Food to take cycling - low residue

ednino

To make things a bit harder, I've got Crohns disease and try to stick to a low residue diet.

No nuts, no fibre, no dried fruits etc...

I can eat bananas though
What else could I put in a jersey pocket that's bite-size and good cycling food? Recently tried Jaffa cakes but they fucking melt :roll:

buckles

I guess 'no fibre' rules out flapjacks?

dw300

Kendall Mint Cake?

ednino

Yes, I guess flapjack is high fibre

mint cake is a mint idea though! It looks like most of the typical jersey pocket foods aren't much good for someone with bowl issues. Might try & make my own rice cakes or something. White rice is fine

paulleary

Banana and honey sandwiches .ideally whole meal , but low residue diet suggests white bread would be better .

poynedexter

ednino wrote:

To make things a bit harder, I've got Crohns disease and try to stick to a low residue diet.

No nuts, no fibre, no dried fruits etc...

I can eat bananas though
What else could I put in a jersey pocket that's bite-size and good cycling food? Recently tried Jaffa cakes but they ******* melt :roll:

what food types do you normally eat with this disease? i'm thinking gluten free? is the gluten the problem or the fibre? (gluten being a hard to digest protein found in wheat etc)

ednino

poynedexter wrote:

is the gluten the problem or the fibre? (gluten being a hard to digest protein found in wheat etc)

The fibre

but also caffeine, alcohol, very fatty things or spicy food :oops:

I like the banana sandwich idea. Could easily make those

dw300

Surely bananas are pretty high in fibre?

You actually would be better with more refined stuff. Foods that will literally just dissolve into sugars.

I use cherry cola bottles and little gummy type sweets, nothing too chewy though. Rowntrees Red Ones are pretty good. You could just take gels with you.

If you eat well off the bike then you shouldn't need food on most rides under 2 hours.

ednino

soluble fiber, so bananas are still low residue

My typical ride is 40 miles, so a bit over 2 hours. I don't need to eat on this but I do on 50+ mile rides on the weekends.

TONY.M

Hi Ednino,

This is a condition I have experience with. Everyone is different and there are no absolute rules with crohns disease (well maybe some) but I think you will find different responses and methods from different crohns sufferers.
I personally find that high sugar and particulary fructose irritates me and so I try to keep a lower carb diet than most people though I tend to eat higher fat. The funny thing was that I would go and feel better on the bike with a lower carb diet and all of my PB power bests were after a significant fast although I rarely did longer training rides so can not help you much there.

Nowadays I am much more concerned with health than performance so I no longer compete or train on the road instead trying to remain as comfortable and disease free as I can. The treatments which I get are mesalazine (Pentasa) and naltrexone. I also have borderline osteoporosis which you may want to get checked if you have not already done so, this has been a significant concern of mine for years and I have had more broken bones than I can remember - irritatingly I broke 4 bones in my wrists (2 each side) 4 months ago. For several years I have been weight training to try to combat this but only so much can be done.

I think what I am trying to get at is that we are all different creatures and that and doctors unfortunately do not always know what is best for us so it is important to research and to learn as much as you can and to question much of what you are told.

Hope that helps you somewhat.

Tony

Omar Little

Boiled potato

There used to be some videos on youtube with the team garmin nutritionist and boiled potato (rolled in salt and parmesan to add some more flavour) was known as rocket fuel

ednino

Cheers, very helpful

spacedog

Hi There,

I've been there, done that, got the T-Shirt when it comes to the low residue diet.

Bananas are good, I used to live off them. The best thing I found while on the bike was jelly babies, little and often as they cause a bit sugar rush. I was also OK with SIS Gels. I did experiment with rice crackers but they just ended up getting crushed and turning into rubble.

The biggest thing I missed was no porridge before the ride....

Stay in there.... I'm sure you will find something that works for you.

If you are doing caffeine free don't forget chocolate contains caffeine.

The biggest thing I have found that helps me is a Low FODMAP diet http://shepherdworks.com.au/disease-information/low-fodmap-diet I have found out that the big no nos for me are large amounts of lactose and even small amounts of bread. But I'm OK with other wheat products.

poynedexter

what is meant by a low residue diet? its a new one to me.

spacedog

The idea is that as low residue diet gives the bowel the least to do as possible. This allows it to recover from what ever is up with it.

chrisaonabike

poynedexter wrote:

what is meant by a low residue diet? its a new one to me.

It means you basically burn all you eat, leaving nothing left to sh!t.

spacedog

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

poynedexter wrote:

what is meant by a low residue diet? its a new one to me.

It means you basically burn all you eat, leaving nothing left to sh!t.

Brilliantly put

ednino

Interestingly, reading Mark Cavendish's book he talks about team Sky going on a low residue diet for a couple of weeks in off season to help clear out & condition the bowls

TONY.M

poynedexter wrote:

what is meant by a low residue diet? its a new one to me.

For crohn's disease sufferers a low residue diet may well become a necessity to prevent intestinal obstructions, which are extremely serious and can kill. The fiber in food can cause this whereas the low residue food is much safer becoming digested more completely and therefore little material is left to cause obstruction as stated above.

Spacedog wrote:

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

poynedexter wrote:

what is meant by a low residue diet? its a new one to me.

It means you basically burn all you eat, leaving nothing left to sh!t.

Brilliantly put

Indeed. That's exactly how I will try to explain it to people from now on!

Tony

ednino

These tick all my boxes