cyclinfool

I never really thought of myself as a health food "nut" but it dawned on me that I am trusting less and less the prepackaged health foods. Last week I ordered a dehydrator because I have found that after a hard ride I like protein and beef jerky is a good low fat source, however the stuff you buy is either loaded with chemicals, fatty and the really good stuff is over priced. I make my own real whole wheat breads for sandwiches, been doing that for years because what you find in the store (read the labels) is more hole rather than whole. There are some nutrition bars I like however most either taste bad or really are not all the nutritional (read the labels). I still use gels, IMHO some have value over honey because of added nutrients and taste a lot better - however with the dehydrator I might just take more dried fruits.

So I wonder - this thing comes in the mail in about a week, anyone used one for making bike foods?

AzTallRider

Sounds like a great idea. Send some of that home made jerky my way!

stapfam

Plenty of us over here are going on the "Natural" food kick. Non processed- no additives and no colourings. Just pure unadulterated food.

My problem is that it tastes so much better that I eat more and put on weight.

oldster

no dehydrator,but it looks like I'm not the only one who buys flour a 100lbs at a time..
Bud

sknhgy 

I've made plenty of deer jerky in my dehydrator. My recipe uses black pepper, liquid smoke, and Lawrys seasoned salt to taste. The black pepper tastes good and acts as a preservative so I go fairly heavy with it.

cyclinfool

Well this experiment has been a roaring success. I have dehydrated apples and banana to take on rides, really good. I have made beef jerky as well - turned out great. We really like the dried fruits much better than what you find in the stores, my daughter has been taking them as snacks to schools as well. I am going to try a lot of different things now to take with me on long rides. It was a good buy.

chinarider

How much did it cost?

cyclinfool

About $60 but since I was give a some Amazon.com gift certificates it was free.

sknhgy 

How did you do the apples and bananas? Did you put anything on them like ascorbic acid?

cyclinfool

I had a bottle of lime juice so I just put some in a shallow dish and dipped them before they went in the dryer.

tandemnh

One thing I had read is that we absorb water from fruit, vegi's etc. better through the food we eat. Keep you bottles full as you will miss out on you liquid in take with the dehydrator. You will need to drink more fluid to off set the benefits lost from the dryed food.

Though it does sound healthy

cyclinfool

Basically I am using this stuff in place of power bars. I made some fruit leathers from apple sauce (added a little cinnamon to give it an apple pie flavor), am trying that as a gel replacement. In general the flavors are much more intense than stuff in the stores and the calories are all there. It is light and compact to carry.

sauerwald

I am not a fan of the newfangled 'food in a tube' that you can get. Typical foods that I carry with myself on longer bike rides are:
Banana and/or orange
Hard boiled egg along with one of those little salt packets you can get a fast food joints.
Peanuts
Gummy bears.

berner

This thread is timely. I'm riding longer as time goes by and the usual snack foods I've relied on till now are soon going to reach the end of their usefulness. In the past I've pack packed up to 10 days in the mountains of Colorado, carrying everything needed to sustain life on my back. For all my outings, I used mixed nuts and store bought dried fruit to snack on throughout the day. I love nuts and together with fruit you have a nutritionally dense food. That is to say, 4 to 6 ounces of a mixture of nuts and dried fruit contains about 400 calories or more and a variety of vitamins and minerals.

It is clear that the more we ride and stress our bodies, the greater the importance of nutrition during the ride itself.