You Can't Take it With You

Or can you? Anyone else notice Nestle (oops, I see it's owned by Post, the Raisin Bran people now, hummm)  has stopped making PowerBars? GU is OK, but is crazy expensive, at over $1 per oz in individual containers. What to do? (GU's flask is very, very good btw, in case you're in the market, especially vs Hammer's horrible one)

If priced like GU, this would cost $4,200

I started looking for a more "natural" ride fuel 10yrs ago when challenged by a friend, who carried bananas (half the weight is in the useless peel, but ripe banana does have a Medosa Glycemic Index of  77). So, bananas? NO!!! But what else can be carried with you in a jersey pocket?

The best pre-ride fuel I ever found is waxy/sticky/glutinous rice, which has a MGI of about 90, and has no issues with osmotic pressure on hot days, so no cramping, bloating and gas. You can also add a substantial amount of salt to it, and as with Sushi Rice, which is what it is, you add 3-5 heaping tablespoons of sugar, cutting it in 15-30 minutes after it's done cooking in the steamer. It also has a small amount of protein, which many sports endurance edibles have quietly added, though they sometimes call it "amino acids". ALL protein is made of amino acids.

I'm at 3,000ft of altitude, so I bought a pressure cooker to cook mine. It does a spectacular job!

Toss the slaw and pack in the Nishiki rice

So, Nishiki rice, grown in the Rice Valley just north of Sacramento was a great candidate, but how to carry it? Well, glad you asked, because I hung onto on of those KFC reusable "hockey puck" containers when moving here, and found it back a few weeks ago. Over-fill and press down hard on the lid to make a nice firm rice puck, pop it in the fridge overnight to harden, and eat it (with clean hands) like a hockey puck when you get hungry or stop to fuel up. I've been pleasantly surprised at how well this works.

An alternative packaging might be to make the pucks as described, sprinkle with sugar and bake at 450 degrees in the oven for 5-10 minutes to brown and harden, and then just use Saran Wrap. The heat of baking and added sugar would both increase the MGI of this preparation.

This would NOT require clean hands as the wrap would act as a minimal container. IIRC, Nishiki rice is about $12 for 10lbs, and that's the dry weight, but it can be had for as little as $12 for 15lbs. That means you can buy 15 lbs of this rice for less money than a single 15-serving pouch of GU and 15lbs of Nishiki rice is ~ 162 servings @ 150 calories each, not 100 calories, so it's really ~ 250X as cheap.

Ride fuel from WalMart

Mendosa reports Jasmine rice from Thailand to have a MGI of 109 ± 10! That'll get the snap back in your legs! I suspect WalMart's Super Lucky Elephant brand is the same stuff, and at $21.56 for a 25lb bag, even cheaper than Nishiki. I do like the protection of pesticide laws in California though. BTW, in the MGI, pure glucose like they pump into your veins at the hospital is 100, and used as a reference for everything else. There are other GIs that use "white bread", clearly an idiotic reference as you have no idea what it's made of.

Excerpt from Mendosa Glycemic Index

So, long story long, you CAN take it with you!

PS:
If you want some background on what makes a good ride fuel, here's my years old piece on that.
Cheers!

PPS:
I rode 73 miles yesterday one of these rice pucks, a single GU, and 3 bottles of Gatorade. Yeah, it works.