Mountain/Ski Food

[randoskier]

i come from the trail and ultra running world-- we don't fast. we consume as much carbohydrate as possible and are always training the gut to handle more.

a caloric deficit is easy to accrue while touring or backpacking. for example if i tour for 30 miles i will easily burn 3000+ calories, in addition to the 2000 i burn on average every day just by existing. so even if i consumed 4000 kcal i would still have a 1000c deficit. this is not uncommon at all. compound that with daily touring or hiking and things happen-- even cramming carbs and calories all the time most people will still lose weight.

by consuming simple sugars you only activate digestion at a minute level. that's typically why runners don't consume things like vegetables or other fibrous foods while on the move.

i do occasionally train in a semi-fasted state, but never for longer than a 2 hour workout. if my goal is back to back long days, i'm focusing on training my gut to consume as much as possible.

. fats become important in long tours where your caloric deficit even at 4k a day will almost certainly force your body into a fat burning routine.

I drove over to Slovenia to climb Triglav (just a cable route, nice exposure though) about five or six years ago. It was in late October ,no snow yet. I got a room in the Planica Nordic Center at the trailhead. The Russian biathlon team was in residence training- they were using roller skis and the shooting ranges. When I got up early the next morning to eat breakfast I was curious what they would be eating- they were eating piles of bacon, sausage, fried eggs, hashbrowns, buttered toast. I guess they don't have Wheaties in Russia? I was quite astounded, they looked super fit, but It looked like I-Hop at rush hour.

BTW Planica is an amazing place, the Julian Alps are awesome. https://www.nc-planica.si/en/

[randoskier]

@randoskier great break down of your nutrition for tours!
you're right, you really need a lot of calories for big days and long tours.

Had it handy because I am doing logistics and route planning now.

I met a girl in a trekking cabin in Troms, Norway a couple of summers ago. Her and three girl friends traversed Baffin Island on skis. She said one of the hardest parts was they had to gain like 15kg before they left. They made a film called Baffin Babes that made the rounds at mountain film festivals- (when they mention that they skied 140 miles on Baffin- they are talking Norwegian miles, 1 Norwegian Mile = 10 km. So they skied 868 US miles on Baffin Island. The ranger station cracked me up.

[randoskier]

Both honey and maple syrup are great for energy.

i never tried maple syrup, i will try it on my next outting, most maple syrup is almost synthetic in the big stores, its hard finding real organic stuff thats not adulterated with corn syrup.

I find your meal choices above to be very acidic foods, any other options for more alkaline meals. our muscles don't need more acid producing food.

I can even get real maple syrup (from Canada) here in Italy.

The alkaline diets can have some positive effects, but not because of anything to do with PH, simply because they contain a lot of fruits and vegetables- and little processed food, nothing to do with the alkalinity of the food.

"By the time the digested food enters the blood through the walls of the GI tract, the acid or alkaline content of the original food does not matter. The pH of our blood is tightly regulated (by our own body) and maintained at 7.35 – 7.45, a slightly alkaline environment. Excess acid or base is released in the urine to help the body maintain a proper pH balance. Changes in the urine and saliva pH are therefore completely normal and have no connection with the pH of the blood."

This was a good overview from the second best hospital in the US:

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/alkaline-diet

[blitzskier]

I drove over to Slovenia to climb Triglav (just a cable route, nice exposure though) about five or six years ago. It was in late October ,no snow yet. I got a room in the Planica Nordic Center at the trailhead. The Russian biathlon team was in residence training- they were using roller skis and the shooting ranges. When I got up early the next morning to eat breakfast I was curious what they would be eating- they were eating piles of bacon, sausage, fried eggs, hashbrowns, buttered toast. I guess they don't have Wheaties in Russia? I was quite astounded, they looked super fit, but It looked like I-Hop at rush hour.

BTW Planica is an amazing place, the Julian Alps are awesome. https://www.nc-planica.si/en/

I guess Acidosis isn't a thing in Russia, or they won't live long enough to care about bone loss and kidney failure.

[blitzskier]

[/quote]
I can even get real maple syrup (from Canada) here in Italy.

The alkaline diets can have some positive effects, but not because of anything to do with PH, simply because they contain a lot of fruits and vegetables- and little processed food, nothing to do with the alkalinity of the food.

"By the time the digested food enters the blood through the walls of the GI tract, the acid or alkaline content of the original food does not matter. The pH of our blood is tightly regulated (by our own body) and maintained at 7.35 – 7.45, a slightly alkaline environment. Excess acid or base is released in the urine to help the body maintain a proper pH balance. Changes in the urine and saliva pH are therefore completely normal and have no connection with the pH of the blood."

This was a good overview from the second best hospital in the US:

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/alkaline-diet
[/quote]

yes, acidic heavy meat diet/grain foods, may be regulated by the body, but the question is how is the body doing the ph adjustments.. the answer to that is through the theft of calcium and magnesium from the bodies bones, and cartilage.

i always wondered why athletes and runners lost knee function, just like the sedintary man working in the office his whole life, always lost joint material and needed joint replacement at 50-60 years old. the correlating issue between the two groups of people is they eat the same acidic foods.

The first place I see bone loss physically in men and women is in our Jaws. its very noticable in white western europeans, and native indians

[randoskier]

[/quote]

yes, acidic heavy meat diet/grain foods, may be regulated by the body, but the question is how is the body doing the ph adjustments.. the answer to that is through the theft of calcium and magnesium from the bodies bones, and cartilage.

i always wondered why athletes and runners lost knee function, just like the sedintary man working in the office his whole life, always lost joint material and needed joint replacement at 50-60 years old. the correlating issue between the two groups of people is they eat the same acidic foods.

The first place I see bone loss physically in men and women is in our Jaws. its very noticable in white western europeans, and native indians
[/quote]

I am 65 and running on the joints I was issued at birth. I will ski two to three tours in Norway and Sweden this year with an average length of 200km. I don't pay much attention to my diet, but I don't eat any fast-food I only eat processed food during ski tours (freeze dried, etc). I have a bi-annual medical exam with a blood test- that test indicates to my doctor what my calcium and magnesium levels are, and if I needed to adjust them he would suggest a change in diet or a mineral supplement. I have never needed to, and most active people do not. My sister (an equestrian) had a zinc deficiency the doctor prescribed zinc supplement- end of problem.

The Norwegian populace is one of the healthiest I have encountered- I spend a lot of time eating with them in the shared huts and cabins- they are mostly a carnivorous lot and not so big on vegetables which they consider a necessary evil, they love berries though. But most of all they love bacon more than life itself! I lived in France for 12 years- they eat the fattiest diet you could imagine- reduced cream sauces etc., they also drink the second most alcohol per capita in the EU, Luxembourg was #1 (last I looked). Their life expectancy is 82.23 years, for Americans it is 77.43 yrs, granted that is due to a lot of factors (like they have a healthcare system), but the fact is their diet is not your traditional health food diet, it is the furthest thing from it!

The best dietary advice is from medical doctors and degreed nutritionists- in the case of the latter I would exclude the ones trying to sell books, generate hits on a website, or being paid and comped by supplement makers or other interested parties.

[randoskier]

Norwegian food!

-sauteed reindeer

-moose sushi (actually it went in a stew with berries)

-Almighty bacon slabs

-Silke the elkhound playing with moose left-overs

[randoskier]

BTW Planica is an amazing place, the Julian Alps are awesome. https://www.nc-planica.si/en/

I guess Acidosis isn't a thing in Russia, or they won't live long enough to care about bone loss and kidney failure.

That's true, they live to 60 something, but that is more down to Vodka. Not sure how long their skiers live.