See, your body needs  calories to burn in order to perform...and in the case of our explorers ...to stay warm. It is kind of like a car -- it needs fuel to run.

So an arctic diet is very hearty of butter, cheese and chocolate.

With all the hard work the team members must do on an expedition - skiing, hauling and staying warm - they burn LOTS of calories. Therefore they need to consume around 5,000 calories each day, the same amount as in 70 slices of bread or more than twice the amount of calories they eat when at home.

Breakfast would typically consist of oatmeal or granola with milk, bread fried in butter with jam or cheese, a couple of fried  breakfast sausages and hot chocolate, tea or instant coffee.

For lunch the team has nuts, dried fruit, granola bars, cheese, butter, sausage, instant soup or ramon noodles, chocolate and water or lemonade.

As soon as the team has set camp in the afternoon and are in their tents with the gas stove burning, the pot is on for tea or hot chocolate and a snack to warm up. Dinner is prepared on the stove as well and consists of rice or spaghetti with venison, caribou or pork. On top of this they also have vegetables and cheese. When you crawl into the sleeping bag you always make sure you have a couple of energy bars within reach, just in case you start getting chilled -- meaning your body needs more fuel!

The dogs are also carefully managed. The team needs the dogs to be strong. Every day the dogs receive Science Diet dry food supplemented with fat and meat, all adding up to around 6000 calories - if a "normal" dog ate this much, its stomach would most likely twist and it could possibly die. But the Polar Huskies are made for it!