That first winter of the Maplewood Avenue hill-climb I discovered the best comfort food for winter bicycle commuters: Ovaltine. I mixed the chocolate powder half-and-half with powdered milk and carried it in to work daily. After changing out of rain-gear to work clothes, I'd have a couple of scoops in my first cup of coffee, and then a second helping for my 10am coffee-break.
I'm not a nutritionist, I just go by the package label, which says the chocolate flavor mixed with milk contains 20% or more of the daily requirement of a long list of vitamins and minerals, including calcium (35%) and Vitamin D (25%). The chocolate malt flavor doesn't have as many different vitamins and trace minerals, but does contain 40-60% of the daily value for calcium, iron, Vitamin D and a few others.
Be warned, though - one serving is about 170 calories. This is no problem if you have a long commute or are riding a lot of miles training for an event. Two servings a day, riding ten miles a day on my commute, caused me to gain about ten pounds over the winter. Or maybe it was the frequent cookies, donuts and birthday cakes served at my new job.
No comments:
Post a Comment