Cheap meals

[gunwharfman]

I must admit that I have never given much thought to food, all I know is that I'm always hungry and I eat loads every day so I read Richard's comment and thought there's something in there that's important for me. I don't know what it is yet because I need to read through it again to get a proper grasp of it all. I've always been a hiker that walks between shop to shop, cafe to cafe and pub to pub. I just fill my hunger pangs in between with wraps, cheeses, nuts, chocky bars, fruit, etc plus water. The explanation from Richard and others about food and calories continues to interest me though, mainly because I have always neglected it as an important part of my hiking experience.

I know that this subject highlights something about me. I have never learned to cook in my whole life, I haven't got a clue and know if my wife wasn't around anymore I would live very frugally and more than likely not eat very well either. I'm now feeling guilty about it! 

[Birdman]

reduce the amount of rubbish I need to carry out

Yes the amount of rubbish is a major consideration. I only consider food that comes in foil packs and such, that are light and can be flattened so no burden to carry out. I'm always surprised when I see people carrying canned sardines / tunas! Especially in dry areas where there is no water to rinse the cans (and even if there was, you don't want to pollute scarce water sources). They will be walking for days in the heat with smelly fish-scented cans!

[SteamyTea]

Yes, but the thing is: some stuff like fibre is indigestible by your body, but you can still set fire to it. So you overestimate the energy availability to your body (though I'm not sure how significant this is). In practice you cannot just optimise on the nutrition properties, it also has to be attainable, transportable and imperishable when you carry it around for a week in the heat.

yes, people differ slightly a bit in how efficiently they process different food types. It is why some people prefer getting carbohydrates from rice, rather than pasta or bread.
Carrying the stuff is really the biggest challenge.

[Theo Frum]

Yes, but the thing is: some stuff like fibre is indigestible by your body, but you can still set fire to it. So you overestimate the energy availability to your body (though I'm not sure how significant this is). In practice you cannot just optimise on the nutrition properties, it also has to be attainable, transportable and imperishable when you carry it around for a week in the heat.

The calorific value of fibre used to be deemed zero, but it was set at 2kcal/gram a while back after they discovered that the digestive system gets more energy from it than had been assumed.

[Theo Frum]

I must admit that I have never given much thought to food

Neither did I until I bought my heart rate monitor, it has a calorie indicator which piqued my interest.


That was 18 years ago, and since then I have kept a daily record of my calorie intake, weight and exercise hours, so I can now calculate my average calorie use per hour, or per mile etc.

[Bigfoot_Mike]

Neither did I until I bought my heart rate monitor, it has a calorie indicator which piqued my interest.


That was 18 years ago, and since then I have kept a daily record of my calorie intake, weight and exercise hours, so I can now calculate my average calorie use per hour, or per mile etc.

Calorie indicators on these monitors have a typical accuracy of +/- 100%

[Theo Frum]

Calorie indicators on these monitors have a typical accuracy of +/- 100%

Reading my post again, perhaps you misunderstood it, my calorie record is of what I eat, not what the HRM says. With enough data it's possible to check the accuracy of the monitor, at least as an average. My FT4 reads about 20% high.

[Booga]

Yes the amount of rubbish is a major consideration. I only consider food that comes in foil packs and such, that are light and can be flattened so no burden to carry out. I'm always surprised when I see people carrying canned sardines / tunas! Especially in dry areas where there is no water to rinse the cans (and even if there was, you don't want to pollute scarce water sources). They will be walking for days in the heat with smelly fish-scented cans!

This is something I don't see mentioned in a lot of "camping/hiking tips for beginners" type guides. Carrying your rubbish out is always mentioned but people would be less tempted to litter and would have less to carry if they thought about buying things in sachets/decanting into bags when buying for a trip. I've seen far too many food cans abandoned in bothies and around camping spots where people have presumably got so tired carrying them in that they decide to leave the empties for others to carry out.

[richardh1905]

Well my cheap meal on Monday night was a 100g packet of savoury biscuits, about 150g of Suma mushroom pate in a tube, and 100g of Austrian smoked cheese - around 1000kcal in total, and no cooking involved. And I enjoyed it. 

[Waldini]

I'm going for a little walk soon and will be camping 4 nights along the way. I don't want to take any cooking gear - I can do without coffee for a few days. Looking for vegan recommendations for no-cook food to take with me. Thanks!

[richardh1905]

Oatcakes are my staple for short cookerless trips -  high energy 'belly timber' just right for conveying large quantities of delicacies such as vegetarian pate*, jam or peanut butter to the mouth. Other savoury biscuits are available, of course. Also fruit and nut mix and nut protein bars for keeping you going during the day, and 'Stoats' porridge bars for breakfast.


Sorted 


* Granovita, Tartex, Suma