My wife and I can carry considerably less weight than most people (well under 1#/day/person)and we maintain our body weight. We are not big people but we carry much less than most friends we occassionally hike with. We do what many others do as to repackaging and spicing up our food. For weight reduction we follow 3 rules: 1) everything except a lunch trail bar must be dry and light weight (no breads, hummas, meat, etc.) 2)We use Emergency C for drinks and 3) we use a rich food supplement made with fresh barley. There are several on the market but Barley Life is the one we use. We will each have about 3 table spoons of this powder each day on the trail and with it, don't really need much else while hiking. The sustainable energy from this stuff is incredible. We have used it as a regular part of our diet for about 12 years and simply increase our daily intake when backpacking.

I'm very interested and would love to see a menu for a typical 3-4 day trip.

Stuff like Barley Life scares me in many ways.

Cool if it works for you though. Just saying I'd rather lug avocados and cheese.

Rick--Breakfast is dry cereal, grits, oatmeal with dried fruit and brown sugar, etc., tea and spoonful of Barley Life. On the trail is Emergency C, a trail bar, more Barley Life, dried fruit, etc. Dinners are couscous, instant potatoes, dried mushrooms, dried oriental dinners. We do take a tiny bit of brandy and dip granola bars or biscotti in it for desert.

Sarah--why do you make such a statement? Do you know something negative about powered barley products that I don't? I have consumed them for many years and on days that I don't I can immediately tell it in a lack of energy. I am almost raw vegetarian and at home consume this (or a similar product) and fresh carrot juice. I haven't had so much as a cold since changing my diet nearly 15 years ago.

Lets just say I grew up in a family that didn't believe in Doctors and was force fed so many supplements I should be the poster child of something. I have consumed things like barley and more than that. My mothers favorite was Spirulina shakes (beyond barfing gross). I honestly feel that I am a foodie due to them....

I prefer to eat real food. If I want energy I have a glass of orange juice or a latte.

I have nothing against raw food diets - and they are quite doable on trail if one is willing to haul it (my diet includes quite a bit of fresh items on trail currently).

I question the Barley Life becuase it is sold by a MLM firm. I always get edgy about that. As I said.....my parents loved stuff like that.

But hey, if it works for you, I won't question that!

Sarah--I understand now. I grew up on what I now consider a pretty typical but unhealthy diet and have enjoyed much better health as an adult. I don't participate in MLM but prefer the Barley Life taste over some other products that are not MLM. I'm pretty low key about these choices as I find people who are interested will ask and those who don't--aren't interested.

In any event, it makes for a very light food load and we don't gain or loose weight when doing tough hikes.

What is MLM?

Bob, how do you eat the powdered barley? I like the idea of it.

Thanks,
Michael

I assume its Multi-level marketing, sometime referred to as a pyramid organization, i.e. Amway, Shackley, New skin, and a billion others.

Michael,
Tad is correct. Many distributors sell over the internet. I am officially a distributor but simply purchase it for my own use and that of friends and don't mark up the cost any as I am not into MLM. HOwever, Barley Life is only one of many of the barley based products and if MLM is a total turn off I suggest you try one of the others. A quick search on the net will show you there are many products and you can find some articles (where they aren't trying to sell you something)that discuss all the advantages. I have never known anyone who has tried it with some consistancy who hasn't found that it meets a hugely disproportiate amount of their food needs (minimal quanity) and they have more energy.

Some people mix it with juice or water and others simply place it in their mouth or under their tongue and let it dissolve. The first time I tried it many years ago, I thought it was the worst tasting stuff I had EVER put in my mouth (like grass). However, everyone's taste buds adapt to what they consume and I very quickly started letting it disolve under my tongue and have every since. We each keep a film container of it in our pockets while hiking during the day.

Many more of you who have never heard of this are familiar with going into a health food store and getting a "shot" of wheat grass juice. The powdered barley products that are processed correctly are a dry powder equivalent of pure wheat grass juice but in a form that is easy to take backpacking.

Hi Bob,
Do you know what the Barley Life nutrient profile is? I mean, Calories, CHO, PRO, FAT, etc.
Thanks much,
Tom

Tom,

See if this web page answers your questions. http://www.yourlifesource.com/barleylife-nutrients.htm
To be perfectly honest, I go more on the effect it has had on me and don't know the technical details as well as I should.

Bob,
Many thanks for the reference. It had everything I was looking for. That is quite a micro nutrient profile!

In reference to sarah's disgust of barley life:

I think everybody has a food that that was force-fed to them by their parents when they were younger and hence would rather walk into traffic rather than ever eat it again. Mine used to be baked potatoes but I have gotten over it now and love them. One of my buddies is wheat bread............oh man he literally hates wheat bread.....not just the taste; I think he hates it's soul....pretty comical sometimes.