How to Buy Food for a Backpacking Trip

When backpacking, your body's needs are multiplied by the stresses of cold and long distances. Choosing the right food is essential in meeting these needs.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Waterproof Matches
• Freeze-dried Meals
• Trail Mix
• Backpacking Cookware
• Backpacking Stoves
• Camp-stove Fuels
• Fuel Bottles

1. Think about how many days you'll be gone and how many meals you'll need to prepare.

2. Add in trailside and late-night snacks to your calculation.

3. Choose foods that are rich in carbohydrates and low in moisture. Aim for the maximum ratio of carbohydrate calories to weight that you can get.

4. Get a variety of different foods to avoid monotony. For meals, try oatmeal, seasoned rice, macaroni and prepackaged pastas; for trail food, try peanuts, raisins, chocolate chips and dried fruit.

Tips & Warnings

• Make your own trail mix by blending salty and sweet flavors and carbohydrates and fats to your own specs.

• Although a little fat is necessary for balance, avoid fat-rich foods because fat calories metabolize more slowly and thus convert into energy less efficiently.

• For long backpacking trips, consider prepackaged freeze-dried meals. They're expensive but extremely space- and weight-efficient, as well as easy to prepare.

• Pack your food into plastic bags for compartmentalization and space efficiency.

• Bring more food than you think you need. The extra weight will be worth it if you have to hunker down to wait out a storm.

• Pack emergency foods, which should require no cooking, separately so that you're not tempted to eat them outside of an emergency situation.

• If your trip will last more than two weeks, consult with a nutritionist beforehand to make sure you'll get all the nutrients you need.