Good food for trek ........ why essential ?

Why is Good food for trek essential?

Good food is essential for a trekker. It serves as a source of energy for the fatigued body. Some trekkers prefer heavy breakfast and light lunch whereas some prefer light breakfast and heavy lunch. I prefer light breakfast and heavy lunch. The reason is trekking starts immediately after breakfast. So if you have heavy breakfast it may be troublesome for your stomach to digest it. Light breakfast gets digested fast. During a trek, we usually rest after lunch, which gives the stomach enough time to digest majority of the food. Hence I prefer light breakfast and heavy lunch.

You have many options for lunch and breakfast. Poha or sandwich is common food for breakfast. Sometimes the breakfast depends on the availability of food at the meeting point. Trekkers from Pune and Mumbai usually get vadapav or misal pav for breakfast, because thats the most readily available food at all small places in Maharashtra. Some trek groups give idli, puri-bhaji, sandwiches for breakfast. However fruits are considered best for breakfast. Banana, apple, oranges are light to eat and fast to digest. So choose your breakfast as per your convenience.

Lunch for trek can be either prepared in the morning or at night before trek. Vegetable and chapatis is the most preferred lunch. However now-a-days bread or paratha is gaining popularity as compared to chapatis. You may also take bread and butter/jam for lunch. Thepla is a tasty Gujrati recipe that can be prepared and kept for 3-4 days. You also get ready made theplas in retails stores. They taste good with pickle, usually that is given along with theplas. Pulav is one of the favorite dish of Indians. The best part is it takes less time to prepare it with help of a pressure cooker. You need not cook pulav the traditional way, just put all the vegetables and rice in pressure cooker and cook them (don't do that literally, there is a procedure for preparing pulav).

A new option available today is ready-to-eat food. You need to keep the packet in boiling water for sometime, if you want it hot, and eat it along with bread or chapati. My choice is pav bhaji, you also get panner, palak, aloo, mutter, pulav, in combination. There are many brands that provide ready-to-eat food. I'd like to mention MTR, Kitchens of India, Kohinoor, there are others too. Check that it is ready-to-eat and not ready-to-cook.

Do carry some candies, chikkis, jelly chocolates, chocolates, chewing gum to munch on the way. It keeps you refreshed and also you 'd be able to stay without water for long time. Though its recommended that you drink minimum 2 liter water during monsoon or winter season, and 3 liter during summer. However it depends on personal capacity.
Beverage does not play a very important role in trek because most trekkers drink water as compared to beverages. You should never consume alcohol on trek. It may be dangerous and sometimes even life threatening, if you lose your balance due to intoxication.

There are a group of trekkers who will bring khakara, sev, farsan moong dal or other type of snacks for lunch. I dont know how they can satisfy their appetite with it. They depend on other trekkers for food. They eat the lunch brought by others. If there are one or two such trekkers, its fine, they get adjusted. But if there are more of them then other trekkers have to stay half stomach because of them. This is not a good practice. There is no harm in bringing snacks, but it should be supplemental to lunch and not as lunch. If you don't find anything for lunch, just take a packet of bread and butter, that would be enough.

Please remember eat food that suits you. Avoid non-vegetarian food as it is heavy to digest, not even eggs. Do take something for lunch, even if its a thepla or paratha, don't be a burden on other trekkers. And remember to collect all the litter in a garbage bag. Don't dirty the trek places with plastics and other garbage. Keep the environment clean.