Re: [pct-l] energy bars - Power Gainers 100, seed bar

["Peter Haskell" <pchaskell@hotmail.com>]

Barry Sears's ideas about nutrition make a lot of sense to me--see his 
book Zone Perfect Meals in Minutes and his website, 
www.eicotech.com--but I'm stumped as to how to translate them into trail 
food.  He sells his own bars, which he claims provide higher-quality 
nutritional value than Power Bars (which use his %s of protein, carb., 
fat).  The're fairly expensive and not as tasty as most.

>From owner-pct-l@edina.hack.net Sun Nov 29 19:16:20 1998
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>From: "Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>
>To: "pct-mailing list" <PCT-L@backcountry.net>
>Subject: [pct-l] energy bars - Power Gainers 100, seed bar
>Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 19:06:15 -0800
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>After Brick mentioned the power gainers 100 - I went out and bought a
>can(vanilla): I like it , certainly bettter than Rx: Fuel which I have 
been
>using for the last five years, and which seems almost water repellant 
and
>very difficult to get into a drinkable solution.	
>
>But then, dare I say it, I LIKE BEAR VALLEY. OTOH, I have developed a
>rather low regard for Clif bars, and Metr-X bars I see as positively
>medicinal at present.(I have 50 bars sitting in my freezer). I have
>realized that my outlook on energy bars is directly related to how many 
of
>them I have consummed out there on the trail.  I have made the mistake 
of
>relying on only two energy bars: Clif bars and Metr-X bars.  When 
somebody
>mentioned that he traded his menus with another thruhiker's menu to get
>variety, and then said be sure you have variety,variety, variety, the
>whistles started blowing, and the lights started to flash.  I figure 
that
>it is almost better to have a few things in there that I might not 
prefer
>than to have only a few of what I really like. 
>
>So a couple weeks ago, I went to the local food co-op and bought about 
l5
>energy bars, all different.  It was as much as I could buy.  There are
>still a bunch that I have seen on a nutrition list, and have beeen 
unable
>to get. Runner's World has a web site,
>http;//www.runnersworld.com/nuitrition/home.html. , which has a section 
on
>Energy Bars on the bottom, and the protein, CHO, and fat content is 
listed.
> I guess I need to go to Seattle where I can buy some other bars to 
sample.
> I have a Performance Nuitrition Catalog (1-800-991-7325), but the bars 
and
>drinks come in quantity, and I know there are certain bars that I can't
>even eat easily at home. I don't like peanuts too much, and bars that 
have
>a strong cinnamon or clove flavoring are unwanted.  I noticed that 
there
>was a Boulder Bar (1-800-HIT-HOME) with a chocolate flavor that did not
>cloy, and it is not in my catalog or on the ROW list.  The present 
problem
>is that I am only training 3 times a week, and I don't want to eat 
these
>bars if I am not exercising.  I also think that as a category of food,
>energy bars have a very limited palate appeal and are a necessary evil 
for
>convenience, fuel savings, and getting a variety of nutrients that are 
not
>necessarily easy to get elsewhere in portable form.
>
>If anybody can clue me into what they really like or dislike in the way 
of
>energy bars and why, I would really appreciate it.  I realize it is a 
very
>individual thing, but sometimes it helps if there is some agreement pro 
and
>con.  I can tell you there is a Spirulina bar with a strong 
cinnamon-clove
>flavoring that hit the circular file after a couple of bites - I'll 
take my
>Spirulina straight, thank you!
>
>I have made a "seed bar" which my husband and I managed to eat (an 
entire
>batch) sitting down in front of the TV(various evenings).  IN the first
>batch, I forgot to add the ground flax seeds, it was really yummy, but
>lacking some of the fatty acids that I wanted.  The second batch with 
the
>flax seeds is not near as tasty, but still pretty good.   I used 
probably
>equal quantities of ground flax seed (used a coffee grinder), sunflower
>seeds, seaseme seeds, chopped pecans, coconut, malt sugar, and brown 
rice
>syrup.  the brown rice syrup is the only thing with moisture, so it 
takes
>quite a bit of mixing to get  it evenly sticky.   I thinnly greased a 
cooky
>sheet and pressed the mess on to the sheet, and then scored it into 
bars by
>pressing lines with a spatula.  I dried the bars in a warm oven until
>brittle. Be sure that you turn the bars about half way thru drying or 
you
>will never get them off the cookie sheet.  I can get all the 
ingredients
>except the rice syrup in bulk  at my local food co-op so I can make as 
much
>or as little as I want and the ingredients are fresh. I store the bars 
in a
>large glass jar in the freezer; I do not know the shelf life out of the
>freezer, but anything with a lot of fat can go rancid fairly fast. In 
the
>second batch I also added about twice as much oatmeal as any one of the
>other ingredients ( I wanted some more CHO), but I think that it has 
made
>the bar too "dry".  As you can imagine, this seed bar is high in fat.
>Nevertheless, I see it as more nuitritous than pigging out on cashews, 
and
>there is a need at times for more fat and some variety.   I have a 
times
>been disappointed at the way GORP tends to become stale, and would on
>occaision rather eat my variety in separate chuncks in separate bags. 
>
>Peace 
>Goforth
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