Thanks, Graham, glad those observations were helpful. On the matter of the effects of colonizing powers, and at the risk of venturing into no-no terrain, there's an old Canajan joke: "We were going to have it all -- British government, American know-how, and French culture. Instead, we wound up with French government, American culture, and British know-how."
On the eggs benny with lobster and shrimp: Our waiter told us, when I asked her to compliment the kitchen staff, that all the ingredients came from Québec. Check the long saltwater coastline.
Cheers, J.
John it was the lobster which really caught my attention. For a few reasons. Envy mostly. :)
On my last tour, I had the worst case of food poisoning I’ve had since backpacking adventures in India in the 1980s.
I’m almost certain the illness was caused by prawns in a pasta sauce I ate in a pub meal. By the time I returned home I was 6kg lighter than when I departed. Fluid loss mostly. I simply couldn’t replace the volume I was losing.
The take home lesson was not to eat prawns served 300km from the coast. I should have eaten the local protein sauce my riding colleague wisely chose. Steak. :)
I have certain foods that are only appealing when touring. I suspect it is the salt. My favorite gas station snack is a V-8 juice and a salted nut roll. We are currently on tour, just wrapping up seven weeks. I think I have found both of those favorites just one time this trip. Fig Newtons are another touring item. They travel well and are quickly eaten, 50 calories each.
My current very favorite is bing cherries. They are little energy bombs. Probably I enjoy them the most because the season is so short.
Two years ago we returned from another seven week tour. I scheduled our annual blood work for the very next day. My thinking was we would be in excellent shape after such a long tour. Perhaps our legs were in shape, but our blood wasn't! We both had terrible numbers, especially cholesterol. That is what weeks on end of restaurant food will do for you. Admittedly, we weren't trying to eat properly, and ate plenty of ice cream. I do make a point to eat an apple a day, and some sort of veggie fiber with dinner, for digestive purposes.
I carry an electrolyte powder to add to one water bottle a day. After my supply from home ran out, I've had trouble finding more. Aren't others concerned about electrolytes? In Spain last year, we could find nothing, not even a Gatorade type drink. It was extremely hot. We resorted to buying jars of pickles, and drinking the juice in addition to eating the pickles.
Kelly that’s interesting, or perhaps concerning, about the cholesterol. I’m curious to know why the exercise didn’t offset the dietary input. Will you do follow up blood tests to check that the levels reduce when you return to home prepped meals?
Re the salts and electrolytes, I don’t pay much attention to them on tour, even though I probably should be more careful because of our particularly hot, dry climate.
I am aware that it’s a balancing act between staying hydrated, and over-diluting body salts with excess hydration. And there is also the sodium versus potassium thing, but I’ve never taken much notice of it. So far I’ve been lucky in that regard, but I do know people my vintage who’ve become quite ill during hot weather cycle tours because they weren’t careful enough with hydration and salt intake. The health consequences can be very serious, especially with kidney damage.
One of my cycle touring colleagues suffers badly from cramps if he doesn’t adjust the hydration and the salts intake to the output in hotter weather conditions. So far, I’ve managed to avoid cramps too.
“If the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn” — John L. Parker Jr.
Quick background; I'm 6'3" and usually start a tour between 215 - 220 pounds. My bike is a 64 cm steel frame traditional frame (not a "compact geometry" frame) with fenders, dynohub, and other things - I'm not a weight weenie and Harvey weighs in at 41 pounds unloaded and 80 - 105 pounds loaded (depending on whether I'm carrying camping gear or not). My tour trips have averaged 52 - 67 mile days depending. When you do the calcs, I can burn a lot of calories each day; 4,000 to 7,000 depending on the day.
Given the above, my diet used to be the tried and true "Sea Food and Near Beer" diet; I would eat most anything I see and drink all the beer I am near. Alas, I'm no longer a spry youth of 65 and I will (hopefully) turn 72 in a few months. Aging is a privilege I'm happy to enjoy, but things change. I seldom drink anything alcoholic, and recent medical issues may keep me from ever doing so again. That's no problem, I only had a beer occasionally when touring anyway. And I can't really exist on just junk food anymore either.
I have learned to get by with convenience store food on tour, and it is surprising how many such places have a bit more "healthy" choices these days. It's no longer unusual to find fruit in a convenience store - apple or banana slices with peanut butter makes for a good snack. Some of these convenience stores are THE only store in town and sometimes they have a little deli inside where you can get a plate with whatever vegetables are served that day plus whatever "mystery meat" is being sold - I'm content to double up the veggies and skip the chunk of whatever fried flesh they offer.
Small town groceries can be a real treat. If you ask, you may find that the butcher also makes sandwiches. My favorite meal of the day is when there is a "Susie's Diner" type of cafe located some 20 - 30 miles from the start and I can enjoy a sit-down second breakfast. It happens, and I plan for it to happen as much as I can by looking at Google Earth prior to the tour. My other favorite find is to reach a cafe for lunch in the early afternoon not too far from the day's end; and then enjoy a small meal followed by whatever pie is fresh. It doesn't happen often that one can arrive at a cafe at the right time, but I do look ahead at the day's route and try to make it happen when I can.
I carry a snickers bar or such for quick energy, and I always have a small jar of peanut butter along - I try to have fruit and/or bagels to accompany the peanut butter, and that accounts for my "emergency meal" to get me through the unexpected. I carry an assortment of instant oatmeal for very early morning meals when i leave prior to the motel breakfast (which is often the case), and I also carry coffee in tea-bags as not all motels provide it in the room. "Folgers Coffee Singles Classic Roast Coffee Bags" are great for this purpose. When I'm camping and have my stove along, if the weather turns nasty during a ride, I will seek out some shelter and heat water and have a hot cup of "real coffee" using these tea-bag-like coffees.
Night meal for me is usually takeout from whatever is available, or canned chili, stew, or such if bought from a local store, or maybe a "Hungry-Man" TV dinner that I microwave in the hotel. Sometimes I order a pizza, then the leftover becomes my breakfast.
We have it made-in-the-shade compared to even 100 years ago. My ancestors had to ride their single speed bikes uphill on the muddy road in the snow against the wind and carry their heavy rifles just to shoot a rabbit for lunch, then build a fire to cook it after skinning and gutting the poor animal. So, you know, gas station food isn't all that bad in comparison.
George your eating/drinking regime on tour sounds as if it has evolved to being a commonsense balance between healthy nutrition, and the practicality of what food is available.
I’m continuing to devour the writings of Michael Mosley but I’m still not adhering to any specific diets that he champions. Nevertheless I am having fun using some of his broad guidelines of nutrition.
eg avoiding ultra processed foods, minimal / no alcohol; more fermented foods eg kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir; no fruit juices; minimal rice/pasta/potato/bread ; more olive oil; more oily fish; lots of fresh, high fibre foods especially greens etc
This is in the context of being comfortably at home. I doubt very much if I could maintain such a regime on tour. I’d quickly adopt the food sources you described.
Hi Graham,
I am actually wrestling with that now. About 4 years ago I went to a low carb diet (Covid has just started and it was easy to start and follow working from home) and slowly transitioned to a keto diet, before slowly transitioning to a meat heavy keto diet. I lost 35 unwanted pounds but the bigger thing is that I have never felt better in my life. I feel better than I did in my 20's.
So I struggle with how I will handle bike tours when all I have to choose from is gas station food if I am touring on my own. I have not done any long tours since changing my diet but I have a 2 month trip in Africa coming up in August 2025. The tour company will provide the food and it will be high quality, but I may need to improvise sometimes and buy some of my own snacks. Sugar laden electrolyte drinks are out for example and I don't eat grains, and almost no sugar aside from a piece of dark chocolate now and then, and no cow milk products except for butter. I eat fruit now and then. I won't die if I have any of that but I feel SOO much better without them I want to avoid them.
I have been working on alternatives for some situations. I am doing a little more backpacking again and made pemmican. I made it with dried meat and beef tallow and it worked out great. On a recent short backpacking trip I heated it like a stew and added a few nuts on the trail for some crunch and it was much better than freeze dried food.
Anyway, I probably added more detail than what you are looking for but there you have it. ;-) The answer is yes, I have been considering my diet on trips recently.
Hi Karen,
A short note that may be useful -- where will you be travelling in Africa? I ask, because I've been privileged to live & work in Central/Southern Africa for 15-plus years spread across more than four decades from the late 1960s onwards. One thing rarely in short supply, in my experience, is good/high-quality meat. Many parts of the region are home to stock-raising and meat-eating societies and cultures. Dried meats of many different kinds (game, as well as domesticated creatures) are widely available -- the South African word biltong is widely used. The meats tend to be very lean, as the stock is grazed, not raised in barns and feedlots.
Good luck with all this in any case. If you would like to get in touch (no obligation), you can reach me via johncsaxby(at)rogers(dot)com
Cheers, John
I can't pretend expertise as a nutritionist, but I do make a deliberate choice to opt for flavoured milk rather than fizzy pop or even hot drinks when I stop during or after a long ride. Obviously the water bottles en route contain just water, but there's some evidence about the benefits of dairy as a recovery aid, and I find it a good way to keep calories topped up if you don't fancy eating much. Plus, what's not to like about chocolate milk? Some background research here.
John thanks for the comprehensive reply. Very interesting insights. Especially about your brush with DVT. I can imagine that must have been a very concerning time.
The general principles of Barry Sears’ diets sound very similar to Michael Mosley’s, which isn’t surprising as Mosley’s work does draw upon a broad range of others’ credible research and publications. He synthesised existing evidence then added to it. Often with quite daring experiments on himself.
His outstanding talent appears to have been communicating life-saving, medical breakthrough research which was being ignored by medics and the public.
Your point about water consumption is probably the most important and the most neglected aspect of nutrition on tour, and when not touring.
The list of ailments which can be remedied and prevented simply by an adequate daily intake of plain water (not juices, smoothies, fizzy sugar drinks etc) seems to be a very long one.
I also note from your post that a rural Quebec breakfast looks far more appealing than the average rural Australian breakfast. Sometimes I wish that the French had beaten the British in the race to invade Australia. :)
2 months ago