Trail Mix Myth
First of all, I need to say I love trail mix gorp. It is GOOOOOOOD stuff in my book!
But, most trail mix is high in fat which gives it such a high calorie/ounce ratio (150C/oz). More than half its calories come from fat and hikers should be getting more carbohydrate calories while on the trail. Protein and fat calories take longer to digest and provide energy while carbohydrate calories give you energy faster.
As long as you are being good to your body by hiking, you should also be good to it by feeding it good food. Remember to drink plenty of water while hiking and eat small amounts continuously rather than stopping for big food breaks at long intervals.
Healthy Trail Mix Recipe
You can make a more healthy trail mix than what is available pre-packaged. Using your own food dehydrator, you can dry fruits and create a customized gorp mixture. This minimizes the chemical additives and saves a lot of money.
Here is my recommendation and calorie break-down. Dry your own bananas and apples:
| Food | Amount | Calories | Fat | Protein | Carbs |
| banana | 1 | 97 | .5g | 1.1g | 24.7g |
| apple | 1 | 68 | .1g | .3g | 18.5g |
| raisins | 28g | 84 | .2g | .8g | 22g |
| chocolate chips | 28g | 153 | 10g | 2g | 16g |
| pretzels | 112g | 380 | 3.4g | 9.2g | 77.8g |
| animal crackers | 56g | 251 | 7.6g | 3.4g | 42.4g |
| Totals | 280g (10 oz) | 1033 | 21.8g | 16.8g | 201.4g |
This mixture is pretty healthy and has enough calories for an 8 mile hike with 18% from fat, 6% from protein, and 77% from carbohydrates. If you cheat and just pick out the chocolate chips while hiking, you should be ashamed of yourself! The pretzels provide the salty taste instead of high-fat peanuts.
GORP
Good Old Raisins and Peanuts will probably continue to be the snack food of choice for hikers forever. If you want to mix things up and go for a new taste, consider adding some of these to your trail mix gorp recipe and see how it tastes:
- dried cranberries
- dried blueberries
- dried pineapple (dried at home, not sugared)
- almonds
- sunflower seed meat
- goldfish crackers
- shredded coconut
- butterscotch chips
- white chocolate chips
- Reese's pieces
- mini-marshamallows
- granola
- whole-grain Cheerios
If you have a trail mix receipe that you want to share, send me an email. I'm always game to try something new - well, almost always.
