Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving! ...and a few words about Nutrition

Most of us Americans are preparing to eat way too much turkey, stuffing, and all the other fixings today, so I thought it would be appropriate to talk about nutrition. This topic doesn't seem to be discussed nearly as much as the gear we take, but it is a very important consideration. 


There is much activity in my kitchen today preparing for our feast later
, and here I am packing for a little 2 day, 2 night trip to one of our beautiful national parks tomorrow. The importance of nutrition while backpacking  increases with longer trips, but I always try to pack a well balanced diet even on short trips like this little 30 mile jaunt I'm about to go on. I learned a lot from a great series of articles at Thru-Hiker called Pack Light, Eat Right. The formula I strive for is  50% calories from carbohydrates, 35% from fat, and 15% from protein. If you were to only use the metric calories per ounce of weight, you would find that the lightest calories are from fat, but your body needs a better balance than just fat calories. Here's my menu for this weekend...

2.6
 lbs
2
days in trip
11/25/2010
117.4
Cal/oz
1.3
lbs/day
 Qty
 Oz
Cal
Carb
Fat
Protein
Description

 42.30
4968
614
201
160
Total Per Trip

 21.15
2484
307
100
80
Total Per Day



49%
36%
13%
% of Carbs, Fat, Protein
1.0
   1.45
180
19
9
5
Bora Bora - Tiki Blueberry Flax
1.0
   1.45
180
18
10
4
Bora Bora - Tropical Sesami Cranberry
2.0
   4.90
480
88
10
20
Clif Bar - Chocolate Chip
2.0
   4.20
560
70
28
8
Snickers bar 2.07oz
0.5
   0.58
0
0
0
0
Coffee/Tea/Splenda (4 each)
2.0
   0.90
80
20
0
0
G2 Thirst Quencher packs
0.4
   4.55
436
91
4
8
Fresh & Easy Honey Wheat Braided Pretzels
1.0
   2.75
316
0
25
22
Reggiano Parmesan cheese
1.0
   3.55
490
0
46
18
Hormel pepperoni - 2 pack
1.0
   3.90
400
74
10
4
GV Brown Sugar Cinnamon Toaster Pastries (2)
1.0
   2.88
277.5
53
3.75
8.5
Couscous/nuts/beries mix (see recipe - serves 1)
2.0
 11.00
1568
181
56
63
John's meat sauce - 1/2 cup + corn pasta -1 1/2 cups (serves 1 1/2)
1.0
   0.20
0
0
0
0
Quart Freezer Bag

 More on this topic later, but I had better go help in the kitchen! 


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