Good energy food/drinks to buy as you go?

rodgers73

I'm doing a multi-day ride soon and I'm looking for tips on what makes good food for the journey that I can easy buy in places as I go.

So far my tips for good buying include

Fig rolls
Flapjack
Go Ahead bars
Tracker bars or general cereal bars
Nuts and raisin

And for drinking - fresh orange juice watered down

Any tips on what normal food works best for you and doesn't involve looking around miles for this sort of thing? I.e. stuff you'd find in a corner shop





Inding

danlikesbikes

Stay away from cereal bars as they tend to be packed with too much sugar and very little else of worth which will cause a high/crash insulin situation pretty soon after eating.

Fruit such a bananas are always as good purchase, boiled sweets are old school but still a good option. I also like coke either from a can and plain water though you could water it down yourself. My corner shop does a can of chocolate milk (can think of the name of it) & coconut water canned which are both good.

Fruit loaf sometimes they sell if they do bread, the sort you might buy for toasting but just eat as is.

FlacVest

Stuff that isn't as processed. If you want a snack while riding, something like Starburst could be individually unwrapped and placed under shorts to allow easy access later.... candy that you can tear open and pour later on during the ride (stored in jersey pocket or under shorts).

Bananas are amazing, as are all fruits. Milk is also an amazing drink for its protein and vitamins and all that jazz.

But if you're just popping in and leaving, you want something that provides a lot of calories, but isn't heavy, to keep your stomach from "turning on" and loss of blood from other parts of the body and subsequent cramping.

Coach H

Soreen

ShutUpLegs

Pears, jelly babies

johnmcsorley

Hobnob Flapjack = 40g Carbs:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calori ... k-12809528

Cyclist equivalent to nitrous oxide !

keef66

Fig rolls and jelly babies are my off-the-shelf cycling favourites. Drink-wise I usually have dilute squash with a pinch of salt. On the go Coke diluted with water would give you a sugar / caffeine boost.

rodgers73

Just invested in fig rolls - they got a mention in Cycling Plus and I slapped my forehead for not thinking of them before. Particularly as I was eating one at the time!

e17blade

Danlikesbikes wrote:

Stay away from cereal bars as they tend to be packed with too much sugar and very little else of worth which will cause a high/crash insulin situation pretty soon after eating.

Fruit such a bananas are always as good purchase, boiled sweets are old school but still a good option. I also like coke either from a can and plain water though you could water it down yourself. My corner shop does a can of chocolate milk (can think of the name of it) & coconut water canned which are both good.

Fruit loaf sometimes they sell if they do bread, the sort you might buy for toasting but just eat as is.

Genuine question - how can cereal bars be "packed with too much sugar", but boiled sweets and jelly babies be OK?

Pituophis

E17Blade wrote:

Danlikesbikes wrote:

Stay away from cereal bars as they tend to be packed with too much sugar and very little else of worth which will cause a high/crash insulin situation pretty soon after eating.

Fruit such a bananas are always as good purchase, boiled sweets are old school but still a good option. I also like coke either from a can and plain water though you could water it down yourself. My corner shop does a can of chocolate milk (can think of the name of it) & coconut water canned which are both good.

Fruit loaf sometimes they sell if they do bread, the sort you might buy for toasting but just eat as is.

Genuine question - how can cereal bars be "packed with too much sugar", but boiled sweets and jelly babies be OK?

Hmm, I did wonder that myself! I'm sure there is a logical answer?

keef66

Pituophis wrote:

E17Blade wrote:

Danlikesbikes wrote:

Stay away from cereal bars as they tend to be packed with too much sugar and very little else of worth which will cause a high/crash insulin situation pretty soon after eating.

Fruit such a bananas are always as good purchase, boiled sweets are old school but still a good option. I also like coke either from a can and plain water though you could water it down yourself. My corner shop does a can of chocolate milk (can think of the name of it) & coconut water canned which are both good.

Fruit loaf sometimes they sell if they do bread, the sort you might buy for toasting but just eat as is.

Genuine question - how can cereal bars be "packed with too much sugar", but boiled sweets and jelly babies be OK?

Hmm, I did wonder that myself! I'm sure there is a logical answer?

I suspect what he should have said is 'don't go thinking cereal bars are all slow release, low GI ingredients; they often also contain large amounts of sugar'

johnmcsorley

I thought if you were hitting it hard that all sugar was a good thing, no matter what it's source;

sugar -> glucose -> glycogen = muscle fuel ?

bianchimoon

with 5 or 10 miles to go and you're struggling, flat coke will help

Grill

johnmcsorley wrote:

I thought if you were hitting it hard that all sugar was a good thing, no matter what it's source;

sugar -> glucose -> glycogen = muscle fuel ?

Indeed. Perhaps he meant chocolate bars such as Snickers and Mars? High fat foods are always a bad idea if you're hoping to keep energy levels up.

apreading

On long rides and especially multi-day rides, it is not just nutrition/energy that you need to think about - there is a psychological aspect to food too.

I use the following 'non sport specific food' at times:

Sausage or bacon sarnie with brown sauce
Sausage roll/pastie
(either of the above hot for an even bigger lift in your spirits!)

Malt loaf - really needs to be buttered though, which is easy if pre-prepared and twin slices in cling film in your pack, or some places sell buttered twin slice packs.

Brioche rolls with choc chip - usually bought in packs of 12, some places individually wrap them.

Kellogs Nutrigrain - really tasty and not too bad as cereal bars go - cheap too and the closest to sports bars that I found.

Drink - I am happy with water, but if you take a small pack of nuun tablets you can make up several days drinks with electolytes if sweating alot.

Lots swear by bananas but I hate them so would only use in desparation...

Fig rolls are dry, so you need to drink lots with them but that isnt really a problem - I would happily go for these.

Jelly beans/babies are great - lots of organised rides have them and they are always enjoyed!

Cake - any type really!

A bakery is always a good spot, rather than pre-prepared, packed food - something fresh and/or hot really helps you to enjoy the food rather than just use it as fuel.

Having said all this - any long/multi-day ride, I always take a bag of 'sports products' in my pack - Clif bars, Liquorice mule bars, zipvit yoghurt & blueberry and other nice things and high5 gels.

danlikesbikes

E17Blade wrote:

Danlikesbikes wrote:

Stay away from cereal bars as they tend to be packed with too much sugar and very little else of worth which will cause a high/crash insulin situation pretty soon after eating.

Fruit such a bananas are always as good purchase, boiled sweets are old school but still a good option. I also like coke either from a can and plain water though you could water it down yourself. My corner shop does a can of chocolate milk (can think of the name of it) & coconut water canned which are both good.

Fruit loaf sometimes they sell if they do bread, the sort you might buy for toasting but just eat as is.

Genuine question - how can cereal bars be "packed with too much sugar", but boiled sweets and jelly babies be OK?

Good question to ask & is all to do with how an item is marketed as being low fat and therefore good for you.

Take cereal bars & yoghurt as prime examples of items that you tend to find in your average corner shop/supermarket which are advertised as low fat and therefore good for you. However turn it over and look on the back and find that whilst they have removed a fair amount of fat form them, to retain any form of taste they have had to pack said good item full of sugars & other stabilisers, flavourings etc.

Boiled sweets & jelly babies (or my fav jelly beans) are made up predominantly of sugar and safe to say that most normal people understand this.

Its all about moderation really with sweets think most people know that in small amounts they are OK for you but in excess you could be exposing yourself to high sugar related illness's.

Where as with "fad" low fat cereal bars (and other such items such a yoghurt) people think that due to them "being good for you as they are low fat" is in fact a poor reflection of the actual content of these products.

e17blade

E17Blade wrote:

Danlikesbikes wrote:

Stay away from cereal bars as they tend to be packed with too much sugar and very little else of worth which will cause a high/crash insulin situation pretty soon after eating.

Fruit such a bananas are always as good purchase, boiled sweets are old school but still a good option. I also like coke either from a can and plain water though you could water it down yourself. My corner shop does a can of chocolate milk (can think of the name of it) & coconut water canned which are both good.

Fruit loaf sometimes they sell if they do bread, the sort you might buy for toasting but just eat as is.

Genuine question - how can cereal bars be "packed with too much sugar", but boiled sweets and jelly babies be OK?

Been thinking about this and may have answered my own question.....

If you wolf down a sugar packed cereal bar you get all the sugar in one hit, but if you graze on jelly babies (for example) over a longer period you get a more sustained energy release from the sugar

.....that makes sense doesn't it?

danlikesbikes

E17Blade wrote:

E17Blade wrote:

Danlikesbikes wrote:

Stay away from cereal bars as they tend to be packed with too much sugar and very little else of worth which will cause a high/crash insulin situation pretty soon after eating.

Fruit such a bananas are always as good purchase, boiled sweets are old school but still a good option. I also like coke either from a can and plain water though you could water it down yourself. My corner shop does a can of chocolate milk (can think of the name of it) & coconut water canned which are both good.

Fruit loaf sometimes they sell if they do bread, the sort you might buy for toasting but just eat as is.

Genuine question - how can cereal bars be "packed with too much sugar", but boiled sweets and jelly babies be OK?

Been thinking about this and may have answered my own question.....

If you wolf down a sugar packed cereal bar you get all the sugar in one hit, but if you graze on jelly babies (for example) over a longer period you get a more sustained energy release from the sugar

.....that makes sense doesn't it?

In a way yes as you just end up with a sugar high & insulin crash shortly afterwards, but you raised the point of grazing which I was alluding too.

The OP is doing multi day racing so needs to eat "normal" food and also have something to graze on in-between.

I was simply suggesting that he stay away from cereal bars as a form of more normal food a they are pretty poor when look at what goes into them. He would be much better with flapjacks or fruit bread & then supplement these with snack/treat types of food.