Mountain House meals making me sick

[IndyGunworks]

Dessicant pack intact?

That makes me want to vomit just thinking about that possibility.

 

[10-32]

Never had an issue and I've eaten a TON of them (possibly literally). You might start looking at the ingredient list and looking for correlations, and you might also look into seeing if you have a sodium sensitivity as they do have a lot of sodium.

^^THIS^^ Water and sodium have a homeostatic relationship, and when excess sodium is in your body, it may mean you need to increase your water consumption. The daily recommended intake of sodium is 1,500 mg, and it should not exceed 2,300 mg. The average person consumes 3,400 mg of sodium per day. I've made myself sick off of just eating MRE's for the trip. Turns out it was because I wasn't drinking enough water with them. The average MRE contains 3,800mg of sodium.


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[Brett]

Have you tried any MRE's and had similar experience with them?

Never have tried an MRE but I think this will be at the top of my list of things to do!

 

[Brett]

Are you static camping or backpacking? Frankly I would not take any freeze dried food with me on a campout...backpack trip yes, but not camping. The weight savings on a campout just isn't worth the cost of not having tasty food.

The last 2 trips we were just static camping after a day of fishing. So no backpacking.

 

[Brett]

Dessicant pack intact?

Yes, both times.

 

[Brett]

I appreciate everyone's suggestions! This weekend, I am going to try another meal. I think I will try the blueberries with granola and milk. I want to wait for the weekend just in case I get sick again. I will report back here with the results. In the mean time, I am going to search for common ingredients that may be causing a problem. I will also NOT be camping this weekend, just staying around the house.

 

[Slawburger]

Never have tried an MRE but I think this will be at the top of my list of things to do!

I like the MRE for treks because I can save my water for rehydrating me instead of my lunch.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Might want to try a home cooking experiment. Use that same pot and more water from the same bottled source and cook some food from the home pantry. If you still get sick, that can absolve the MH stuff. If you don't, it can implicate it. After that, do a MH meal, same pot, same water source at home and see if you still get sick out of the wilderness.

 

[Mcolson181]

I appreciate everyone's suggestions! This weekend, I am going to try another meal. I think I will try the blueberries with granola and milk. I want to wait for the weekend just in case I get sick again. I will report back here with the results. In the mean time, I am going to search for common ingredients that may be causing a problem. I will also NOT be camping this weekend, just staying around the house.

Make sure you're stocked up on toilet paper!

 

[Brett]

Make sure you're stocked up on toilet paper!

Lol!!! I am good on the tp for the weekend.

 

[Brett]

So I started off easy this weekend. I tried the Mountain House ice cream sandwich. You don't use any water with the ice cream sandwich at all. I am NOT sick so far. Next weekend I will try the granola with milk and blueberries and work my way up from there.

I looked for common ingredients from the other meals i have tried but could not find any common ingredients. Until next weekend...

 

[BravoMike]

Mmm... the granola and blueberries is one of my favorites!

 

[Zoub]

About ten years ago when I turned 40 I went through a similar experience but no where near as violent as yours. Over the course of about a year and testing foods at home too I found that suddenly my body no longer liked eggs. I can eat them but not much and not often and I never eat them on the road.

Your current experiment is irrelevant because you are not using the same foods and cooking techniques that made you sick. Since the water is boiled it is the food or another source of bad water from a bladder that is not clean that you drink from. You have an allergy or foul water source.

 

[Brett]

As stated above, the water is coming from store bought bottled water. When I boil the water for the next hot meal, I will use the same method.

 

[Dragon]

About ten years ago when I turned 40 I went through a similar experience but no where near as violent as yours. Over the course of about a year and testing foods at home too I found that suddenly my body no longer liked eggs. I can eat them but not much and not often and I never eat them on the road.

Your current experiment is irrelevant because you are not using the same foods and cooking techniques that made you sick. Since the water is boiled it is the food or another source of bad water from a bladder that is not clean that you drink from. You have an allergy or foul water source.

People try to knock the theory or "wives tale" that your allergies can change every 7.5 years but I've found it to be true in my experience. At 15 years-old I developed a severe allergy to laundry detergents and fabric softener, so badly in fact that I had to be hospitalized. Since then I could only use Dynamo detergent and no softeners until about 2-3 years ago and the allergies are gone. So I believe that the body can change in a way that would cause something like this, but this apparently isn't backed by doctors even though the science is real on a cellular level.

 

[bingley]

Are you sure it was the food that made you sick? Have you eliminated other possibilities? Maybe you just caught a bug?

 

[Brett]

This is what I am trying to find out.

 

[Hohn]

People try to knock the theory or "wives tale" that your allergies can change every 7.5 years but I've found it to be true in my experience. At 15 years-old I developed a severe allergy to laundry detergents and fabric softener, so badly in fact that I had to be hospitalized. Since then I could only use Dynamo detergent and no softeners until about 2-3 years ago and the allergies are gone. So I believe that the body can change in a way that would cause something like this, but this apparently isn't backed by doctors even though the science is real on a cellular level.

Just this week I learning at the allergist's office that I am no longer allergic to penicillin and the dervitives (amoxicillin, etc).

Our bodies change over time.

 

[Survivalcookie]

If what you ate had a lot of soy in it as fillers that is a problem for some. We use a lot of freezer dried foods on a daily basis...or maybe you just had a flu bug.

 

[Brett]

I ate the raspberry crumble dessert on Friday evening. I used the same bottled water that i had during the first 2 camping trips when I was sick. The directions said to heat the water to boiling which I did. I used the same kelley kettle setup to heat the water. It is Sunday evening and I have not been sick at all.
I am leaning towards a food allergy even though i have no known food allergies. Next weekend I am going to try one of the meals that previously made me sick, just sitting around the house and we shall see what happens. Until next weekend.