Note: I asked a doctor friend for some recommendations about proper nutrition on multi-day rides. Check with your own doctor for what's right for you. These are his opinions.
Let's start with nutrition first since it sounds like you'll be bringing your own meals.
Actually it is a good idea because you can't depend on the quality of food
or it's proper preparation from place to place.
For a light fast way for meat, I would go for beef jerky. I have included a
place where you can get some recipes off the web.
http://www.melborponsti.com/speirs/jerky/index.htm
I would try these out so you go with the ones that you really like. Making
jerky will concentrate the meat and also make it light to carry.
There is a way to combine foods; especially be wary of combining meat and
potatoes. I know that it is the American traditional food but it will mess up your
digestion.
A great book for this is FIT FOR LIFE II by Harvey Diamond, which can be
found in any health food store. As we get older, the ability to eat all that
crap out there and get away with it becomes harder.
For drinks I would stick to fruit juices. Do not drink fruit drinks. They
are full of white sugar and will sap your strength.
The drinks first give you a sugar rush and then drop you down. Fruit juices
have natural sugars, which are easy to digest and are absorbed gradually.
At all cost I would avoid milk and milk products. Getting milk from
different dairies along the road can only lead to trouble. The stuff is
getting harder to digest and puts too much pressure on your system.
For energy, I would recommend Standard Bars, made by Standard Process co.
These bars are made for energy without the sugar.
You can find these mostly at Chiropractors offices.
The standard process nutrition is complex and very powerful. So their
products come only through doctor's office, you can't get the stuff at a
health food store.
I would find someone who has a bread machine and start making you own small
loaves of bread. You can make them small so you can eat the whole loaf in
one sitting.
Sourdough types are real good and there are many types to try out. The stuff
is light and doesn't take up much space. The drawback to natural breads is
that they have a short shelf life; not being full of preservatives they
won't last long
Granola is also great to take along for snacking and keeping the blood sugar
up.
The Vitamin issue is a real important so be very careful about what you take
with you.
First of all, make sure they are ALL natural, not synthetic, and this is
why.
The good natural vitamins are concentrates of nutrition. Basically what
happens is that water is evaporated off with out heat and the food becomes a
concentrate. You get the whole food; not just the vitamins, but the other
essential things that make the vitamin
digestible.
For those out there in nutrition land, these are known as
phytogens. Essentially phytogens are thing that help the vitamins to be used
by the body, sort of like a catalyst in chemistry. Also in synthetic
vitamins they use components, rather then the whole complex. Unless the
parts have the essential additions to help it, then they try to get it from
other parts of the body.
This happened with the big super vitamin trend back in the 80's which was
supported by a lot of Hollywood stars.
Essentially what happened was they concentrated lots of synthetic vitamins
and people taking them started to feel super great!
But the vitamins were not complete; so the body started to try to get the
extra stuff from the rest of the body.
This started to deplete the body of other nutrients and eventually the body
ran out of everything and started to break down. People did real well for a
few weeks then crashed. Their bodies became depleted and a lot of folks died. There are many people around with burned out
bodies who will never get their health back because of this fad that went
on.
The synthetic vitamins are less concentrated now so it takes a lot longer to
screw you up, but it eventually happens.
Also a component of a synthetic vitamin is structurally different. In
organtic chemistry these are called isomers. You have probably seen these
structures such as C3H8. That happens to be a propane molecule.
Essentially you count the carbons C, and the hydrogen H, and that is how you
get C3H8 for propane. Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Scientist claim to take
the major component of a vitamin say ascorbic acid for Vitamin C and they
make it synthetically. Unfortunately this (main) component is an isomer.
Now an isomer has the same components but the structure is different. In
most natural vitamins the structure is in a long chain, and it is digested
by the molecules being broken off at the ends. In an isomer the structure
may not be in a line but perhaps L shaped. Because of this different
structure, it either takes a lot more energy to break it down; or only part
of it can break down.
So you can't get the benefit of it. The part that can't be broken down then
actually becomes a poison to the body.
Also when you consider that there are no phytogens to help it, you can see
that synthetic is really harmful to the body.
There have been many vitamin cures in Europe for Cancer.
The medics here try to duplicate it using synthetic vitamins; and the only
conclusion they can reach is that the vitamins won't work. So now you know
why the medics are having so much trouble with vitamins. M.D.s for years
have made the statement that in synthetic vs. natural that "the body doesn't
know the difference". The body certainly does.
So be very careful in vitamins. When you hear people talk of the high
international units or large gram weights, you are talking synthetic, not
natural. When you hear the talk of fragments, your talking synthetic.
Beta carotine is not Vitamin A. Alpha and Beta tocopherals are not Vitamin
E.
Ascorbic acid is not Vitamin C. People who are throwing this language out
haven't the slightest idea of how nutrition works.
Your just being snowballed with scientific B.S.. Avoid these folks like the
plague, since their understanding of nutrition is warped.
Best bet is go to a health food store. Insist on ALL natural. The drug
people got a law passed a few years ago that if the Vitamin had as little as
10% natural and the rest synthetic, it could be called a natural Vitamin. I
f the vitamin has the scientific names as before mentioned, don't take it.
Another tip is that there is high international units in dosage. Natural
vitamins are low in dosage, but are totally assimilated.
One nice thing you can get is Brewers yeast. This stuff is great for
stress. I used it a lot for taking test in school. Great for stress; you can
take up to 15 in a day. I would start taking 4 or 5 a week before your trip
and then increase it on the trip. Only bad thing is that if you take a lot
you will be gassy.
When we go camping, we always have a first aid kit. I have added Vitamin E
oil to mine. You can get it at most drug stores. This is really good for
burns, whether it be wind or fire burns. My son Matt blew his face up a few
years ago with a model rocket. A third of his face got first and second
degree burns on it. We kept Vitamin E oil on it constantly. He healed
completely, absolutely no scarring. Vitamin E oil prevents scars. You can
not find a trace on his face where he got the burn. Didn't have a tetanus
shot either.
One thing I would suggest is that you carry the vitamins in their original
container. We had some students at school go to Mexico one time and they
were on quite a few different vitamins so they put them in a pill tray like
you see with the senior citizens. You know they have these trays and all the
medication is in a tray for each day. Well the Mexican police gave these
folks a real hard time over it so keep your vitamins in the original container.
I would think that any problems will be along burns and various types of
exhaustion. At our age (yes we're getting old) the things most likely to
happen will be these type of things. I would go down to the drug store and
get one of those mouth to mouth respirators you can use without touching the
victims mouth; they are only a few bucks. Also got some disposable rubber
gloves for you first aid kit. The blood borne disease thing is real serious.
When we go hiking, everyone has a first aid kit. We have a former marine
sniper in our outfit who also has an emergency field surgery kit. I would
hope you have someone in your group who is capable of doing some serious
stuff, cause you never know what might happen.
"Dr. M" |
