Steak and chips - that would be nice! On my expeditions I start the day with almonds, porridge and full-fat butter and milk. I stop every 75 minutes to eat from what I call my “sledger’s nosebag”, which is filled with cashew and macadamia nuts, chocolate drops and chunks of salami. This gives me a burst of calories and keeps the protein trickling in, as it can’t be absorbed any faster.

At the end of the day, I’ll treat myself to a cereal bar, either for starter or dessert, then a freeze-dried main meal that is rice, pasta or potato-based. These come in a bag, and you just add melted snow. They have a lovely texture, and taste like fresh meals.

In fact, the optimum diet is one of the biggest advances yet made in polar exploration. It really hasn’t changed much in a hundred years, but there is some innovative thinking starting to be done. For the Catlin Arctic Survey next spring we’ve been working on an entirely synthetic medium-chain fat, which is relatively quick to absorb. We just spray it on to our food.

I eat 5,300 calories a day, though I actually burn through 7,500. There is a tendency for people to focus on the number of calories that they can pack into a kilo of weight. But there’s no point just having a very high-fat diet if the body’s not absorbing it: you’ll just excrete most of it. You also have to make sure that the various bodily systems are supported, especially vitamin C, without which, after several months, you’d be in an advanced state of scurvy. This wasn’t well understood in Shackleton’s day.

One glaring problem with this menu is the alcohol. It needs to be heated up if it freezes and, at minus 40C (-40F), will give your oesophagus frostbite if it isn’t. It also speeds up the hyperthermic response by counteracting the tendency of the body to move blood away from the skin when it gets cold. But I suppose at least you’d die with a smile on your face.

- Pen Hadow is an explorer who, in 2004, became the first Briton to trek, without resupply, to both poles

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