Nutrition Groups, Part Four: Energy Bars

In the fourth part of our nutrition series, we're looking at energy bars.  Some people use energy bars as a big part of their calorie intake.  As a solid food, the calorie to volume ratio is relatively high.  Other people use energy bars primarily as a break from the sugary taste and feel of gels or drinks.  Excluded from this post are recovery or muscle-building bars, since those have a primary purpose other than fueling during activity.

I tend to classify energy bars by texture, since that generally determines how easy the bar will be to eat during exercise.  I don't recommend any particular type - I've eaten them all, and they all did the job at the time.  Looking at the calorie/carb/fat/protein profile, you can see that they don't differ all that much.  More than protein-per-bar or calories-per-bar, people are usually looking for something that has good taste and texture, or ingredients that conform to their diet or lifestyle.  For my own self, I'll eat Grainy bars if I'm not breathing hard.  If I'm gasping, I'll go for the Butter-style or Extruded (if it's not cold).  Read on!

Butter:   Easy to chew and swallow, even when it's cold. Made with almond butter, cashew butter, peanut butter, etc. Dates also feature prominently.  Haven't found a dairy butter bar, yet.
Butter-type bars will include a bit of protein and fat from whatever butter they use, whether it's derived from a tree nut, peanut or sunflower seed.  If the bar doesn't also include a lot of unground grains, you won't spend time picking bits out of your teeth after eating.

Example: Hammer Bar, Picky Bars
Profile of Hammer Bar, Almond Raisin flavor:
Calories:  220  Carbs: 25g  Fat: 9g  Protein: 10g


Grainy:  These feel more like real food, or granola, which can be pleasant.
These bars probably have some form of sugar, like brown rice syrup or cane syrup, and some form of protein, like soy protein isolate;  but the main thing is, they have some solid grain, like whole oats, which gives the bar its distinctive (and, ideally, appealing) texture.

Examples: Clif Bar, ProBar, some PowerBar
Profile of Clif Bar, Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch flavor:
Calories: 240  Carbs: 40g  Fat: 7g  Protein: 10g

As a subset of the Grainy: the Brownie:  Grains are involved, but mostly finely-ground.  These are pretty easy to eat during activity, and also feel like real food...but there's less tooth-picking.

Example: Bonk Breaker
Profile of Bonk Breaker Bar, Espresso Chip flavor:
Calories: 220  Carbs:37g  Fat: 5.5g  Protein: 6g


Extruded:  Classic bars from the 80s, 90s and today.
You know the ones I mean.  Impossible to eat when cold, gooey when hot....you almost don't need to chew (that's why it works when you're breathing hard).  Tastes a little bit like nostalgia.  In content, they're actually pretty similar to the Grainy bars when you look closely; they have a form of sugar (or four or five), soy protein isolate, oil, salt, sugar...all the things that make food good.

Examples:  PowerBar Performance Energy Bar
Profile for PowerBar, Vanilla Crisp flavor:
Calories: 240  Carbs: 45g  Fat: 3.5g  Protein: 8g

Choices for the restricted among us
There are energy bars that cater to a variety of dietary restrictions and allergies.  Among them are Bonk Breaker bars, which are gluten and dairy free, and some are soy free; and Picky Bars, which are also gluten and dairy free.

If you're looking for nut-free bars, you'll look harder, but there are a few companies, like Avalanche, making bars on dedicated peanut/tree nut-free equipment.

Power meters and where they go

Some of you may have read the recent Slowtwitch article about the redesigned Pioneer Electronics power meter crank.  Cranksets are the most popular spot for power meter placement.  With a crank-based meter, you're not locked into using one rear wheel all the time, as you are with hub-based meters.

Here's a list of crank-based power meters:

Pioneer:  Dura-Ace and Ultegra 11-speed crank options.
Quarq:  These are the cranks we see most often.  Two main options, the Elsa and the Riken.  Owned by SRAM, and compatible with Shimano 10-speed drivetrains.
Rotor:  Left and right leg power measurement; just 3 crank length options.
SRM:  Lots of options, based around Shimano, SRAM, Campy, and other brands of cranks.
Stages Power:  Measures from the non-driveside crankarm only.  One of the cheapest options.
Verve Cycling:  InfoCrank, 50/34 tooth chainrings, (taking preorders).

Pedal-based meters are a recent addition to the market.  The Garmin Vector and  Polar/Look Keo Power pedals work with most cranks.  Of course, they do require you to use said pedals, so you have to use the matching cleats, too.

Hub-based meters, available from PowerTap, can be less expensive, depending on which hub you choose and which rim you build it into.

And finally, there's the under-cleat Zone power meter from Brim Brothers (available for pre-order).  It sits between your shoe sole and your cleat; I suppose that means you should be able to use any shoe, any pedal, crank and wheel.  Hopefully we'll hear more about it in August, when units are supposed to ship to folks who pre-order.

Nutrition Groups, Part Three: Recovery Things

On this, the third leg of our sport food journey, we come to the Recovery section.  In whatever form you find it, recovery food has one primary purpose: to prepare you, after you have exercised, to exercise again.  You may be training for an event; you might have just finished a race.  In any case, you have burned calories, damaged muscle fibers, drawn forth and consumed resources from the reserves of your body.  By eating or drinking recovery food (the research and, certainly, the marketing sector will tell us), you make yourself ready to do it all over again later in the day or later in the week.

The Recovery Bar
Recovery food will come in two main forms.  First is the Recovery Bar.  Recovery bars look like any other energy bar from a distance, but the ingredients are a little different.  There will be a lot more protein in a recovery bar, and the amount is usually printed prominently on the front of the package.  Protein might be added as whey or soy protein, or as protein derived from nuts or vegetables (like peas).  Usually, there will also be a lot of carbohydrates in the bar.  Sometimes the carbs are added with the protein ingredients (nut butters contain a fair amount of both carbs and protein), and sometimes the carbs are added separately.  Quite often, some of the carbohydrate will be sugar added to make the bar more palatable.

The Recovery Drink
Recovery Drinks and Mixes share a lot of similarities with recovery bars.  They, too, include protein and carbohydrate.  In the drinks, there is often some emphasis on electrolyte replacement, as well.  The nutrition label may show not just sodium, but potassium, magnesium, calcium, etc.  In my experience, the drinks are very likely to include an amino acid profile (which is all the glutamine, carnosine, leucine, tyrosine, etc. that shows up at the bottom of the nutrition label).

Protein included
If you read the last blog post, you'll note that protein shows up in recovery food for the same reason that it sometimes appears in endurance sports drinks.  By providing your body with a source of protein (or, in some cases, with ready amino acids), you are supposed to prevent your muscles from being cannibalized for energy replacement, and you are supposed to speed up the repair of damaged muscle fibers.  For devoted endurance athletes or casual fitness folks, the reasoning goes, you'll have more energy and feel less sore each time you exercise if you have used one of these recovery products soon after the last time you exercised.

The Time Limit
When you read the directions for the drink mix or recovery bar of your choice, there is almost always some mention of The Time Limit.  The limit might be half an hour, or forty-five minutes, or the directions may simply specify, "consume immediately".  Most companies and quoted research will agree that, after exercising, the sooner you drink or eat something, the better.  After the time limit, your body won't do the whole digest-and-repair thing as efficiently.


Some recognizable names in the Recovery Food section:

• Chocolate milk, in all its glory
• Endurox R4 drink mix and Accel Recover Bar by Pacific Health Labs
• First Endurance Ultragen drink mix
• Gu Recovery Brew
• Hammer Recoverite drink mix and recovery bars (including vegan bars)
• Osmo Nutrition Recovery drink mixes
• PowerBar Recover drink mix and protein bars

 Thank you for reading. As always, if you have questions or comments, feel free to email them to info@speedyreedy.com, or leave them in the comments section below!