I agree with the statement above that you don’t need protein bars for what you are describing. Protein can be converted to energy, but it’s not an efficient process and it may sit poorly in your stomach. Protein would be best after a strenuous activity to help rebuild any lost muscle. You need carbs to replace the carbs you are burning with your activity.
One unconventional food is chia seeds added to water. The Tarahumara of northern Mexico use that as their nutrition when they go on runs of 10’s of miles. Supposedly it has a good ratio of carbs, fat, and protein. Although it doesn’t really have much taste, it’s a little bit like drinking watery tapioca.
Another unconventional option is frosted animal crackers. If you don’t mind sweet, it’s an easy snack to have a few of every so often.
I also like Kind bars, Clif bars (not too many in a row), apples, and dried fruit.
All this is quite useful information, thanks all. I was just at the grocery, and stocked up on Kind Bars and a couple packets of beef jerky, per advice on this thread.
Chia seeds, eh? That is pretty weird. Do you cook it at all?
By the way, frosted animal crackers make me nauseated as they remind me of my grandparents. They liked to drive up into the Sierras and go exploring and when I went with them I would ride in the cabover part of their truck camper (before seatbelts were a thing, as well as before extra seats in pick ups were a thing). Man those winding mountain roads, way up high, with that giant bag of frosted animal crackers – with sprinkles. I don’t even like to think about it.
I like KIND bars, but they are awfully pricey. When I want to carry compact forms of food with me, I bring candy bars.
Specifically, I bring 85% or 70% chocolate bars. Or sometimes a nut brittle. I do like a little protein in the mix, and not just sugar.
Nut brittles turn out to be pretty easy to make, by the way. Especially if you have a silicone baking sheet (otherwise, it can be hard to pry them off the sheet if you weren’t REALLY careful spreading the shortening around.)
Another fan of KIND bars. I’ll point out they have several different “families” of bars. With very different ingredient lists, protein / carb / sugar ratios, etc.
Also I remember years ago an article in Bicycling magazine proposed alternatives to costly energy products and one suggested was Twizzlers. They are a dense sugar product thats formula was similar to many energy bars.
I do the same with kippered herring, which I prefer to tuna. On hikes. On horseback, food is necessarily eaten one-handed, and no assembly is possible unless you want to find a place to tie the horse, unpack the food from your saddlebags, etc. When I am riding by myself I generally eat while in motion, from a pommel bag (in front of the saddle). Apples are good. Oranges are not. Densely caloric non-crumbly items you can cram in your mouth are ideal.
Depending on the level of exertion, fatty foods are not ideal. During moderate to hard exercise, blood flow to the digestive tract is reduced, hindering digestion. High fat levels simply slow absorption of needed carbohydrates. Higher levels of exertion also require hydration. A combination of sport drinks and simple carbs work best in those cases.
You just put them straight into water. They kind of dissolve after a few minutes. One benefit is that they incredibly stable. Since they are seeds, they last for a long time and won’t go stale. You can leave some in your pack for months (years?) and they are fine. It probably won’t be your go-to snack, but it can be nice as a backup if you run out of your regular snacks. And if you get stranded, you can make a rock into a chia pet to keep you company until you get rescued.
I’m in Europe, but most protein bars taste like ass over here, too. The only ones that are edible come from the German cheapo-chain Lidl. They have their own line of protein bars, which taste almost as good as a good quality chocolate bar, but contain as much protein as a chicken breast. That is, if you want and need it. They have lots of different macronutrient ratios.
I find ample protein is critical in a candy bar-type meal surrogate to give me sustained energy. Eating just a Snickers or Mars bar creates a quick sugary peak and a crash a mere hour or so later. With the heavy-protein Lidl bars, I can pretend to be eating chocolate, but can actually sustain heavy effort for hours, just like after eating real food.
Agree with this. I look for bars that are not chocolate covered because they tend to melt and are messy after sitting in my cycling jersey pocket or in my hiking backpack. I usually bring one of those Nature Valley Fruit & Nut bars mentioned above, or a Clif Bar, and maybe some lightly salted almonds. I find those fruit leathers to be helpful near the end of an activity if I feel I need just a little boost to get home or back to my car - they are also very cheap, light, and wont melt (granted these are not what the OP was asking about re: protien bars).
TBH, Power Bars seem to have gotten things right from the get-go - they work great for me under most situations, except snow sports where they get too cold and are hard as a rock.
Power Bars were developed by a world-class marathoner with a sensitive stomach.
History
The PowerBar company was founded by Brian Maxwell, a Canadian athlete and entrepreneur, along with Jennifer Biddulph and Mike McCollum. They started in Maxwell’s kitchen, where they formulated the recipe using the knowledge of Jennifer Biddulph, a nutritionist. The two would eventually marry. They used $55,000 in cash to launch the company in 1986 in Berkeley, California. This was the first “energy bar” for use during competition by endurance athletes, such as ultra marathoners, and cyclists.[1] They eventually acquired a headquarters building in downtown Berkeley.
