Travel Meals
About Travel Meals
We often use packaged food (travel meals) for our convenience. But packaged backpacking meals are more than just convenient when you are on a hiking or camping trip. Because getting enough nutrition on the move is hard, having access to them can even be a lifesaver in some situations.
Planning is an essential requirement before any trip. But when it is more important if it is a hiking or camping trip because you are going to put yourselves through uncomfortable situations and travel through uncomfortable roads. If you don’t want your hiking trip to be a disaster, you should not only plan your location and route but the food as well. Read this article to know more about backpacking or travel meals. Having a better understanding of them will help you make the right choices when you are shopping for them.
A simple guide to packing food for your trip
The mantra to follow when you are packing food for a trip is to keep it simple, yet nutritious. There are some compromises you have to pack while travelling. We all will miss our comfy bed and air conditioning. This is somewhat true when it comes to packing food as well. But by spending some time choosing your backpacking meals wisely, you can make sure that you can have all the food you love without any trouble and get enough nutrition. This article will tell you everything you need to know about backpacking or travel meals.
The ideal backpacking meal
You shouldn’t look at backpacking meals the same way that you consider regular homemade meals. To make sure that you eat healthy without making it too hard to carry the food with you, backpacking foods have to have certain qualities. Firstly, they shouldn’t be easily perishable because you don’t have access to refrigerators while you are travelling. Secondly, they should be light in weight. Weight is a major concern on backpacking trips. If your luggage is too heavy, you will be burning more calories, and you will need to consume more to make it up. So, travel meals should not weigh much.
Calories in the food
If you are on a hiking trip, you will burn two or three times the calories that you would otherwise. That means you should be eating foods that are rich in calories. You don’t have to be worried about consuming carbohydrates while hiking because you need the energy to survive and to continue your trip. If you want to calculate your calorie requirement and pack the food accordingly, the thumb rule to follow is around 130 calories per ounce of the food. This will help you keep the weight of the travel meals to an acceptable and comfortable level.
Ease of preparation
While on a trip, the mealtime gives you some time to rest and restore your energy. However, it shouldn’t take up too much of your time either. If you are to spend a couple of hours preparing a meal and eating it while on a trip, it will slow you down substantially. This will also mean that you will need to burn more fuel to prepare the meal, which means you will have to pack more fuel with you. Another factor to consider is how savvy you are at cooking. If you are not an experienced cook, it is better to carry some prepacked foods with you that are ready to eat.
Think about the nutrients
What kind of food you should carry on a trip and how much you should carry with you depends a lot on the duration of the trip? However, regardless of that, your food should contain enough macronutrients. These include carbohydrates, proteins, and fat. Carbohydrates are responsible for supplying energy to your body. Protein is essential for maintaining muscle health and healing. You will be putting your muscles to a lot of work on a hiking trip. So be sure to pack some backpacking meals that can give you enough protein, like meat, cheese, powdered milk, protein bars, and almond butter.
Tips on how to buy Backpacking Meals
One of the essential parts of any hiking or camping trip is preparing the food that you need. But shopping for backpacking meals can be an overwhelming experience. Because there is a wide variety of backpacking foods out there, selecting them can be a really tough task. But it is also important to make sure that you are selecting them rightly to ensure that you get proper nutrition on a trip. If you know what factors to consider while you are shopping for them, it can be much easier. Here are some tips that you can follow while shopping.
- Weight – The first thing to look for in a backpacking meal is its weight. You should keep the weight of your backpack to a minimum and do not carry with you anything that is not necessary. Hiking is a physically demanding activity, and having a heavy backpack on your shoulder will make it even harder. Also, lugging a heavy backpack can tire you out fast.
- Nutrients – There are a couple of things to consider here. Firstly, you will need a lot more calories in your food than otherwise when you are hiking. So, food items that are generally eaten in moderation can be eaten a lot during backpacking trips. Foods that contain a lot of sugar are great for packing a lot of calories into tiny volumes.
- Caffeine – If you are somebody who regularly drinks coffee, then not taking caffeine can give you some unpleasant side effects. So, unless you plan on quitting your caffeine habit, pack some coffee or some other caffeine replacement with you. An instant coffee powder will work great on camping trips. They are easy to prepare. Another option is to pack caffein chocolates so that you can have them on the go without stopping to set up a stove.
- Taste – Backpacking meals have many more constraints than regular food. Because one has to consider the weight, volume and nutrients of the food, this rules out many everyday food items. But that doesn’t mean that you have to force down food that tastes like cardboard down your throat. You can find backpack meals that meet all the criteria with a bit of searching.
We need proper nutrition while we are not travelling as well. The great news is that you can find all of them easily using our shopping search engine . That way, you can also compare the features and prices of different products and pick the best one among them. Also, don’t forget to check out other amazing products from the Food & Beverage category. There you can find all kinds of stuff, including different types of teas, juices, sweets, sports food, soft drinks, and sauces.
Question & Answer
What are the backpacking meals?
As the name suggests, backpacking or travel meals are meals that are convenient for backpacking trips and provide enough nutrition while you are travelling. Unlike while cooking at home, there won’t be an elaborate kitchen, and large ovens while you are on a trail. This presents some real challenges to backpackers. Travel meals should be easily eatable without a lot of effort or a large stove. Oftentimes, all you can carry with you will be a small petrol stove. You should be able to prepare your meals using it without taking too much time.
Can you make your own backpacking meal?
Making travel meals is not rocket science. All you have to do is to adapt your regular foods so that it will be easy to have them while you are travelling. In order to do that, you need to consider carbs first. Carbs, or carbohydrates, are what provide you with calories. While fat in the food can also provide calories, most of the calories we humans come from carbs. You should prepare something rich in carbs, but it does not contain a lot of water. Potatoes are a great option. Next, you need to include protein. Pack some veggies as well. But the hardest part is packing them so that the food won’t go bad.
How much food do you need for a trip?
You should not carry more travel meals than you need. The problem with carrying extra food is that it adds weight. So, if you end up carrying five kilograms of food that you are never going to need, not only is it going to slow you down, but it will significantly impact your ability to move around as well. A good estimate is that you should carry between 700 to 950 grams of food for a person. This can vary a bit because some people eat more than others. Another way is to look at the number of calories in the food. A person will need 12-14 calories per kilogram of their body weight.
If you are looking to buy backpacking meals online in the UAE, look no further as you are in the right place. There are more than 500 shops and brands offering them here on Shops.ae. These shops offer products from popular brands like BackCountry, Backpackers Pantry, Mountain House, Trader Joe’s, and Appalachian Trail.