What is it many people do when they are going to go backpacking, camping, take canoe trips; perhaps go on a climbing trip or many other outdoor excursions? Well beyond planning they reach for easy meals. They want meals that are quick, easy and filling. I find many folks are willing to pay a bit more for convenience and so the wide variety of dehydrated and freeze dried, pre-packaged meals are top on the grocery list.
Companies like Chef Glenn, Backpacker’s Pantry, Mountain House, Go Foods, Alpine Aire, Military Surplus MRE’s (meals ready to eat) and many more are selling a smorgasbord of easy, quick and filling prepackaged meals for the outdoor enthusiast. Meal bars such as Cliff Bars, Mojo, Builder’s Bar, Power Bars and more are also very easy carry along meals and snacks. Yes they can be a little pricey for one meal, but many times you can get deals where buying bulk will save you money.
Am I promoting this, simply stating a fact or am I laying out a warning? The latter would be the case in that I am laying out a warning.
For the easy of convenience you pay not only with the contents of your wallet or bank account, but even worse- with your health. The majority of backpacking/camping prepackaged meals are filled with horrible poisons like high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, indigestible fillers, chemical “sugars”, pesticides, food colorings, hormones, antibiotics, dairy sludge like feces and pus (see my article called Poop in your Drink) among many other toxins. Sure they are convenient, but they are also highly toxic to your health.
Even some of the companies that sell outdoor prepackaged meals claim to be organic. However, if you read through the ingredients of their fancy named meals and attractive, healthy looking pictures you find the meals to be filled with other poisons like soy, wheat, gluten and enough sodium to tan a buffalo hide! Those of you who have taken my Self Healing course or watched the dvd set know exactly what dangers I speak of when mentioning the consumption of wheat and soy. Wheat created massive amounts of acids in the human body. A high acid system is a very unhealthy system because the acids create breeding grounds for everything from Candida overgrowth to cancers. (and much more!) Soy that is not fermented is proven to increase estrogen levels in both male and female bodies to dangerous levels. It also creates sluggish metabolism, poor digestion, dampness in many digestive organs, cancers and so on. Organic or not, when the company fills the meals with wheat and soy the food is dangerous to eat.
The other issue we need to look at is the well documented fact that the timeframe of up to 45 minutes after working out is the most critical to your body as to what you eat. After working out (yes that includes hiking, backpacking, canoeing, etc) your muscles and fascia are filled with lactic acid. The acid breaks down the muscle fibers and creates inflammation. This is what causes sore muscles after working out. If you consume acid forming foods such as wheat after such exercise you actually create more acid in the already acidic system. This further enhances inflammation of not only the muscles and fascia but also the entire digestive tract, nerves, tendons, ligaments and target organs. Now combine this with soy and not only do you get high acids building and weakening your system but you also slow down the metabolic action and bog down the digestive system; same as gluten. If you are not eating organic then all those nasty poisons filling the “foods” are more easily absorbed into every layer of your body that can take years to undo.
Salt is good for us, but in proper quantities and of the beneficial kind. Refined table salt is garbage. High mineral sea salts are much better for you. Yes we need salt to live, but a meal filled with an average of 1200mg of refined table salt is just ridiculous. Do you know what that does to your system? It weakens the kidneys which is what people get “swollen” after consuming a high salt meal. It also stresses the blood pressure and brain. The brain needs high quality salt to function, but too much creates an imbalance in the saline content of the cells and tissues.
Do any of us actually need this stress, poison and damage to our systems when we are out trying to do a body good? I don’t think so. I sure don’t! Beware of these prepackaged outdoor meals and the companies that create them. All their convenience, fancy food names, colors and pretty pictures are all covering a big fat LIE. The food is NOT healthy for your body and will not do your body good. Don’t buy into their advertising and certainly don’t spend your hard earned money paying them to continue making toxic foods to poison people with.
Seek alternative foods for quick meals during outdoor excursions. Avoid foods with excessive salt content as well as foods with soy, wheat, preservatives, chemicals that I can’t even pronounce, pesticides, growth hormones and antibiotics, refined anything… Look for organic/non-GMO wholesome foods that can be dried or bought dried at Natural Food Markets. Make sure to READ THE INGREDIANTS before you buy! Companies love to sneak poisons into fancy, healthy looking labeled foods. Sure an organic Probar broken up into some reconstituted organic goats milk or organic Whey Protein might not sounds as attractive as a prepackaged breakfast called Morning Berry Glow or some other fancy name, but it will fill you up, keep you going and supply your body with healthy nutrition that you require.
Here at Ways Of The Wild Institute when we say we will feed you meals during courses we do not feed you that garbage and poison. Here you will eat healthy food. It may not be pesticide filled Saucy Thai Peanut Stew with a toxic high fructose corn syrup dessert of Cream Mango Lush…but it will taste good and be good for your body and mind A very good quality organic prepackaged backpacking food company is Mary Jane’s Outpost Organic.
Take the time to shop wisely, plan wisely and prepare healthy foods for your excursions, or pay for the convenience of poison foods with your very health and wellbeing. The choice is ultimately yours…
To your health ~ White Wolf Von Atzingen ~ Ways Of The Wild Institute
