The Best Backpacking Food
The Best Backpacking Food
Maybe your favorite backpacking food is a freeze-dried turkey dinner. There really is no "best" backpacking food. There are reasons to bring certain foods, though. Here are ten foods, and the reasons you might want to consider them.1. Nuts. This is one of the most calorie-packed foods you can take. That means less weight to carry. With lots of protein and other nutritonal benefits, nuts are one of the best backpacking foods.2. Olive oil. Add a little to your soups or dip bread in it. The best of the oils health-wise, you can eat it before sleeping, to stay warm, because fats generate heat when digested.3. Trail mixes. Any mix with raisins and nuts is great for backpacking. Vitamins, minerals, protein, and the best reason - convenience.4. Corn products. Tortilla chips or corn nuts are convenient, and they don't seem to cause the tiredness that potato chips and other simple carbohydrates can cause.5. Ramen noodles. When you need a hot meal fast, there isn't much that's better.6. Instant coffee. A necessity for caffeine addicts, and it's good to have a stimulant available for emergencies.7. Wild edible berries. Learn to identify a few, and you'll have a nutricious excuse for a break along the trail.8. Instant sports drinks. Pour a little in your water bottle and shake. Replacing electrolytes doesn't get more convenient.9. Instant refried beans. When you want sustained energy, eat beans.10. Your favorites. Having your favorite foods can help salvage a rainy backpacking trip spent in the tent.Always consider the nature of the trip when you choose your backpacking food. Hot meals are much more important in cold climates, and convenience is king, if you want to make miles. A bottle of rum might even be appropriate, if it's a trip wih friends.Steve Gillman is a long-time backpacker, and advocate of ultralight backpacking. His advice and stories can be found at http://www.TheBackpackingSite.com
Dealing with a Dog Food Allergy?
Dealing with a Dog Food Allergy?
Just as humans allergies can show up as a sneeze or rash, your dog's allergies can manifest as itchiness -- or even ear infections. In fact, if your dog's allergic to his food, it can cause him to scratch himself constantly, even with no obvious parasite problem.Dog allergies rarely get solved with medicine, so the best we can do for our four-footed friends is focus on prevention. Providing the right type of food is essential to stopping your dog's scratching habit.Many people like to share their food with their dogs or let them help "clean up" the kitchen after a meal. Little do they know, their dogs just may not be able to take the tasty food we love so much, and some breeds (like the greyhound) are extremely sensitive. Even common foods like cheese, beef sausage and tuna may cause allergic reactions in some dogs. So it's best to let dogs enjoy dog food and not human food, even though they clearly adore and want what we're eating!Narrowing Down the ProblemTo determine the exact ingredients your dog is allergic to, try an elimination diet. Although powerful, it also requires patience. In fact, the elimination diet can call for eliminating specific food for up to 12 weeks before you'll notice the effects. And if you still haven't found the right (and wrong) ingredients, you'll have to repeat the process all over again.So is there an alternative to the lengthy elimination diet? Yes -- give your dog a brand or type of food he's never eaten before. But simply changing to a new brand of dog food might not be enough to eliminate his food allergies, since many brands contain similar ingredients. Instead, study the existing ingredients your dog is eating to determine which types of protein source he hasn't been exposed to. Then, hunt for a dog food that doesn't contain any of the ingredients you saw listed. For example, there are many brands of dog food that contains unusual protein sources such as rabbit or venison -- great for testing allergic reactions to other, more common proteins.Perhaps the best way for you to get control of dog's allergies is to whip up your own dog food. That way, you'll know exactly what he's getting and what he isn't -- something that's extremely hard to tell from reading the back of a dog food bag. Making your own food is especially helpful in elimination diets. To start, combine a portion of rice with baby food and lamb -- so long as your dog isn't already eating lamb and possibly displaying a reaction to it.Dog food allergies are a special condition that can be frustrating and take patience to solve. Since allergic reactions don't disappear overnight, you'll need lots of time and thoughtfulness to help your dog overcome this problem -- but his goofy smile and those scratch-free days ahead will probably make it all worth it.About the AuthorBlake Kritzberg is proprietor of Poodle-oo: Fashion for Toy Dogs. Stop by for toy dog couture and home decor, free dog postcards and the Toy Dog Blog.http://www.poodle-oo.com/
Fruits, Juices, and Food for Relieving Hemorrhoids Part II
Fruits, Juices, and Food for Relieving Hemorrhoids Part II
Eating the right kind of food and following good eating habits will speed up your healing of your hemorrhoids. If you have a diet that is hard to digest and moves slowly through your colon, then, expect to have constipation which will encourage formation of hemorrhoids or prevent the their healing.Here are some foods that will help give you relief from hemorrhoidsUse the following foods to help reduce hemorrhoid bleeding:* Alfalfa* Dark green leafy vegetables* Blackstrap molasses* Flax seeds ? are high in omega-3 oils, which reduce
inflammation and pain. They are also high in fiber.* Lima and butter beans are high in iron, which help to
build more blood. If you have bleeding hemorrhoids,
adding lima beans to your diet would be a good
choice.*Sweet potatoes provide fiber, B vitamins, iron,
potassium and many other vitamins and minerals.
This is a good body building food.If after trying different hemorrhoid remedies listed here for up to two week and your hemorrhoids do not have shrunk or go away, you
might consider seeing a doctor. You need to find out if your hemorrhoids exist because of a more serious medical condition.See your doctor right away if you have a lot of anal bleeding, a lot of blood in your stools, heavy pain, or fecal incontinence.Ginger, Garlic, and OnionAdd these three herbs ? ginger, garlic, onions - to your diet. Each one of these helps to break down fibrin. As I mentioned before excess fibrin creates inflammation and blood congestion by trying to repair arteries and veins.Iron foodsHere are the foods that contain iron to help you build up
your blood or to keep iron in reserve, if you ever need it.* Chicken liver, steamed crab* Beef liver* kelp* Prunes* Dried apricots* Blackstrap molasses* Spinach* Sunflower seeds* Pistachios* Cashews, almonds, sesame seeds* Baked potatoes* Cooked Swiss chard* Lima beans,* Raisins* Cooked broccoli* TunaOilsAt every meal, use olive oil, flax seed oil, and apple cider
vinegar in your salad. In your soups or other food dishes where it's appropriate, use olive and flax seed oil.At the end of each meal take your capsule of fish oil.
Fish oil is probably one of the most important oils to use
daily. Read other articles I have written on fish oil..SaladsEat plenty of salads with raw vegetable. Vegetables and
fruits that you heated destroy their natural enzymes and turn calcium into an inorganic form. You body can't process this inorganic form of calcium.This excess inorganic calcium moves into body areas that
are sluggish and precipitates in these areas causing inflammation and disease. One area that can migrate to is the rectum where it activates
the formation of hemorrhoids.So eat plenty of raw vegetable sprinkled with apple cider vinegar, flaxseed oil, and olive oil.There you have it. Plenty of food remedies that can give you temporary relief, reduce bleeding, reduce swelling, eliminate itching, and cure your hemorrhoids.Rudy Silva has a Physics degree from the University of San Jose California and is a Natural Nutritionist. He writes a newsletter called "natural-remedies-thatwork.com" and he has written an ebook called "How to Relieve Your Constipation with 77 Natural Remedies." You can get more information on this ebook and more hemorrhoid remedies at this site. http://www.hemorrhoid-remedies.for--you.info