Liquid / soft foods for backpacking

[R Y]

I’ve been backpacking for about 15 years but this past winter I had surgery for a Zenker’s Diverticulum in my esophagus.  Long story short is that healing has been slow, and I had to feed through a gastrostomy tube for the last several months.  But I started swallowing liquids and eating soft foods recently, and hope to have the tube removed before long.

That said, I suspect I will still have issues swallowing solids for a while (whether or not the surgery was successful in resolving my dysphagia is still an open question).  I bought a commercial-grade blender recently to make tube-feeding blends (Vitamix) and can make various puree’s for oral consumption.  On dayhikes I’ve been taking bottles of Ensure, protein shakes like Odwalla and Gu packets.  But somehow I don’t think this will scale well to multiday trips :)

Has anyone been through anything like this ?  Any meal ideas ?  The first thing that comes to mind is to get a dry grains container for my Vitamix and grind up freeze-dried backpacking food.  I can eat things like pudding, soft oatmeal, yogurt (without fruit chunks, those cause problems) and the like at the moment.

edit: I just noticed some other posts that mentioned Ensure powder — had no idea !  Will research that as well… and also powdered yogurt.

Thanks for any insights !
-Rob

[Howard P]

Here are at least a few things that you may be able to tolerate. Check my YouTube channel, “Vegan Packer,” for other possible suggestions. I’ll be posting new meals, so make sure to subscribe, so that you don’t miss out on them.

Cinnamon Ginger Applesauce The applesauce comes as a fruit roll style, but adding hot water quickly changes it back to something that you may be able to consume. Even eating it as a fruit roll allows it to melt in your mouth, and may be something that you can tolerate.

Turmeric Tea The tea is a delicious, creamy drink that tastes like cinnamon and ginger.

Cherry Fruit Rolls  These cherry rolls are solid, but they will melt in your mouth enough that you may be able to tolerate them.

Rice Pudding If you have a problem with eating rice, since you have a Vitamix, if you get the dry grain grinder (look on their web site–it looks just like the regular container, but it is smaller, and the blade is a bit different, and is made to grind and mill), maybe grinding down the rice into smaller size of pieces before cooking may work for you.

Good luck with everything. Don’t let it stop you!

[Anonymous]

Dehydrated mashed potatoes with cheese; dehydrated split pea soup; refried beans with cheese; cream of wheat; various dehydrated chunky soups pureed dry in a blender before packing for your trip; Nido dried milk; whey protein powder; maltodextrin. these last three can be mixed to make a thick drink flavored to your taste with whatever you choose, e.g. cocoa powder, coffee, etc

[R Y]

Some great ideas here, thanks !

Things that are lumpy or chunky are presently not workable.  For example tapioca pudding and fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt can clog up my esophagus for the better part of the day.  Smooth chocolate pudding and well-blended yogurt work well on the other hand.  My guess is that solids need to hydrate back into a smooth, even texture.  I can’t really depend on saliva for this.

Speaking of which, I notice there are ‘blender bottles’ out there that I guess folks use to mix protein shakes.  How are people finding these clean up in the field ? (probably requires a LOT of washing would be my guess, or else risk lots of bacterial growth)

[ed hyatt]

I’m about 7 years into post-throat cancer recovery; salivary glands on one side no longer work – I perhaps have experience of some of the same issues. For me things have got progressively easier, especially after the first three years.

I tend towards many of the solutions (sic) noted above – and my ‘regimen’ these days (just back from the first 600 miles of the PCT) is a liquid breakfast (Ensure powder, smooth shakes) – I can now eat solids so dried fruit and so forth. The larger part of my day is sustained through Palatinose, Instant Oats (the almost totally miscible kind) and powders of their ilk.

These I put into my drinking water. Their ability to dissolve means there is very little issue (that I have yet to notice) with regard to keeping things clean. The same litre pair of Smartwater bottles were in use for a month solid.

I can tolerate ‘normal’ food now, but often have to sip water all the time I am eating; it is adaption and experiment. The powders have worked very well for me.

[JVD]

I like a plant-based meal replacement powder made by RAW MEAL. They also make a higher protein variety and several others. I generally add it to my instant oatmeal when I’m in the backcountry and to a smoothie in the frontcountry. It could be the basis of a meal. The taste is OK, not great. Chai Vanilla is the best, IMO.

There are many other brands of powdered meal replacements these days at my local health food store.

Orgain makes a protein powder which I’ve found at my local Costco recently. Not as nutritionally complete as Raw Meal, but chocolate is tasty as a protein boost.

[R Y]

Thanks guys.  Ed, I wish you continued recovery and good health !

[Todd Stough]

I would think any kind of smooth soups would be good.  Butternut squash soup would be a good example.  Cook it down fairly thick and then dehydrate at home.  There would also be lots of other soups you could use.

[Bill Giles]

I’ve been using a blender ball for some time in my (wide mouth) thermos bottle to mix various concoctions with my coffee. I normally use a mix of Cocoa, Nonfat Dry Milk, Yogurt Powder, sometimes Oat flour and lately dried Brewer’s Malted Barley. I grind the whole Malt grains in a cheap high speed coffee grinder to a flour. The flours usually do well in the mix, but there are almost inevitably some coarser grains that can be felt with the tongue. They are still very fine grains. I seldom have a problem cleaning the blender ball. Food doesn’t seem to stick to it. I rinse the thermos bottle out and then put some water in it and shake the bottle. The blender ball seems to knock the food particles loose and they rinse out.

[Author]

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