8 ms·

The best foods for backpacking are actually peanut butter, salami (depending on the brand), cheese, and nutella. They all have roughly the same calorie density

The best foods for backpacking are actually peanut butter, salami (depending on the brand), cheese, and nutella. They all have roughly the same calorie density at about 70% fat. Toblerone actually comes surprisingly close (even compared to other chocolates/candies). Raman noodles or tortillas or something like that are generally used as a carrier for those foods to keep you sane, but they aren't very good from a weight to calories standpoint. M&Ms are also common, as they are easy to eat and keep well. Some people actually just drink cooking oil, but it's rarely worth the tiny bit of extra weight efficiency.

ceocoder 10y ago
> Some people actually just drink cooking oil, but it's rarely worth the tiny bit of extra weight efficiency. Is this really a thing? I've read quite a bit about thruhikers and have never encountered this. If you have any more details, mind sharing?
- GavinMcG 10y ago
  I've encountered it once. He preferred to mix it into foods whenever it made sense to do so, though.
  - mauvehaus 10y ago
    The 2010 AT thru-hiker with the trailname "Butter" was so named because she was eating a stick of butter with a spoon somewhere down south.
- miguelrochefort 10y ago
  Just make sure it's not vegetable oil (safflower, grapeseed, soybean, sunflower, corn, etc). It's full of Omega-6, which is very inflammatory.
- hprotagonist 10y ago
  it's more common in extreme environments where your caloric expenditure is very high. antarctic sled teams do this sometimes, because you're burning about 7,000 calories a day just staying warm.
- rsync 10y ago
  "Is this really a thing? I've read quite a bit about thruhikers and have never encountered this. If you have any more details, mind sharing?" Yes, but I have always heard of sticks of butter being used for this purpose - not cooking oil.
fasteo 10y ago
That's right and I guess they are all inspired in Pemmican[1], the original energy bar. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican
david-given 10y ago
One of the classic British walking rations (we don't use the word 'hiking') is Kendal Mint Cake: http://oakden.co.uk/kendal-mint-cake-recipe/ http://oakden.co.uk/kendal-mint-cake-recipe/ It's a slab of peppermint-flavoured sugar, doused in glucose syrup, covered in chocolate. It's one of those things that you cannot possibly imagine yourself eating, until you're actually out on the hills after a long day (or several days) and you're cold and you're tired and then you've never eaten anything quite so delicious.
- gaius 10y ago
  we don't use the word 'hiking' Yes we do.
  - chrisseaton 10y ago
    I don't have many sources but I believe the word 'hiking' is a relatively recent American import. The OED lists a lot of American historical examples, but only relatively recent ones in the UK I would just call it walking, or tabbing if it's at an aggressive pace. Old people seem to call it rambling, but that makes it sound a bit lazy I think.
    - frenchy 10y ago
      While it probably became popularized in North America, it seems to actually be of British origin: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hiking https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hiking
      - chrisseaton 10y ago
        > Compound noun of hill walking, British origination, c. 1920s OED, which I'd trust more than Wiktionary, says 'colloq. orig. dial. and U.S.' and gives US examples prior to the 20s.
      - panglott 10y ago
        etymonline cites it as an English dialectal word from 1809 http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=hike http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=hike Almost all American English words are originally of English origin, of course ;) However, Google Ngrams shows that the term "hiking" was very rare prior to about 1920, and the large majority of 1920s sources are American. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Chiking%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking&year_st... Compare hiking, hill walking, tramping, and rambling: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking%2Chill+walking%2Ctramping%2C+rambling&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Chiking%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Chill%20walking%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ctramping%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Crambling%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking%2Chill+...
notspanishflu 10y ago
I don't think is a good idea to feed a healthy activity with unhealthy palm oil. That peanut butter has palm oil probably, but Nutella has it for sure. Palm oil is very bad for your health, and it's very bad for the environment.
- NoGravitas 10y ago
  Real peanut butter only has peanut oil.
- briHass 10y ago
  Why is palm oil bad for your health? I always considered it to be one of the better plant-oils, with a low polyunsaturated fat composition similar to coconut, though really actually closer to butter (50% saturated, 40% mono, 10% poly.) Not saying anything about its environmental impact, which I haven't researched, however. http://chartsbin.com/view/1961 http://chartsbin.com/view/1961
- miguelrochefort 10y ago
  Palm oil is one of the healthiest oils. Peanut oil is one of the worst oils (arachidonic acid). You're correct about palm oil production hurting the environment.
- pmarreck 10y ago
  You can't throw something like this out there without the evidence to back it up, because right now there is too much bullshit nutrition advice floating around out there.
  - panzagl 10y ago
    I think he assumes you're an orangutuan
- throwaway2048 10y ago
  The problem with palm oil isnt the raw liquid form, the problem is palm oil is very cheap and is typically a target for (partial) hydrogenation into stuff like margarine. This produces a lot of trans fats unless carefully controlled and those are super unhealthy.
arca_vorago 10y ago
Take it from me, pemmican is the best thing ever, and if you are a hiker, Hunter, or general outdoorsperson, you owe it to yourself to try a few different recipes. (Wrap it extra good in bear country though!) Fun tidbit of the day: in the Marine Corps our long full pack hikes (~90lbs) were called "humps". In the old days they were death marches.
- germinalphrase 10y ago
  What changed about the humps? I've heard that boots are dramatically better, but you're still hauling 90 lbs...
  - arca_vorago 10y ago
    Mostly just shorter, with better medical care for those injured or falling out. The old death marches I heard used to be ~40 miles, while these days they tend to be ~12 or less depending (big difference between 12 miles on the coast of Pendleton vs 12 miles in the 115 degree mojave desert). Yes, the boot have improved dramatically as well.
nabla9 10y ago
I carried oatmeal, brown sugar and cooking oil. You make a porridge with oats, add few table spoons of sugar and so much oil that it looks more like soup than porridge. 100 ml oil contains 900 kcal. You can go all day with 3-4 oatmeals
Ntrails 10y ago
And I thought it was all about the Malt Loaf
jon_richards 10y ago
Noticed too late that I reversed the fat content percentage, it's usually 30-40% fat. Roughly 4 calories per gram, compared to most candy's 3. Pure fat or cooking oil is around 9.
tea-flow 10y ago
Lonnie Dupre thru hiked the Alaskan trail and brough a giant bag of wild rice cereal combined with pumpkin seeds and dried fruit. Seemed to work well for him...

ceocoder 10y ago

> Some people actually just drink cooking oil, but it's rarely worth the tiny bit of extra weight efficiency. Is this really a thing? I've read quite a bit about thruhikers and have never encountered this. If you have any more details, mind sharing?

GavinMcG 10y ago
I've encountered it once. He preferred to mix it into foods whenever it made sense to do so, though.
- mauvehaus 10y ago
  The 2010 AT thru-hiker with the trailname "Butter" was so named because she was eating a stick of butter with a spoon somewhere down south.
miguelrochefort 10y ago
Just make sure it's not vegetable oil (safflower, grapeseed, soybean, sunflower, corn, etc). It's full of Omega-6, which is very inflammatory.
hprotagonist 10y ago
it's more common in extreme environments where your caloric expenditure is very high. antarctic sled teams do this sometimes, because you're burning about 7,000 calories a day just staying warm.
rsync 10y ago
"Is this really a thing? I've read quite a bit about thruhikers and have never encountered this. If you have any more details, mind sharing?" Yes, but I have always heard of sticks of butter being used for this purpose - not cooking oil.

fasteo 10y ago

That's right and I guess they are all inspired in Pemmican[1], the original energy bar. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican

david-given 10y ago

One of the classic British walking rations (we don't use the word 'hiking') is Kendal Mint Cake: http://oakden.co.uk/kendal-mint-cake-recipe/ http://oakden.co.uk/kendal-mint-cake-recipe/ It's a slab of peppermint-flavoured sugar, doused in glucose syrup, covered in chocolate. It's one of those things that you cannot possibly imagine yourself eating, until you're actually out on the hills after a long day (or several days) and you're cold and you're tired and then you've never eaten anything quite so delicious.

gaius 10y ago
we don't use the word 'hiking' Yes we do.
- chrisseaton 10y ago
  I don't have many sources but I believe the word 'hiking' is a relatively recent American import. The OED lists a lot of American historical examples, but only relatively recent ones in the UK I would just call it walking, or tabbing if it's at an aggressive pace. Old people seem to call it rambling, but that makes it sound a bit lazy I think.
  - frenchy 10y ago
    While it probably became popularized in North America, it seems to actually be of British origin: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hiking https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hiking
    - chrisseaton 10y ago
      > Compound noun of hill walking, British origination, c. 1920s OED, which I'd trust more than Wiktionary, says 'colloq. orig. dial. and U.S.' and gives US examples prior to the 20s.
    - panglott 10y ago
      etymonline cites it as an English dialectal word from 1809 http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=hike http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=hike Almost all American English words are originally of English origin, of course ;) However, Google Ngrams shows that the term "hiking" was very rare prior to about 1920, and the large majority of 1920s sources are American. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Chiking%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking&year_st... Compare hiking, hill walking, tramping, and rambling: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking%2Chill+walking%2Ctramping%2C+rambling&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Chiking%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Chill%20walking%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ctramping%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Crambling%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hiking%2Chill+...

notspanishflu 10y ago

I don't think is a good idea to feed a healthy activity with unhealthy palm oil. That peanut butter has palm oil probably, but Nutella has it for sure. Palm oil is very bad for your health, and it's very bad for the environment.

NoGravitas 10y ago
Real peanut butter only has peanut oil.
briHass 10y ago
Why is palm oil bad for your health? I always considered it to be one of the better plant-oils, with a low polyunsaturated fat composition similar to coconut, though really actually closer to butter (50% saturated, 40% mono, 10% poly.) Not saying anything about its environmental impact, which I haven't researched, however. http://chartsbin.com/view/1961 http://chartsbin.com/view/1961
miguelrochefort 10y ago
Palm oil is one of the healthiest oils. Peanut oil is one of the worst oils (arachidonic acid). You're correct about palm oil production hurting the environment.
pmarreck 10y ago
You can't throw something like this out there without the evidence to back it up, because right now there is too much bullshit nutrition advice floating around out there.
- panzagl 10y ago
  I think he assumes you're an orangutuan
throwaway2048 10y ago
The problem with palm oil isnt the raw liquid form, the problem is palm oil is very cheap and is typically a target for (partial) hydrogenation into stuff like margarine. This produces a lot of trans fats unless carefully controlled and those are super unhealthy.

arca_vorago 10y ago

Take it from me, pemmican is the best thing ever, and if you are a hiker, Hunter, or general outdoorsperson, you owe it to yourself to try a few different recipes. (Wrap it extra good in bear country though!) Fun tidbit of the day: in the Marine Corps our long full pack hikes (~90lbs) were called "humps". In the old days they were death marches.

germinalphrase 10y ago
What changed about the humps? I've heard that boots are dramatically better, but you're still hauling 90 lbs...
- arca_vorago 10y ago
  Mostly just shorter, with better medical care for those injured or falling out. The old death marches I heard used to be ~40 miles, while these days they tend to be ~12 or less depending (big difference between 12 miles on the coast of Pendleton vs 12 miles in the 115 degree mojave desert). Yes, the boot have improved dramatically as well.

nabla9 10y ago

I carried oatmeal, brown sugar and cooking oil. You make a porridge with oats, add few table spoons of sugar and so much oil that it looks more like soup than porridge. 100 ml oil contains 900 kcal. You can go all day with 3-4 oatmeals

Ntrails 10y ago

And I thought it was all about the Malt Loaf

jon_richards 10y ago

Noticed too late that I reversed the fat content percentage, it's usually 30-40% fat. Roughly 4 calories per gram, compared to most candy's 3. Pure fat or cooking oil is around 9.

tea-flow 10y ago

Lonnie Dupre thru hiked the Alaskan trail and brough a giant bag of wild rice cereal combined with pumpkin seeds and dried fruit. Seemed to work well for him...