BicycleCrazy

Continue prep. for our cross country tour this summer (TransAm Route) and was wondering what sort of supplements/vitamins are recommended while on the tour?

Thanks in advance.

Machka 

A variety of food:
- Fruit
- Veggies
- Grains
- Dairy
- Meats/Proteins

Make sure you eat something out of each group every day.

For example, you might have granola with milk for breakast. Then you might stop at a grocery store and get the fixings for a cheese, meat, lettuce, cucumber, and tomato sandwich on whole grain buns. Later you might have pasta with a meat and vegetable based sauce and topped with cheese. And you might snack on various fruits and nuts in between meals.

This guide might help ... https://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-gu.../index-eng.php

If you really feel you must take a supplement of some sort ... go with your usual multi-vitamin. The one you are used to.



So how's the training going? What distance are you up to now? Have you done your overnight or long-weekend tour yet?

john_steed_uk

I recommend two: B vitamins, generally in a B complex pill and potassium. Lots and lots of potassium.

B vitamins help you body convert carbohydrates to energy and for muscle strength.

Tourist in MSN

Don't go light on protein.

Cyclebum

V-8 daily to balance the diet and add some vital minerals, especially if you're eating mostly out of your kitchen and/or you're sweating a lot.

irwin7638

I don't do anything different with supplementation than I normally do. I use a multi, E, C and mineral complex every day normally and take along "daily packs" for the road when I'm traveling. Eating small amounts frequently is more important than any other changes I make on the road.

Marc

pdlamb

Water. Food. and Salt.

Follow Michael Pollan's advice (Eat food. Mostly plants. And not too much.) or machka's more detailed advice.

Halfway across the country I started referring to meals as "salt delivery mechanisms" because I was sweating so hard. Cyclebum's V-8 advice is good, but IME you might want to have salt pills, Endurolytes, or Nuun (my favorite) in reserve. Salt tastes so much better when it's in a cool, fizzy drink.

Doconabike

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has a great journal called "Nutrition Action." You might benefit from reading this in your local library; it's really well written and gives excellent advice on nutrition. The summary about supplements is to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and you won't need the supplements.

valygrl

A couple of years ago I was touring with a friend, and I was trying to purchase some electrolyte tablets (a popular brand). We compared the ingredients/nutrition label to another product we had on hand.

Turns out, you can get the same salt & potassium from eating 4 1/2 wheat thins as from an electrolyte tablet, and at about 3% of the cost per serving.

Just FYI.

I like Pollan's advice.

clasher

FWIW I took some mutli-vitamins along on my last trip... cost per pill was 16 cents. I still eat lots of fresh nutritious food and oddly enough didn't really notice the neon-pee effect I normally get from multivitamins so I don't think it was doing me any harm. I'm not a doctor and this isn't medical advice. I'm also a belt and suspenders kind of guy, but again, 16 cents a day is a minuscule portion of the overall cost of food and the entire tour. Even if it's only for peace of mind I'd say it's worth paying for whatever. I also take the same vitamins when I'm working heavy construction and tend to feel "better" when I do...

Machka 

You can do the same with salted almonds. Almonds have a huge amount of vitamins and minerals in them.

kayakdiver

I take some.... My diet makes getting B12 and Calcium a challenge at times.. So I take them just for peace of mind if nothing else. Balanced diet is always the best way to get what we need but not always possible.

djb

re: fruits and veggies etc. One added bonus of eating healthy foods while working hard every day touring (on top of the obvious of taking care of your body) is fruit/veggies also help with "being regular" shall we say. Not drinking enough water can be a detriment in this area too, but for whatever reasons, being plugged up or having a sore youknowwhat is never fun, especially when sitting on a bike seat for a good part of a day.

Not a fun or party type topic, but can happen when biking everyday, and eating a well balanced diet certainly helps.

From the standpoint of just how you feel in general, eating well really does make a difference when you are being so physically active day after day. As always, eating a good variety of foods is good for your resistance to colds and all that, so its a win win when on a long bike trip.

Gotta take care of the engine.

MichaelW

I used effervescent multi-vitiman tablets to down a large cup of water around mid day. It is especially good if the water tastes a bit chemical and chlorinated.