Mountain House – backpacking food

[DAN-Y]

MH #10 cans. Build your own meals.

 

[Justin W]

I wonder how long it would take paying for freeze dried food to equal the price of a home freeze dehydrator?

[DWR D]

“Peak Refuel has a ton of meat in their meals. Hence why the saturated fat is higher. Just pointing that out. MH you have too look hard for the meat, but high in carbs.”

I’ll take the Mountain House and the carbs and keep my arteries unclogged. Peak Refuel is a coronary bomb…

[Roger Caffin]

I am not convinced anything is a ‘coronary bomb’ when you are working very hard, like climbing mountains with a pack. It all gets burnt.
But at home – well, maybe.

Cheers

[DWR D]

“It all gets burnt.”

That’s what I used to think… until…  easy to self-justify when you can’t see the inside of your arteries… humans are great at ignoring what they can’t see, smell, taste, touch, or feel…

[DWR D]

you can get protein without so much saturated fats…. beans, whole grains (including rice), skinless chicken breast or turkey meat, etc… no need to pump up the saturated fats like some of the packaged meals do…

[Roger Caffin]

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not advocating lots of fat (or hydrogenated oils). I am just saying that when you are working hard, your metabolism can be quite voracious. And that you should not worry about a few days of odd food consumption: it won’t matter in the long run IF you keep working.

Cheers

[DWR D]

I have been training hard for the past 45 years… always thin and fit…  I too thought I burned off sugar, fats, salt (sweat)… but… to everyone’s amazement, my arteries did clog…

Sure… a few days a year ain’t gonna make a big difference, but I suspect eating habits don’t stop at the trail head (going in or out)…

And some people with the right genes will never be affected… (hey, my aunt was a heavy smoker from her 20’s until she died at 95 and never got cancer or lung disease or a stroke)… but how do you know  if you have the right genes or  not… ???  (“Do you feel lucky… ???”)

‘just sayin…’

End of Sermon :)))  (though if I reached a few minds, great)

[AK Granola]

MH spaghetti with meat sauce has 1.5 grams saturated fat for a serving with 250 calories, 590 mg sodium, 10 grams  protein. Most of us would probably eat a double serving, depending on the other foods for the day. So 3 grams saturated fat;  is that high for fat? Sodium is high but I don’t have to worry about that; many people do, especially the older folks on BPL.

Chicken Fajita Bowl (one of my fav MH meals) has 580 calories, 5 grams saturated fat, 1380 mg sodium. The fat still doesn’t seem that bad, is it? Thinking that it’s only about 1/4 of the total max for the day on a 2000 calorie diet. The sodium is pretty serious for those worrying about that in their diet though.

I don’t worry about fat too much. I’m a Dane after all – life would end without butter and cheese. Despite a few extra pounds, all my other vitals are good.

I have occasionally tried a packaged backpacking meal at home, say on my work lunch. Yuk. None of them -even plain old ramen – taste good at home. Since my daily meals at home have plenty of fish, salad, veg and fruit, I’m not too worried about the backpacking meals for a few weeks a year.

[DAN-Y]

Mountain House Hacks

[Nick Gatel]

I have been training hard for the past 45 years… always thin and fit…  I too thought I burned off sugar, fats, salt (sweat)… but… to everyone’s amazement, my arteries did clog…

I haven’t been training hard for the past 52 years, have been eating MH for close to 50 years on all my backpacking trips (one trip was 6 months). I don’t have clogged arteries according to a recent stress test by a cardiologist. Diet is important, but there are other risk factors, to include genes.

I’m with Roger. If one has a healthy lifestyle of diet and exercise (not being fat or obese), then eating MH on backpacking trips isn’t going to harm you. This then leaves the question, “Does MH taste good?” That is an individual preference.

 

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I’ll answer 2 questions:

Don’t buy a freeze-dryer for saving money. Buy it because it is FANFREAKING FUN TO USE! Really. We fd all sorts of weird stuff. That you cannot find anywhere to buy. We run ours nearly 24/7. I am currently getting 10 dozen eggs ready to go on. (We farm)

What works for each person is different. For me, carbs are not good in high amounts, though if I am working out hard, then I can have more. I am also nearly 50 and dancing on the edge of ol’ menopause. If I eat meat, vegetables and fruit, with a bit of carbs, I function far better.

I am also anemic (which I cannot do anything about to “fix”). A week out of every month I would disgust DWR D as I eat basically nothing but red meat. Because it fixes my anemia so I can function. I have been this way since I had my 2nd and 3rd children, they messed up something in my body that didn’t snap back (during those pregnancies I looked like a pale ghost in photos. I am part Filipino and normally tan looking.)

So yeah, it comes down to each person’s body. I’d rather eat meat where I feel good, rather than carbs where I need a nap due to the insulin spike after. But most of all, Mountain House is NOT good food for anyone. It’s hella salty, and is a slurry of chemicals and cheap food. It’s the Chef Boyardee of outdoor food. You might as well eat Taco Bell.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Skinless chicken breast to a Filipino might as well be leather. Come on, that’s where all the flavor is hidden! In the dark meat and the juicy, greasy skin.

[AK Granola]

Sarah, as a typical MH example, which chemicals are concerning in this list of ingredients:

Enriched Spaghetti (durum semolina, niacin [B3], ferrous sulfate [Iron], thiamine mononitrate [B1], riboflavin [B2], folic acid [B9]) ● Tomato Paste ● Beef (beef, salt, rosemary extract) ● Tomatoes (tomato, tomato juice, calcium chloride, citric acid) ● Cane Sugar ● Less than 2% of: Sea Salt ● Onion Powder ● Garlic Powder ● Seasoning (yeast extract, yeast) ● Herbs (oregano, rosemary, savory, basil, thyme, marjoram, sage) ● Red Pepper Powder

There aren’t any colors, or artificial flavorings. Nothing that gives me pause. Am I missing something?

Perhaps with menopause you will stop having anemia issues? I am 58 and long since meno, and I donate blood every two months and still have a hematocrit of 45+. But everyone truly is different in that regard. The only certainty is that menopause WILL change something for you! I found that I need about 1/3 fewer calories overall than pre-meno if I want to avoid gaining weight (that sucks!!), and so the focus of what I can eat has to be on nutrition, esp at home, as well as foods that provide satiety, usually fats, so I don’t overeat. On trail it’s about just getting enough sustaining foods, so higher fat than at home, and stuff that tastes good.

[Murali C]

I checked both MH and Peak refuel – Chicken teriyaki (looks the same with respect to carbs/sodium/saturated fat)  and Beef Stroganoff (sure sodium is lesser 950 in peak compared to 1530 in MH – but, saturated fat in Peak refuel is 27g to 8g – so one ingredient is off for each in beef stroganoff).

I checked some more meals of Peak refuel – carbs seem to be same with MH. Sure, Sodium is lesser – relative to MH – but still high. Since we backpack and sweat a lot, it probably is okay to have that much sodium. Only concern is saturated fat is way off in Peak Refuel. Calories/oz is much better as well in Peak Refuel.

Is Peak Refuel saying that saturated fat is okay and not trans fat? Need to research that a bit more.

The calories/oz is amazingly too good to be true at 150 to 160 which is approaching nuts which I have not seen before.

I know MH cold soaks well. If Peak Refuel cannot cold soak – then that is another strike against it as well as high saturated fat.

[Murali C]

I guess the consensus is to avoid food with saturated fat/trans fat. The fact that Peak Refuel meals are so high in saturated fat compared to MH makes me not want to try Peak Refuel. The carbs seem very similar – which becomes sugar anyways in the body. I am skeptical of the calories/oz of Peak Refuel as I have never seen such high numbers. Yes Sodium is slightly higher in MH compared to Peak Refuel. I guess one needs to decide which poison to pick – increase in sodium in one or increase in saturated fat in another. Choose higher BP or higher LDL/artery clogging I suppose.

The fact that folks have been eating MH meals for 50 years like Nick makes me feel better that MH meals are okay to eat during backpacking. It’s all a trade off. Would I want to eat meals with less sodium – sure. But not one with high saturated fat. I mean the sodium content in Peak Refuel is not significantly lower.

[Roger Caffin]

I do not think the saturated fats matters at all over a few days walking. They will be burnt.
But I hate the TASTE of high-sodium meals!

Cheers

[David Hartley]

For me, the taste and getting enough calories are what I want out of backpacking meals – and if the taste isn’t good the calories won’t matter anyway because I will have difficulty eating it. Dinner’s are really the easiest for me to figure out because of the availability of the MH and Peak meals, along with several DIY recipes I have come up with over time. Breakfast and lunch/snacks are a much greater challenge because I don’t like the time it takes to do a hot breakfast and I find most of the various bars unpalatable – topics for a different thread perhaps.

I would not want to eat the various MH, Peak, Backpackers Pantry, etc. freeze dried meals for months at a time. There is little doubt the salt in most of them, and the saturated fat in the Peak meals, would not be a healthy diet over an extended period of time, but my backpacking trips are typically 6-7 days, occasionally 10-12 days at most, and maybe 4 times a year max, so its all about taste and calories. I might feel differently if I had high blood pressure or cholesterol/heart issues, and I understand perfectly how that impacts an individuals views of the topic – even a hint of a potential heart issue is a threat to our ability to pursue the hobby we love. I eat much healthier when I am not backpacking.

BTW Murali C – I believe that the high calories/oz of the Peak meals is likely due to the high levels of saturated fats. Fat is pretty calorie dense – and at least for me, on a relatively short backpacking trip, that is a feature not a bug.

 

[Murali C]

Good thing is we have choices :-)

[DAN-Y]

Good thing is we have choices :-)

That’s what it’s all about 

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Rosemary extract is a “natural” preservative. Yeast extract is natural MSG for flavor popping. That stuff gives me a Niacin Flush like crazy, I avoid most foods with yeast extract otherwise I get bright pink skin that is hot.

So yes, in theory, MH is natural these days. But the salt is so unneeded in them.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

With the different brands you have to look at serving sizes. The newer companies are usually 1 serving, where as MH and other older brands still play the 2 serving game – even though everyone knows it really is 1 serving. And an example is this:

Peak Refuel Beef Stroganoff sodium for the bag is 950 mg.

For MH it is for the bag it is 1570 mg. (If you read the packaging they try to slide it as 1 serving is half that….but then you’d be eating like 300 calories!)

That is a huge difference.

I did the research awhile back where I compared the meals.

https://trailcooking.com/2021/04/09/backpacking-meals-beef-stroganoff-comparison-and-reviews/

[DAN-Y]

It’s such an easy task to reduce the amount of salt in a MH all you have to do is empty contents of package into collander, shake out all the powder/salt and then return half the powder to package and then add back the big stuff. Easy peasy!

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

If you are going to do that, make your own meals. Lol. You will get a far better tasting meal! I plead with you. One of my actual talents is making versions of “popular” FD meals. It’s not hard, and you can drop the sodium to very low levels, yet still go to flavor town and have the right thickening. I mean…MH ain’t cheap these days. Better to go buy base ingredients!

[DAN-Y]

We have seen some folks find it easier to purchase and repack into ziplocks, easy peasy.

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