I know companies use it all the time, but some of the places you find it surprised even me!

Here are five of the places I really didn’t expect to find HFCS:

1. Whole wheat bread

I was under the impression that if a company would go to the trouble of making 100% whole wheat bread, that they’d stick with healthy, natural ingredients for the whole shebang. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Most whole wheat breads still contain HFCS. If you want to avoid the HFCS, either get the more expensive brands, bake your own at home, or choose pita bread.

2. Raisin Bran

While all cereals are processed and not exactly healthy, Raisin Bran is supposed to be one of the healthier cereals. Sure, the raisins are sugar coated (which is totally pointless since they’re so sweet to begin with,) but that’s not all.

The cereal still gets loaded down with HFCS on top of that!

3. Gatorade

Gatorade contains “glucose-fructose syrup,” which I used to think was some special carbohydrate formula used to maximize endurance and sports performance. As it turns out, it’s just a pseudonym for high fructose corn syrup!

I wouldn’t recommend Gatorade as a sports drink anymore, but I still wonder, why not plain sucrose? Maybe then it wouldn’t be so syrupy and leave that sticky feeling in your mouth.

4. Barbecue sauce

Here I thought barbecue sauce was tomato sauce with extra spices and seasoning. But it’s actually high fructose corn syrup with extra spices and seasoning!

I’ve only found one kind of barbecue sauce without HFCS – Bull’s-Eye BBQ sauce from Kraft Foods. But it still has sugar as a main ingredient.

5. Hot chocolate (powdered mixes)

As if it’s not bad enough that this is just a mix of sugar and cocoa powder, these mixes also contain both high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil!

I figured since it was powdered, they’d use table sugar. But nope, they choose syrup and oil!

The next time I find anything filled with high fructose corn syrup, I won’t be surprised at all. It’s everywhere, and I’m sure there are supposedly healthy foods with HFCS that I don’t even know about!

Quick question. So of course I know the importance of post workout nutrition and the proper foods to eat. Recently, I started making protein shakes with banana, whey protein powder, water, and oveltine powder for simple sugars or I will add gatorade powder.

My workouts consist of an hour and a half off high intensity spinning, 60 reps leg press, and then about 20 minutes of core. I was talking with my coach and he said to have a recovery specific drink like the ones made from Powerbar. However, a trainer at the gym said protein shakes will help build and repair muscles faster allowing your muscles to get bigger.

So my question is, is a protein shake or recovery specific drink better for building muscle and recovering?

Thanks so much,
Recovering Randy

Hi Randy,

I think of the recovery drinks aimed at cyclists (like Powerbar Recovery, Endurox R4, etc.) and protein shakes based on whey protein powder as completely different things for different goals.

I see the recovery drink as a way to replenish glycogen stores (thanks to calories mostly in the form of carbohydrates) that were used up during exercise, and to help repair slight muscle damage (thanks to a small amount of protein added in.) It’s to make sure you feel energetic for your next endurance workout.

A whey protein shake, on the other hand, is for adding lots of calories to bulk up and provide even more protein than is necessary to rebuild muscles after a strenuous weight workout.

In reality though, you’ll get similar results with either one.

I don’t have the nutrition facts for one of your protein shakes (it will vary depending on how much of everything you put in,) but let’s break down these drinks.

Starting with the Powerbar Recovery drink:

If you take two scoops of Powerbar Recovery drink powder, you’ll get 180 calories, 40g carbs, and 6g protein (along with 500mg sodium.) It will make for fairly easy digestion and quick glycogen replenishment.

I’ll try to break down your protein shake:

Banana: 100 calories, 25g carbs, 1g protein
Whey protein powder: 130 calories, 5g carbs, 25g protein
Ovaltine: 80 calories, 18g carbs, 2g protein

That comes to roughly 310 calories, 48g carbs, and 28g protein. You get more carbs with this, but only because you’re taking in almost double the calories. That’s great for building muscles (when combined with lots of resistance training,) but usually a little too much for a post-ride beverage.

For post-ride recovery (and workouts like yours that are mostly riding and calisthenics based,) I’d go with the recovery beverage. But that doesn’t mean a protein shake wouldn’t be fine in the evening to make sure you are getting enough protein.

Also, you could do a shake with the banana, Ovaltine, and maybe 1/4 scoop of protein powder for use immediately after a workout. I’d actually do that rather than spend the money on a commercial recovery drink.

To summarize, both drinks can be useful for recovery purposes, but I prefer the recovery drink style of beverage for immediate post-ride nutrition.

Coach I am wondering if it would be beneficial to mix NUUN tablets with Hammer Gel in my water bottles?

Thanks,
Mixin’ Mikie

Hi Mikie,

That’s an interesting idea. The mixture would give you calories from your preferred source (i.e. Hammer gel,) plus plenty of electrolytes from Nuun.

I’m not sure if you knew this already, but mixing Hammer Gel into water bottles (with plain water) is pretty popular. Since Hammer gel is thin, it mixes in easily, and it’s more convenient to get a little gel with each sip of water than to carry gel packets and take in all the calories at once.

I bet if you asked Hammer, they’d say to mix Endurolytes powder and Hammer Gel in your bottles. While I don’t want to fall into the “Hammer fanboy” category, this is one case where I’d just stick with Hammer’s stuff.

I look at it like this: I like Nuun for the flavor, but you can get flavor from the Hammer gel. The other reason I like Nuun is because there is no mixing required, but if I was already putting gel in the water bottle, I’d plan on giving it a shake.

So mixing Nuun with Hammer Gel takes away my favorite benefits of Nuun, but brings in the part I don’t like – the artificial sweetener. From a health standpoint, I’d just go with Hammer’s Endurolyte powder and Hammer Gel for those longer rides where you need extra electrolytes.

Anyway… yes, you could mix Nuun and Hammer gel together. I just don’t see myself doing it.

The only real problem I see is finding complementary flavors so you end up with a good tasting drink. But I’m sure it’s possible. Maybe berry Nuun with huckleberry Hammer gel?

Good luck if you do try it!

i work a full time job.workout 3-4 days a week and play professional softball 2 weekends a month. is frs stuff for me because i hate the crash of red bull or any caffine thats out there. if so what do you recommend for me?

thanks,
Softball Sam

Hi Sam,

As for drinks to look at, I have an article about caffeine-free energy drinks that may help you pick something.

When it comes to FRS, I had no instances of an energy crash, but it does contain some caffeine. It’s not like a Monster energy drink, but you’d have to try it yourself to see what you think.

If you want to stay away from energy drinks completely, you could try supplements. One thing I’d recommend is just taking a B Complex or Vitamin B12 supplement each day. That gives you the same active ingredient as a caffeine-free energy drink, but at a much lower price.

There is more information on B vitamins and antioxidant supplements in my article about possible FRS energy drink substitutes.

Last but not least, make sure you get plenty of sleep and eat a healthy diet. If you’re not doing that, adding any sort of energy drink is a poor solution.

More information on this can be found in my article, 3 Simple Ways to Get Energized – For FREE.

You know the general rule about doing one long ride (3-6 hours) per week to maintain endurance? Even during the race season where you’re focusing more on interval training and racing itself, it’s common to do that long endurance ride each week so your body doesn’t forget what it’s like to go long.

Well I was thinking about that, and I wondered, “couldn’t that idea apply to other areas?”

Almost instantly, I got the idea to do an “endurance eating” day once per week, too. This would be one day per week where you consume a substantial amount of calories above your usual intake. It’s not a cheat day where you can binge on junk food; rather, you’d binge on your regular healthy diet of fruit, vegetables, oatmeal, lean meats, nuts, legumes, etc.

I’m not a doctor or an RD or anything, and I didn’t test this idea in a laboratory, but I think it has merit. Here’s my reasoning…

First, the ever popular “starvation mode” argument. This is where your body adapts to a restricted calorie diet and therefore lowers your metabolism, burns fewer calories, stores more fat, etc. It’s not a good place to be.

That’s the danger with restricting calories every day for long periods of time. Your body just adapts to that caloric intake and you’ll no longer lose weight that way. (Just like if you do the exact same exercise routine for a long period of time, your body adapts and no longer produces results.)

People used to say that if you skipped meals, your body would enter starvation mode. I think that’s an old wives’ tale, though. Experts that I have some faith in say starvation mode kicks in after seven days. (It has to do with the hormone leptin; here’s some more info on starvation mode if you’re interested.)

What I’m thinking is that if you strategically eat big once every week or two, you can keep your body out of starvation mode and continue to burn lots of calories, as if you were on a high calorie diet each day. Basically you are keeping your body prepared to handle a large amount of food in one day (just like keeping it ready to handle lots of miles in one day.)

Ideally your body will think “burn fat!” since it will think you’re eating 6,000 calories per day, but then since you’re eating healthy and low on the calories for the next 3-6 days, you burn more than normal thanks to that big eating day!

By the time your body starts considering that you’re going a little low on food, bam, you hit it with another endurance eating day!

I know that this strategy is getting more common in the general fitness and bodybuilding population (for example, there’s a book called Cheat Your Way Thin,) but I thought it was interesting to compare it to endurance training so it makes more sense for cyclists.

And hey, what’s better after a long endurance ride than a huge amount of tasty food? The two go hand in hand!

Photo credit: morrissey

The other saying that goes along with this one is, “if you get thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.”

While proper hydration is important, these sayings should be taken as loose guidelines and not strict rules. A better guideline would be “don’t forget to stay properly hydrated,” but that’s easier to forget, and is probably the reason someone came up with the scarier rules that imply if you don’t drink like crazy, you’ll die.

There’s just something about the threat of death that keeps the idea fresh in your mind!

Unfortunately, some people take these ideas too far. They think that “drink before you’re thirsty” means “gulp down lots of water at every opportunity.”

Don’t do it! You do need to keep drinking to get enough water, but you can actually go overboard and consume too much water. Drinking too much water could lead to hyponatremia, a condition potentially more dangerous than dehydration! (Hyponatremia is a condition where there’s too much water in the body, which dilutes the sodium content, and can cause such things as swelling of the brain.)

Want an example? Take the 2004 Boston Marathon. After a cool spring where temps were generally around 45 degrees, race day shot up to 85 degrees or warmer. It was ridiculously hot and sunny, and runners were downing every glass of water they could get.

When I saw runners in the medical tents, I figured many of them were suffering from dehydration, considering the unseasonably hot weather. But then I saw the news days later, and it turned out that many runners were suffering from hyponatremia. Apparently the warm weather reminded people to “drink, drink, drink” a little too much water.

Since you probably want to avoid both dehydration and hyponatremia, here are a few tips:

1. Use Sports Drinks.

If you’ll be exercising for a long period of time and/or out in extremely hot weather, you should consider using a sports drink rather than plain water. Sports drinks contain electrolytes such as sodium, which should keep your body in balance.

2. Keep Drinking.

You need to drink, but you only need a few sips at a time, rather than a few big gulps. I typically have a few sips from my water bottle every 10-15 minutes, depending on the weather. That means I consume about 16-20oz of water or sports drink per hour.

3. Hydrate Properly.

Read more about Proper Hydration for Endurance Sports, and put all those tips into practice.

Whether it’s dehydration (too little water) or hyponatremia (too much water,) you’re in trouble! Fortunately, proper hydration really isn’t that complicated. The tips I have for you here should cover everything you need to know to stay safe.

What You Should Drink

The actual beverage you choose will be based on exercise type, exercise duration, weather, and personal preference.

For low intensity exercise (perhaps hiking or a casual bike ride,) stick with plain water. For higher intensity training that is a short duration (sprinting workouts under 60 minutes,) I would still stick with water.

If you will be maintaining a fairly high intensity for a longer duration (a fifty mile bike ride with lots of climbing,) you probably want to switch to a sports drink. That will help replenish the calories you are burning and provide necessary electrolytes.

At the very least, I’d use Nuun to get electrolytes. Nuun is a great choice if you hate sports drinks.

If you’re going to conquer something of very long duration like a 24 hour mountain bike race, I’d move up to a sports drink that contains carbohydrates and protein (which also means more calories to keep you energized.) The two main options here are Accelerade and Hammer Perpetuem.

Don’t forget the weather. The hotter it is, the more likely I would be to use a sports drink rather than plain water for any activity over an hour in length. Exercising in extreme heat can dehydrate you rather fast!

Sports drinks also come in handy in cold weather. Sports drinks have a lower freezing point than plain water, so they’ll stay liquid slightly longer when riding in frigid temps!

And of course, personal preference. You might love sports drinks and use them all the time. That’s fine (within reason.) Or maybe you hate sports drinks, even light ones like Nuun. Then you could stick with plain water, but I’d recommend taking some Endurolytes or something to make sure you don’t run low on sodium.

How Much and How Often You Should Drink

During endurance exercise, I like to take a few sips of water every 15 minutes. That works out to roughly 16oz of fluid per hour.

In most situations, 16oz per hour will keep you hydrated without forcing you stop to pee all the time. But of course, that varies with the weather. On cool days, a 24oz water bottle might last me for two hours. But on a hot day, I might finish 24oz within an hour!

That guideline should give you a good starting point. However, everyone is different, so you might need to adjust your fluid intake a few times to see what works best.

Pre-Hydrating

While staying hydrated consistently works great, it’s possible to do just fine with a limited fluid intake during exercise. That’s where “pre-hydrating” comes in. In a nutshell, pre-hydrating means you drink quite a bit of water before exercise to make sure you are completely hydrated.

Here’s an example: Back before I had a Fuel Belt, I’d go jogging for 1-2 hours without water. Sometimes I’d find a public water fountain, but other times I’d drink nothing whatsoever.

I got thirsty, but by being fully hydrated when I started, and drinking plenty afterward, I had absolutely no problem with staying hydrated.

Obviously this strategy would be a bad idea for longer durations in hot weather, but it works well for shorter durations, and it can be used in addition to normal hydration strategies.

What To Look Out For

I don’t feel that getting thirsty is a sign for concern, but there are other things to worry about.

If you start getting a woozy feeling, that’s not good.

If your urine is dark yellow or brown, that’s not good. If you haven’t peed in twelve hours, that’s probably not good either!

Ceasing to sweat is also a cause for concern.

Also, too many pee breaks is a bad sign because you’re probably drinking too much and wasting time with the pit stops!

Parting Thoughts

I suggest following these tips rather than relying on old, vague sayings such as “drink before you’re thirsty.” I have gotten thirsty plenty of times while relying on my personal guidelines, but I have never been in danger of serious dehydration.

Hey there, just in need of some quick advice. Getting into longer climbing rides on the road, 3 hours plus at the moment, and want to go further. But at about the 3 1/2 hour mark I start cramping up in my quads. I can get up hills ok but low resistance pedaling kills and when I’m done legs cramps more when standing still.

I’m currently using 2 500ml bidons [water bottles] of powdered Gatorade and eating a gel or part of an energy bar every 45mins. I’m looking at getting something like the NUUN you reviewed, and bigger bottles. Although don’t know if I should be finding something to add more carbs (glucose is what I need right?) with the electrolytes also.

Your help would be great as the more I try and look into all this the more I get confused/sidetrack! Top site by the way, very helpful.

Aussie Alan

G’day mate,

Let’s start with a quick word on cramping. Since it’s happening after climbs on these longer rides, it could be more of a muscular endurance issue rather than anything related to electrolytes and nutrition/hydration. So hopefully with more training, the cramping will lessen. At least, that’s what helped me the most.

Also, you mention standing still… perhaps you need more easy spinning before you step off the bike. I know people that sprint hard on the way home and jump off their bike quickly, but I personally prefer (and always recommend) easy spinning for 5-15 minutes at the end of each ride.

Or… the cramping could be from lack of electrolytes… or something else! (That’s why cramping sucks so bad! It’s complicated!)

To stay hydrated, Nuun would be great if you are still planning to eat during the ride. Surpassing three hours, you definitely want calories from something. Gatorade isn’t exactly high in calories either, so even if you stick with that, you’ll need to stock up on energy bars.

If you’re looking at sports drinks, I wrote a short article on sports drinks for 3 hour rides. And yes, get some bigger bottles! For three hours in the saddle, I’d carry a couple 24oz bottles rather than 16oz.

When you get to rides 4 hours and longer, it’s very important to eat early and often. In my case, I don’t need to eat too much for a three hour ride (perhaps an energy bar shortly after the two hour mark,) but for longer rides, I had to start eating by the 45 minute mark and take in calories consistently. And that was when I was getting calories from my drink as well. If you go with water or Nuun on a 4 hour ride, I’d start eating ~30 minutes into the ride (and consume 200-300 calories per hour.)

You’ll need to experiment for best results as everyone seems to have different reactions to type and quantity of food.

If you follow my advice in my two eating (pre- and post-ride eating, and during-ride eating) articles, and tweak it based on your personal testing, you should be good. You’re on the right track so far, so keep it up!

Problem is, healthy ingredients are expensive. Taboo ingredients, such as partially hydrogenated oils and saturated fats, are cheap. So how does the manufacturer handle these tricky situations?

They pass the tricks onto the consumer, of course!

So every time we shop, we have to be vigilant about what we’re getting, because there’s always someone trying to pull one over on us. That’s why I compiled a list of tricks that most companies play on us:

Trick #1: “0 grams” of Unhealthy Ingredients

The trick: Foods are labeled as containing “0g trans fat” or “0g saturated fat” per serving.

Unfortunately, “0″ does not mean 0. It actually means “up to 0.5″ grams per serving. So if you consume two servings of some “0g trans fats” snacks, you could be ingesting up to 1g of trans fats. (And no one eats just one or two servings…)

Heck, even the words “fat free” on the label allow up to 0.5g fat per serving.

How to spot it: Foods that are actually healthy don’t need to bother claiming “0g trans fats.” So if you see a bag of chips with a big “0g trans fats” badge right on front, they are probably pulling this trick.

Worst offender: Frito Lay snacks, such as Cheetos. Frito Lay takes pride in the fact that they were the first major food company to remove trans fats from their snack chips, and I applaud them for taking the initiative, but it doesn’t mean their snacks are healthy.

What to do: Skip past the Nutrition Facts label and peruse the ingredients. If the ingredients list contains any type of hydrogenated oils, partially hydrogenated soybean oil for instance, then the product contains trans fats, no matter how big the “0g trans fats” badge is.

Note: This is a 10 page article. Click the page links below to continue reading!

What to eat healthy daily? i was wonderin whats very healthy to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and also if you get a lil hungry in between what are some good snacks… the reason why i ask this is cause i’m tryin to work out my body. i am not fat one bit i’m fit i just wanna know what to eat to keep my body healthy.

Thanks,
Eating Erin

Hi Erin,

There are so many good foods out there I can’t list them all, but I’ll give you an idea of something I might eat on a typical day.

Breakfast

My two mainstays at breakfast time are oatmeal and whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter. Both are healthy choices that provide you with energy for the day. You can adjust proportions to your needs, but I typically have a huge bowl of oatmeal or two sandwiches, each loaded with a thick slab of peanut butter.

Another good option would be an omelet, which is a great way to get tons of nutrients from fresh eggs and veggies.

When I don’t need as many calories, I like to have a bowl of plain yogurt and fruit (such as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.)

To round out my breakfast, I may also have an orange, apple, or banana. If I don’t have one with breakfast, I’ll have one as a mid-morning snack. I may also have a handful of walnuts or almonds, too.

For a beverage, green tea.

Lunch

One of my favorite lunches is a chicken sandwich. My usual consists of a sprouted grain bun with a few slices of chicken breast, then some sort of vegetable topping. My favorite add-ons are basil pesto and avocado slices, but you can also stick with lettuce, onions, green peppers, olives, and/or cheese.

If I was going out, I’d probably grab a $5 footlong from Subway; either turkey breast or sweet onion chicken teriyaki.

After lunch is another chance to snack on fresh fruit (apples, pears, peaches, etc.) and raw veggies such as carrot sticks and chunks of cauliflower (which won’t be as noticeable in your teeth as broccoli.)

Dinner

If I haven’t had one yet, it’s time for a large salad or vegetable stir-fry.

For the salad, we’re talking a large plate piled high with hearty lettuce, spinach, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, cheddar cheese, and whatever else is fresh. If I put anything on top of that, it’s olive oil.

For the stir-fry, I put a couple pounds of vegetables in a pan and stir-fry them. I add fresh onion and garlic for flavor, along with plenty of spices. This makes 2-3 large plates full of vegetables. When finished cooking, I douse them in olive oil.

Then I’ll have to find something for an evening snack. This could be a glass of milk with whey protein powder, apple slices covered in peanut butter and raisins, a hamburger made with quality meat, a glass of Barlean’s Greens, or whatever else I can find.

And that’s just what was on my mind! Things change year-round as I try new things and find whatever fruit and veggies are in-season.

If you want some more advice on great meals, I have to recommend the Precision Nutrition system and gourmet cookbooks. The whole package (nutrition guides and cookbooks) will set you back almost $100 (or even $150 if they raised the price,) but if you just want the cookbook for meal ideas, you can find Gourmet Nutrition for $40 or so.

While certainly not cheap, it’s a great way to get healthy meal ideas if you’re totally lost in the kitchen!