Backcountry Eating
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The nature of my job (and my hobbies) opens me up to the opportunity of venturing into the backcountry so I thought I'd start logging recipes as I go, hitch by hitch. I've always found it hard to eat "clean" while backpacking since most dehydrated meals include ingredients that are not very in-line with bioenergetic living. That's why I aim to make this thread a recipe log, where I experiment with different recipes and more or less rate their effectiveness as backpacking foods.
This first post I won't include a true recipe, but I will speak on the efficacy of milk powder. It's truly THE backcountry staple, at least to me, in terms of how useful it can be and how common and cheap it is. Of course it serves as a great creamer for camp coffee but also a great filler ingredient in many other recipes. I've actually made milk powder pancakes (classic!) while in the backcountry by very carefully carrying eggs in my pack, and they turned out great. Now I was missing a few ingredients just because they'd be strange to pack in but the next time I go out I might just make the batter first. Maybe I'll freeze it the night before I head out and just carry it frozen until it thaws? I've done it with other things, but food safety is always a major hurdle while eating in the backcountry. Anyways, I do plan to test out a ton of milk powder heavy recipes, and I welcome any recipes or ideas anyone might have. -
@SilvertipConch I am deeply interested in this topic, please continue with this thread. Things I can recommend for multiday hiking are home-made gelatine gummies (3 table spoons of sugar, 1 table spoon of gelatine (I personally use bloom 270), 1/3 of dessert spoon of salt). If not possible or on short notice, haribo gummies are good substitution.
Either way, simple sugars are paramount for a multiday hike. The ususal obsession with complex cyrbohydrates and high-protein foods in case of hiking is detrimental to your health and your overall enjoyment of the trip. Nuts and fiber rich foods like oatmeals are unhealthy on their own, in case of trekking the negative effects are amplified (especially if you are in higher altitude with lower co2).
Milk powder sounds great, just keep in mind that without proper sugar intake you will slow your metabolism and put pressure on your thyroid. Also, it is high in tryptophan and methionine, thus it is important to not forget to consume enough gelatine/collagen to counter it.
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@zeitgeist idk how you can call oatmeal "unhealthy". it's one of the most inoffensive foods. could just as easily say milk powder is 'unhealthy' because it is found to have endotoxins from the drying process.
In my opinion the best backcountry meal would be a chef flying in on a helicopter to meet you and prepare you a full meal with starch and meat and veg and some fruit and rice pudding for dessert. and making you breakfast and packing you sandwiches to take for lunch. and milking a mountain goat for snack in between.
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@SilvertipConch Ghee is a good fat to bring for frying the pancakes since it doesn't need a cooler. Asked about stocking food, Ray Peat said "Ordinary granulated white sugar, ghee, and coconut oil are intense calorie sources that are good for a medium-term shutdown." For the milk powder, he said "The taste gradually deteriorates if it's exposed to oxygen, but if it's well sealed, I've had some five-year-old powdered milk." Splitting a big bag into small sealed bags, one per hitch, keeps the rest fresh.
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@sunsunsun I can and I will. They are greatly overrated, misunderstood and from a bioenergetic standpoint unneccessarily problematic.
First of all, they include beta-glucans - your body cannot digest them, they will ferment, increase the amount of bacteria and endotoxin.
Secondly, they are rich in phytic acid (antinutrient) - this depletes your magnesium, calcium, sodium - when you are on a hike, that is an even greater problem.
Thirdly, in the mainstream they are celebrated for lowering cholesterol - that is detrimental as well, since cholesterol is a precursor for pregnanelon, progesteron and DHEA - all considered the hormones of vitality and youth in the words of Ray.
They are also quite high in pufa compared to other starchy foods, eating 100 grams of them has around 3 grams of pufas (you want to eat under 4 grams daily). If they were otherwise a great, nutritionally rich food (like in the case of egg yolks), the benefits would outweigh the fat content. But considering all the other negative factors at hand, I do not recomment eating them under any circumstances (apart form genuine mass starvation).
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@sunsunsun I can and I will. They are greatly overrated, misunderstood and from a bioenergetic standpoint unneccessarily problematic.
First of all, they include beta-glucans - your body cannot digest them, they will ferment, increase the amount of bacteria and endotoxin.
Secondly, they are rich in phytic acid (antinutrient) - this depletes your magnesium, calcium, sodium - when you are on a hike, that is an even greater problem.
Thirdly, in the mainstream they are celebrated for lowering cholesterol - that is detrimental as well, since cholesterol is a precursor for pregnanelon, progesteron and DHEA - all considered the hormones of vitality and youth in the words of Ray.
They are also quite high in pufa compared to other starchy foods, eating 100 grams of them has around 3 grams of pufas (you want to eat under 4 grams daily). If they were otherwise a great, nutritionally rich food (like in the case of egg yolks), the benefits would outweigh the fat content. But considering all the other negative factors at hand, I do not recomment eating them under any circumstances (apart form genuine mass starvation).
+100
Oats are my nemesis
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They are greatly overrated, misunderstood and from a bioenergetic standpoint unneccessarily problematic.
First of all, they include beta-glucans - your body cannot digest them, they will ferment, increase the amount of bacteria and endotoxin.
Secondly, they are rich in phytic acid (antinutrient) - this depletes your magnesium, calcium, sodium - when you are on a hike, that is an even greater problem.
Thirdly, in the mainstream they are celebrated for lowering cholesterol - that is detrimental as well, since cholesterol is a precursor for pregnanelon, progesteron and DHEA - all considered the hormones of vitality and youth in the words of Ray.
They are also quite high in pufa
This is a very short-sighted and undifferentiated stance to take.
1: Other chronic impediments excluded, not much gives one nicer poops than oats. The beta-glucans stimulate peristalsis and mucosal immunity. Transit time and therefore the potential to ferment will be optimized by oats in the diet. Mind you, this is if the basics of everything else are working and after an initial transition time of 1-2 weeks if one's been very low on fiber before.2: Phytic acid. Yes, but not as damning as you paint it if properly approached. Oats need soaking over night or up to a day and then they are much more nutritious. IMO unprepared rolled oats and musli are quite the garbage food and very heavy on digestion. Pre-soaked oats, thereagainst, are great.
2b: Phosporous. Yes. Sadly so. IMO regular morning oats require a gram or so of raw calcium citrate or calcium gluconate blended in to balance that. Soaking and cooking one's oats in a soapstone pot also notably (but not sufficiently) improves their mineral balance.
3: Lowering (increased!) cholesterol: Well actually it's rather increasing bile flow and clearance which is generally touted as a good thing for health. Increasing the flux, keeping a good turnaround of bile, fats and hormonal metabolites (yes also those pesky degradation products of estradiol). Eating oats doesn't turn anyone cholesterol-deficient.
4: PUFA. Yes. That and the high carbohydrate load is why one adds a hefty spoonful of butter, ghee or coconut fat to one's morning oats. As is well known in Peat-sphere, the ratio of PUFA:SFA is most crucial beyond the actual total amount of PUFA. 200g of oats a day yielding 6g of PUFA may not be your target but is well low.
- depending on the strain, there can be huge differences in protein content generally ranging from 8-13g/100g. The lower end is sadly the widely grown and distributed standard. The upper end provides notably much more sustenance. IMO 8g/100g protein oats are garbage and not worth the hassle unless one improves that with the addition of other protein.
Bottom line: Oats are of great if
a) with a high-protein content (or protein-enhanced),
b) pre-soaked,
c) with a gram of calcium powder
d) and a spoonful of butter/coconut fat. -
@CrumblingCookie The first two paragraphs are from the Ray Peat Wiki, the rest is my rebuttal to your other arguments.
Phytic acid counter: “Soaking oats overnight -- the trendy "overnight oats" preparation -- is sometimes claimed to reduce phytic acid through enzymatic breakdown. But the reduction is partial at best, and the overnight soak introduces a separate problem: raw or minimally processed grain sitting at room temperature becomes a medium for bacterial growth. The uncooked starch granules that survive this preparation are among the least digestible forms of starch, available to feed bacteria in the lower intestine and generate endotoxin and intestinal gas.”
bile excretion: “The beta-glucan fiber in oats accomplishes its cholesterol-lowering effect by binding bile acids in the intestine and preventing their reabsorption, forcing the liver to pull cholesterol from the bloodstream to synthesize replacement bile. This is the same mechanism Peat acknowledged when he mentioned "well-cooked oat bran" as one of several fiber options that can assist bile excretion in a KMUD episode on inflammation. The distinction is critical: Peat recognized that binding and excreting bile can be useful for removing endotoxin and estrogen metabolites that are excreted through bile, but this is a targeted therapeutic use of fiber, not an endorsement of oatmeal as a daily breakfast food. The difference between using oat bran as a bile-binding tool and eating a bowl of oatmeal every morning is the difference between a specific intervention and a dietary staple.”
The point is, they could be used as a therapeutic tool for specific health problems, not as a daily breakfast option. Your argument with total pufa content is sound, but you should reserve this reasoning for otherwise great food, like egg yolks.
The more PUFA you eat, the more saturated fats you have to eat.. If you “waste” 6 grams of PUFA only on oats, you need to increase your overall saturated fat intake and it will limit your overall maneuverability with the rest of your dietary habits.
You also have the problem of avenin, which in the more sensitive individuals will cause inflammation - in the best case your body will “merely” waste its valuable ATP and energy on dealing with this problematic protein.
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