All About Foods, Drinks etc.

Hiking, camping, and boating are good activities for activepeople and families. However, if the food isn’t handledcorrectly, food-borne illness can be an unwelcome souvenir.

1. Choose foods that are light enough to carry in a backpackand that can be transported safely. Keep foods either hot orcold. Since it’s difficult to keep foods hot without a heatsource, it’s best to transport chilled foods. Refrigerate orfreeze the food overnight. What foods to bring? For a dayhike, just about anything will do as long as you can fit itin your backpack and keep it cold — sandwiches, friedchicken, bread and cheese, and even salads — or choose non-perishable foods.

2. Keep everything clean. Remember to bring disposable wipesif you’re taking a day trip. (Water is too heavy to bringenough for cleaning dishes!)

3. It’s not a good idea to depend on fresh water from alake or stream for drinking, no matter how clean it appears.Some pathogens thrive in remote mountain lakes or streamsand there’s no way to know what might have fallen into thewater upstream. Bring bottled or tap water for drinking.Always start out with a full water bottle and replenish yoursupply from tested public systems when possible. On longtrips you can find water in streams, lakes, and springs, butbe sure to purify any water from the wild, no matter howclean it appears.

4. If you’re backpacking for more than a day, the foodsituation gets a little more complicated. You can stillbring cold foods for the first day, but you’ll have to packshelf-stable items for the next day. Canned goods are safe,but heavy, so plan your menu carefully. Advances in foodtechnology have produced relatively lightweight staples thatdon’t need refrigeration or careful packaging. For example:

• peanut butter in plastic jars
• concentrated juice boxes
• canned tuna, ham, chicken, and beef
• dried noodles and soups
• beef jerky and other dried meats
• dehydrated foods
• dried fruits and nuts
• powdered milk and fruit drinks

5. If you’re cooking meat or poultry on a portable stove orover a fire, you’ll need a way to determine when it’s doneand safe to eat. Color is not a reliable indicator ofdoneness, and it can be especially tricky to tell the colorof a food if you’re cooking in a wooded area in the evening.It’s critical to use a food thermometer when cookinghamburgers. Ground beef may be contaminated with E. coli, aparticularly dangerous strain of bacteria. Illnesses haveoccurred even when ground beef patties were cooked untilthere was no visible pink. The only way to insure thatground beef patties are safely cooked is to use a foodthermometer, and cook the patty until it reaches 160° F. Besure to clean the thermometer between uses.

6. To keep foods cold, you’ll need a cold source. A block ofice keeps longer than ice cubes. Before leaving home, freezeclean, empty milk cartons filled with water to make blocksof ice, or use frozen gel-packs. Fill the cooler with coldor frozen foods. Pack foods in reverse order. First foodspacked should be the last foods used. (There is oneexception: pack raw meat or poultry below ready-to-eat foodsto prevent raw meat or poultry juices from dripping on theother foods.)

7. Camping supply stores sell biodegradable camping soap inliquid and solid forms. But use it sparingly, and keep itout of rivers, lakes, streams, and springs, as it willpollute. If you use soap to clean your pots, wash the potsat the campsite, not at the water’s edge. Dump dirty wateron dry ground, well away from fresh water. Some wildernesscampers use baking soda to wash their utensils. Packdisposable wipes for hands and quick cleanups.

8. If you’re planning to fish, check with your fish and gameagency or state health department to see where you can fishsafely, then follow these guidelines for Finfish:

• Scale, gut, and clean fish as soon as they’re caught
• Live fish can be kept on stringers or in live wells, aslong as they have enough water and enough room to move andbreathe
• Wrap fish, both whole and cleaned, in water-tightplastic and store on ice
• Keep 3 to 4 inches of ice on the bottom of the cooler.Alternate layers of fish and ice
• Store cooler out of the sun and cover with a blanket
• Once home, eat fresh fish within 1 to 2 days or freezethem. For top quality, use frozen fish within 3 to 6 months

9. If using a cooler, leftover food is safe only if thecooler still has ice in it. Otherwise discard leftover food.

10. Whether in the wild or on the high seas, protectyourself and your family by washing your hands before andafter handling food.

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Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is the relationship between the amount of alcohol consumed and the elimination of alcohol in your blood. This is usually measured as the percentage of deciliters of blood. So if it is measured by how much blood you have, your body weight makes a difference on how much you can drink. There are a few variables that determine your blood alcohol level:

-Weight

-Male or female

-Amount consumed

-How long the time frame was while drinking

-How long it takes to get back to a 0 BAC

A BAC of .04 means you have 4 drops of pure alcohol for every 10,000 drops of blood. An average man at 160 lbs. that drinks two beers would have a BAC of .04 after about an hour, on an empty stomach. Someone who reaches a BAC of .10 will normally show signs of intoxication. On average, it takes about 1 hour for 1 drink to leave the body. On women, it takes long because usually women have lower water in their body and have a higher percent of body fat than men. The fatter you are, the longer the alcohol stays in your system.

First, the alcohol is absorbed through your stomach. When you eat, then the alcohol is absorbed into the food and has to go on to the intestinal track for absorption. This takes longer for the alcohol to be absorbed. It all depends on how much you drink and how much you eat. A small amount may be absorbed through the stomach, but most alcohol is absorbed through the intestines where it enters the blood stream and travels to the brain.

Alcohol is a system suppressor along with other drugs like sedatives, painkillers and marijuana. Other drugs have a different effect on impaired driving, like cocaine and amphetamines, which are system enhancers. Alcohol impairs judgment, coordination, vision, and reaction time and increases drowsiness.

This is how your BAC is calculated and consequently gets you thrown into jail for a DWI. 35% of those convicted of DWI will become repeat offenders. Its simple, don’t drink and drive.

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Storing foods can present its own set of problems. Anddifferent types of foods have different storage requirementsto prevent bacteria from setting in. Here’s some tips toprotect your family and yourself.

Storing Vegetables

1. Vegetables should be stored in the vegetable crisper inthe refrigerator. However, keep potatoes, sweet potatoes,onions, and garlic in a cool, dark, well ventilated place,but not in the refrigerator. Tomatoes have better flavor ifthey are not refrigerated. Once cut, tomatoes should berefrigerated like any vegetable.

2. Store vegetables in the refrigerator crisper in plasticbags to prevent loss of moisture and nutritional values.However, eggplant and capsicums should be stored open in thecrisper as they sweat if stored in plastic bags. Putmushrooms in a paper bag (not in a plastic bag) beforeplacing them in the crisper.

Storing Fruits

3. Apples and berries should always be kept in therefrigerator for maximum crispness. Summer stone fruits andmelons should sit at room temperature until they are ripe,then go into the refrigerator. Grapes & fruits that are notyet fully ripe can be left in a fruit bowl in the kitchen.

4. Citrus fruits are fine at room temperature unless it isvery hot, in which case, put them in the refrigerator.Bananas should be kept at cool room temperature. Their skinsbecome black if they are refrigerated, although the flesh isstill fine to eat.

Storing Dairy Products

5. Always check the expiry date on dairy products,especially milk. Don’t buy milk if it will expire in 2-3days. Milk generally starts giving smell before its expirydate even if you store it in the refrigerator! Generally,milk bottles at the front of the shelf in the supermarkethave an expiry date of only a few days. Look for bottles atthe back of the shelf.

Storing Frozen Foods

6. Pack all your frozen foods together in an insulatedcontainer to keep them frozen until you get home. If foodsdefrost on the way home and you re-freeze them in a domesticfreezer, large ice crystals will form and can rupture cellmembranes in the food allowing nutrients to escape. Keepfrozen foods frozen to maintain quality, as bacteria willbegin to multiply when the food is thawed.

Storing Meat Products

7. Fresh meat, chicken, and fish always carry some bacteriaso these foods must always be kept cold. Bacterial growthslows down in the refrigerator; at room temperature, theygrow rapidly. Cooking kills these bacteria. Store meat,seafood and chicken in the coldest part of the refrigerator.See that any uncooked products do not come into contact withother foods in the refrigerator. They should be stored atthe bottom part of the refrigerator so that any juices thatdrip out won’t contaminate other foods on lower shelves.

8. Make sure that fish or other seafood are wrapped and useas soon as possible. Throw them out if not used within twodays.

9. If you are going to freeze meat, seafood or poultry,enclose it in freezer wrap and freeze as soon as possibleafter bringing it home. Store eggs in the refrigerator,preferably in their cartons, as it provides protectionand prevents moisture loss through the shell.

Storing Other Products

10. Do not allow pet foods to come into contact with humanfoods. Pantry items (canned foods, cereals, etc.) should bestored in a dark place like in a cupboard or pantry. Keepoils out of direct light.

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