My hat is off to those of you who really take care with your diet and exercise regimens. 

I'm somewhat less inclined to worry about it too much.  At 5'10", my weight generally revolves around 170, give or take a few.  I remain fairly active throughout the year, but sometimes take a couple weeks off to just relax and be lazy.  On canoe trips, I usually eat pretty well, always have cereal or bacon and eggs each morning and a variety of different dinners each evening.  I usually have PB sandwiches or GORP and some sugary snacks during the day.  I will usually lose 10 pounds or so during a 12-day trip.  Feel lots stronger after a trip than before and the weight loss has been like that for at least the past 10 years or so.  Within a month or two, I'm back to 170 until the next canoeing season.

I'll pass this one to Joe.  I have no experience with freeze-dried.  But I like to speculate, so....

I would assume nutritionally it is identical to the same food which is not freeze-dried.  I would also assume freeze-dried items are heavy on the carbs due to the conventional nutritional wisdom.  That would account for the <ahem> tailwind generated by said products.

But again, I don't really know.  Those are just educated guesses.

Ah the dried veggie after burn

Mad_Mat wrote on Mar 9^th, 2011 at 3:19pm:


Beer has salt??!!  Nooooo!!!       What about wine?   

When it comes to FD, I'd say the " proof is in the pudding" adage should apply.
Like most here, my early outdoor trip menus were freeze dried.
Mountain House I believe. That was 40 years ago and my age and the times didn't make/w about nutrition/sodium like they do now.

I knew they tasted saltier than my home meals, but like M_M, I figured I was sweating a lot of salt out, so a little extra shouldn't hurt.
Of course we now know that so many food stuffs contain hidden sodium, the average person even when under exertion doesn't really need anymore.

The biggest thing is how the FD effected my bowel habits
I'm very regular in that regard and never have loose stools.
With freeze dried I wasn't always sure a gaseous event wouldn't turn into something worse

I'm sure they've been improved over the years. I learned to de-hydrate make my own, so I haven't tried any since my early days.
I would say that if your experiencing gastronomic distress after every meal, then you need to find a different brand or start making your own.

If it's causing you daily distress, then it can't be good for you.
If health concerns are there, making your own lets you control whatever you need too. Worth the time and effort I would think.