[pct-l] JMT bread

Sun Sep 15 17:49:27 CDT 2013

Shroomer,  I totally agree.  I cut out the fake foods about 10 years ago, quickly lost 70 pounds, and have kept it off.  I think the endocrinologists are figuring out that we need to keep our hormones balanced.  Sugar, flour, trans-fats, as well as many other non-whole foods (and other factors such as stress, not sleeping, environmental toxins, etc.) tend to throw off our insulin, cortisol, and adrenaline (as well as other hormones).  Another really good book is by endocrinologist Diana Schwarzbein M.D. http://www.amazon.com/The-Schwarzbein-Principle-Transition-Regeneration/dp/1558749640.  Happy Trails, Symbiosis

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Williams [mailto:baidarker at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2013 1:05 AM
To: Marcia Powers
Cc: <Pct-l at backcountry.net>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] JMT bread

Hey Marcia,

Yes Yoshihiro boils the bread in the vacuum bag to basically sterilize it as is done when canning fruits and vegetables in a mason jar.  It gives it a very long shelf life and allows him to make it in Japan and still use it much later on trail.  No mold or other organisms grow in it until the vacuum seal is broken.  Pretty sharp.

As for the no flour question, it basically comes down to getting refined carbs out of my diet.  That includes sugar and all ground grains.  For me I get a really strong insulin reaction from either of these quickly absorbed sources of energy and then find myself starving for more, which is what insulin tells the body, you're hungry.  As with mac and cheese, I eat a plate and find myself hungrier at the end of a full serving than when I started out.  So I have another and I'm hungrier still and have another.
 Give me crackers or cookies and I eat the whole box.  Pretty bad reaction.
 This goes for whole wheat flour products as well as white.  Grains in their whole form as well as fruit or vegetables provide a good dose of unground fiber which basically forms a lattice in the intestine, allowing the flour or sugars to be more slowly absorbed.  No insulin rush and no need to stuff myself on those products.  When the fiber in wheat or barley has been ground into flour it just passes through the intestine without forming the barrier that the larger pieces of fiber do that come from the whole unground grain itself.  For me it's just about health and weight.

On the PCT in 2010, I ate anything I wanted all hike long.  I refueled every hour or two on trail with candy bars or crackers and cheese and lost weight hand over fist, 35 lbs by the end of the hike.  And I needed to loose those lbs and felt great at the end of the hike.  By that time I was eating 2 boxes of mac and cheese at a sitting, that's 8 servings and I still lost weight.  I was probably malnourished by the end of the hike due to the amount of crap I was eating, but I was at a great weight.

After 6 months off trail, still working out on our local mountain, I'd gained 25 lbs back.  I had friends who had cut out refined carbs and had lost a tremendous amount of weight, so I tried it and began eating only whole foods and within 2 months was back down in weight and found I had more energy on trail than ever before.  Last year, 2012, I hiked the CDT without flour or sugar, drying my own veggies and meats, and the meals were terrific and I had more energy than I've ever experienced while hiking.  No need for the snacking I'd done before as the whole grains stay with me  much longer than the refined junk I'd eaten before.  I first tested it out on a trip into the Grand Canyon with my daughter and found I could climb out of the Canyon to the North Rim from the bottom with no stop for a snack on the way.  Then I re-hiked WA on this diet and found 3 weeks on trail with no junk was wonderful.  So with those shakedowns successful, I went whole hog and thru hiked the CDT with no flour or sugar, except for the week out of Leadore ID where a postmaster made a mistake and sent my box home and I had to resupply out of a convenience mart.  Holy crap what junk.
 I was partially saved by a trail angel in town who gave me what real food she could spare and by a gift buried on trail by Wyoming, of a 2 lb summer sausage.  She had grown so fond of the meals I'd been leaving in hiker boxes that she was paying me back and as real trail magic would have it, it came on my last day of the stretch when I was starving!

Amazing changes however occurred after trail when I'd been off flour and sugar for over a year, and these were medical.  After loosing the weight on my first long hike and continuing to work out hard during the following year, my cholesterol, triglycerides, lipids and blood pressure were still way off.  I'd been on blood pressure meds for many years and my Dr. was considering putting me on statins for the cholesterol.  Several months before starting the CDT she told me to get my blood work done but typical guy that I am, I procrastinated and put it off, not wanting to have the statin argument with her as I did not want to use those drugs.  Two weeks before starting the CDT I finally went in and had the blood work done.  The next day I came home to a phone message from her saying, "Scott, what have you done?  Your cholesterol has plummeted, your triglycerides and lipids are perfect.  Sit down and take your blood pressure."  I did and found it low for the first time in 25 years.  My exercise levels had remained the same, weight had remained low and the only difference was no flour no sugar for the preceding year.  I still ate lots of meat and oil and tons of veggies, potatoes, rice and wheat, but all in their natural forms.

Anyway, I'm still off all meds and feel great. So it's been 2 and a half years since I've had any flour or sugar and I feel better than anytime in my life, so I'll stick with it.  For me, when I don't eat those substances, I don't crave them and don't overeat them, very much like an alcoholic who is off his drink for a period of time.  The cravings just die off.

Last February while driving home from skiing I happened to catch a one hour segment with a Dr. Robert Lustig.  He's the childhood endocrinologist at UCSF who is making the case for regulating the amount of sugar in America's diet.  He'd just published a book, "Fat Chance:  Beating the Odds Agains Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease."  It's an amazing read with lots of studies making the case that most of the Western World's medical problems, those stemming from what is known as the "metabolic syndrome"
many cancers, stroke and heart disease as well as the obvious, diabetes, are caused by the incredible amount of processed carbs we eat and the insulin jolt we are living with, hour after hour for years and years.  It's a great read and for me at least has explained why I'm feeling so good now not eating that crap any longer.

Wow, that's way more than you asked for Marcia, but I could go on even longer, but I won't.

Needless to say, no flour, no sugar is doing great for me at this point and a diet rich in real food, albeit dried, has provided me more energy on trail than I've ever experienced with the crap I was eating before.

Shroomer

On Sat, Sep 14, 2013 at 8:49 PM, Marcia Powers <GottaWalk at pacbell.net>wrote:

> The recipe looks like a delicious dense and nutritious bread. I would 
> like to try making it.
>
> What is the reason for vacuum sealing and then boiling the bread? Is 
> it equivalent to the processing step in canning? Is that why it has a 
> long shelf, or pack, life?
>
> Another bread question for the non-flour eaters: grains are seeds that 
> are ground to flours. Do you avoid eating ground nuts too? Does 
> grinding hasten oxidation and that is what you are avoiding?
>
> Chia seeds are my recent favorite...mmm, chia seed pudding!
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