“It’s ok if I eat junk food while I’m hiking; all the hiking I’m doing makes up for it.”
Cold, hard fact: we can’t hike ourselves out of a bad diet. Eating junk on trail is simply eating junk. On trail or not, you’ll reap all the typical consequences from poor food choices no matter how far, how long, or how often you hike. Pay no attention to those who would say otherwise because it’s just not true.
The Studies Show
Here’s the thing:
Backpackers often choose a high-calorie, low-essential nutrient diets that primarily consist of processed foods, prepackaged meals, instant noodles, energy bars, and other inexpensive foods that are calorie, salt, and sugar dense.
And to no surprise, the research is starting to show that this kind of diet, even in the short term, is having negative and unknown long-term health effects like: damaging vascular health, increased nutrient deficiencies, digestive issues, and the ever present threat of chronic diseases like diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular disease.
One study was specific to ultra endurance athletes, showing that we don’t need to be already unhealthy for the bad effects. They found that a bad trail diet created issues that are typically seen in older or less-healthy people with increased risk for heart attack or stroke.
I’ve known several people who after doing a long hike end up being hospitalized with serious conditions. One was in her early thirties and had to make drastic changes to her diet for the rest of her life. The other was an older gentleman who needed several stints put in his arteries. Both were experienced hikers but had poor trail diets.
I’m not trying to be an alarmist, because there’s no current studies that prove definitively that everyone will suffer these things, nor that these things cannot be reversed. But, for sure, health risks are heightened with bad diets, whether on trail nor not.
The Counter Argument
Many hikers, especially long distance hikers, will say that healthier foods cost too much, are not convenient, are difficult to find, take too long to prepare, are heavier, and will spoil faster.
All that may be true if approached the wrong way, but the alternative to being healthy is being unhealthy.
The bottom line is we all make choices. And most of us don’t care about long-term effects of bad choices until the medical bills start rolling in, we become less or totally incapable of being active, or that we have a “surprise” encounter with a cardio surgeon.
I get it. I’m not immune to being the kind of person to excuse bad behavior. I think we all do that from time to time to some degree.
But there are ways of eating healthy on a budget. There are ways of making time to find the right foods and prepare better meals. There are lighter alternatives. And there are healthy options that don’t spoil quickly.
It may simply come down to being willing to do good things for ourselves. We can make that choice now, or we’ll have to make that choice later. But, later often means the risks are much higher.
I’m just being honest with you here. And I’m being honest with myself.
What can we reasonably do today?
Step one, in any program designed to change behaviors, is to acknowledge that we’ve not done as well as we should have and to decide for ourselves that we are committed to doing better.
Step two is to clean house. Look at what you normally bring to eat on trail with you.
If it’s prepackaged with a list of ingredients heavy in sugar, salt or other preservatives, or if it has an expiration date that is years from now, or if the list of nutrients does not contain essential nutrients... just toss it. These things are not good for you in any setting.
Step three is to replenish with healthier options.
This requires some knowledge about proper ingredients, portion size, and balance between nutrients. So, where do we get that knowledge? A couple places:
The first is that you can go online. I have a couple websites that I trust.
One of the best online resource for this is Backcountry Foodie. The site is run by Aaron Owens Mayhew. She is a registered dietitian that specializes in hiking and backpacking meals; she tests every recipe for all the things we care about: nutrition, taste, weight, packability, ease of preparation, etc.
This isn’t a website that talks about nutrition because they want to sell you their prepackaged backpacking meals. I’ve had a few conversations with Aaron, she’s the real deal and has the education and experience to back it up. Unfortunately, for a few reasons, this site will be going through some major changes soon; one of the changes is that she’ll be dropping her recipe subscription service. I don’t know what that means to the rest of the site. I hope she’s able to retain most of the information she has here. We’ll see.
The Backpacking Chef is another resource I’ve used over the years. Everything on this site was create by Chef Glenn McAllister. The site has recipes, a lot of information on dehydrating, and he also has a couple cookbooks for sale. One downside is that he doesn’t include nutritional information with his recipes. But, for sure, it’s an excellent place to get great recipes without the processed garbage.
There are many other places with information online. But be careful that the information is backed by good science, experience, and education. You don’t need to go from store bought junk food to internet bought junk food.
The second option is for those who just don’t have either the time or ambition to do the research or who want to accelerate gaining the required knowledge. The option is to find a nutritionist that specializes in hiking and backpacking.
They can help educate on what to do and what not to do and why. They can create meal plans. This doesn’t need to be something that would need to be done before every trip. Maybe a consult once or twice per year, whatever it takes. The point is that it doesn’t need to be a super expensive option, and this is a great way to get up to speed quickly. And the benefits could be enormous.
What I’ve Done and the Impact
By nature, I’m curious. I do a lot of self-study to gather facts, figure out the WHY, and then I dig into the HOW. The order here is important.
So after I armed myself with some knowledge, I started making my own meals. These meals were not just what I like to eat, but also what met my nutritional and caloric needs on trail.
I started paying attention to ingredients and started thinking about how I’m balancing my carbs, protein, fat, fiber, and micro nutrients.
But for me, this wasn’t a one-time event. There’s always new information coming out. There’s always more things to learn. There’s always new recipes or new techniques I haven’t tried. And based on all that, I continue to make adjustments. The food I eat on every backpacking trip is new, different, and improved in some way.
I encourage everyone to not make this a “change everything today” kind of thing. Give yourself time to learn, grow, and gain experience. Allow yourself to experiment a little. Make it fun and enjoyable.
Since I’ve been doing this, my energy on trail has significantly improved. I am doing more miles and feeling less fatigued than I did 10 years ago.
How I feel throughout the day, my recovery times, my mood and motivation, all these things have been getting better. And being retirement age, I think that’s pretty cool.
By packaging my own meals I have overcome almost every common objection I’ve heard:
Another interesting effect of all this is that, now that I’ve experienced a baseline for a healthy on-trail diet, I notice the impact with I stray off course.
Sometimes we don’t “get it” until we experience the difference. Then after we’ve had a great experience, we tend to want to repeat it. It becomes less about “you can’t have that bad thing” and more about “I get to have that good thing”. And this is what will eventually form those good habits.
Conclusion/Summary
If you want to get more enjoyment out of your backpacking; if you want to backpack for longer into your retirement years; if you want greater motivation and faster recovery times; or if you just want to feel better on trail: Take out the trash and eat better food.