Nutrition For Hiking Q&A

Inside, Kyle (a dietician who specialises in hikers) answers our community-sourced questions about nutrition for hiking
​
He provides some great insights into fueling, digestion, hydration, and electrolytes.

Nutrition Tips For Hikers 

​You can find Kyle here:

Website: https://www.v2pnutrition.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/v2pnutrition/

Kyle's Podcast: https://www.v2pnutrition.com/podcast

Kyles Podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/0FZ9cwjiOhCL0qAilX9F4q?si=c465a54eae2943d0

Kyle's Podcast (Itunes): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/valley-to-peak-nutrition-podcast

==

Episode Chapters:

0:09 Introduction to Hiking Nutrition
3:32 Q&A Format Introduction
4:10 Energy Snacks for Hikers
7:26 Eating Strategies for Long Hikes
14:53 Protein Needs During Extended Hikes
16:07 Recovery Nutrition After Hiking
18:41 Alternatives to Commercial Meals
22:40 High-Protein Snacks Without Nuts
26:14 Understanding Electrolyte Needs
30:19 Practical Approaches to Hydration
32:52 Evaluating Electrolyte Supplements
36:02 Episode Conclusion and Resources

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in this episode,

[0:03] I interview Kyle from Valley to Peak Nutrition, who is a dietician who specializes in hikers. And inside, he shares his answers to a number of questions that we sourced from our community training for hiking group. And essentially, a few weeks ago, we put up a post in the group asking you, the audience, what questions would you like covered? So today, Kyle pops on, gives his specialist opinion on a few really, really valuable nutrition topics for hikers, which I think is going to be super valuable for a lot of people. So with that being said, let's get into the episode. I think you're really going to enjoy it. All right. Hello, hello, and welcome, Kyle. A big, big, big welcome back to the show. Really, really excited to have you on, mate.

[0:46] Yeah, I appreciate having you, Ron. I always love the questions that you get from the Summit folks and always enjoy being with you. So I'm excited. Yeah, I think it's going to be a really, really awesome episode today because typically when we dive into things and when we've been on the podcast before, we usually go into like a certain subject and get into like the details of that, which has been great. But today we're doing a little bit of a Q&A, a Q&A episode. And basically for the listeners, where this has come from today is, you know, we put up a little bit of a public question up in our new community group, our new Training for Hiking community group, just asking, look, does anyone have any nutrition questions, anything you'd like covered by an expert in the field. And we've got a nice list of questions and stuff that does pop up a lot. So yeah, I think this is going to be an awesome episode just to dive into this. I think it'll help a lot of people, both for the people who are specifically about this in the group, but also, you know, a lot of listeners as well. So, but I guess before I get ahead of myself, before I just dive into the questions, for anyone who hasn't come across your stuff before, Kyle, do you want to just give a bit of a rundown, like who you are, where you're from, and what do you actually do?

[1:54] Yeah, I'd be happy to. So I'm Kyle Camp and I am a dietitian by training. We own and operate and run a nutrition program called Valley to Peak Nutrition.

[2:04] And the kind of our sole focus is to educate and equip people to enjoy the mountains. Right. And so a lot of that has to do with nutrition, both in preparation for the mountains. So if they're doing a training program, obviously nutrition goes hand in hand with that. And usually folks have, you know, kind of one of two goals. Either they want to lose weight prior to some big trip while simultaneously training. And so there's a concern there that to lose weight, it's going to come at the expense of their training progression. And so our goal is to design programs for them so that doesn't happen. And then the other arm or the other element of it is the trip itself. And so it's, you know, helping folks understand how to fuel on the trail or, you know, for a lot of adventures anymore, it's sometimes off trail, but really just trying to equip them with the knowledge of how nutrition works, whether it's training leading up to an event or the event in and of itself. And so, yeah, we do that through individual, you know, one-on-one coaching. We do that through different group classes that we've got. We've got different courses that a person can go through that's self-guided. We've got different resources that range from free to really inexpensive. And so, yeah, our whole goal is just to really equip people with an understanding on how it all works so they can go and enjoy their trip and not just have to feel like they're suffering through it.

[3:33] Yeah and i know from you know we work pretty closely together through summit strength and valley to peak and we have a lot of our our hikers who work with kyle through this and and yeah we've seen some really really really awesome results awesome feedback like you know a lot of value from from um going into those things so it's such a pleasure yeah as always having your part of that and also being able to share this is a bit more public forum so so i guess with that being said um let's get into the questions so we've basically got nine questions we're going to cover. As I said they were crowdsourced from our new community group just the other day and we'll just work through them see what Carl comes up with and we'll go from there.

[4:10] So, question number one is, hiking is my excuse to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. What snacks offer some good energy? I've often heard gummy bears are good, but what quantity? How much is too much? Fresh fruit or dried fruit? Is there any difference on that? So, a few questions in there, but let's see, you know, let's go with that to start. Yeah, so when I hear the word, what's a good food for some good energy? When I hear the word energy, I sort of automatically in my mind equate that to fuel. What can I eat on the trail that's going to provide me a decent amount of fuel? And then this person goes on to sort of give some examples in curiosity if those would work. And they range from something most folks would consider really bad, you know, bad for us, like gummy bears, to something most folks would consider really good for us, which are things like fruit. And the answer is all of the above. They go on in that question, though, to ask the most important element, which is how much. How much is good? How much is too much? And the way that we reference this in our program is what's the dose?

[5:21] And we say totals and timing on the trail matter the most. And really the key element for people to have here, like if they're looking for something to take away and go apply, is what we call the rule of 60. And the rule of 60 says every 60 minutes or so, you need to have about 60 grams of carbohydrate while on the trail. Now, that may not mean a lot to a lot of people, but a more basic way to say that would be this.

[5:48] Every so often, you need to have about 200 calories worth of fuel, whether that's from gummy bears, whether that's from dried fruit, whether that's from whole fruits, is really going to be an individual thing based on what a person likes, based on what a person's stomach can tolerate, based on the intensity of the activity that they are doing.

[6:10] Because each of those things is really going to determine not only if it's a good fuel source, but how much of it do they need and how often should they be taking it in. So, you know, it's our natural inclination to think something that's, quote, healthy, like whole fruit, would be a better option than something, quote, unhealthy like gummy bears. That's not always true. In fact, the fiber from fruit in a really intense training session or if someone's gaining a lot of elevation could mess with your stomach, in which case gummy bears may be the better option because they lack fiber. And so, you know, the phrase that we throw around the most often is there's nothing good in the world of nutrition. There's nothing inherently bad in the world of nutrition. It's always the dose that makes the poison and the dose is largely going to be determined by an individual basis. So it's a great question. It's a complex answer that goes even deeper than what we're kind of talking about here. But I hope that gives a person a good place to start. And I'll say this, PB&Js always fit. It doesn't matter if you're on the trail or not. You don't need to be on the trail to have an excuse to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But I can appreciate where you might feel like you would.

[7:26] So the next question, I guess, expands on a couple of things you just mentioned just before. And the next question is, I struggle to eat on longer hikes. So how often should I be aiming to eat and what sort of quantity? I feel like I find I get really fatigued and then eat something small and that kind of helps me keep going. Yeah, so there's a lot of variables in here that's going to determine this, right?

[7:55] So if you're struggling to eat, a lot of what that could be the byproduct of is the effort. And so completely unrelated to nutrition would be the best thing that you can do is slow down for a little while. What often happens when we are on the trail is your body is going to give preference and blood flow to the area that needs it the most.

[8:21] And what that means is when you're moving, particularly at a high intensity or a high pace, the body is pushing blood to the legs, which is good. But it means less blood flow going to the stomach, which is bad because that tends to mean less digestion. Right so what we often will do here is you know trying to determine what's causing the source but then look at other ways to fuel so like we referenced this just a little bit ago but you want to focus on easy to digest carbohydrates you here's four things easy to digest carbohydrates you don't want a lot of protein you don't want a lot of fat and you do not want a lot of fiber and the reason behind all of those on the surface level is because those things slow or delay digestion more so you can imagine if you're eating a snack that has those things now you've put yourself in a position where the stomach does not get good blood flow digestion is really poor and you've introduced four things that make digestion even harder so a lot of times people will lack an appetite as a result of what it is that they're eating. What you would want to take in in those scenarios, there's a couple of different options here.

[9:46] Excuse me, you have the option of taking in a liquid fuel, something like we often recommend tailwind, but Gatorade could do. Sometimes we'll even go as far as recommending like Tang, which is just your over-the-counter orange Kool-Aid because it's got a good mix of different types of carbohydrates. There's no fiber in those. There's no fat in those. There's no protein in those, and they're very easy to digest, right? So that's why that can be a really good option there. There's some newer formulations on the market now that are made from alternative fuel sources that aren't as well known to a lot of people. Those would be things like cyclic dextrin or maltodextrin.

[10:29] And so some people will say that they tolerate those even better than the carbohydrate sources that are generally used in those liquid supplements. And if that's the case, that gives you even another potential outlet. If still you're struggling to eat, you can take with you kind of a contingency or an emergency bag of fuels. And what I'll generally recommend people put in here would be things like Jolly Ranchers or different things, different candies that you can suck on. Carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth. Carbohydrate is the predominant fuel source of the muscle. So if you're getting some type of fuel in, that's generally going to serve you better than, you know, not getting any type of fuel in at all. I think this person had also asked about the timing, didn't they?

[11:25] Yes, how often and quantity, etc. Yeah, this is largely going to be based off of everything we just mentioned in terms of what you can tolerate, right? So you may not, like earlier, we said the rule of 60, you may have to progressively work yourself up to that amount. Your stomach may not be able to handle that at first. And so you've got to slowly introduce that. But one of the things that determines the, you know, the frequency of that is going to be the intensity of the exercise. So 60 grams of carbohydrates is about 250 calories worth of carbohydrate. And that's a number that most people are more familiar with than calculating grams.

[12:06] If the intensity of your workout or your training is really low, if you're doing nasal breathing type of hiking or, you know, what most people will, you know, now call zone two or zone one, you may not need to eat every hour. You may be able to get by, you know, two hours or so until you take in some fuel. But certainly by that two hour mark, you're going to want to have another dose of carbohydrates at that 250 calorie mark. So you can see that although there is a black and white answer of about 250 calories worth of carbohydrates every one to two hours, it's not quite as black and white.

[12:42] In terms of that being the case, every situation, every scenario, every person, and anything that's got 250 calories can fit the bill. You're dealing with a lot of individualization in terms of training and intensity and what sits well with a person versus what sits well with another person. And so it can be kind of nuanced in like, Rowan, I know one of the things that you and I harp on all the time in this area is the best thing you can do while training for some of these big adventures is practice your nutrition. Take this stuff in on the big hikes. Don't wait until you actually are on the hike itself to see if it works or not, because now you've got three days or five days or seven days or, you know, however many days worth of fuel that doesn't sit well with you. Which if you go into the actual adventure itself, having had tested these things, you can have confidence that it'll work there. And it's one less thing you've got to worry about.

[13:37] So I think the next question, I think you may have touched it on the last one, but I'll ask it again just so it's in here and we can timestamp it. But on long hikes, I strive to eat every hour on the trail. I typically consume carbohydrates. Should I also be eating protein? Yeah, that's a great question. And that's one that most people don't tend to think about. I think for the most part, your average person is going to recognize the need to eat on trail. And they kind of feel like anything that they get in will do the trick. But our calories and our nutrition is broken down into categories and three main categories. And each of those categories provide their own role in nutrition. And those categories are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Carbohydrates main role is fueling the muscle the predominant role of dietary fat is to transport nutrients for us and the predominant role of protein is to recover the muscle and so if you're not taking that into consideration you may be missing one of the categories to fulfill their role you don't really need to start worrying about taking protein in on any longer training sessions until you reach that four to six hour mark.

[14:53] If there's a training session or an event or whatever where it starts to reach into that four to six hour mark, at that point you need to be thinking about some source of fuel that includes some protein. And you're kind of aiming for about four parts of carbohydrate to every one part of protein. So if you have a snack or a meal strategy that's got 40 grams of carbohydrate, you also want that to have about 10 grams of protein. Now, we started this podcast off talking and kind of joking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That can actually fit the bill perfectly here. Your average peanut butter and jelly sandwich is going to come in around 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrate and right around 10 grams of protein. So obviously that's dependent on the peanut butter ratio in there, but that is a good option that you've got fast digesting carbohydrates in the jelly, you've got some slower digesting carbohydrates in the bread, and then you've got some protein and a little bit of fat from the peanut butter. So that's a good potential option, but it's not even really something you need to worry about until you start hitting that four to six hour mark of training.

[16:07] So the next question is is there anything we should prioritize in our recovering recovery for hiking again the following day so i'm guessing after someone hikes and if they need to back up for the next day um i sometimes feel like i'm trying to get in a good meal at the end of the day which meals means i might not sleep as well as i could um which makes the next day harder so should i have eat less and then have less energy than i want so i eat less and then have less energy than I want. Any good tips here? Yeah, I think there's a couple of things.

[16:41] Really, you know, you make a good point because that evening meal is a prime opportunity to be sure that you fill the muscles back up with good nutrition so they're ready to go the next day. And it's also a good opportunity to get some good protein in so the muscles can recover while you're sleeping and be rested for the next day. The first thing that comes to mind here is, number one, just making sure that you're getting in enough nutrition through the course of the day. So that when you end the day, you're not so far behind on your nutrition that you're suffering the consequences from the next day. So I view nutrition as a reservoir.

[17:22] When we're active, it's draining that reservoir. And then when we eat, it fills that reservoir back up. The timing and the approach in which you're trying to fill that reservoir is less important so for example if you eat a lunch and then you don't tend to stop hiking until the end of the evening you might eat your lunch and stop hiking two hours before the end of the evening to eat something continue on with a little more mileage and then have a snack at the end of the day so you might just restructure the timing in which you do things so you have a larger meal earlier and then a smaller meal whenever you make camp at night. So you don't feel like you're having to overstuff yourself and it's compromising your sleep. So, you know, really the core element and the key thing there is you're wanting to make sure that that reservoir is full by way of getting good nutrition in all day long. One of the biggest things and mistakes that hikers, endurance athletes make is they don't cover their bases through the day. That's fine. If you're doing a single day training, your training is not going to be as good, but there's no consequence. But if you get behind on day one, two, three on a seven day trip, it's really tough to ever regain that and feel like you've got enough energy to finish strong.

[18:41] So next question was asking options for protein and meal options when you can't eat the commercial dehydrated meals. They don't agree with my stomach.

[18:54] Yeah, you got a few options here too. Number one, this is by far going to seem like the hardest, but it is the best option. And I will say, I'll emphasize the word seem because it is not that difficult once you get into it. but I would dehydrate my own. Not only does it allow you maximum control over what's in the product, not just in terms of what you can tolerate, but the nutrition, if you need more carbs, you add more carbs. If you need more protein, you add more protein, but you're also, you know, in control of the ingredients in terms of what you can, um, what you can add. We actually have a DIY dehydrate guide on our website that you can check out if you're interested in doing that and it kind of walks you through step-by-step what that looks like. We're writing version two right now, but if you buy, you know, if you end up buying version one, which I think is like five bucks or 10 bucks or something, we'll send you version two when it's done as well. The other option would be, you know, just bringing things in the evening that you know sit well with you, but maybe don't require a stove, right? So there are lots and lots and lots of websites dedicated to stoveless recipes or even cold soaking. A lot of these dehydrated meals, you can just add water to a couple, you know, three, four hours before you're ready to eat them.

[20:19] And they absorb all of that water and you don't necessarily have to resort to boiling water to heat it. And so you can say, well, that doesn't make sense because I'm asking about dehydrated meals. What else could I do there. Some of those things are not, you don't have to dehydrate them, right? So they're already dehydrated, but there are things that you've added in there and you've created your own without having to worry about it being commercially packaged.

[20:48] Final one or another one to think about would be DIYing your own, meals that are already dried so for example you buy a pack of ramen you buy a pack of tuna, and you you basically create a meal out of that right so the tuna would be your protein or the chicken in a pouch or whatever your protein option is the ramen could be your noodles you could add your own seasoning you can you can kind of piecemeal together your own meals based off of foods that have already been dehydrated. A lot of times what is bothering people's stomachs in dehydrated, commercially dehydrated meals, are the powders they're using to add the flavor. The constituent ingredients themselves don't generally bother someone, the pasta or the rice or the beef or the chicken or the whatever. It's oftentimes the powders and the flavorings. Now, that's not always true. If you've got someone who's got a gluten allergy, they can't go eat beef stroganoff with noodles.

[21:48] But aside from rare instances like that, it's often a powder. So if you can eliminate that, but still have the convenience of foods that are already dehydrated, where you're making your own, you get the noodles from a pack of ramen, you throw out the spice packet and you, you know, bring along with you a, a, one of those thin packs of tuna and you add that in for your protein source. And maybe there's some different spices at home that you like, and you put those in a small baggie or you package them with the noodles. You got a lot of different options there, but I still think, you know, dehydrating your own food sounds like this, that it's really challenging. You need to be really skilled type of a thing. Uh, and you don't. And I kind of went down that path on my own many, many years ago, having no training, having no previous experience. And I just thought, man, I'm going to figure this out. It doesn't seem like that hard. You remove water from food through a machine. Right.

[22:41] And it was, it was that easy and so our you know our guide essentially walks you through the simplicity of that on how to choose a machine but um it is it is definitely the best option and i think once you try you'll never go back to buying commercially dehydrated food again so next question is since undergoing a couple of surgeries which involved our bowel resections i've been avoid to avoid advised to avoid nuts, seeds, and skins to lessen the risk of an obstruction. I've always munched on nuts for a quick fix of protein. What snacks should I eat for a high intake of protein around this?

[23:20] Yeah, so first, I think it's one thing that's important to point out, and I almost made this reference when I was talking about the peanut butter and jelly earlier, is nuts and peanut butter and things like that are not necessarily high protein foods. They are high fat foods that happen to have some protein in them. So my point in saying that to this person is by being unable to have them, you're not necessarily at a handicap because you're not missing out on that much protein. So instead, I might turn my attention towards foods that do have more protein.

[23:58] And this would be things like jerky or um you know salami or quick cooking quick quick tuna packets like we talked about earlier that are flavored or protein shakes and drinks things of that nature now what they don't necessarily say here is if they're limiting or asking about options on the trail or just in general and let's assume that it's just in general what i might say here is remember like we are often tied into thinking that if we are having a snack it should be snack sized almost like we're children in all reality a snack is could be no you could instead of having three meals and two snacks in a day you can have five mini meals so your snack could easily be a wrap with some sliced avocado, some veggies on top of it, and four ounces of chicken. It doesn't need to be a handful of nuts and a couple of pretzel rods. So I'd say like, that's an important element. And, you know, when you're looking at nutrition and you're trying to balance performance and you're trying to balance weight, you're looking at overall calorie intake and then where those calories are coming from. If your snack is 400 calories and this mini meal or this chicken avocado wrap I just suggested is 400 calories, the body's not looking at the wrap and thinking, boy, that seems like a lot of food, so we're going to make you gain weight.

[25:25] All it recognizes is the amount of calories, the amount of proteins, the amount of fats, the amount of carbohydrates. So I would say not, you know, one way to break outside of this idea of what are some good quick protein options is to think, well, what all do I like to eat? And if, even if it's not snack size necessarily, it still can fit. And if that's the case, then I'd start looking at, well, what proteins are convenient? And now all of a sudden, the options open up to rotisserie chickens that you can put in different stir fries or fajita mixes, or it could be Greek yogurts or cottage cheese with crackers and fruit or cheese sticks, or you can make yourself a small quesadilla with a side salad. I mean, the options are potentially endless if you start thinking outside that box of just snacky type foods.

[26:15] All right, next question. I think the next three are going to go over similar topics of electrolytes and salts. So the first one on this topic is, I sweat way more than my husband, and I feel like I need to drink a lot more water. Is there a way to calculate how much salt or electrolytes to consume to stay balanced? Or is it really just trial and error?

[26:39] You have two different directions you can go here. And it's really going to come down to, and it's going to depend on, how technical you want to get in this.

[26:51] On the really technical side of things, there are testing strips that you can order. And basically what happens is a company will send you a sticker, what looks like a children's sticker. You'll wear that, and you'll go exercise. You'll sweat, you'll peel that off, you'll send it back in for an analysis. And it will tell you exactly what your electrolyte losses were in your sweat. And you can take that to someone who knows what they're doing and come up with a formula that is specific to you. That's on the really technical side of things. On the more practical side of things, and by the way, I'm not suggesting you go and do that. In fact, like I always lean more on practical instead of optimal because I just think it's more realistic for most of us. On the other end of things then i'm i'm looking at different variables and trying to evaluate what my best option here is so for example is it hot outside am i sweating a lot do i notice there is a sweat ring around my shirt or in the the brim or bill of my hat do i notice that after a period of time i all of a sudden stopped sweating if my answers to all of those things are yes then you You know, now I've got good enough belief to think it'd probably be good for me to start adding some electrolytes in in these training sessions. If it's winter and it's cloudy or it's nighttime and I'm not sweating a lot.

[28:18] I probably don't need or I'm not going to benefit from an additional electrolyte supplement. So I'm just trying to really, you know, evaluate what all my options are based on just practical information and knowledge. Now, if you go and you look at the question of, you know, water intake, is there a way to calculate it? Yeah, we've got formulas that you can use to calculate it. A very simple formula is you're trying to drink the number of liters of water per 1,000 calories you consume. So you drink two liters of water for every, you know, 2,000 calories that you consume. Now, this is as tailored as nutrition because everybody needs varying amounts of water and varying amounts of electrolytes. I think the best litmus test for this is this. As simple as it's going to sound. What color is your pea?

[29:09] Is it dark yellow? Is it almost brown? You're behind. You need to drink more. Is it clear? Is it straw yellow and really, really, really light and you're peeing a lot? You're probably good. You don't, you're not going to necessarily benefit from adding even more to that. And so again, like, yeah, there's a lot of optimal formulas, but in a day and age where we are trying to optimize everything and analyze everything and wearing data this and wearing data that, is it practical for us to go in and throw in these analysis too? Some people might say yes. My argument and observation in the years that we've worked with people is by taking the more practical approach, like I just described, most people are going to do that and achieve better results. Whereas if you're waiting for optimum results and you start doling out all of these different things and metrics for people to go watch, they quit because complexity kills compliance. So keep it practical. If you've got a lot of variables telling you that you're losing a lot of sweat, take some electrolytes in. If not, I wouldn't worry about it until something tells me I need to worry about it. If my pee is really, really dark, then I know I need to drink more.

[30:16] If my pee is really, really light, I know I'm probably good where I need to be at. And I'm just using those every day and trying to evaluate, you know, and then adjust based on that.

[30:27] So the next question was i always have problems with salt electrolyte tabs and powders i prefer to simply drink water because the addition of supplements to the water make me feel a bit nauseous after drinking i don't know if it's the key nutrients of the minerals that bother me or the fact that i strongly dislike sweet drinks is there another way to replace lost salt minerals during a long hot hike yeah but you're i mean that's a good one you're you're still probably going to come up against the barrier of dealing with something sweet right so like companies have started to make what they're calling straight to mouth electrolytes which is basically where you take like if you can remember as a kid opening a pixie stick and just shooting it back in your mouth. It's just, it's basically the same thing.

[31:19] Now, what that prevents is you having to drink this whole bottle of stuff that you don't like, but you're also still probably chewing on something that tastes like a sweet tart. The thing that I probably lean on here is making your own. You know, most of these are simply water, some flavoring, some carbohydrate, and some salt and other elements added to it. Most of which you can do at home. And we've got, we've actually got a, recipe on our website that you can create some of that stuff at your house. So the nice thing about that is you can tailor the sweetness or none to it. And so you can leave all of the sweetness out and, get the electrolytes. Companies have started making unflavored versions of this. The one that comes to mind is a naked tailwind, and that tends to be less sweet than some of the other ones. One thing that could be bothering you is the concentration of carbohydrate that you're taking in. Because again, like I said earlier, if your stomach's not used to taking that in and you all of a sudden start trying to, it's going to revolt. It's going to recognize there's a lot there and it doesn't sit well with the people. So it doesn't sit well with someone. You could be trying to drink it too fast. It could be too high of a load for you. There's a lot of different variables that play in there. But I think in that scenario, I'd probably go back to trying to make my own.

[32:46] And then the final question is, are LMNT assaults? And I'm not 100% sure what that stands you might have to have to break that down but are lmnt salt superior to over-the-counter electrolytes that i might be able to buy here or in europe um also years ago you had to mix the exact ratio of water to an electrolyte packet to get the right ratio is this still a thing um.

[33:16] Yeah yeah so lmnt is a company here in the united states and they promote they pronounce it element, like the elements of sodium, magnesium, et cetera. And it's a, it's a really, really heavy salt drink. And so like you go back to the ratio, they basically give you options here. And they say, if you want it really, really salty, then mix it with eight ounces of water. If you want it salty, but not quite like you're drinking seawater, then mix it with 12 ounces. And if you're, you know, less inclined to want the sodium or you don't want it to be real salty, then you can mix it with 16 or 20 ounces of water so the ratio depends on really how you know how salty you wanted um are the salts superior to other over-the-counter electrolytes that you could buy in europe or anywhere else no and again this goes back to the comment i made just a minute ago you can make this stuff at home if you wanted to.

[34:13] It's just ratios of salt and water and different carbohydrates. So, like, I think the recipe that we've got online uses, if I remember right, uses orange juice and water and a combination of these electrolytes. Now, Element has, I believe, 1,000 milligrams of sodium per packet in it. And what you would want to do, if you do decide making your own, is you would want to find some, you would want to do one of two things. One fine sodium, that's just straight sodium, table salt is sodium chloride, and it is a 60-40. So you've got a certain percentage of that sodium chloride is actual sodium. The other percent is chloride. So if you weigh that out to make your own, you've got to remember, because you're trying to achieve a certain sodium count.

[35:01] You've got to remember that ratio there so that you're getting the actual amount of sodium that you want and not falling short because of the combination of sodium and chloride. So, yeah, look, none of these products are superior to another. At the end of the day, they've all got salt, they've all got carbohydrate, they've all got water, and that's why they work. Whether you make your own, whether you're, you know, loyal to a specific brand, whether you're getting some for free, whatever, whatever the case is, the key piece here is that it's getting in you. It doesn't matter how it gets in you, but the benefit that it is reaping is the direct byproduct of those three things, not because it has a certain label or comes from a certain location or anything like that. It is just the sole purpose that these are easy ways to get these into your bloodstream so that you can continue training. So yeah, whatever you have available to you, whatever is the least expensive, that's the one that I would lean on.

[36:02] Fantastic. Well, that is all the questions. And I feel like we've covered some really, really good stuff. And yeah, and hopefully this sorts out, yeah, the people who reached out, but also, you know, a lot of other people who may be thinking the same thing. So, absolutely fantastic. So I guess before we wrap up then, if anyone did want to find a little bit more about what you do, like find your stuff online, potentially, you know, get some of those bits and pieces you mentioned on the call, or even potentially work with you in another capacity, where's the best place to find you? And yeah, where should people go?

[36:37] Yeah, those were great questions too, everyone. So yeah, we love having stuff like that. If you're not in Rowan's group, we do a bi-weekly Q&A within the group where you can join and, you know, you can ask as much personal information as you want and we'll, we'd be glad to help you. All of our nutrition specific stuff is housed in our business and that's called Valley to Peak Nutrition. Our website is v2pnutrition.com and the two is the number two. And all of our social media, you know, pages and podcasts and all of that are filtered under that website. So if you, you know, if you Google Valley to Peak Nutrition, you should be able to find it all. But we do a podcast covering a broad array of nutrition topics, too. And then, like I said, the stuff that we and you and I work together on, Rowan, is super helpful, too. So, yeah, if we can do anything to help, we'd be glad to.

[37:33] Fantastic. Well, I'll get a bunch of links popped in the show notes below. So if anyone does want to check it out, just scroll down below into the show notes and you'll be able to get involved. So with that being said, I think this has been an awesome, awesome, awesome episode today. So as always, I want to say a big, big, big thank you for coming on board the podcast, sharing your wisdom, sharing your knowledge. And yeah, and I really do hope a lot of people enjoy this. Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you having me, Rowan. It's a joy to work together. I appreciate you. I appreciate the Summit group and Andrea. Always my pleasure. Happy to do them anytime.

Want to learn
more about
training for your
hiking adventures?

Join Our Free
Training For Hiking Community