# salted boiled potatoes



## rich caramadre (Jul 31, 2007)

I was over at the mt. bike review forums under endurance racing and saw there were quite a few people advocating eating salted boiled potatoes. My question is why? I see the salt part of it but what do the potatoes bring to the table for this sort of riding? (besides being yummy!)

R


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## trickyricky (Jun 5, 2008)

For one thing, potatoes are loaded with potassium, one of the most important minerals for athletes. Salting them would, of course, add sodium, another mineral lost in great quantities by sweaty cyclists. I bake my potatoes because most of their potassium is in the skin and when you boil them, lots of that wonderful potassium gets boiled right out of the skin, into the water and down the drain. What a waste.


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## z rocks (Sep 9, 2007)

I've been looking for some food ideas for an upcoming 24solo. I think my gut could handle spuds pretty well. I struggle with nausea after about 16hrs on the bike, almost nothing (liquid or solid) is palatable after that.


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## STARNUT (Jun 19, 2005)

because a boiled potato (with the skin removed) is straight starch (aka-jet fuel for bike racers). It's almost instant energy.

It converts quickly to maltodextrin and it's, well,..........as already mentioned, yummy. The maltodextrin is the stuff they get from the brown rice syrup in high quality gu/gels like hammer and gu. Not that high fructose corn syrup crap. The maltodextrin has a slower "burn" than fructose. The trick is that the starch goes about it's hydrolysis process and gives you approx. 50% carbs, 45% maltose, and ~3% glucose. The glucose is taken up instantly while the maltose can take 1 hr to an hour and a half and the carbs are in the 2+ hour range. So............. you have 3 "fuels" for three different times/lengths. _Supposedly_, if your eating this (BRS) stuff (or something that quickly breaks down into it) you can have "fuel" for the duration. In pratice it's a bit different, but non the less effective. The lesson here is that high sugar content gels or drinks are a "flash in the pan" type of fuel and will quickly put you in to caloric defficit. So gel like Accel; gel would be no bueno. You should aim for "_brown rice syrup_" as the sweetner in you gel/gu and eat stuff out of the produce section. I sound like Dr. Oz :lol:. I'm really trying to avoid the trite "sugar rush" argument here.



The Slipstream guys do this (potatoes with skin removed) plus they add parm and olive oil. That = yum


Another one I have used is the sushi rice, egg, bacon, salt, balsamic, and parm "bar". Those things are _*AWESOME*_ in the winter on long rides. I'll make 20 or 30 at a time and eat them for breakfast, and snacks on and off the bike. And rice..............breaks down into.............. maltodextrin.

Starnut (food geek)


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## dfarley13 (Aug 3, 2008)

trickyricky said:


> For one thing, potatoes are loaded with potassium, one of the most important minerals for athletes. Salting them would, of course, add sodium, another mineral lost in great quantities by sweaty cyclists. I bake my potatoes because most of their potassium is in the skin and when you boil them, lots of that wonderful potassium gets boiled right out of the skin, into the water and down the drain. What a waste.


Try steaming your potatoes. You dont lose the nutrition like you do when boiling them.


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## STARNUT (Jun 19, 2005)

The nutrition is not the issue as it is all in the skin anyway. We're after the starch. In fact, leaving the skin on slows the digestion and absorption because of all the fiber.


Eating 'taters at home; leave the skin on. Eating 'taters on the bike; take it off and boil it.

Starnut


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## trickyricky (Jun 5, 2008)

Sorry, I thought we were looking at "big picture" nutrition. You're right, potatoes without skin definitely digest faster just like white bread turns to glucose faster than whole wheat bread. Fiber slows down the digestion for a longer burn. Just depends on what you're looking for: you can put newspaper in your fireplace for an intense, short burn or logs for a long slow one.


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## Creakyknees (Sep 21, 2003)

mmmm taters.


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## nepbug (Jun 6, 2006)

STARNUT said:


> Another one I have used is the sushi rice, egg, bacon, salt, balsamic, and parm "bar". Those things are _*AWESOME*_ in the winter on long rides. I'll make 20 or 30 at a time and eat them for breakfast, and snacks on and off the bike. And rice..............breaks down into.............. maltodextrin.
> 
> Starnut (food geek)


Oooh, that sounds good. A possible post of how you make them?


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## pretender (Sep 18, 2007)

STARNUT said:


> 50% carbs, 45% maltose, and ~3% glucose.


Um, wouldn't that make it 100% carb?


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

> Try steaming your potatoes. You dont lose the nutrition like you do when boiling them.


Or microwaving them. They don't look great, but it's quick to do.



> Um, wouldn't that make it 100% carb?


Are you expecting something else from the hydrolysis of starch other than carbohydrates?


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## thinkcooper (Jan 5, 2005)

STARNUT said:


> Another one I have used is the sushi rice, egg, bacon, salt, balsamic, and parm "bar". Those things are _*AWESOME*_ in the winter on long rides. I'll make 20 or 30 at a time and eat them for breakfast, and snacks on and off the bike. And rice..............breaks down into.............. maltodextrin.


Recipe. Pronto. 



 Please?


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## Rubber Lizard (May 10, 2007)

rich caramadre said:


> I was over at the mt. bike review forums under endurance racing and saw there were quite a few people advocating eating salted boiled potatoes. My question is why? I see the salt part of it but what do the potatoes bring to the table for this sort of riding? (besides being yummy!)
> 
> R


Potatoes are pretty much pure sugar. Not too much different than eating a gu.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

*Rice bar recipe*



thinkcooper said:


> Recipe. Pronto.  Please?


This is how I make them. First I cheat and use Trader Joe's microwave jasmine rice. This isn't as sticky as sushi rice so my rice cakes end up being a bit more delicate. I've also used their brown rice but that gives you more fibre, which may or may not be what you want. The ingredients are: one bag microwave rice, 3 large eggs, splash of milk, grated parmesan cheese, ham or canadian bacon chopped up small, balsamic vinegar to taste, salt, and splash of olive oil for frying. Here's the recipe:


Fry olive oil, 3 eggs in fry pan and add splash of milk (like an omelette)
Add cheese and ham/bacon to fry pan
Meanwhile cook rice in the microwave for 3 mins
Add salt to fry pan if desired
Frying time is just a few minutes
Pour rice and contents of fry-pan into a container. For example, a 6 by 8 inch rectangular pyrex dish
Add balsamic vinegar to taste and mix everything together. I think mixing breaks up the rice and makes it stickier which helps.
Press it down really firm with a spatula or fish slice
Leave on the counter to cool, then put in the fridge preferably overnight with no lid
Cut into small portions, say about 9 blocks
Wrap in Al foil, there's a traditional way to do this to make it easier to eat on the bike.
Try to prevent wife or children from stealing yummy contents!

Total cooking time is about 15 minutes including preparation and clean-up.

To wrap them individually in Al foil:

Take piece of foil about twice as high and 3 times as wide as the rice bar
Place rice bar on middle of foil
Fold top of foil down to middle of rice bar, then fold edge slightly back up
Ditto for bottom, so that top and bottom edges just overlap
Fold sides round the back
The idea is that it is easy to pull the top and bottom apart while on the bike

I get through a couple of these on a 2 hour ride, and for hard rides I'm eating other stuff too.


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

*Variation on a theme*



> Recipe. Pronto


There are several variations. Here's the one from the NY Times article, used by Garmin/Chipotle: 



> 3 cups medium-grain Calrose or sushi rice, cooked
> 
> 6 eggs
> 
> ...


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/f...&ei=5087&em&en=b5e8cfd811380f1a&ex=1214020800

Competitive Cyclist had a positive "review" on this specific recipe. But I just looked around the site and didn't find it.

A little too much work for me, so I just stick to microwaved bite-sized new potatoes. I like that there's no packaging required, so I can just pull them out of my pocket and eat them on the move.


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## Benismo (Sep 12, 2007)

Some tips from a Microwave master:

Potatoes: Wash and leave the skin on, peirce skin about 12 times with a fork. Wrap in paper towel. Cook for about 8 minutes. 

Rice:. use the one two rule.. 1 cup of rice 2 cups of water, 12 minutes in the microwave uncovered in a microwave jug. Stir and cook for another 1 or 2 minutes.


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## TheDon (Feb 3, 2006)

Potatoes, Boil, salt, and add dill. Lots of dill weed. It tastes great.


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## STARNUT (Jun 19, 2005)

Yep,

both the Potatos and rice things are an Allen Lim thing for the Slipstream boys. I think there is a video of him actually making them on the Saris website.

And it makes life easier if you use the foil "paper" not the aluminium foil form the grocery store. Any resturant supply store will have the stuff in a big box. I buy mine at Sam's for $15 for a million or so sheets.

moving on................

Uh no, if it ends in ~ose it's a sugar not a carb. Carbs hydrolyse into an ~ose though, which was kinda' the point of my post.

Starnut


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

> Uh no, if it ends in ~ose it's a sugar not a carb.


Uh, no. I'm a chemist. Simple sugars, even monosaccharides, are technically carbohydrates. Too many people think that the term carbohydrate only refers to complex carbohydrates. It doesn't.


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