[pct-l] Electrolytes

[Barry Teschlog]

If one reads the ingredients of electrolyte replacement powders / pills, etc, you'll see they're typically made of 4 things:  Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium and Potassium.  

These can easily be incorporated into a hiker diet with minimal planning or supplementation.

Sodium - that's a slam dunk, as many hiker foods are salted pretty heavily.

Calcium - cheese and powered milk.  You'll want plenty of calcium anyways, since you'll be stressing the bones with all the walking and the body will want / need to build up the bones.  Powered milk is an easy add to oatmeal, adds a lot of calories without bulk, adds protein.  Cheese is a great lunch menu item - on tortillas or bagels with other sandwich like fillings.

Magnesium - as it turns out nuts and seeds are high in this mineral.  They're also high on the calories per ounce measure.  This list has several foods I naturally incorporated into my diet on the thru.
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/foods-high-in-magnesium.php


That leaves potassium.  Everyone knows bananas are high, but they're not particularly suited for on trail (100 grams of banana has ~358 mg of potassium).  What is however is salt substitute or sodium free salt, which is potassium chloride.  Put a fat pinch of this into your cooked dinner (1/4 tsp) and you'll get 610mg of potassium - nearly the same as 2 bananas.  A 20 ounce Gatorade, by way of example, has only 75 mg of potassium.  Pistachios are great trail food and a rich source - about 1,000 mg per 100 grams.  Almonds and cashews are also both high in potassium and excellent trail food.