Remember that if you are going on a long expedition, you may need to carry 100kg of food. When you are designing your polar menu, you will need to take the following criteria into account:

• A balanced diet (see the Find out more section)
• Contains at least 5,000 calories (21,000kJ)
• Weighs no more than 2.5kg (on an actual polar expedition this would be more like 1.5kg)
• Tastes nice!
• Easy to cook and easy to store

Activity steps

1. To find the number of calories in a food item, search online for the item + ‘calories’, e.g. ‘pancake calories’.
2. Pick some foods that you would like to eat and write them in as part of your meals on the researching food sheet.
3. Use online research to decide on the serving size and find out the weight and number of calories.
4. Add up the totals for your proposed menu. Did you hit your targets?
5. If you did not meet the criteria above, research lighter food options or other foods with a higher calorie content per weight.
6. Remember that this type of menu is only suitable if you are dragging a large sled over many kilometres of Arctic Ocean!

Activity materials

• Pencils
• Device with internet access for online research

What nutrients do we need?

In the criteria, you are asked to create a balanced diet. This means a balance between the different types of nutrients.

• Carbohydrates give you instant energy and are found in bread, pasta, rice, fruit and chocolate
• Fat is a high energy nutrient and can be found in nuts, cheese and oils.
• Protein helps the body with growth and repair and can be found in meat, nuts, cheese, fish, eggs and lentils.
• Fibre keeps things moving through the body and can be found in vegetables and whole grains.
• Vitamins & minerals are chemical compounds that help the body to function and can be found in a variety of foods.

What do polar explorers eat?

Food with a high water content will freeze and will not be very tasty. The best foods for polar travel are strong tasting, high in fat and low in water content.

Polar Pâté
Polar Pâté, made from meat, suet, vegetable fats and grains, is a good base for a polar diet. It is high in calories, about 700 per 100 grams. When mixed with noodles or rice it makes a thick gravy, and can be a morning or evening staple.

Chocolate Truffles
These are special high-calorie truffles made with chocolate, butter and macadamia nuts. They come in milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate flavours. These provide long lasting energy as they contain about 700 calories per 100 grams.

Expedition Cake
This cake is made mostly from dry fruit and nuts, and contains very little water, so it tastes good at low temperatures, and does not freeze. Expedition cake is a bit contrary to most polar food, as it is not as high in calories. However, we find it is a very effective trail food, because it provides a lot of energy very quickly.

Freeze Dried Cheese
Freeze-dried cheddar cheese makes a good snack. It is made from old cheddar and contains 637 calories per 100 grams.

Zero bars
The Zero bar is a high-calorie commercial chocolate bar. Each 50 gram bar contains 320 calories.

Deep Fried Double Smoked Bacon
Bacon contains more calories than any other type of pork meat. This is old-fashioned ‘farmer’s type’ smoked bacon. Unlike commercially processed bacon, the result is a product that is more flavourful and contains less water. We have experimented with many different ways to prepare the bacon for expeditions, and have found that deep frying removes most of the water, without losing too much fat.

Nutrition
Although there are a lot of calories in our polar diet, there is very little nutrition. Therefore, it is imperative to your health that you use a good supplement. We recommend the 7Systems Vitamin Mix, which includes some sixty different ingredients, and comes perfectly packaged in daily rations. We highly recommend use of these vitamins for any long, physically demanding expedition.

This information has been reproduced with the kind permission of Richard Weber of Weber Arctic. Weber Arctic were one of the food suppliers for the Catlin Arctic Survey. Further information can be found at their website: www.weberarctic.com