What's your favorite energy bar/flavor??

[Guillermo]

I looooove the Powerbar Harvests, especially the dipped bars.

Oasis has a good Strawberry Cheesecake.


Dax :)

[velocipedio]

I can't stand any PowerBars [personal preference]. The regular ones are like flavoured pasticene and the Harvest bars are like particle board.

I like Balance Bars -- chocolate and almond or peanut butter -- and Luna Bars, particularly the lemon flavour, and Fig Newtons and my neighbour's pound cake.

[Guillermo]

LOL :p I remember reading that thread about guys eating Luna bars and cracking up. My g/f really likes them though (honest :)), and I have to admit that they are really good. I think my favorite is the Tropical Crunch.

Dax

[wabbit]

Luna Bars lemon zest, key lime and Nutz over chocolate. Guys can eat them too, it's not like they have estrogen in them.

[Inkwolf]

Don't know if it counts, but I really like SlimFast's raisin-spice bar.

Just found out that the Woodman's in Green Bay stocks every imaginable energy bar--bought a sackful, and I'm looking forward to trying them one by one.

[Guillermo]

I bought a Clif Bar "Cookies and Cream" for my morning ride tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!

Dax

[Stinger9oh]

Recently, I've been eating Oatbars on rides. They're a fairly new product and they're great. All natural ingredients, no chemicals or preservatives. At first I was dubious about a bar based on rolled oats, but the oat bran is great for the heart and gives a nice chewy quality. They seem expensive ($1.75 US), but that's for a 128 gr bar with 82 gr of carbs. Only 5 gr of fat. So it is considered a 2 serving bar and it really does go a long way. They have a fairly minimal cellophane wrapping, so they're contributing less trash to the planet. Apricot is my favorite flavor, but chocolate and maple sing to me too. I found out about them when I went to a local bodybuilder's diet shop to buy the large can of Cytomax, but I haven't seen these bars anywhere else though. The website is www.highlifenutrition.com

Rich

[Baboon]

carrot cake Clif Bars. :thumbup:

[RegularGuy]

Gatorade Bars, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip. Take small bites and they aren't hard to chew. They don't taste offensive. They work.

Ditto Powerbar Harvest Dipped .

Original Powerbars suffer from three things: they taste nasty, they are difficult to chew and they are nearly impossible to unwrap.

I like gels, any brand, as long as it is chocolate.

I also love Fig Newtons, Twinkies, and YooHoo.

[LittleBigMan]

Back when I was a youth on my feet all day, I had two favorite energy foods:

Chips Ahoy and Peanut M & M's.

(They now say chocolate is a powerful antioxidant, but I never knew it then.)

Believe it or not, John Stamstad, (sp?) an offroad endurance maniac, prefers Little Debbies. He said, "They are the cheapest calorie source out there."

[velocipedio]

Originally posted by RegularGuy
Original Powerbars suffer from three things: they taste nasty, they are difficult to chew and they are nearly impossible to unwrap.
Yeah, and that's the good part!

I find, actually, that one of my favourite ride foods is oatmeal and raisin or oatmeal and date cookies. We get these oatmeal cookies around here that are soft, chewy and kind of plump. They work great, and the high-fibre, low-glycemic carbs in the oatmeal complement the high-glycemic carbs in the fruit.

[nunquam]

Oddly enough, I've never grown tired of Power Bars (all varieties), and I've been eating them about 5 years or more. The Harvest bars are pretty good, but I find myself always going back to the basic bars. I guess because they're very simple, easy to handle and I don't eat them 24/7. I'm pretty utilitarian when it comes to cycling. (I will occasionally throw a Clif bar into the mix if I feel the need for variety.)

I don't like chocolate, so that eliminates a lot of bars, right away.

[ssgl502002]

I usually like Clif Bars and I do the Powerbars too. The taste of all these things is not really that bad. Of course, I usually eat Kashi Cereal too. Now that is something to try and swallow, if you ever had that. Its woderful for your health, but it seems like you are eating stuff that grows in the flower beds.. LOL

[hosehead]

Granola.

[ssgl502002]

Actually, in my latest Bicycling Mag that just came to my house yesterday, apparently the powerbar has been change to taste better according to an ad in the book. I guess we shall see.

[Guillermo]

The Clif 'Cookies and Cream' was OK. I wanted to try the carrot cake, but they were all out :(

[newmtb]

Well its got to be strawberry or peanut butter.

[velocipedio]

I tried a Zone bar -- Strawberry Yogurt flavour -- on my ride today. It tasted quite good, had a very apealing, crispy texture and didn't melt in the wrapper. I was impressed. I will buy them again.

[jjbenegar]

The carrot cake flavor rocks!!! I prefer the cinnamon Harvest bars myself, but my preference if I need a boost during my ride is a good ole Snickers bar.

[orguasch]

I love power Bar Harvest the Chocolate brand, as for drink it doesn't matter, wether is gatorade or powerade, both the same

[warren_ohio]

I like Carb Solutions bars for the money - they've got good numbers and they taste freakin great - Choc. Toffee Hazlenut??? Hell yes...

(I sound like a commercial. A bad one.)

[grego262]

Any flavor Clif Bar, especially Cool Mint Ice, one of the few things my SO will not eat.

Phil's Bar were okay, a little chewy for me though.

Been trying the various power bar harvest, they are good as well

[Joe Gardner]

Luna bar's, Lemon is good, as is the smore flavor.
Fig Newtons and Little Debbie cream pies make cheap alternitives, and they last forever. Any time there on sale, i will stock up.

[Duffy]

I don't suppose a Krispy Kreme chocolate glazed would be a good choice?

[SteveE]

I'll have to go with the Luna Bar - Lemon.

There's a great market that I usually stop at on my regular weekend route. I usually get their Lemon Zest teabread (more like pound cake) or a lemon-blueberry scone.

[big_biker]

Originally posted by Duffy
I don't suppose a Krispy Kreme chocolate glazed would be a good choice?

I don't see why not. I also like TastyKakes, Little Debbie's and Snickers.

[velocipedio]

Originally posted by big_biker
I don't see why not. I also like TastyKakes, Little Debbie's and Snickers.
Why not? Because the carbohydrates they contain are mostly pure sugar and high;y refined flour. This makes them highly glycemic -- they'll get into your bloodstream real fast -- and likely to cause a spike and crash. One of the nutrition paradoxes is that high-glycemic foods are very likely to cause a bonk. The only time when you should be eating them on a ride [or any other time, for that matter, but I would belabour the point] is when you actually are bonking. The high-glycemic carbs in that case will close the glycogen gap and give your liver time to catch up to depleted blood sugar.

You consume raw glucose at a risk.

[JaredMcDonley]

For me its all about the gels. you will see me with 6 at a time taped to my top tube!!!

Jared

[grego262]

Cool Mint Ice Clif Bar
Chocolate Chip Clif Bar
Chocolate Power Bar Harvest

[Guest]

Uuuuugh....

Reading about those gels made me shudder. I am not a gel person at all!

I love those Balance bars. They have a chocolate and peanut flavor that takes just like the Reeses Pieces bars. They also have brownie flavored, I think and chocolate flavored. I just love the taste.

I can deal with the chocolate flavored power bar. I am not brave enough to try the harvast bar. It sounds too much like wheat fields, which sounds grody. I can only go so far sometimes with the healthy foods/all-natural crap. Gimmie some artifically flavored food anyday over that stuff! ;)

Balance bars, baby....

Koffee

[The Rob]

The new Pria PowerBars are the tastiest 'healthy' thing I've had so far.

Total Fat: 3g Total Carb: 16g
Sat. Fat: 2.5g Sugars: 10g
Sodium: 80mg Protein: 5g

I'll leave it to the resident nutritionists to rate these bars for value. All I can say is that all flavors I've tried are great!

-Rob

[Guillermo]

Those are tasty, but may be a little light on the calories/carbs for the larger folk, and those needing more energy?

[The Rob]

Originally posted by Guillermo
Those are tasty, but may be a little light on the calories/carbs for the larger folk, and those needing more energy?

Possibly so, and then there's the other extreme to consider as well: the things taste so good you could easily compromise the alleged benefits of eating one by eating another six! :p

-Rob

[Guillermo]

LOL..that's the only bad thing with these bars: you could eat a dozen without getting full. By then, you've eaten a day's worth of calories :(

Dax

[roadbuzz]

Originally posted by Duffy
I don't suppose a Krispy Kreme chocolate glazed would be a good choice?

Only for pre-ride carbo-loading. :thumbup: ;)

Personally, I've decided all the power-sh!t ride food is not for me. I'm not talking about any particular brand. Basically, anything that is stoked up with vitamin E, etc. I guess I'm just weird, but too much Vitamin E and my energy level goes kaput. And then there's the goo-type ride food w/caffeine. Now, I'm pretty much of a seasoned caffeine junkie, but after about 3 of those I'm reduced to a cackling spaz. And after the energy bubble bursts, it's like trying to pump water from an empty well. Not a good feeling when there's 40 miles left in the century.

So now, I'm back to bananas, fig bars, and nutri-grains. And at mile 80, when things are starting to drag, then I pop a caffeinated goo. That gets me far enough that the lure of sitting on something with a little more surface area can get me to the finish.

[orguasch]

almost forgot to mention Fig Newton, it has the complete food supplement

[Natophelia]

Soy bars are pretty good. Can't remember what the actual brand name is, but it says "SOY" really big on it! Any of the chocolate or the mocha flavored ones are good. Apple something or other flavor too... Zone bars are good, but they feel so dry in my mouth when I'm riding that I have to swallow some bites with water like a pill. Viactiv bars are good although they're 'made' for women. Spirutein bars are good. I'd prefer fresh, non-prepackaged food, but it's hard to squish a big banana under my seat. Which reminds me..banana Power Bars are actually good, even though that sounds incredibly disgusting!

[vlad]

my favourite energy bar is beef jerky

I fashion steak fingers of ground beef round, sprinkle on ground cayenne, and leave them in my food drier until they suitably dry.

the shelf life of this jerky is about 20 minutes, unless I manage to hide it from the rest of the family

PS

I confess to being fond of milk shakes of two oz sunflower oil, unsweetened cooking chocolate, ground cayenne and milk.

refined sugar kills.

[Raiyn]

I won't touch powerbars because they consider the insect larvae in the Harvest Bars (yes it's true) to be extra protein. But for my money as a post ride bar I like Gatorade bars especially the Orange and Chocolate ones!

[Inkwolf]

Originally posted by Raiyn
I won't touch powerbars because they consider the insect larvae in the Harvest Bars (yes it's true) to be extra protein.

Eeeeeewww! Don't know if I believe that, though.

Anyway, I tried a Chai Tea flavored bar (think it was a Luna bar) and it was great--tasted like brown sugar and spices. Now I suppose I'll have to drink some Chai tea and see if I like it. ;)

[gmitchell]

Powebars - Lemon Crisp and Vanilla Crisp. My 9 yr old loves them too and they have to be healthier than the other junk he likes to eat!:D

[Guillermo]

I have fallen in love with Luna's tropical Crisp. Also just tried Harvest Carrot Cake which is pretty good.