Hi Friends I am on plant based diet I don’t know what to buy when I go for long hikes… Please help me with ideas of what to buy.
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Hello there, I am also Vegan and we do long distance hikes. The most nutritious energy food is nuts, dried veg, quinoa, dried fruit, dried mushrooms, dried tomatoes, homemade Granola, nut butters. If you want send me your e-mail and I will send you exactly what we make for our hikes.
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Thank you so much.
Hi Tsakane,
When you say long hikes, do you mean long in distance or time?
Let me talk about both. I’ve spent a good 14 days in the Everest region before on a vegan diet (raw meat is carried by porters on their backs for around 5 to 6 days to get to the EBC area. You could smell these porters from quite a distance :slight _smile: We were warned to stay away from meat on the trail as a runny stomach could really spoil your hike in the Himalayas.) , so it entirely possible to not only survive but do well on a long (time and distance) hike. Now, I am not vegetarian and both myself and my wife did well on this hike.
In short, for a short hike (time-wise) you don’t have to worry too much about nutrition so you can literally anything. Your main concern is to get calories in. Once home you can sort out nutrition.
Fats contain more than double the amount of energy that either protein or carbs has, which enable you to carry less food ( weight and volume) for the same amount of foods if you were only carrying either carbs or protein. Just make sure your stomach can handle it. A typical hiking day for me is like this: Breakfast consists of coffee and rusks. High in refined carbs and fat. Quick to digest and doesn’t sit in my stomach for long. The caffeine also helps with the first uphill of the day.
During the day we mostly snack on nuts and raisins, Also trail mix (fruit and nuts). I then always add in 1 chocolate bar and 1 protein type of bar as well. A packet of crisps really helps to replace lost salts, and since it contains a lot of fat, it provides a good amount of energy.
Dinners usually consist of firstly a soup (hydration, salt replacement and putting some heat into the body. The main meal is typically either a freeze dried meal (although, at R200 a pop they are getting too expensive for my taste), 2minute noodles or cous-cous with a sauce. I then have some biltong or dried wors (which you will skip) and a cup of hot chocolate at the end. I’ve found that having my protein after dinner really helps my muscles to recover, so I don’t have any of the meat during the day.
You might want to cook some dahl bhat (rice and lentils) or something that will provide enough protein for your body to recover. I’ve hiked with pure vegans before and the one thing that they battled with was the long cooking times to get their meals prepared. If you can take precooked meals it would reduce your cooking times a lot, else you will have to carry extra gas cannisters along for the increased cooking times. You can also consider things like powdered mil, cheese and maybe cooked eggs to supplement your meals.
Oh, I forgot about lunch. We normally have some sort of cracker bread with cheese or peanut butter. Yum yum makes yummee peanut butter sachets, and 4 of these with a couple of provitas is usually enough to still the hunger pains. I don’t eat big meals during the day, just not that hungry as we usually push along and only break for a 15min lunch. The snacks keeps me happy for the most part, till we stop for the day.
Hope it helps.
Enjoy!!!
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Yes I mean 3 to 6 day hikes.
Much appreciated for the info.
It’s a pleasure and thank you!
This lady is smart, some ideas for you…
https://thru-hiker.com/articles/pack_light_eat_right.php
And this little list is sweet too:
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Reason for simply providing info is coz folks differ so much…I love PB, wife hates it, she loves Biltong, I’m not so keen, she needs warm cooked meals, I’ll eat it for nutrition alone and we won’t even mention sardines etc etc
With info you can customize yr own greedy-guts meals.
best of luck and have a fun.
and oh, there’s also that cement commonly known as ProNutro. And when you get sick of it you can always build a shelter out of it, or glue a nest high on a cave wall. I once almost caught a seagul with a NikNak.
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Some very interesting and diverse ideas here…just shows how tastes and preferences differ.
Experiment on day outings and see what works for your body?
I am not much of a hiker - hoping to get the wife into it…but for mountainbike races where I spend 6 hours or more on the route I always try to keep my diet and supplementation as close to daily normal as possible…
That’s just me and I have an ostrich stomache but I have seen some mates come short big time when the race day diet varies too much or changes suddenly. I suspect a hiking outing might also turn similarly unpleasant?
Just my thoughts.
PS, I am not a true vegan but we go as plant-based as possible and very rarely eat any animal product but I have accepted that eggs and stuff will just find its way into baked goods.
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The Seedling Kitchen produces fully balanced complete dehydrated vegan meals, specifically for backpacking, camping and no-fuss holidays. You can contact me directly marian@oldjoes.co.za or visit our online store: https://oldjoes.co.za/product-category/dehydrated-meals-snacks/
Kind regards, Marian
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Hi Waya
I am very interested in this as well.
My girlfriend is vegan, and I really want her to eat well and tasty when we do our multi-day hikes.
Much appreciated
Aubrey
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Mama Alles meals are great!
Hi Aubreylo
If you send me your email address I will send you my list and some ideas on what Vegan food to take on a multi day hike.
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