My Stomach Is Killing Me…

Said a friend and fellow athlete who was racing here at the weekend.

I asked what he’d been eating and he said nothing out of the norm… with the exception of eating one of the ‘energy bars’ provided in the athlete goodie bag when he found himself out and about with no healthy options and decided to eat that in a pinch.

Big mistake.

I looked at the ingredients in on the label on the bar in my own goodie bag to confirm what I suspected and, sure enough, there it was:  maltitol was one of the first few ingredients.

A low calorie sugar alcohol used in many a ‘low carb’ product; also clinically used as a laxative and for many, causes bloating, gas and other equally unpleasant symptoms.

Didn’t help that the bar also contained soy, whey and a host of other unidentifiable items.

Just what any athlete wants to eat as a snack or during a training session, right?

Puh-lease!

Buyer beware!  Or, shall I say, athlete beware?  If you can’t identify it as a food, avoid it.  I can’t think of any time when it’s worth the risk.