Food for Potential Energy

Food for potential energy is required by your body to ensure it keeps working efficiently throughout your hike. When considering walking calories, the daily intake (of around 3000-5000 calories) must be a balanced intake, because a shortage of one nutrient can mean inefficient take-up of other nutrients. Your walking calories requirements, together with carefully choosing your food for potential energy, should be an important aspect of your planning for your adventure holidays.

NUTRIENTS (food for potential energy) can be broadly classified, as:-

MACRO - Fats - Carbohydrates - Proteins.
FATS for walking calories contain up to 200 calories per ounce/28grams but take hours to metabolise, providing more long term energy. Good food for potential energy.
Best source of fats as a food for potential energy are nuts, as they also contain vitamins, minerals & trace elements. Fats are also essential to correctly utilise carbohydrates and prevent "sugar crashes" which leave you feeling exhausted & feeling cold suddenly. Cheese (not the crumbly variety, for practical reasons!) is also another good food for potential energy; easy to carry & snack on.

CARBOHYDRATES provide excellent walking calories and food for potential energy, supplying about 100 calories per 28gms which can be converted quite quickly by the body into glucose, for the muscles to burn as energy, making them the best source of readily available walking calories food for potential energy. There are two types of carbohydrate:- Simple and Complex.
Simple - Sugar, sweets & fruits. Converted into glucose in a couple of minutes. They also can produce high swings in blood sugar, resulting in peaks of energy and troughs of fatigue! Don't rely too much on sugars for long-term energy needs as they are "empty calories" i.e. they don't contribute to your overall nutrition, but are useful as a quick food for sport energy.
Complex - Wholemeal bread, cereal, grains. Take longer to metabolise, avoiding the big energy swings of sugars.
Take about an hour or so to digest and best kept as breakfast & lunch foods to keep you going throughout the day. Best food for potential energy and walking calories.

PROTEINS as a food for potential energy provide up 80 calories per 23gms, and can take several days to metabolize, and are also not metabolized directly into blood sugars. Proteins are required by the body to repair itself overnight so do not skimp on your protein intake (if there is not much protein coming in, repairs are made using the body's protein e.g. muscle. Something you do not want! That is why nuts are such a good all-round source of protein, fats & carbohydrates.

MICRO - This list, including vitamins, minerals, plant phytofactors, trace elements, co-enzyme factors etc. is much larger because not all the micronutrients in food have yet been "discovered" by scientists.
And yet, if some are missing such as sodium, potassium & calcium and others, problems can arise with muscle cramps, dizziness, headaches.
Hiking, trekking & outdoors activities can seriously deplete minerals through excessive sweating, so organic supplementation is the best source to keep your vitamin & mineral levels up, to benefit your walking calories. And don't forget to drink PLENTY of water! More about this below.

DEHYDRATION.- DRINK LOTS OF WATER
Coffee & tea are best avoided when on the hills as they are diuretics, which deplete water from the body. Water is essential to the body cell's mitochondrion, which are responsible for the cell's energy production. Even 5% dehydration can result in a 20-30% reduction in metabolism, resulting in noticeably less energy. Ironically, you become dehydrated long before you feel thirsty so it is a good idea to drink regularly. Around 4 litres are required daily if you are working hard in rough terrain, even in the winter time. The colour of your urine is as good indicator; straw coloured and darker means you need to drink more water, clear urine is better, and if you are urinating every 2-3 hours this means you are adequately hydrated. Importantly, don't forget to take mineral supplements to replace those lost through sweating.
Water is heavy so take purifying tablets for when you meet a stream; you don't know if there is dead sheep further upstream. I have had diarrhoea once after drinking from a pure-looking Lakeland stream. Not something I would wish on anyone!

Alcohol too is a diuretic and is to be avoided until you are warm & inside out of the cold; it is amazing how many people still subscribe to the old myth that drinking alcohol outside warms you up; it increases peripheral circulation and leads to fast loss of body heat, affecting your balance & judgement! Nothing new there then!

The best way to maintain your walking calories, is to carry a couple of protein/carbohydrate bars, or, failing that, muesili bars, for snacking along the way. Don't forgoe your protein intake at your evening meal as this will be used by your body for repairs during the night. Fish & chips perhaps?! Bon appetite!-

Invalid RSS Equalizer license.
Click Here To Purchase