I ate a LaraBar earlier. 0 Sodium. 11% DV Potassium. 0 added sugar. 23 grams naturally occurring sugar. 133 calories per ounce. Vegan & Kosher. What's not to like?
Wayne
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I must have simple tastes. A handful of cashews and a handful of raisins satisfy my need for fat, salt, (natural) sugar and protein in a quick snack. They're readily available at most markets, pack well, and have a long shelf life at a reasonable cost. I don't get why opening a wrapper is better.
"Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning
I feel fat
Lots of good info here, nuts and seeds are great, olive oil 240 cal per oz... Some foods not mentioned:
Dark choc 180 cal/oz, dehydrated milk 150 cal/oz, dried sweetened coconut-143, pepperoni- 130, even pastas at 100 cal/oz is pretty good. cookies 100-140 cal/oz. Beef Jerky- 100.
REAL chocolate, not the chocolate flavored sugar - REALLY that's what it amounts to - that some companies pass off as chocolate(examples; snickershart, etc) - dark low sugar content chocolate is another cool or shoulder season high cal/oz ratio item that satisfies a sweet tooth on trail. Better yet get your dried fruit, with its naturally occurring sugar, in dark low or no sugar chocolate covered fruit. I like dark chocolate covered banana, blueberries, and roasted dried coconut chips. Or, at SPROUTS Grocery Stores, which are now in 25 states, find dark chocolate covered pumpkin seeds(a great price at $4.99/lb, bought yesterday in Atlanta area from a bulk barrel) or dark chocolate covered walnuts or almonds at $7.99/lb. SPROUTS also has some unusuals not even found at WholeFoods like dried cruchy okra pods for $6.99/lb which is a lot(contains oil).
It's not only cals/oz though. Although, certainly this is important for carrying wt considerations for food it's really about nutrients. Don't just limit yourself to cal/oz ratios. Look for a wide variety of nutrients even beyond protein and carb content! Some of us are already doing that which is noticed in several of the posts on this thread.
A quality dark chocolate covered PB cup(NOT reeses or the pieces!) like Theos or Newmans or even their versions of dark chocolate covered almond cups can be a real satisfier on trail. And, before the tight wads start complaining about price consider you don't have to load your trail food bag up with these items. Jus add some in for that special occasion balancing out the costs elsewhere in the food. This reminds me to say every item in the food bag doesn't have to have ginormous cal/oz ratios IF we think of food as a whole where we can add and mix ingredients to raise cal/oz ratios, and more importantly overall nutrient profiles.
Pure sugar is about 114 calories per ounce, any kind of oil about 255 calories per ounce.
Lightweight food that your not willing to eat, isnt worth much.
Id rather starve than eat a few things I been sick of before.
When you have/can carry all water for a day....it doesnt matter if water in food or not. Leaving town at noon...carry whats good for 1st day. Cans of chili, sausage, steak, whatever.
Last edited by MuddyWaters; 06-29-2017 at 10:02.
True. I know Andrew Skurka has written about his trail diet. He said that on a long distance hike, he finds the one food that is calorie dense, not perishable, widely available, that he can eat indefinitely without getting sick of - is chocolate. Not exactly a balanced diet, but it works for him.
For me it is peanut butter, prolly more calories per ounce, too.
Cashew Cookie is very filling. Two ingredients: cashews, dates
YES there's significant sugar content but that's naturally occurring in the dates. The sugar at least is offset with some fiber. Grazed shouldn't be a significant issue for anti sugar fanatics(I'm one but some of you have higher sugar limitations than myself). They can be had for as little as 3/$2.
Rather than just the ratio, or the nutritional value, I think the important consideration is finding stuff near the trail which will be both adequately calorie dense and that you can tolerate repeatedly. Olive oil is great for the ratio, but dumping it into most foods will soon make me want to gag; I save olive oil for pasta. Butter doesn't have the same issues for me, so I'll carry a couple of Coghlan's squeeze tubes and buy half a pound at resupply points. I can dump a lot of butter into Minute Rice and shovel it down. In terms of sweet snacks I'd much prefer some good dark chocolate (Sarotti, Lindt, Tobler) but find I can tolerate almond Snickers bars over and over, whereas the regular (peanut) Snickers I just can't. You're unlikely to find good dark chocolate at a mini-mart, but might score some almond Snickers. Fritos are good for the ratio and free of food chemistry additives; they're also a snack I can eat over and over again. Fritos, cheese, and some summer sausage is a perfectly satisfying lunch. Fritos are also available nearly everywhere.
As always, vitamin+mineral supplements are worth their weight, and going for a bag of fruit and a salad first thing in town instead of more Snickers bars is a better habit. A healthy diet on the trail is hard, but you can balance things out.
My food bag always has instant brown rice, corn based gf pasta, King Arthur's powdered cheddar cheese, Harmony House dehydrated tomato bits, bell peppers, black and red beans, and onions. Small packets of garlic powder, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, curry powder, parsley and Italian seasoning. Olive oil, peanut butter. Louisiana hot sauce.
Tuna packets, good jerkeys. Used to be able to find sardines in packets but haven't seen them lately. Mayo, mustard and relish packets.
Oatmeal when it's cold, granola when it's not, dried cranberries, raisins, Nino dried milk, carnation essentials "instant breakfast," tubes of instant coffee and Demerara sugar.
Kind bars, Lara bars, mixed nuts. Dried mangos, pineapple, apricots, blueberries, bananas, Dove dark chocolate bars, and dark chocolate chips.
I mix up a water bottle of Nino the night before, so it's ready for breakfast. Goes in oatmeal, granola, coffee, and any remainder is mixed with a packet of carnation essentials and a tube of coffee for the trail. After breakfast, my food bag is re-packed with breakfast on the bottom, then dinner stuff, lunch stuff, and snacks on top. The food bag goes in my pack upright against my spine both for proper weight distribution, but also so I can rip into it easily at every break.
I like mixing peanut butter with granola and scooping it with dried bananas ...
I stuff a hip belt pocket with a bag of nuts, chocolate chips and craisens, a Larabar, and a kind bar to snack while walking, and for a pre-climb boost.
At lunch I put dehydrated veggies into an 8oz bottle with water to rehydrate as I walk.
At dinner I can use the ingredients I carry to make chili, curry, peanut sauce, Italian tomato sauce, Cajun rice and beans, or a sweet mac n cheese.
Stuff I can't find in trail towns goes in a bounce box.
Food bag for 5 days is usually right at 10L and 10lbs.
Last edited by LDog; 07-03-2017 at 09:44.
L Dog
AT 2000 Miler
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"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." - John Muir
You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!
You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!
I tire of peanut butter quickly. The chocolatey hazelnut spread is too sweet and gooey. I have brought both items on my week-long section hikes to put on the 100 calorie per 6" tortillas for lunch.
This last section I did, I bought a small jar of peanut butter and a small jar of Target brand nutella - and I blended them together. Like a reeses peanut butter cup, chocolate and peanut butter taste great blended!
This would be kind of tricky or messy to attempt on the trail, but to do it in advance... give it a try.
I found Nutella substitutes at google: nutella recipe.
Aaron Owens Mayhew, who has the The Backcountry Foodie blog, is bringing out her calories-to-weight ratio cookbook, hopefully this month. google: Aaron Owens Mayhew.