Food / Nutrition

yost72
yost72 Posts: 51
edited March 2014 in Road beginners
If I am cycling anything over 30 miles, I need to eat something during my ride or I feel myself getting weak. Currently I take some Clif Bars (oats and raisins) and some energy gels with me, although I would only have one of each, even for 40-50 miles. My wife, who knows a bit about nutrition, says that Clif bars aren't ideal as they contain a lot of ingredients / additives which will give you the initial boost, but also the subsequent crash. I was already aware that anything sugary was not good, but if Clif bars are no good, what is? Unfortunately she doesn't have any suggestions! It's not as if I can take a bowl of porridge with me.

Any ideas?

Comments

  • dilatory
    dilatory Posts: 565
    What about making a tray of flapjacks? Your own choice dried fruits and nuts, peanut butter, rolled oats etc. Bit of sugar and honey to sweeten and bind it. All in the pan and then squish it into a tray and into the oven for a bit. Will probably take a few experiments to get consistency right but they are tasty failures!
  • thegreatdivide
    thegreatdivide Posts: 5,807
    Yost72 wrote:
    If I am cycling anything over 30 miles, I need to eat something during my ride or I feel myself getting weak. Currently I take some Clif Bars (oats and raisins) and some energy gels with me, although I would only have one of each, even for 40-50 miles. My wife, who knows a bit about nutrition, says that Clif bars aren't ideal as they contain a lot of ingredients / additives which will give you the initial boost, but also the subsequent crash. I was already aware that anything sugary was not good, but if Clif bars are no good, what is? Unfortunately she doesn't have any suggestions! It's not as if I can take a bowl of porridge with me.

    Any ideas?

    I don't agree re Clif. The company built it's name by using organic vegan friendly ingredients. Tell your wife to google them.
  • fatsmoker
    fatsmoker Posts: 585
    Still a good idea to make your own flapjack - You just have to hide it from children :)
  • yost72
    yost72 Posts: 51
    Maybe she is being too restrictive because anything with sugar, syrup etc is a no go apparently! I suggested home made flap jacks but that was pooh poohed because it would require one of the forbidden ingredients. She did go through the Clif bar ingredient list and pick out those which weren't good (can't remember which apart from syrup). However, I doubt there is ever anything which is 100% perfect!
  • dilatory
    dilatory Posts: 565
    I listened to a podcast with a chap who was a vegan ultra triathlete. He took baked sweet potatoes, left them in their skin and when needed just squeezed them out. If you've ever baked sweet potatoes in their skin they shrink inside and become a little like a gel pouch, so you could do that...

    However if all she's doing is saying no and offering no real suggestions for alternatives maybe let the criticism wash over you!
  • I use "normal" cereal bars as I find they taste nicer. (Brunch bars are favourite at the moment).
    However my favourite small snack are mini cheddars. They just seem to hit that savoury spot. And are surprisingly robust in a Jersey pocket. The empty packets are ideal for sticky rubbish like gel sachets.
    Old school would be jam sandwich and banana.
  • Out of interest, what does she think is a good option?
  • kajjal
    kajjal Posts: 3,380
    I just eat museli bars as needed. They have always been fine for hours road or mountain biking.
  • Initialised
    Initialised Posts: 3,047
    edited March 2014
    Pearoast: Admins please delete
    I used to just ride my bike to work but now I find myself going out looking for bigger and bigger hills.
  • Initialised
    Initialised Posts: 3,047
    dilatory wrote:
    What about making a tray of flapjacks? Your own choice dried fruits and nuts, peanut butter, rolled oats etc. Bit of sugar and honey to sweeten and bind it. All in the pan and then squish it into a tray and into the oven for a bit. Will probably take a few experiments to get consistency right but they are tasty failures!

    +1

    This recipe is a good starting point as it uses honey instead of syrup:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/honeyflapjacks_73203
    I use 1kg box of Scotts oat and adjust the rest accordingly, makes up to 50.

    I usually add Walnuts, Cranberries and Pecans, so long as the total is less than 500g they'll still hold.
    Heat up the oats, nuts and fruit in the oven while your warming the oven and stirring the fatty sugary goo.
    I've experimented with adding protein powder, substituting 25% sugar and 25% fat with protein powder worked best.
    fatsmoker wrote:
    Still a good idea to make your own flapjack - You just have to hide it from children :)

    True, mine like to pinch them, still it's probably better for them than most chocolate bars.
    Yost72 wrote:
    Maybe she is being too restrictive because anything with sugar, syrup etc is a no go apparently!

    You need to eat sugar or you'll eat yourself.

    Fructose syrup has been cited as a potential cause of obesity (if over consumed by a sedentary person), but sugar (glucose) is fuel for the body whether it comes in a white powder, syrup, starchy carbs or fruit. If you don't have enough sugar in your glycogen reserves and food intake for the exercise your are doing then your body makes it by consuming muscle and it'll come from the muscles you are using at the time.

    What is your wife's qualification in the nutritional field, can she cite meta-analyses and peer reviewed articles for each 'bad' ingredient in the context of endurance sport or athletic performance? If not it's just a case of sugar's bad, m'kay
    I used to just ride my bike to work but now I find myself going out looking for bigger and bigger hills.
  • Bobbinogs
    Bobbinogs Posts: 4,841
    Jeeesh!!! Man up for goodness sake. Rather than trying to find something your wife agrees with just find something that works for you.

    What I find that works is a good mixture of foods, so for a long ride I take bananas, dates, the odd gel, a clif bar or 2 (actually, I prefer Zipvit energy bars), some flapjacks, Nakd bars are also really good. Finally, some carb drink can help as eating on a 10 ride can get to be a real chore.

    Your wife should be glad you are out doing such a fantastically healthy hobby, not be trying to make it harder for you.
  • pilot_pete
    pilot_pete Posts: 2,120
    I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually need to eat any form of 'energy' bar on a 30 mile ride. If you do I suspect your daily diet is not providing you with what your body needs. Does your wife do all the cooking? :lol:

    PP
  • Pituophis
    Pituophis Posts: 1,025
    Don't tell your mrs' but I had a piece of chocolate cake at the cafe stop on Tuesday! :shock:
    Fairly confident I burned it off on the way home though. :wink:
  • MartinGT
    MartinGT Posts: 475
    30miles I would just drink water, sounds like you need to stop your wife the only way to live is to eat cress and cucumber!
  • Southgate
    Southgate Posts: 246
    Pilot Pete wrote:
    I find it hard to believe that anyone would actually need to eat any form of 'energy' bar on a 30 mile ride. If you do I suspect your daily diet is not providing you with what your body needs. Does your wife do all the cooking? :lol:

    PP

    Nothing at all wrong with eating a bar if you're riding 30 miles+. Generally a good idea to have a nibble after an hour or so in the saddle, especially if the ride is a bit lumpy. Each rider will have slightly different nutritional needs, depending on fitness, metabolism etc. I sometimes eat on shortish rides and sometimes I don't. I don't "need" to eat, but then again neither do I "need" to drink.
    Superstition begins with pinning race number 13 upside down and it ends with the brutal slaughter of Mamils at the cake stop.
  • team47b
    team47b Posts: 6,425
    Clif bars are a good 50/50 balance of simple carbs and long chain molecule complex carbs, so you have an initial boost from the simple sugars and more sustained energy from the slower acting carbs, perfect for cyclists.

    If you want to slow down the insulin response eat something with it that has even more complex carbs, like whole meal bread with seeds and nuts in, or eat some cheese, the fat will slow down the digestion and the insulin response and not cause spikes, take it from an insulin expert, in fact just take a cheese sandwich on your ride and save yourself the trouble/expense of clif bars :D
    my isetta is a 300cc bike
  • homers_double
    homers_double Posts: 8,268
    Yost72 wrote:
    Maybe she is being too restrictive because anything with sugar, syrup etc is a no go apparently! I suggested home made flap jacks but that was pooh poohed because it would require one of the forbidden ingredients. She did go through the Clif bar ingredient list and pick out those which weren't good (can't remember which apart from syrup). However, I doubt there is ever anything which is 100% perfect!

    Are you married to my wife?
    Advocate of disc brakes.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    I nibble fig rolls on longer rides, and have a few jelly babies in reserve in case I need a gel type sugar hit.
  • yost72
    yost72 Posts: 51
    Some good advice thanks. The comment about the balance provided by something like a Clif bar makes sense. I had only really thought about the possible problems of getting a sugar-type temporary rush then crash but of course there are also oats etc which I believe provide Ionger-term energy benefits.
    With regard to distance, I am fine up to 30 miles, but in the past have had that 'weak' feeling once I get towards 40 and beyond, but in fairness I've only ridden that far a handful of times and I'm still a relative novice. I hope to manage a 100 miler before the end of the year.
  • ianbar
    ianbar Posts: 1,354
    i am about to do a 40 mile ride and will take a coupe of gels, intention to only have 1 but might need second after the big climb. but when i go on longer rides i take all sorts, jelly babies, gels, fig rolls, jam sandwich. i do take cereal bars at time but try and made it an oaty/nutty one. cereal being what it is, its probably full of sugar but its cheaper then buying sports specific food. home made flapjack has to be an option though, very cheap and you can make it just how you like it
    enigma esprit
    cannondale caad8 tiagra 2012
  • Druidor
    Druidor Posts: 230
    Gels, Rice Crispy squares, peanut cereal bars, Bananas & of course jelly babies.. ( im not into the very healthy option am I)
    ---
    Sensa Trentino SL Custom 2013 - 105 Compact - Aksium Race
  • secretsam
    secretsam Posts: 5,120
    fatsmoker wrote:
    Still a good idea to make your own flapjack - You just have to hide it from children :)

    I'd have to hide it from myself, let alone the kids :oops:

    It's just a hill. Get over it.