Carbohydrate days
August 6, 2008 | Filed Under Hiking, Nutrition, Exercise, Climbing
The great Snickers famine of 2008 in Japan had me looking round for alternatives. Those 68g bars packed a much needed 350kcal. They weren’t ideal, but they were cheap, plentiful and convenient. When they disappeared from Japan’s shelves in early 2008, I was at a loss.
I researched, spent long nights reading arcane biochemistry texts. I know more about the subject now than I ever wanted to. Ask me anything. The Krebs cycle. The breakdown of aminos into acetly-CoA. Those slippery triglycerides. I am still stunned at what my body does with that Snickers bar. But all this knowledge didn’t help me feed this wonderful machine.
I gave in and bought Power Gel and GU, those 25g sachets of goopy carbs. They did the trick, but at a price - a few hundred yen a time, not to mention the voluminous litter they seemed to produce. There must be a better way. And there is. Make it yourself.
You will need:
Brown rice syrup
Honey
Sea salt
(Powdered coffee - optional)
The patience of a saint
Combine together, roughly 1/3rd honey to 2/3rds brown rice syrup. Both are viscous so getting exactly the right proportions is almost impossible. Get as close as possible. Add about 1 level teaspoon of salt for every 200ml of honey/syrup.
Put the mixture in a pan of hot water, and mix together as it heats. The powdered coffee can also go in at this stage.
Pour the resulting mess into some kind of dispenser, preferably a tube with a cap which will allow you to take mouthfuls while you are on the move. I use empty Weider energy gel packets. This is where you will need patience; pouring the liquid into the tube takes time. It helps to have a funnel.
The result: a bottle of well-balanced, pure carbohydrates. A 25g mouthful will deliver around 100kcal; 2 mouthfuls or so an hour should be enough to keep your blood glucose high enough to keep you moving and allow the body to metabolise its fat reserves. A kilogram of this for a body burning 35% carbs to 65% fats could take you through almost three days at a push (although not exactly recommended..).
The brown rice syrup is around 20% water, 30% complex carbs, 45% maltose (which gets broken down immediately into glucose) and 4% glucose. It also has vitamin B and some other trace minerals found in rice. The complex carbs give a steady background burn, while the glucose gets to work more immediately.
Honey is roughly 30% glucose, 40% fructose, 20% water. Combining glucose and fructose together may lead to more efficient carb burn and quicker takeup by the body; seemingly the pathways by which they are metabolised are different. Honey also has many vitamins and minerals, as well as antioxident and preservative properties. The potential downside may be, ahem, looser stools; not everyone metabolises fructose completely. I’ve never had a problem though.
The sea salt provides essential minerals, and also helps with water retention. The coffee, should you wish to add it, obviously gives you a caffeine hit; not only does it boost attention, but it may also help with the glucose metabolisation process.
So there you have it. For Y1000, well over 1kg of pure carb energy, 100% natural. And rather tasty.
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12 Responses to “Carbohydrate days”
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I’m going to stick with my Gu which I have been using since about 1995 or 1996 when they first came out. They are great for mountain biking.
Unfortunately Gu is pretty expensive (!) in Japan, and they don’t offer that very sensible packet-recycling service that you get in the US. Nestle seem have got the energy gel market sewn up here.
Gu seems to be very similar to the above recipe, but they use maltodextrin in place of brown rice syrup, as well as some additional amino acids. I considered adding a sachet of aminos to my gel, but I’ve found in the past that aminos go straight through me if I overdo them, which is inconvenient to say the least..
Interesting, have you field tested this stuff?
Hi Brian - yes, I’ve been using it recently in the hills. I didn’t use GU or Power Gel for long enough or in sufficient quantities to make a fair comparison, but I don’t perceive much difference.
My personal experience on this stuff has been great. No more sugar crashes or leaden feeling in the stomach after lunch, no hitting the Wall, and more confidence as a result.
If you try it, I would encourage you to do so at home for a day before doing anything serious - as I mentioned, fructose doesn’t agree with everyone (although this is a problem with GU gel too apparently).
I needed to read this, thank you. My winter exploits are powered by home-made hiking food, including toffee and sesame seed. Even when Snickels were on my local conbini shelf I couldn’t justify the price of the 300-350 I needed to buy over the season. Your recipe sounds like what I was striving for.
Damian - I’m glad that this might be of some use to you! I’ve been very happy with the results so far.
In terms of cost, my first batch came out to about Y1200 for around 1kg of gel (so somewhere in the region of 4000kcal) - or 3.5kcal/yen, so a little better than Snickers for value. But there are two things to consider:
1. The 4000kcal is all from carbs - vs Snickers where almost half comes from fats. So on a carb calorie to carb calorie comparison (which is what counts) the gel works out well under half the cost of Snickers.
2. I didn’t shop around for the best price on brown rice syrup (kome-ame) or honey. I’m sure you can get cheaper, especially if you can buy in bulk.
You could also look into maltodextrin as a replacement for the brown rice syrup - I think you can buy it in enormous tubs at fitness stores. I haven’t looked into it, but this seems like somewhere you could make a big cost saving.
I did a cold weather test yesterday by sticking a packet in my freezer for a few hours. The gel goes plasticky, but doesn’t freeze even at -20c. My teeth will thank me for this in the winter.
The economics are good. I’ll be trying it out for sure in the coming weeks. Although honey is like gold where I live (Hakuba), hence our goma in brown sugar crunchy toffee - very popular in the snow.
I was recently given two boxes of Weider energy gel as a gift and have been using it for the first time over my summer hiking. One pouch gives 180kcal. Despite the water offset the gel still adds considerable weight as I need to carry quite a few over a full day. However compared to my egg-oil-goma-sunflower-seed fried rice concoction its nice to eat on the move rather than breaking pace.
From a energy to weight perspective the Weider gel gives 1:1
The cjw Goo gives 4:1. Winner.
The Weider gell carries useful water content, sure. But to match your goo on a weight to energy ratio it would need to reduce its mass by 75%.
Again, thank you for your goo, I expect it will save me considerable weight and volume in my pack come winter.
Damian - hold on to those empty Weider packets if you still have them - I’ve found them the best thing to hold the goo. I’ll be interested to hear how you get along with it!
Wow, that sounds like an interesting mixture … I cannot imagine however what “brown rice syrup” is … kuromitsu?
Anyway, I was surprised reading that Snickers disappeared from the shelves in Japan and checked our local supermarket.
Snickers in 60 gram bars (305 ckal) was there alright … maybe the famine hasn’t reached our Yamanashi inaka yet (or nobody buys them so that they are really old)?
I also found it on the web, here:
http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/okasinokosumi/4263.html
Just in case you want to compare …
C-chan
Hi C-chan - my apologies, your comment got stuck in the spam filter. Finally Snickers have reappeared in Tokyo too, but thank you for the link (I’ve made a note in case they ever disappear again..).
Brown Rice Syrup is kome-ame in Japanese (or genmai kome-ame to be precise). Rice is cooked with barley sprouts to break down the starches until it forms a runny syrup, which has a sweet (but not sickly) malty taste to it. Apparently you can use it in place of sugar in recipes as well.
I have used a variety of similar foods, both store bought and home made, for long distance cycling at intense levels—competitive and otherwise—and for long treks outdoors. That includes the Weider energy gel things too.
In my experience, considering how effective they are in reality in preventing bonking and keeping my energy levels sufficiently high, plain old rice balls are every bit as good if not better. The only downside is that they can go bad in hot weather. (I believe the Japanese Weider chemical pack says something along the lines of having the “same energy as a rice ball”—without all of the nutrients.)
Hi David - I quite agree, onigiri are great. I often take a couple with me for lunch on a one-dayer, or for the first day of a multi-day trip. I just can’t stomach them on the move, hence the gels (and prior to gels, Snickers).
The downside as you mention is that onigiri don’t survive in very hot (or very cold) weather, and they have a tendency to get mashed in your pack. On a kcal/gram basis they also come a distant second to carb gels.
Ultimately, though, it’s very much a question of personal preference. In hindsight I’m quite glad of the Snickers famine of 2008 as it forced me to do a lot of theoretical and empirical research into what works for me.