CanadianBiker32

Anyone here use peanut butter as an alternative to gels or any other expensive on the bike nutrition?

I am thinking peanut butter could work just as well, and you can have much more for lower price vs buying hundreds of gels for thousands of dollars

anyone use peanut butter? if so find it effective?

gregf83 

It might be tasty but not very useful for nutrition on a ride. You need carbs and nuts are a poor source of carbs. Peanuts are mostly fat and you're already carrying an excess amount of fat.

GrainBrain

If you want cheap buy some bulk maltodextrin. Mix into a pancake batter consistency. Here's a quick link I found with a quick search, brewers use it. Don't be fooled by the pricey maltodextrin in bulk.

https://naturevibe.com/products/malt...UaAkFfEALw_wcB

79pmooney

Be aware - peanut butter is only effective on the bike when served with a proper peanut butter wrench. TA and Campagnolo both made very good ones.

Ben

79pmooney

And seriously - really good food for all day rides is a sandwich of whole wheat bread, natural peanut butter. and either bananas (I used to eat one of those on 100 mile races) or cheddar cheese and some good mustard. I've eating those sandwiches. Been doing it 40 years.

CanadianBiker32

yes the old fashioned peanut butter and banana sandwich is always the best too. put some cheese in there and its the perfect on the go food. Why go with something complicated

GrainBrain

Depends what your riding goal is I suppose. I'll also pack a sandwich with butter and cheese slices for century rides and longer. Seems there perfect balance of protein/fat to carbs. Plus it's nice to have something savory.

wolfchild

Add some carbs to it....Mix 1 part of peanut butter with 3 parts of molasses and you will end up with a really nice, tasty and satisfying " energy goo "

Iride01 

Fats in food don't get along well with my stomach on a ride. I stopped at mile 50 or so on my first solo 100 miler and got some greasy fried chicken from a store. Next hour or so was miserable.

Carbs are more easily absorbed and converted to quick energy. You body is already converting stored fats to energy and that process goes on at a fairly stable rate regardless of intensity of exercise. So adding more fat while exercising probably won't do much to increase your energy reserves as fast as carbs will.

Of course most of the popular peanut butter have a lot of added sugar in them. But still, there is the fat thing. And the added sugar probably isn't the faster absorbed of the carbs out there.

masonv45

When I was training for long 10+ mile runs - some nutrition was needed. Buying enough gels was expensive.

Did some research and found honey was a viable substitute. Squirt some into a corner of a ziploc bag, tie off the end and cut off the excess. Viola` - a tiny bag of honey.

Just bite through the bag to get the honey. Works great and no stomach upset.

CAT7RDR

Anyone ever try bulk real maple syrup? How did you package it for riding?

DrIsotope

I stopped at my LBS with about 25km to go on a double metric, and one of the guys gave me one of these:



As I was pretty tired and hungry by that point, I just squirted it down (as it's literally just a packet of slightly thinned syrup) and then rode the lightning the rest of the way home.
It seemingly went directly into my bloodstream, and lasted about 30 minutes. If I had had a pocket full of those, I could maybe have tacked on another 100km,
then collapsed into a heap. I don't see any reason you couldn't just pour some real maple syrup into a gel flask.

CAT7RDR

Good idea! Trying to make this cost effective.

himespau 

That makes me think of this (slightly NSFW):

DrIsotope

These boys get that syrup in 'em, they get all antsy in their pantsy.-- Captain O'Hagan

Accurate.

BloomBikeShop

If I was to use straight nut butter on the bike, I'd go with almond butter since it's a little more balanced for the macros. I have tried those Justin's nut butter packets, and they're tasty, but I haven't extensively tested them. (And of course, if you go that route, it's not economical. Probably even more expensive than regular gels.)

Maybe you could make some mini almond butter banana sandwiches?

Carbonfiberboy 

We used to drink straight honey before a Nordic race - both sucrose and fructose pathways.

On the bike, I couldn't begin to swallow peanut butter and it'd destroy my stomach if I could get it down. Syrupy stuff - the first thing the mouth gets tired of is sweet. It becomes undrinkable. Malto drinks are the way to go because they aren't sweet, something like rice water, inoffensive. Ensure and its clones work very well, being mostly malto and whey. I have a friend who rode PBP on Ensure.

A pint of Hammer Gel is $20. Squirt it into a 6 oz. Hammer flask, put it in your jersey pocket. That's been a rider fave for a long time. Perfect for rides of up to say 4 hours. It's malto.

Sandwiches do work for many people, perhaps most people. I'd go with something more like a whole wheat ham and cheese - I see that a lot.
Dried fruit is popular, particularly medjool dates.

wolfchild

Tiger Malt or Vita Malt are a great alternative to mainstream sports drinks. They are about 50 grams of pure carbs per bottle and taste delicious...The only downside is that you end up carrying a glass bottle which adds a bit of extra weight. Tiger Malt costs only about 90 cents per bottle.

adamrice 

I've been using a homemade energy gel recipe that includes peanut butter. To be honest, it's pretty disgusting. But the idea is that you don't want your gel to be straight carbs--you need some protein and fat to balance it. Peanut butter is mostly protein and fat, so it isn't a good energy-gel equivalent by itself.

Syscrush

I haven't really gotten into peanut butter, but for rides that are long enough to warrant a meal break, I am a big believer in Nutella sandwiches. Add banana to the sandwich or just have a banana with it for some more carbs.

79pmooney

There are now a few good all-natural peanut butters. Costco's is excellent. Adams. I refuse to eat peanut butter made with processed fats. Sugar has no place and very little salt is needed (I would go for nine if I could find it).

genejockey 

Peanut butter and honey sandwich. Carbs, some protein, some fat. Easy to make, cut it up and put it in a ziploc to carry with.

Of course, then you'll get peanut butter all over your bike because in your nice warm jersey pocket it oozes out of the sandwich and gets everywhere.

79pmooney

Cut the sandwich in half before bagging. Don't pull the half out of the bag when you eat it. Zip up and put back n pocket. Very little mess.

gios

On the plus side to peanut butter is you can skip the bread and the sole ingredient of Santa Cruz peanut butter is roasted peanuts. No sugar. Well, the f d a does allow these processed foods to have .5 or less grams of sugar per serving and still mark zero (any ingredient actually - good or bad or super bad). So sadly for all intents and purposes there is no sugar free anymore.

79pmooney

The sugar in maple syrup is ~50% sucrose. I used it in my racing days as a late race drug. (I used maple sugar. Same stuff, easier to handle.)

Ben