actuarial records from the paleolithic.

[l84toff]

@pingus - sorry I didn't go into more detail of what that is. My thought is if someone had to ask what that means, odds are they probably do not eat Primal and have not thru-hiked doing so. No disrespect, but they probably won't be able to answer the question.

treesloth nailed it quite well. Primal is something my wife and I have been doing for some time and like the way we feel, a lot. As far as weight loss, for me personally that was never the goal but I went from 200 to 175 and most importantly all my inflammation issues disappeared completely. Once in a while I cave in and have something that I used to have (like pasta) and am quickly reminded what it does to my body and how crappy I feel for days afterwards. Usually one meal like that the odd week I can tolerate but eating like that for a couple of days, I have learned that it's just not worth it. @treesloth - another good book of similar flavour is Wheat Belly, not exactly about being Primal but my wife has read me enough to be turned off wheat forever.

I'm not preaching to anyone here, eat how you want to eat and HYOH, by all means. But if I eat like the average hiker does, I will not be able to finish my hike. This is something that works for us and I am looking for a way to continue that on the trail. On a positive note, my wife and I (and both kids in fact) are planning on our thru starting May 2014 so we have lots of time to work it out and test out what works and what doesn't hopefully.

@The Old Boot - mailing from Canada is not an option, I'm painfully aware of the cost of doing so. I have some friends in the states I was hoping would help us out as far as mail drops.

If every town stop or food re-supply stop had a decent supermarket our quest would become much easier.

[Wise Old Owl]

If you go primal does that include eating other slow heavy hikers?

http://paleodiet.com/definition.htm

forget my sense of humor for a moment... they have been practicing the Paleo - Primal diet in Africa for 100,000 years and they are still starving... just saying.

I just watched - the wild west of the internet on this subject and all I can say there are some nut jobs out there... be careful...

[JAK]

I like to go as primaeval as practical even at home. Besides health reason, I think there is a certain aesthetic that goes along with it, and this is particularly appropriate when hiking trails like the AT. I like to think about what sorts of foods people would have travelled, and lived on, years ago. The 100 mile diet was pretty much a given 1000 to 10,000 years ago.

[aficion]

[QUOTE=treesloth;1437494]I'm sure L84toff will have more to add, but it's a relatively new way of nutrition and eating. Basically, eat like our early ancestors did.

Ummm. Relatively new? How bout really, really old? Great way to be healthy from what I've read. Will try at home first.

[treesloth]

@treesloth - another good book of similar flavour is Wheat Belly, not exactly about being Primal but my wife has read me enough to be turned off wheat forever.

I read WellMan: Live Longer by Controlling Inflammation, by Dr. Graham Simpson. He has clinics all over the country. Though more geared towards males, there's a wealth of eye-opening info for anyone. I've even went so far as to buy a recipe book called "Well Fed - Paleo recipes for people who love to eat". I try to institute this way of nutrition, but old habits die hard. I'm very thankful that I've been blessed with some good genetics.

How to possibly maintain a Paleo nutrition lifestyle while on the trail seems like a daunting challenge to me at best. That kind of hunger, coupled with readily-available processed food choices, with test the mettle of even the most dedicated, I'd believe. I give kudos to anyone who'd be able to do it.

And just to think, not too entirely long ago, that was the ONLY way to travel.. there were no nutrition 'choices'. LD hikers often have a hassle finding just water these days. How about the migratory peoples who had to worry about finding their whole meal, while on the move? We are rather spoiled in these times.

[rocketsocks]

I read WellMan: Live Longer by Controlling Inflammation, by Dr. Graham Simpson. He has clinics all over the country. Though more geared towards males, there's a wealth of eye-opening info for anyone. I've even went so far as to buy a recipe book called "Well Fed - Paleo recipes for people who love to eat". I try to institute this way of nutrition, but old habits die hard. I'm very thankful that I've been blessed with some good genetics.

How to possibly maintain a Paleo nutrition lifestyle while on the trail seems like a daunting challenge to me at best. That kind of hunger, coupled with readily-available processed food choices, with test the mettle of even the most dedicated, I'd believe. I give kudos to anyone who'd be able to do it.

And just to think, not too entirely long ago, that was the ONLY way to travel.. there were no nutrition 'choices'. LD hikers often have a hassle finding just water these days. How about the migratory peoples who had to worry about finding their whole meal, while on the move? We are rather spoiled in these times.

......................mark, testing testing 1,2,3, testing