Nutritional Value

[Mike Storesund]

Okay, I read the accounting of GoLite’s Co-Founder and President Demetri Coupounas (Coup) 19 day, 468 mile thru-hike of the Colorado Trail. In his list of gear, his food was all natural and consisted of almost 40 pounds of food for a planned 21 days;

“FOOD – Dried Mango (6 lbs), Dried Bananas (6 lbs), Dried Figs (6 lbs), Dried Papaya (6 lbs), Dried Jackfruit (5 lbs), Dried Goji Berries (18 oz), Dates (1lb), Kelp (22 oz), Cacao Nibs (3 lbs.), Pecans (1 lb), Almonds (1 lb), Macademia Nuts (1 lb), and Pistachios (1 lb).”

I also read that he lost about 23 pounds over these 19 days, which I am not surprised. I would also suspect many cat holes along the trail with this much fruit.

My question is for any nutritionist out there, as to how nutritious this type of diet would be for a 5 to 9 day hike along part of the Continental Divide? I don’t believe I would starve to death, but how much damage could the muscles encounter? Also, it might be a long time before I would ever touch another piece of fruit!

[jacob thompson]

Hi Mike,

i am by no means a nutritionist but i do have experience with fruits. I lived for a whole year on fruit alone. Ive adopted a diet now which is mostly vegan and i eat a lot of raw food. but i did very well on many hikes on just dried fruit. the longest i ever did was 5 days, but it is no problem. i would suggest testing how you go on that kind of diet for a while before u jump straight in and do it on a hike. theres a whole other type of digestion that your body needs to develop in order to get the most out of fruit and nuts. that being said you will lose weight if you dont have the right amount of fat and energy. despite what is said by nutritionists i dont believe their figures for most of dietary requirements. their numbers are based on a very oversupplemented western diet. so in short i would say you would have no problems with a dried fruit hike. as long as you have prepared yourself before you hike there shouldnt be any problems. the human body can stand up to an awful lot of punishment. just look at long distance thru hikers that is a testament to how much a body can stand up to. i have done many fasts in my time, im not saying you should fast, and have survived on water alone for weeks as long as i dont exert myself too much. just try it out at home first see how you go. if you want any more info on this kind of diets i know plenty of resources.

[paul johnson]

FMI (for my information), resources would be appreciated. When you get a spare moment, please reply.

Many thanks,
pj

[jacob thompson]

the sites that i had in mind are mostly fruitarian sites. Sometimes the stuff that they talk about seems a little scary, but nonetheless they are informative and from people who have been fruitarians for a long time. a lot of the sites contain the nutritional value of fruits and also what requirements one needs for a raw food diet. When you are working out values remeber that your fruit will be dry and thus will weigh a lot less, also as well know the additional of trailmix containing nuts is an excellent way to boost protein levels. i have 3 sites here but try also googling the words fruitarian, raw food or living food.

http://www.fruitarian.com/ its a site that i have read many times over and have gathered a lot of good information from.

http://hem.fyristorg.com/fruitarian/
http://www.acorn.net/fruitarian/what.html

hope you learn something from them, i certainly did.

[Mike Storesund]

Jacob,
Thanks for the links. It may prove an interesting change as to what is carried in the field. To think… no more cook pot! (jk)

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