Defining "Ultralight" Food for Backpacking and Bug Out Bags

greetings youtubers and welcome to the gear bench so why does a gear channel open with a video about food well because food is fuel and fuels gear let's Thomas from long trails and page 105 what you put in your tank for fuel is even more important than the gear you carry that's why we're covering it first let me say right up front that I understand that what you eat is a uniquely personal choice and I'm most definitely not telling anybody what they should eat only what you can eat if you want to save weight so this video is for the people that carry their calories on their back and want to lighten that load now on page 114 Miz Thomas does some math for us if you need 4,000 calories a day in your menu averages 100 calories per ounce that's 40 ounces of food but if you elevate your diet to 125 calories per ounce that same 4,000 calories now weighs only 30 ounces that's a 10 ounce savings per day so for a five-day resupply with a density of a hundred you're looking at 12 and a half pounds of food but at a hundred and twenty-five calories per ounce your load drops by over three pounds that weight savings alone more than makes up for a 2-person tint so bottom line your food bag is by far this heaviest single component in your pack and if you're an ultra lighter what you eat can easily outweigh every other item you carry put together so if you care about weight mine your munchies it's not the so-called big three that matters most it's actually this stuff right here unfortunately there's no objective standard for what ultralight food should weigh so how do we know what goals to set some might say that this bottle of olive oils heavy it weighs 471 grams but heavy compared to what this peanut butter weighs 504 grams that's 33 grams more but it has over a thousand calories less than this now where are my Clif Bar people I know we're out there this is 260 calories and it weighs 70 grams in the package it would take over ten bars to make the calories in this jar peanut butter it would take over fourteen bars to make the calories in this bottle of olive oil and those bars would weigh over a kilo which is more than double what this weighs in the bottle so heavy it's actually quite the opposite this is one of the lightest foods in existence but there are limits of course you can't just drink olive oil for every meal if you tried you end up needing a whole lot of that so what is an ultra light but realistic goal so to figure out what heavy and light calories look like we have to consider what calories are made oh there are only three macronutrients that make up all the energy and food its carbohydrates proteins and fats and here right from the USDA's website is how many calories are in a gram of each so here you have it in black and white there are literally only two weight classes of macronutrients there's four calories per gram and nine and get this carbs are tied with proteins for last place think about that for a minute carbs is refined white sugar you know what people hold up is pure energy they're not the lightest way to carry calories they're the heaviest and protein is just as bad that's an only fence our light weight so starting at the heavy end four calories per gram equals 113 calories per ounce so whether it's rice honey pasta expect foods that are all or mostly carbs and protein to be somewhere in that density or worse the only way to get below 113 is to add deadweight almost always in the form of water foods heavier than the heaviest types of calories can't logically be characterized as anything other than heavy so if we round off the threshold for heavy foods becomes 110 calories per ounce or less it's a semi objective place to start from there we go to our experts two of the most prolific hikers in the world justin Lichter has hiked more than 35,000 career miles he's not only triple-crown the big three US trails he did it in one year he also hiked all over the world and on page 109 quote anything under 110 calories per ounce has water weight water is heavy and has no calories so it's a lose-lose for hiking food so what does he suggest foods with calories per ounce of 125 or greater is ideal for hiking and then finally we have Andrews Gurkha he also has more than 30 thousand miles on his feet including the Triple Crown but he's also done epically remote treks like the 4,700 mile I'll ask a Yukon expedition and at times he's had to go two weeks without resupply imagine carrying 14 days worth of food on your back so for him density matters skirt cassettes 125 as his minimum density but he prefers much closer to 150 so on 25 calories per ounce seems somewhat agreed upon is the starting place for the lightweight so between that and heavy there's a area that's 15 calories per ounce wide that will call moderate and to keep the category sizes consistent very light would then run from 140 to 255 and beyond that you get true ultra light food charted here in the range of 155 270 and for those precious snacks even lighter still we have hyper light okay that does it for book theory let's get on to a practical application you know how hikers do gear shakedowns for each other where they'll go through your bag and tell you all the ways that you can lighten up well let's do a virtual gear shakedown of somebody's food bag so I found a youtube video that specifically addresses ultralight food and I used the food items recommended to make a sample menu that I'm calling meal plan a and as you can see there's 13 items there the way just over 18 ounces and it equals 16 hundred and thirty nine calories which is a half-day's calories at best when you're hiking it seems fine it's all tasty stuff but look what happens when we add columns for density it turns out there's only a couple of high density options there and everything else is heavy and when you look at the daily totals the average density for the entire meal plan is only 90 calories per ounce next I created an alternate menu a meal plan beam and to keep it fair I did my best to match the calories exactly I also tried to match the proteins because I know for a lot of folks there's a concern about getting enough protein while on the trail but look at the difference in the calories per ounce by choosing only high density items equals from 90 to 157 that's from heavy to ultralight for the same number of calories and look what that does to the weight you save almost eight ounces that's a half a pound and remember this is just a half a day's calories if you were to double that out you could save up to a pound a day just by making these simple changes so for the same calories and the same protein but half a pound less where's the way go from carbs to fats at this point I should also point out we went from 13 individual food items down to 8 so we're not just losing ounces we're in cubic inches and that can be real important when you're trying to fit all of your food into a bear canister and at this point I realize I've said the word fat enough to have some people thinking about nutrition a few comments one this is not for everyday eating this is for high exertion hiking which has different caloric needs also try to keep in mind that what may be an issue for you it's not necessarily an issue for other people but lastly I'm not running away from the nutrition issue I got a whole video planned on that but this one's already gonna run long and so I'm doing my best to keep it only about calorie density the charts a project I've been working on for over two years researching anything that anybody said was good hiker food so that I could catalogue it and then sort it by calorie density this allows you to just browse through a list so that you can pick out things that are lighter than what maybe you normally carry it makes ultralight meal planning simple so here it is the master list well page one anyway I've got well over a thousand items all together first of all everything is grouped by class now I invented these and they're fairly subjective but at least they allow you to compare bars two bars as opposed to pastries or nut butters or meat sticks next you have both brand and flavor and both of those are important and we'll get to that in a bit then you have the weight mind you this is the weight of one serving as listed on the food label so just bear that in mind not all serving sizes are the same that leads to the calories per serving and with weight and calories we can compute density and these columns have been color-coded according to the weight key that we established earlier and then lastly even though I'm not really addressing nutrition in this video I did include the fats carbs and proteins since that such basic information I know a lot of people would probably like to see it so let's look at the chart there's some lessons that we can extract by looking at all this data that will help you when you go into an unfamiliar selection and be able to pick out what are likely some of the highest density options for you rather than standing there in the store with your calculator looking at labels one at a time going alphabetically our first category is bars and not only our bar is probably one of the most popular kinds of trail food it's also our biggest category I think I have 267 different bars here and one of the things that you can see is that of all those options only three are ultralight and all three of those are made out of coconut so lesson number one would be if you're looking for high density look for stuff made out of coconut these puncture bars are delicious they're essentially just shredded coconut pressed together with a little sugar maybe some almonds cocoa nibs this leads us to another one of our lessons and that is that flavor matters eat what you enjoy but just bear in mind that depending on which flavor you choose you can go all the way from ultralight all the way down to moderate almost heavy so getting back to our chart we could see that out of 267 bars compared almost half of the top 30 are kind bars and before anybody says it no I'm not sponsored by anybody I'm not selling anything numbers or numbers and that brings us to our last lesson for a while which is that brand matters even more so than flavor let's compare two popular types so charted next to each other just look at the difference between the two the kind bars are almost exclusively very light whereas Clif bars are almost universally heavy I'm not knocking Clif bars they're delicious item all the time doing yard work but for the trail I prefer something lighter and more compact getting enough protein an extremely high density diet can be a bit of a challenge so I wanted to highlight some of the best protein options in your top 30 these power Crunch Bars are like those wafer cookies your grandma used to give you as a kid very tasty very lightweight 13 grams of protein also Taos Mountain makes these energy bars the maple praline one of the best and then kind makes protein specific VARs as opposed to the regular flavors now because it is the top 30 just a few more honorable mentions fo chose little PB and J bars size of my fingers 210 calories Nature Valley makes these almond butter filled cinnamon biscuits they're like sandwich cookies they're fantastic and then if you have nut allergies getting enough density is going to be a lot harder for you so in the bar world one of your best options might be health warriors pumpkin seeds superfood bar with honey cracked pepper and turmeric so moving on to page 2 we drop a weight class but it's still pretty good stuff we've got more kind bars here still light weight but no longer very light you see the difference is that they begin to emphasize fruit fruit is sugar sugars heavy Larabars make an appearance they come in many flavors but like the kind bars it's the nuts coconut and chocolate flavors that are the highest density the fruits will be further down the list and we talked about Clif bars the regular ones tend to be rather heavy but they do have other types including these nut butter filled ones where it's kind of the standard Clif Bar cookie like material but it's actually been filled with a nut butter and they're pretty good by the way on the next page we can see we're gonna have the last of the lightweight bars some of my favorites include these meal replacements by Pro bar one of the things I like about them is the portion size they're almost 400 calories whereas most bars are in the 200 calorie range they're just snacks these pro bars are a little bit closer to lunch on the go and considering their number of calories they're amazingly compact similarly you've got the Gatorade recover bars they're also getting close to 400 calories a little bit bulkier but double the protein of the pro bars and then lastly the picky bars has several flavors there's some benefits I like about the nutritional ratios in these which I'll have to wait for the nutrition video but it's nice to know you can get those benefits and still have something that is lightweight so as we keep moving down the list we seem to be getting more and better protein options which shouldn't be a surprise because protein is heavy so the more of it there is the less density we'll be in this area one of my favorites taste wise is Robert Irvine's fit crunch bars they got a full 30 grams of protein there are almost 400 calories but unlike your average bar which is let's be honest it's just an extruded mass of goo that's cut to shape and then wrapped these are actually baked like cookies and he's a celebrity chef so the man knows how to cook so moving down further still green belly bars make an appearance at one hundred and fortieth place on the list there's been ample suggestion on the internet that they're an ultra-light solution they are 118 calories brown they do have the largest portion size of any bars listed here at 645 calories but they're twice as big as a pro bar so there's no magic there so as we keep going we're getting towards the lower end of moderate start to see things like these rx bars and go macro also metrics bars which are 32 grams of protein over 400 calories and marketed as a meal replacement next is we finish up with the moderates and move into the actually heavy bars that's where you'll see most of your Clif bars and then on the last page of bars we actually see some kind bars there these pressed fruit and chia again fruits sugar sugars heavy with all of my research in bars I mean of bars I became curious about these emergency food rations but they're one of those things that seem heavy I mean this Brit here is over a pound and a half but it's 3600 calories that will fuel a hungry hiker for an entire day so how's the density turns out they're all lightweight three of them are even very light the mainstay the grizzly and the de tricks they do tend to come in different sizes any given brand usually will offer like a 1200 calorie size a 2400 calorie or 3600 calorie and some of them like the de tricks here they're broken up into smaller pieces inside the wrapper so you can have 400 calorie portions so if taste and food fatigue are issues for you we have these new millennium energy bars essentially they're the same thing as an emergency food ration they're even manufactured by SOS they just come in flavors you got eight of them and you know what they're surprisingly good and then at the bottom of the emergency bars list we have a tech bar tactical food rations because putting it in a black label makes it tactical so we've got one last subcategory of bars that I developed for a friend of mine and he can get so sick of sugary snacks on the trail he's just craving anything salty so obviously you can go to meat sticks potato chips a different category but I got me thinking about savory food bars it turns out there's not that many but there are some very light options and those include these strong and kind bars now I'll say savory in quotes because they are still glued together with sugar but they have a more savory sounding spice flavors like barbeque hickory smoked mustard roasted jalapeno and Thai sweet chili savory harvest makes some lightweight options they've got a sriracha barbecue and the pizzas are all gone because I hate them oh no I found out that I actually kind of like them they are something different so the variety can be nice and as I said these are very light and they do have 10 grams of protein each right so nobody wants to eat bars all day everyday and if you watch the youtubes you know that many a hiker likes their tortillas in fact they even make the top 10 ultralight foods lists in some places so I looked at a variety of things from wraps to bagels to sandwich rolls and traditional sliced bread bad news is that all bread is heavy the good news is that if you are going to carry something tortillas are one of your lightest options in fact the only thing I could find that was lighter was the King's Hawaiian sweet hamburger buns at 92 calories per ounce this next category is one I call bumps these aren't food products in their own right there are things that you would add to other dishes to enhance their qualities a classic example would be spices those are flavour bumps what we're after are calorie bumps products that you can add to other dishes to enhance their density and as you can see there are several Hyperlight options forth and Hart has this G butter it's clarified butter so they remove the milk solids leaving it essentially 100% pure fat and it rings in it 255 calories per ounce then of course you have your aforementioned olive oil also nearly perfect density it's so good that even in the bottle it makes a good carry but if you prefer Marconi makes these 11 milliliter packets that you can get on Amazon then you have your Hoosier Hill Farms powders they've got a heavy cream butter powder they also make a cheddar cheese powder and milk powder but these are the Hyperlight options just put a scoop in your granola or in your freeze-dried entree and you are good to go one of the founding of this project was not to just make a list of things I like to eat but to find out as much as what you like by watching your videos so that I could include it all into one big list for comparison believe it or not I found more than one person that still likes to go out into the woods with good old NT more beef stew in the can it may not surprise you to hear that canned goods are pretty heavy the absolute best I could find was this Mel's corned beef hash you can't get more calories in a tin anywhere and the lowest was progressive light soups they're almost all water but good if you're on a diet in this next category we get to talk about candy and there are several Hyperlite options which are exclusively dark chocolate seems like the darker the better and the best of the best is this green and blacks dark 85% of course there are several good options with chocolate mixed with nuts and for the nut averse we have these sesame crunch snacks ultra light and very light and then of course you have good ol M&Ms again the ones with nuts tend to be the best I like the almond fill ones here oh this bag appears to be open a page - we see several offerings from resis different formats but they're all chocolate and peanuts so they're all very light and that includes one of my all-time favorites the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup [Applause] this is also where we see that hikers staple the Snickers bar they come in several flavors now this isn't even all of them but believe it or not they're only lightweight it's only the peanut butter squares that are very light and on this last page of Candy's is where you'll find your Milky Way bars still in a lightweight category but then you come to things like heart candies which I've heard described as high calorie and dense they even used to put them in old-time survival kits but contrary to intuition they're not lightweight they're only moderate and similarly gummy bears jelly beans and red vines and Twizzlers they're all just pure sugar which makes them heavy when your base camping gourmet breakfast can be a real nice treat but when I'm hiking I prefer to just break my fast and get on the trail so cereal has become my go-to choice turns out they're moderate or worse with one notable exception only granolas qualify as light or very light weight those are just dry granola you can eat it out of a bag like trail mix but if you want cereal you'll have to repackage it in two zip blocks and then you can add some of those bumps we talked about like the whole milk and the cream powders now if you like all the work done for you backpackers pantry has these convenient one and two serving sizes and they come in with a gusseted bottom so they'll stand on their own and they have the whole milk powder included all you got to do is add water and eat it right out of the bag growing up these Quaker instant oatmeal packets were the breakfast around the campfire so I must say that was a little disappointed to find out where they fit on the list and the same goes for a few more of my favorite breakfast cereals with all that I've been going on about fad you think the cheese would have a lot of calories for the weight but the reality is its moderate at best there must be way too much moisture the reason I think that is because the only ultralight option out there is this moon cheese which is Harper sent real cheese has just been freeze-dried so all the water weight has been removed one of the things I've noticed while doing this project is that there's sometimes a confusion between best hiking food and lightest hiking food best can mean lots of things taste good inexpensive convenient and just because something's conveniently packaged for the field doesn't make it lightweight similarly you can make the portions very small so that it feels lightly but that doesn't mean that there's a good number of calories per ounce and these single serving cheese products seem to be the case in point though they're often recommended now there are hundreds of cookies and I only charted some of them but the only ultralight one I could find was Keebler's pecan shortbread Sandi's but in the very light category found an unusual option you got Reese's snack stirs it's graham cracker dipping sticks with a peanut butter chocolate spread or you could bring a whole bag of double stufs that's one of the advantages of hiking and lets you eat all this stuff you're normally not supposed to a little bit lower in density but I did find some protein options here buff bake makes these proteins sandwich cookies they're moderate and then they have their large soft baked cookie like the Lennon Larry's complete cookie both 16 grams of protein but they're kind of heavy Fig Newtons come in at the bottom of the list next up chips and crackers I looked at a broad cross-section everything from potato chips to corn chips - pretzels crackers Cheetos you name it and the best of the best you can't beat deep fried good old classic potato chips in many ways they're kind of an ideal hiker food they're ultra light they're delicious and they've got good sodium for electrolytes in fact one of their only drawbacks is they're bulky and we all know what you can do about that [Music] by now we're starting to get a feeling for how things work fried is good baked is bad so things like potato chips will be near the top of the list and things like pretzels and crackers will be near the bottom and if you're gonna do something like carry reduced-fat items you might as well just bring this [Music] some people get sick of drinking water all day every day and if that water tastes bad you might want to flavor it so I took a look at some drink mixes now obviously things like unsweetened coffee or Crystal Light packets have zero calories and so zero density I did not bother to chart those things but I did take a look at a variety of things that do provide some fuel with their flavour included are your campfire classics like your hot Coco's and your spiced ciders and they're all pretty mediocre you're only Hyperlight options are these fuel fudge packets I guess the keto people are squeezing fat into their coffee below that you have your dry milk it's very light mind you that's the whole milk powder the nonfat is heavy and then for the coffee people you've got your Starbucks instant all the various flavors are in the moderate range of course the iced coffee ones that dissolve in cold water which are the ones that I like are heavier [Music] well we won't be getting into nutrition in this video there are some nutrient driven drink mixes that bear discussion from a density standpoint you've got your protein powders that come in 1020 ground pouches there's your gatorade style electrolyte and sugar mixes which includes these Tailwind nutrition's they come flavored unflavored some of which are caffeinated unfortunately they're all heavy but their purpose may outweigh their lack of density see what I did there but if weight is a concern just be aware that some electrolyte products are sugar free so zero calories zero density fruit is something that a lot of people report cravings for after enough days in the field so let's take a look at some of the ways you can carry it not surprisingly coconut chips end up being your lightest option followed by banana chips with the dark chocolate covered ones being better than the plain as far as your conventional dried fruits go like the ones you get at the grocery store they are all heavy the dried just means dehydrated not all the water has been removed and that applies whether you're talking about your fruit leathers or your whole fruits now if you're talking about actual freeze-dried fruit while it is incrementally lighter than dried fruit it still hovers right around that threshold for heavy on page 2 we see some fresh fruits you got everything from raw bananas and oranges to fresh apple slices avocados and apple sauce and obviously they're all extremely heavy in fact everything there but the avocados is significantly heavier than our old friend the corned beef hash and that's what this project is about perspective not preference obviously hash is no replacement for fruit the fruit is what you want but just know what it's costing you in terms of weight fresh fruit isn't just heavy it bruises easily it's got a short shelf life so I looked at some other options for how you might get your fruit fix in the field and that would be these squeeze packs you can get blended flavors like apple peach and apple grape they've got protein enhanced ones like this smash pack with 14 grams of protein or you've got things like this chia squeezed blackberry bliss in terms of weight they're all just as bad as fresh fruit but they might be a little more practical in your pack energy gels are one of those areas where our intuition might fail us you might think they have to be dense runners use them nope they're just sugar and a little bit of water and that goes for whether you're talking about the shoes the gels these honey packets or these protein shots it's all heavy and that goes in particular for things like this 5-hour energy energy is a scientifically definable quantity and there is only one unit for energy and food and that is calories there's only four calories in this so that is not five hours of energy it's five hours of stimulants and that's not the same thing it's salty it's shelf-stable there's no prep so you could eat it on the go it could be the perfect way to get your carnivore on while hiking but it doesn't matter whether you're talking about turkey pork beef steak it's universally heavy but wait what's that at the top of the list bacon to the rescue and of all the ones I searched the Walmart brand with the lightest for every hiker out there craving fruit there's another one craving meat so I made sure to flush this next category out with two full pages of options turns out your lightest are your meat sticks and that includes everything from summer sausage to pepperoni to chorizo the best of which are these old trapper deli style beef sticks and the heaviest is actually as chefs cut beef and pork stick you can also buy fully cooked bacon or bacon bits there shelf-stable bacon makes everything better and then you have meat bars they're not like jerky you're not sliced from the hole it's chopped meat that's been pressed into shape but they add ingredients you can get flavors like turkey and Buffalo with cranberries or chicken sriracha and mango jalapeno pork and at the very bottom of the list once again we have some of our hiker favorites these tuna packets have become so popular that starkest is even marketing this outdoors pouch but be careful though if you drop it in the wilderness you may never find it again bear in mind also the differences this packet has more than two and a half times the calories of this one for the exact same weight the difference is that this is packed in extra-virgin olive oil and this is packed in water and better than any of the tunas you have this little gem right here you either love it or it's a four-letter word and then putting everything in perspective ordered from lightest to heaviest our hash fits right here let's take a break from pressingly heavy all our favorite things are and talk about that unicorn of the hiking food world that is both addictively good and ultra high density nut butter coming in right at the top of the lists are Skippy's singles not the jar for some reason they have different nutrition labels on them Skippy's claiming that these single serve cups have more fat per ounce for what it's worth they look and taste exactly the same to me jiff also makes single serve cups and they list the density that's more on a par with the jar aimed directly at the outdoor crowd Boggs makes a few flavors of trail butter this was my favorite the Mountaineer maple and they're only hyper light option unfortunately they no longer make this anymore they change the recipe and lower the density but they are still ultra light and tasty they come in either these single serve tear off pouches or this for serving size with a resealable cap it's a whole mix of different kinds of nuts and seeds and maple syrup honey sea salt vanilla eight hundred calories in the palm of your hand some more ultralight options justin has a range of butters from almond to peanuts to hazelnuts and they've got flavors like honey chocolate and maple as well as classic and then a peanut butter and company makes smooth operator which is unique in that it's a no stir peanut butter unlike some of these other ones where the oils and the solids can separate and in cooler weather it can be a little bit like deep tissue massage getting them ready for consumption now if you really want to go gourmet probar has things like this coconut mixed berry almond butters or sriracha peanut butter blend or this cocoa mocha which is almond butter with espresso 25 milligrams of caffeine wild friends is also getting into the act they've got vanilla espresso almond butter chocolate coconut peanut butter which brings up the issue what to do for people with allergies wild friends also has this organic maple sunflower butter which is ultra light as well and there are a couple of other no nut butters that are hyper light and if butters are good nuts themselves can be even better with the king of the camp being these manalo and dry-roasted macadamias that a whopping 202 calories per ounce another convenient option can be these Blue Diamond smokehouse almonds that come in these nice little packs they also come in flavors now you got wasabi and soy sauce and others and they are all the same calories and in the seed world you have multiple hyper light options including these pumpkin seeds that are dry roasted and already been shelled so eating them is quicker and faster and there's less litter but as you go from salty to sweet you drop in density at the bottom of page one you'll find these Holly snacks honey almonds and then at the bottom of page two you've got the true north cashew crunch squares which are fiendishly good but not even lightweight anymore I have a sweet tooth so I looked at a series of miscellaneous baked goods that I'm calling pastries now in general you can see that your options are pretty moderate but there is one very light option honey stinger makes these waffles in a variety of flavors and they are extremely compact telling you there's nothing like slapping some peanut butter on a chocolate waffle you got 350 calories that you'll forgets in your pocket hostess has a variety of options some of the lightest include their doughnuts Ding Dongs and these Ho Hos pop-tarts are popular because of their convenience but they run from moderate to heavy as we work our way onto page two and what's this at the bottom of the list Twinkies but that's okay I don't take these hiking what I do is sit on the couch with a jar of mrs. gear skeptics homemade salted caramel sauce if you're watching of YouTube hiking videos you'll get the impression that side dishes are popular with the thru-hiking crowd I mean there's entire videos dedicated to the right way of making a ramen bomb so let's see how they rate unfortunately there are no ultralight options there are no very light options and there's essentially only one lightweight option ramen and it is an all-time classic in all the flavors of the rainbow there are some options at the very bottom end of moderate but from here on out it's mostly heavy and that includes these noir pasta and rice sides which are undoubtedly popular because of the flavor variety and the convenience but it wouldn't be because of the weight as we've already seen there are literally hundreds of other products you could carry that would be lighter also in this category would be the Idahoan instant mashed potatoes they also have good flavor variety and the same just add boiling water convenience but they are not lightweight you may have noticed that one hyper light option there right at the top of the list it's these over easy egg crystals freeze-dried egg powder you just add water and mix but bear in mind they still need to be cooked although it occurs to me as I sit here surrounded by all this food you might be able to drizzle this mixture into the boiling water of your ramen and make hikers egg drop soup and then down at the bottom of page 1 you've got some of your classics like your craft macaroni and cheese and Minute Rice both a hundred and five calories per ounce on page two we see some more noir and Idahoan flavors as well as everything from jell-o instant pudding to stovetop stuffing and Velveeta shells and cheese which are way down there at 84 calories per ounce and for the couscous in quinoa crowd I have got half dozen options in there for you at the bottom of page 2 you can get ready pasta with is fully cooked pasta in a bag and on page three same thing with Uncle Ben's ready rice and preggos ready meals all fully cooked full the water very heavy once again we have our corned beef ordered from light to heavy goes right here hashtag perspective I saw that some people like to carry these instant soup packets so real quick I looked at a few options not much to say there and so it happens that our very last category is actually the one that started it all the original hiking food people tend to talk about trail mix like it's all one thing but there are dozens of types at least and once again we see the lesson that brand and flavor matter River Trail makes several flavors of bag mix most of which is very light and although they did have the only two ultralight options I came across as well as the only hyper light option which was the single highest density commercial mix that I could find and that would be the river trail party mix which is a bunch of nuts and seeds and some pretzels baked wheat flour crunchies and they're all cooked in spices and oil the way it would cook party mix which probably contributes to the density kirkland which is Costco's brand sells these conveniently packaged single-serve trail mixes which is the traditional recipe of nuts raisins and M&Ms as Andrews Gurkha points out never underestimate the value of portion control some of the beef jerky makers are getting into the trail mix game epic has some flavours like bacon lust coconut carnivore and honey harvest and on page two we see that Alberto has a couple of jerky mixes like this original beef and this spicy sweet you may have noticed at the very top of page one something you cannot find in stores having researched the calories per ounce of the various ingredients I decided to design a recipe specifically for high density behold Skip's mix just three ingredients dry roasted macadamia nuts almond M&Ms and dried cherries it just happens to be the highest of the high density trail mixes well that does it for the food and if you were able to swallow all that you've got the stomach for one last topic everything we've discussed so far has been about the contents not the container and I wanted to get just a brief understanding of how package weight affects the carried density peanut butter comes in a jar or in these cups now obviously the bigger one's heavier we're not talking about serving size here we're talking about package weight efficiency so the question is if I carried a stack of these cups with enough peanut butter to equal what's in here which one would be heavier turns out each type of package reduces its carried to density by 13 calories per ounce it's a tie and that happens because each package has its own advantages these cups have this very lightweight little foil lid as opposed to the heavy plastic one but the jar has a better ratio of volume to surface area which means you'll get more grams of peanut butter per gram of plastic than you do in the smaller package so it actually does not matter whether you choose to carry one of these or several of these from a weight perspective but there is another way these foil packets only reduce the carry density by six calories per ounce which is less than half the debit you get from either of these plastic containers and lastly oil packets themselves come in different sizes like these one and for serving options from trail butter and once again you have the same dynamics of the inherent efficiency of a larger container being offset by the bulkier cap giving you reductions in carry density of nine and eleven calories per ounce respectively wait a minute what about mountain house this stuff is a hiker staple look there's even hikers on the label yeah I did look at freeze-dried food and not just mountain house several manufacturers hundreds of meals but it's just too much for all one video so stay tuned for part two where we find out how freeze-dried meals fit into the density hierarchy that is all folks the entire chart is available for download as a portable document just check the link in the description below and I very much appreciate your time well that's one ginormous light

Channel: GearSkeptic

Views: 22,003

Rating: 4.9687986 out of 5

Keywords: ultralight, backpacking, hiking, food, calorie density, bug out bag

Id: gbmQRmuv88c

Length: 51min 56sec (3116 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 06 2020