Hi all – i’m going off on my gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition to the Isle of Arran in a couple of weeks and from past experience packing food is always a problem. there is never enough space and this time i have to fit 4 days worth of food into the same bag that only took 3 before. Also by the end of even a 3 day expedition we feel s*** because of the food. does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be the best stuff to take and are sugary things good for energy or bad for sustaining a long hike. Before I have taken lots of fruit and nut mixes, cereal bars and plain bagels etc but thinking that I might need a bit more variation but don’t know what exactly. Any Suggestions would be much appreciated! thanks

Army ration packs from eBay?

Ask a chef or a dietician

leave nutritionists to write made up quazi-medical marketing bumph in the lifestyle pages of the sunday supplements

Profiteroles and flapjack

HTH

Stuff that’s dry is light weight, but that’s basically pasta of which you need to eat a lot to keep full.

Army ration packs might be a good idea as would be those camping ready meals you can get from outdoor shops, although they are not cheap.

4 days is quite a long time without re-stocks. Do you have the opportunity to re-stock?

Maltloaf pre-buttered into small snack size portions, flapjack. Can’t you buy those boil in their bag shepherds pies wehre you just pierce the lid or something?? Cotswold outdoors had some recently.

Are you going to be relying on camping stoves?

live off the land*

(*fifty quid and google maps of the local pubs)

live off the land*

(*fifty quid and google maps of the local pubs)

You’ve not been to Arran have you?

Depending what exactly I am doing does vary what I take but a days food for trekking for me would be oats so simple for breakfast – make with powdered milk and add some dried fruit. A variety of cereal bars and dried fruit for snacks thru the day – probably at least 4 a day 100 g a day. Bread and cheese for lunch on the first day, crackers and cheese in a tube day two onwards. dinner is cup a soup, pasta and sauce, angel delight ( not diet ) made with powdered milk. Savoury rice in a pack is also good, /single pack dehydrated rubbish food for the win

If I am not too concerned about weight I will add some real garlic and onion to the pasta and maybe a tin of tuna.

I hate to carry food with water in. Water is never in short supply in Scotland, why carry it around in any form 🙂

count up the calories – you will want a lot maybe 4000 – 5000 a day. I do a few trekking trips ech year and this is what I base my food on

TJ you sure that which you mentioned could be made to add up to 4,000 calories? Seems a bit lean.

The savoury rice is a good idea tho. We also tried vegetarian meat substitute stuff – grim, but filling.

For bread, rolled up tortillas with peanut butter/chocolate spread are the best I’ve found. They are robust and don’t go stale or mouldy for ages.

You’ve not been to Arran have you?

pizza delivery out of the question then ? 😳

Isle of Arran
Pack the midge repelant..
we called Glen Rossa “Midge Alley”

It’s DoE…nothing to worry about, Throw some primula cheese and pitta bread in along with some malt loaf. It’s a piece of piss.

If you’re feeling saucy, take a can of hot dog sausages – boil ’em, eat ’em…then make a soup with the nasty water.

Enjoy.

You’ve not been to Arran have you?
pizza delivery out of the question then ?

If only! 😆

Base your diet on fat and protein, not carbs. You’ll be burning fat at the intensity you’re doing.
Eggs, bacon for breakfast. Get a massive salami sausage for general tucking into. Powdered greens are essential. Plenty of nuts. Bottle of cod liver oil and have loads. Don’t take any artificial foods (e.g. margarine). Fat is 9 cals per gram, carbs are 4. You carry less than half the weight if you carry fat. Remember, there are essential fats and amino acids. There are no essential carbs.
Just forget the rice/pasta, it’s no better than pot noodle and just spikes your insulin.

Really important point made above. Any idiot can – and does – call themself a nutritionist. Never believe anyone whose sole credential is that.

You carry less than half the weight if you carry fat.

A diet of lard is hardly balanced. Most foodstuffs with a lot of fat contain water as well so the weight advantage is lower than you claim

There are no essential carbs.

You need carbs as well in your diet – a mix is good. Short and long acting carbs, fats, protein are the main parts of a balanced diet. Oats provide a regulatory influence on your sugar / insulin metabolism

For trekking you also need it to be light, easily cooked and easily digested hence the menu I gave above which I have used for many any trips over many years. I wouldn’t want to live on it all year but for a few days trekking it works well.

If you’re taking a decent stove, I discovered a dry pancake mix today that requires only water to make up. Quite tasty as well, and gives variety to your breakfasts if porridge isn’t your thing.

Also, salami or chorizo is win food – fat and protein packed into a delicious package, can be eaten on its own or put in pasta or noodles

Also trekking food needs to last the 4 days without refrigeration

Salami is good tho for sure

You need carbs as well in your diet – a mix is good.

This is generally the establishment doctrine, despite the fact that prior to the advent of agriculture, carbs were a tiny proportion of our diets and regarded as a treat worth going to some lengths for.

Energy derived from carbs is no different from energy derived from fats or proteins BUT, carbs contain and supply no essential materials that contribute to the maintenance, repair and building of cells.

You can get by perfectly well without carbs, but you can’t expect your maximal output to be anywhere like as high with them. Thats because it costs somthing like twice as much oxygen to get the energy from protein or fat.

That said, DoE effort is unlikely to require those levels of output. You’ll be going all day, everyday, but you’ll be well inside your aerobic zone and therefore have plenty of O2 required for the extra work on your fats and proteins.

Theres a reason Ranulf Fiennes dragged a sled full of butter, rather than pasta.

Breckfast —- Instant porridge oats with powdered milk added (i’ve used microwavable sachets without a problem for a few years now) shove in a huge handful of dried fruit add extra sugar and all you have to do is boil water and pour on. Pre-pack the above in zip-lock bags.

Mid morning snack – Flapjacks, nuts or more dried fruit.

Lunch —– Digestive biscuits + Primula Cheese spread (in a tube) + cup of instant soup

Afternoon snack – Malt loaf and nuts

Evening meal – Packet of cous cous + tin of mackeral/sardines in tomato sauce

Dessert – Crush a couple of sticks of short bread + sachet of jam from a cafe + add to a melted Yorkie biscuit and raisin bar YUM YUM!

Night cap – Instant hot chocolate and some choccie biscuits ( also a wee dram if you can get it past your assessor!)

AlSO: drop in a few treats like toffees and energy gels for an instant energy hit during the day.

REMEMBER: That your 1st day could be different as you will have only started walking and your food will not have had a chance to spoil yet. Drop in mini pork pies and scotch eggs!

and don’t forget…… STAY HYDRATED!!!

the stoves we carry are something very similar to this. they’re a lot better than the old trangier

looking into getting some “deet” insect repellent because apparantly it works – unlike most of the stuff i’ve used before. will most probably be investing in the pre packaged long life camping food but on the 3 day practice i noticed that the stuff we had was a measly 130cal. also found some biscuits that have 5 cal/gram. flapjack is a good idea. the pancake stuff would be a nice change but would probably be ruined by the sheep p*** we’ve purified for water. Thanks for the suggestions – i will share them with the team

scotch eggs, protein bars, brazil nuts, smoked mackerel, chorizo, malt loaf, lentils – as others have said, calorie dense and mostly fat/protein oriented food.

I’ve found cous cous to be the most fuel & space efficient form of carbs for a main evening meal. Mix in a bit of protein & fat (chorizo & cheese) and you’re onto a winner.

Also second the hot choc suggestion – always a welcome drink after a day on the hills.

I wouldn’t listen to all of the waffle about getting all your energy from fat and protein. Those diets have some merit for weight loss, but that isn’t your goal on DofE. The argument that it’s what we evolved eating is spurious – back in the days before agriculture we had a life expectancy of about 35 years.

Make sure you have something in there that you enjoy to treat yourself with later on in the trip – it’s good to have something to look forward to!

Also: have fun. Arran’s an amazing place!

I was doing the north downs way once with a couple of mates. We pitched tents just before dusk in a discrete area of a village green. Whilst we were getting ready to go down the pub, a bunch of DoE kids turned up and camped next to us, when quizzed as to why they had camped right net to us it was because it must be ok to camp there because other people were.
We went down the pub for a nice big meal and a few pints and came back to see them still trying to coax a can of beans up to room temperature over a Esbit stove.
So my suggestion would be use pubs 🙂

You need carbs as well in your diet – a mix is good.
This is generally the establishment doctrine

You do need SOME carbs, just not a lot. Esp if exercising, even if it’s only walking. Anyone who’s bonked should be able to testify 🙂

(all afaik of course).

Theres a reason Ranulf Fiennes dragged a sled full of butter, rather than pasta

🙄 he wasn’t on a DoE was he?

The argument that it’s what we evolved eating is spurious – back in the days before agriculture we had a life expectancy of about 35 years

That life expectancy argument is also spurious. I remember reading that old people were just as old back then, but there were fewer of them because more people died from diseases etc. The MEAN lifetime might’ve been 35, but that doens’t mean you were necessarily expected to die at 35..

on my DofE, having done many years of other bits and bobs of expedition, we got “kit” pretty much down to a tee.

Evening food was beanfeast and cous cous.

beanfeast is dried soya mince in gracy with onion and various dried bits and bobs, and cous cous is… well cous cous.

sdlightly odd having morrocan spicey cous cous with basically cottage pie filling, but pretty tasty, and warm and carby.

lunch was Pittas, as it doesnt go stale very easily, with tuna sachets.

Army Rat packs are pretty heavy, as the food is wet, and although they have a lot of energy in them, i always find myself being hungry afterwards as the portions are quite small.

You might get better info on the for website than hear wherepeople seem to think you are tracking to the orthodox pole not walking in the hills for 4 days. The cured meat (salami/chorizo) suggestion is good. I’d suggest thinking hard before completely changing your diet from normal – ask anyone who has tried the taking diet and they will tell you it takes time to adapt during which you feel crappy. Since I did my doe food choices have improved, recently I had some risoto which was just add water which wasn’t bad- came from supermarkt, and much cheaper than official camping rations. Many similar options. From a doe perspective though you really all need to be doing the same as 5 or 6 people all cooking different stuff is crazy and not really in the spirit.

back in the days before agriculture we had a life expectancy of about 35 years

average life expectancy was skewed by very high infant mortality and what’s your evidence that an early death was caused by a lack of processed carbs?

I second cous-cous. Pour over boiling water and it is ready in 5 minutes without any further cooking, which is a big plus for camping. Polenta (maize flour) also packs small, cooks very quickly and bulks up nicely when water is added.
I would get a big cheap bag of own-brand porridge oats from the supermarket instead of instant porridge or oats-so-simple. You can’t really make porridge any simpler!

haha Ian – i live a 10 minute ride from the north downs way so we often see bronze groups staring blankly at a map looking for Bently copse mostly. It should be fun if all goes well but we do have to cover near to 100km. how long does cheese last unrefrigerated? it’s just that we have a full day of doing nothing before hand (to recover from 11 hours of minibus) where size and weight of food is not a problem but it means what we take for the hike has to last that much longer

Cheese in a block will last 2 or 3 days IME depending on the temp – you can get the primula cheese in a tube as well that lasts longer. tartex veg pate is another good one for lunches

Multi day stuff i work on
breakfast – porridge sachets with hot water and powdered milk, teabags, sugar
lunch – cheese slices, pita or biscuits, tuna and/or salami. Soup sachet
dinner – backcountry dehy anything – usually thai chicken curry or something tasty.
snacks – one square meal bars, clif bars, crackers, salted nuts.
Nuun tablets.

I usually subsist on ready mixed bags of porridge (those sachets look tiny!) with powdered milk, sultanas and sugar mixed through. If I’m feeling decadent I might even sneak in some little ‘lunch box’ sized cartons of OJ, although thats pretty weighty.

Thick oatcakes, cheese and salami for lunch.

Most of the dishes above ^ for dinner. I couldn’t imagine wanting to fry up greasy meat every night, regardless of its nutritional efficiency, and I never feel slower or worse than the hour or so after a fry in the morning.

4 days is quite a long time without re-stocks

I’d have thought four was reasonably straightforward, six days worth in a rucsac if you’re cycling can start to get unwieldy, I had enough for about ten days when we were canoening, although all that cheese was starting to block me up a little… 😳

If you’re taking a decent stove, I discovered a dry pancake mix today that requires only water to make up. Quite tasty as well, and gives variety to your breakfasts if porridge isn’t your thing.

Genius, I’m going to remember that.

Final tip: Take up smoking rollies. Lightweight, easy to carry, repress your appetite and give you something to do while sitting and appreciating the views. Also, to a small extent, repel midgies, and make you look like James Dean in gore-tex. What’s to lose?

I don’t remember the Gold expedition being either as strenuous or complex to plan for as you’re making out. Cereal bars, chocky spread sandwiches, beanfeast, super noodles (though not recommended anymore, but never did us any harm), just simple stuff. Can’t see how you can struggle to take enough. It’s only a few days, eat anything you fancy and can fit in your bag.

Don’t worry about energy content specifically, or nutrition content, just ensure you have enough each day, then some extra for when it’s miserable and you’re sat about at night. You’d done bronze/silver so you’re aware of what you need. You probably take too many clothes if you can’t fit all the food and kit you need.

And trangias are ace, far better than nasty gas nonsense you get these days.

You could always take some high protein powder and mix it with oats and some water,reflex is quite good,quinoa is easy to cook and is filling too. Take some ground spices to add some punch to your food, I struggle to find time to eat working long days and never have lunch or dinner with being a chef, try some Dr udos oil, really nutty and saves you having to take nuts, hope this helps.

No tins to keep weight down. Oatcakes and tubes of cheese spread do well for daytime snacks. The ‘porridge oats with milk powder & sugar & dried fruit added’ is perfect for breakfast. Evening meal is whatever you want – the Beanfeast idea is good – soya meat substitute is light, dry and easy to use. Some of the commercial dehydrated meals are good for a variation. Lots of dried mixed fruit.

Try all your recipes before you go. Nothing worse than hating your food. Remember you are carrying it all, so no tins and as little pre-made stuff as possible.

I don’t remember the Gold expedition being either as strenuous or complex to plan for as you’re making out.

This. When I did my DofE we took a mix of super noodles, flapjack, cheese, biltong and those tins of sausage, chips and beans you can get. Split the food between 3, and the 4th man carried all the vodka 😆

Ah, DoE, that brings back some fun memories.

We headed up to the Grampians for our gold expedition – 65miles in 5 days, in glorious sunshine (not a cloud all week!).

Up at 3am, set off by 4am…. finished the ‘days’ walking before lunchtime, so we could just relax the rest of the day….

As much as I hated my school, the opportunity to do DoE (Bronze, Silver and Gold) was fantastic.