[pct-l] Fwd: Re: No cook food on the trail

[Slyatpct at aol.com]

Gee, who would have thought a cup of coffee in the morning would be so  
hazardous to one's health and hike?
 
Drink lots of water with Propel and y'all should be fine.
 
Sly
 
 
In a message dated 11/12/2007 11:25:26 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
gailpl2003 at yahoo.com writes:

g  l <gailpl2003 at yahoo.com> wrote:  
Date:  Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:24:22 -0800 (PST)
From: g l  <gailpl2003 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] No cook food on the  trail
To: Steel-Eye  <chelin at teleport.com>

Steel-Eye-

Thank you so much for  pointing out the hazards of caffeine use- on trail and 
off.  When I  stopped using caffeine 10 years ago, my withdrawal headaches 
lasted a year  and a half.....nothing "low grade" about the addiction.  We don't 
like  to admit that the body was never meant to be "sped up" artificially and 
 there is always a price to pay for it.  Your points about dehydration  and 
electrolyte balance are excellent.  To that I would add that  caffeine 
adversely affects all organ systems of the body.....notably  contributing to 
hypertension and heart arrhythmias, causing blood sugar  levels to go wild (jolt to the 
ol' pancreas), and I believe contributing to  gallbladder disease (due to 
dehydration and therefore not enough "fluids" to  properly flush the body of 
toxins)......bad, bad stuff.  IMHO it is yet  another money making scam by 
corporate America......as with nicotine, to  'hook" us and have us pay money to 
slowly "kill" ourselves.  Turns out,  that the use of caffeine is in fact, what is  
"uncivilized".

Wheeew

Steel-Eye  <chelin at teleport.com> wrote:  
 
Good morning, JoAnn,
 
As much as I like freshly brewed coffee made from  clean water and freshly 
ground, high quality, beans I do indeed stop  drinking coffee and tea entirely 
prior to a long hike.  The reason is  a bit more strategic than wanting to 
avoid heating water in the  morning.  People vary in their reaction to habitual  
doses of caffeine.  I enjoy the taste and all of the  stimulant effects, but in 
my body caffeine is also a significant diuretic,  and my logic is that I 
should avoid using a known diuretic during a  sustained hike through SoCal.  Water 
is not abundant in  much of SoCal, so an increase in unnecessary water loss 
means I have to  carry more of it for the same overall hydration level.   That 
was my primary concern.  My secondary  concern was the need to maintain 
appropriate electrolyte levels through  long, strenuous days in a hot environment.  
Unnecessary  loss of water due to diuretic action also means needing to 
replace an  inordinate amount of electrolytes.  The tertiary concern  was chemical 
dependency.  I get a low-grade addiction to  caffeine to the point that 
withdrawal involves headaches as well as  generally feeling crummy.  It’s no big 
deal, and it goes  away after about a week, but it’s a complication that I do not  
need.  My avoidance also applies to other significant  sources of caffeine 
such as soft drinks.  I love  chocolate, but its level of consumption, and the 
caffeine it contains, is  seldom is sufficient to cause a  problem.
 
For shorter trips I often cook, which means  I can enjoy coffee in the 
morning.  I particularly like  “mountain mocha”, which is instant hot chocolate 
mixed with a big dose of  high-quality instant espresso coffee.  On shorter trips 
 if I’m not cooking/heating I carry a candy called Coffee Nips that I  enjoy, 
and which contain a fair amount of coffee and/or  caffeine.
 
As I write this I’m well into my third cup  of coffee.
 
Steel-Eye

-----  Original Message ----- 
From:  _JoAnn_ (mailto:jomike at cot.net)   
To:  _chelin at teleport.com_ (mailto:chelin at teleport.com)  
Cc:  _pct-l at backcountry.net_ (mailto:pct-l at backcountry.net)  
Sent:  Sunday, November 11, 2007 10:28 AM
Subject:  No cook food on the trail


For breakfast I eat homemade granola every day on  the trail.  It's high in 
calories, dense to pack, and I can eat  it right out of the Ziploc while 
hiking.
******************************************************************************
**
How very uncivilized...no coffee with breakfast? Do without my  coffee while 
on the trail???...never!     :)
 
are we there  yet

_______________________________________________
Pct-l  mailing list
Pct-l at backcountry.net
To unsubscribe or change list  options (digest,  etc):
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l




 



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/attachments/20071112/9022c659/attachment.html