Diet and meal replacement

“When a man’s stomach is full it makes no difference whether he is rich or poor.” – Euripides

When I was researching and getting ready for my journey I knew that my inexperience in travelling by bike and camping would have not made my life easy. Having decided to start from the Alaskan wilderness meant a steep learning curve right at the beginning. I therefore decided to remove one of the problematic factors that could make me lose a lot of time: food.

To remove the problem of preparing breakfasts, lunches and dinners; I thought I would feed myself with a drink that could replace all of a day’s meals, and assured me a healthy and balanced intake of the right nutrients. Sometime before I happened to read articles on this type of products (corriere.it) so I decided to do a little research and contact a few companies producing them.

At the end of my research I selected two companies that produce two products, probably the most genuine on the market. Both companies agreed to provide me with their products free of charge for the duration of the trip and my choice fell on 100%FOOD produced by Space Nutrients Station made for the most part with raw and organic ingredients.

100% FOOD is a full meal powder that only needs to be mixed with a little water and after shaking it for a few seconds the meal is ready to be consumed.

100% FOOD has four main blends:

• 2000 Cal: 2000 calorie diet sets the Recommended Daily Intake of the nutrients that is sufficient to meet the requirements of most healthy individuals.
• Double Protein: it contains 100g of protein per day instead of 50g by 2000 cal diet, while carbs are reduced from 300 to 250g.
• Low Carb:  it’s a blend for those who follow a diet poor in carbohydrates. The formula has the following ratio of 30% fat, 40% carbohydrates and 30% protein.
• Ultra-Low Carb: a blend with the following ratio 35% fat, 45% protein and only 20% carbohydrates.

Each blend comes with a different base of ingredients:

• Soy
• Whey
• Plant

There are also two different flavours: vanilla and cocoa. I soon got tired of vanilla but the blends with cocoa are yummy and it’s always a pleasure when I drink it, I never get tired of it.

I used both the 2000cal and the Double Protein blends and I’ve tried all three bases of ingredients. The most palatable are, in my opinion, the soy based blends but my favourite the plant based ones which use plant-based proteins of rice and peas as well as hemp seeds and is therefore vegan too. It has a more pronounced earthy/nutty flavour, if you have ever tasted hemp seed you should know what I’m talking about.

It was very convenient to begin the journey with 100%FOOD, given the various problems I had especially with the bad weather. In addition to feeding myself with 100% FOOD in Alaska and Canada I ate some cereal bars daily. In Mexico I integrated with tortilla and banana or tortilla and avocado. Now with some fruit or bread. Just to have something to chew on.

The biggest problem of feeding with 100%FOOD is the resupply of the product in Central and South America. Receiving packages, shipments generally, is highly problematic and you need to arm yourself with great patience. In any case, the risk that the shipment gets “lost” is very high. In Central America, I lost almost all shipments at least in Guatemala and Nicaragua but in Panama I got everything that was sent. In Colombia, I received two shipments out of three. And in Ecuador the shipment sent to Quito should have arrived in the city but still I was not able to retrieve it.

Logistical problems aside the convenience of 100%FOOD is amazing, just as I begin to feel hungry even in a remote place in the Andes in the space of less than a minute I can already feed myself and go back pedalling without losing precious time. The same in the evening when the sun goes down (near the equator it’s a sudden process, 10 minutes after sunset is already dark) I find a place to camp, and after finishing arranging my things, in two minutes I prepare dinner.

In conclusion after a year and three months of feeding myself, for the most part, with 100%FOOD the verdict is: if it didn’t exist, it should have to be invented!

If you want to see what having a meal with 100%FOOD looks like, back in Mexico I made a video about it: