I am allergic to dairy. Coming up with food for hiking can be a test of patience and sanity.

I am allergic to: milk, cream, butter, whey (and all forms of it), buttermilk, lactase, cocoa butter, milk fat, milk chocolate, etc.

Check out your packaged food and you'll often find these products. Anyone else feeling my pain out there?

:)

No, but I knew someone who did... she got to know the labels very well on everything at the supermarket. I can guess that backpacking would be really tough with that problem, so many of the lists have dairy all over them. Guess you'll get to know olive oil and coconut powder real well.

My son is lactose intolerant. I've been thinking for some months now to get a dehydrator and prepare my own fried meals.

In the meantime, there are plenty of dried meats, fruits, and even veggies available online. They are certainly expensive, but tasty.

Another trick i use for shorter trips (three days or less) is to carry fresh fruit and sandwiches. Apples keep for days in a BP.

For sandwiches (lots of meat, especially) I freeze the sammie and toss it into one of those silver "cold" bags and then put the cold bag into a cooler with blue ice. That keeps it solid cold on the drive to the trailhead.

Toss it in your BP food bag, and a couple of big sammies will last a couple of days and keep even longer.

Stargazer

Onions make me sick. Onion and onion powder are in lots of prepared foods. This may not be a classical allergy, so I don't go into anaphylactic shock (a real bad thing in the wilderness). I will have a stomach ache, not so much fun. I pretty much have to prepare my own food for camping. In restaurants, there are a few cuisines that I just can't eat anything and others where I have to be careful. If I'm careful to avoid onion, I gradually become less sensitive. Then I can eat stuff that has small amounts; this makes eating in restaurants much easier.

Do you have an allergic reaction or or you lactose intolerant? Lactose intolerant is a LOT safer situation than an allergy.

Go get a tub of soy milk powder (you can get it on Amazon even) Better Than Dairy. Use it in everything you make. You don't "need" dairy to make meals.

But as for special needs diets? Been on one for years. I live on a lower sodium diet with no artificial colorings due to migraines. I try to avoid artificial flavors and preservatives as well (triggers also). I don't eat out much due to no control over what I am eating and yes, I read everything that I buy.

You learn what you can and can not eat, then you don't look back. Simple as that. I eat quite well on my limited diet and have no lack of trail food to enjoy....I don't see it as a limitation, rather as a stage in my life.

Easy peasy... just think Vegan.

I cover this in my latest work which won't be out until the new year. If you want I can send you a couple recipes now though.

I did some tests with Vegan "mozzarella" rice and soy based cheeses with great results for pizza and there are lots of things you can sub. For example... to get a cheesy taste on instant potatoes just give a little sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

Soy milk powder works well and actually I find it has a creamier texture than instant skim milk.

I'm allergic, not intolerant. I don't flop around and foam at the mouth but I have some bad symptoms.

Easy peasy... just think Vegan.

I cover this in my latest work which won't be out until the new year. If you want I can send you a couple recipes now though.

I did some tests with Vegan "mozzarella" rice and soy based cheeses with great results for pizza and there are lots of things you can sub. For example... to get a cheesy taste on instant potatoes just give a little sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

Soy milk powder works well and actually I find it has a creamier texture than instant skim milk.


I've seen your posts and you seem to really know/do a lot to help everyone. Any info would be nice. In fact, if you ever come up with dairy-free meals (dehydrated, bagged, and ready for re-hydration) I'd probably buy some!

Better than Dairy is full of crap -- mono/diglycerides and other nasty stuff. Doesn't even taste like soy milk. You can buy "pure" soy milk powder at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Soy-Milk-Powder-Instant-Ounces/dp/B0014UH6WU/ref=pd_bxgy_misc_img_a

I'm vegan. Mary Jane's Organic Backcountry Cuisine has tons of vegan backpacker meals -- add boiling water to the bag. She also sells directly from her site in bulk. There are so many vegan Fantastic and Dr. McDougall soups to which you can add instant rice, noodles or potatoes. Both Trader Joes and Whole Foods Market have tons of vegan instant stuff conducive to backpacking. There is an enormous amount of organic vegan instant stuff on amazon.com. Amazon has just about all the mary jane's stuff -- note only some of mary jane's products are vegan -- they are labeled as such.

Beware of soy and rice "cheese" products -- many contain casein, a dairy product! In fact, very few are vegan.

Good news: cocoa butter is NOT dairy -- it's a vegetable fat.

Edited by backpackerchick on 10/08/2009 15:27:30 MDT.

Also, you can buy powdered Almond Milk although I've yet to find it up here in Canada. I'm in the process of trying to dehydrate my own to see if I can create almond milk powder from my favorite brand. If it works I will let you know.

Mary Jane's Farm product are actually pretty darn good. I like their Black Bean Hummus a lot. It's great in a wrap with some trail-grown sprouts.

Thanks for the heads up. I already knew that and have found a few brands of rice/soy cheese that didn't have any dairy. I also found that some didn't melt like they claimed though. We are lucky in that we live in a city where there is a good selection of specialty foods for vegans and Celiacs.

Not sure about the US regulations but here labelling are pretty stringent, which is good.

Those that are allergic to dairy usually have success with Goat Milk.

Will have to check out the powdered almond milk -- that might be good with hot cereal or muesli. Thanks for the tip! I forgot about the nutritional yeast on potatoes. I bought instant potato flakes from amazon, know of any recipes -- which spices to add, soy milk?

Edited by backpackerchick on 10/08/2009 15:55:16 MDT.

My wife has a mild albeit annoying allergy to soy. Which if you hadn't noticed, is a VERY common ingredient in almost all packaged food. Additionally it is used to boost the protein content of backpacking meals and bars

We've learned how to do alot of reading of packages... tend to rely on a few known "safe" foods, and we've began to dehydrate and create our own meals.

Our health and nutrition has improved both in and out of the woods as we're almost completely off packaged/processed foods entirely these days.

http://nomilk.com/nutmilks.txt
This site has lots of recipes for almond milk and other nut milks.

This recipe will do vegans absolutely no good because it adds the almond to milk, but it sounds really good. Maybe it'll work with soy milk also:
http://www.vegetarian-cooking-recipes-tips.com/almond-milk.html
It's an Indian recipe with cardamom and saffron.

"My wife has a mild albeit annoying allergy to soy." Is she also vegan? In many countries, the US included, I believe soy products are now prominently labeled at the end of the ingredient list…this product contains soy.

Mary Jane's Organic Backcountry Cuisine does not seem to "hide" soy in their products. They do have a vegan oatmeal with soy milk. You can view the menu and all ingredients here: http://www.backcountryfood.org/shop/default.asp. Also check out the Dr. McDougall's soups -- you can get them on amazon. Their products seem to contain only the expected ingredients -- dehydrated versions of the ingredients one would normally put in a soup. Lots of vegan and low salt (which usually isn't very low but we won't go there).

Dicentra and I find ours at the local mega-mart Asian grocery store in tubs. Very good but sweet.

Dried sage leaves are always a nice addition to potato flakes as is smoked paprika or Hungarian paprika if you like a little heat. If you are looking for a more delicate flavor consider using thyme or herbes du Provence.

Thanks for all the info and good ideas.

I walked through Walmart and found a lot of instant stuff but except for the foils of tuna, salmon, and chicken it was all full of crap! I see no need to hike 10 days eating MSG and other stuff to come home and need to detox from my 10 days of poor eating. I'll take a trip to Whole Foods and check out your other suggestions.

Backpacker chick...check out the PureFit power bars on Amazon. They are vegan and good. I've been eating them and they don't melt.

It was all the "crap" in foods that led me to start drying my own foods from home. I can buy organic meats and veggies, make the meal (I often double the recipe), and then put the leftovers on the food dehydrator before bed. By morning it's generally dry and I can package it for the trail and toss the baggies in the freezer. It's that easy.