[at-l] Food food food

[wdlists at optonline.net (Walter Daniels)]

> anklebear wrote:
> >>sugar free koolaid or crystal light<
> >
> >Amy, why would you want sugar-free foods on a hike?  Just asking.
> >anklebear
> 
> We've used them for the last 12 years - started out using 
> "real" Koolaid 
> (with sugar) on the AT, and discovered just how  heavy it is. 
>  Found the 
> "sugar-free" variety in one of the supermarkets along the way 
> and I've been 
> using it ever since.  When it's not available, Crystal light 
> will do.  We've 
> used one or both of them for all three thruhikes.
> 
> So why use something like that at all?  First, because it 
> tastes good and 
> makes it easier to drink massive amounts of fluid.  And then, just as 
> importantly, because your body absorbs water better if it has 
> "something" in 
> it.  "Pure" water is NOT absorbed as fast as Koolaid, 
> Gatorade - or even 
> lightly salted water.  Ask Toey about what he uses when he's  
> running.  I'll 
> bet it ain't "pure" water.
> 
> Now - just to head off the inevitable coming arguments - 
> that's not opinion. 
>   More than fifteen years ago, it was the result of medical 
> studies on 
> foundry and steel mill workers.  The same studies quantified the 
> acclimatization of the body to prolonged exposure to heat and heavy 
> "exercise" - as would be experienced by a new foundry worker 
> - or a hiker 
> starting a thruhike.  Given continued exposure, the fluid 
> requirements to 
> maintain proper hydration decline as the body acclimatizes 
> and both the 
> volume and salt content of the sweat decrease greatly.  
> Thruhikers usually 
> don't think much about that, but generally speaking, a 
> mountain in Mass 
> produces a lot less sweat than that same elevation gain did 
> in Georgia.
> 
> Enuff rambling - we did get well beyond the answer to your 
> question, didn't 
> we ---
> 
> Walk softly,
> Jim
The problem with Jim's answer is that it doesn't really answer the question
completely. Drinking no-sugar drinks serves one purpose, hydration. A second
purpose is getting enough calories during the day to keep going. So what you
really have is a trade off of carrying more efficient calories in the form
of oil or less efficient in the form of sugars. There is also a difference
in how fast the calories are available - sugars fast, oils slow. I suspect
for some people the sugared drinks are a better solution.

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