Nutritional – Bananas

This Week's nutritional training TIP

Did you ever think why a banana is in every rider’s pocket and why it can be good training food?

As you know when you are sweating you lose electrolytes: sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium… You also know that you need some carbohydrates when training, to be able to train effectively… So here some points why to take a banana with to your ride instead of a gel:

There are lots of benefits in this tasty yellow fruit, like

• 15-20gr carbohydrates
• >>> energy booster as contains both fructose, sucrose and glucose
• 250-300 mg potassium
• A bit of sodium
• Has a prebiotic effect -> good for the gut bacteria with the good fibers
• Cheap food compared to a gel

Gel benefits:

• Gel has about the same amount of carbohydrates
• More sodium
• Fast energy booster
• No health benefits
• A bit expensive

Summary: take a banana with to your ride, eat it early in the ride as then you can eat it fresh, not mashed;-) and get all the health benefits with to your training.