I've been cleaning up spilled dirt this morning. Not a terrible job, particularly when Timothy loves the vacuum cleaner so much, but a pain nonetheless. He managed to pull down a Christmas cactus that I had recently repotted, but last week, I also had to clean up another plant that fell from its hanger (who knows how that one happened...) and a few weeks before that, I had to bury a sad and decrepit aloe that, I think, committed suicide due to neglect. Limbs were falling off and oozing petrified aloe juice. Not a pretty sight.
I feel a little bad about the decline of my houseplants although I have excused my neglect because of the daily distractions in my life. And then I go over to my brother's and see these lustrous, vibrant, very prosperous plants. I feel a little lame for letting my own fail, and intend to care for them more consistently.
In other news, Shawn recently told me that a snickers bar is better for you than most of the energy bars on the market, which is fairly disappointing to me, particularly as we have a dent store in town that sells them for $0.20 a piece. An easy and inexpensive, but relatively satisfying snack when I'm packing Shawn's lunch. So, to heck with that. I'll make 'em! The ones pictured are a new recipe and are chockful of some yummy seeds, nuts and dried fruit. I guess it can't claim a whopping 25 grams of protein, but who really needs that in a snack anyway?
3 comments:
I'd like to know Shawn's source. Like I told you two last weekend, a Clif bar satisfies a hell of a lot more than a Snickers for me.
Snickers (57g):
Calories: 271 Calories from Fat: 122
Fat: 14g
Sugars: 29g
Protein: 4g
Vit A: 2% Vit C: 0%
Calcium: 5% Iron: 2%
Clif Bar (68g):
Calories: 230 Cals from Fat: 30
Protein: 10g
Fat: 3g Sugars: 21g
Vit A: 30% Vit C: 100%
Calcium: 25% Iron: 25% Vit E: 100%
Vit. K:25% B1: 25% B2: 25% etc.
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c21Q5.html
http://www.clifbar.com/food/products_clif_bar/
Andrew,
I don't recall the magazine, but found this online. Bottom line, energy is energy, and those bars are expensive. Here is a link:
http://www.cspinet.org/nah/12_00/barexam.html
... and from the article:
"David Pearson and colleagues at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, conducted one of the few studies on high-carb bars, though so far only a summary has been published.1 First, nine trained cyclists rode for an hour to lower the levels of stored carbohydrate (glycogen) in their muscles. The next day, they rode for another half-hour and then sprinted.
After a one-hour rest, the cyclists were randomly assigned to eat 1,000 calories’ worth of PowerBars, Tiger’s Milk bars, or cinnamon-raisin bagels over a four-hour period. An hour later, they rode for another hour while the researchers measured their energy output and blood sugar levels.
“The bagels resulted in the same aerobic performance as the energy bars,” says Pearson, whose study was funded by Nabisco. “There’s no magic to the bars. As long as you’re getting the same number of calories and carbs in each food, there’s no advantage to eating energy bars, and they’re much more expensive.”
Of course, most people don’t even need carbs when they exercise. “High-calorie, carbohydrate-dense bars are really only for athletes doing long-term exercise,” Pearson explains. “People think, ‘if top-grade athletes eat these bars, I need them for my workout.’ That’s a misconception.”
Pearson’s hard-pedaling cyclists performed better with bars (or food) than with just water because they needed carbs. But unless you’re running, cycling, cross-country skiing, or doing some other aerobic activity continuously for more than an hour at a stretch, you don’t need a quick carb fix.
“The bar wouldn’t empty out of your stomach before the event is over,” says Pearson. What’s more, he adds, “most people burn off fewer calories in the workout than they get from the bar.”
So the next time you run a marathon, you may find it easier to pack some high-carb bars instead of bagels. (Some experts recommend taking one bite every ten minutes until the bar is gone.) But if you’re just looking for a snack or pick-me-up after a game of tennis, save your money."
Thanks for the link--interesting...
I like the line from the article about considering a sandwich if wrappers are piling up in the back of the car.
Data I'd like to see is the marginal cost for all the different products, or MC graphed against saturated fat per gram, or something similar (like selling price!).
Power Bars--corn syrup and apple juice.
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