IB15: Tasty new treats from GU, Justin’s, Glukos, Naturally Fast, PhD & Infinit Nutrition

Interbike always has an assortment of (usually) delicious snacks to keep us fueled, and the first day of Outdoor Demo was no different. starting with the big brands, GU had this sneak peek at an upcoming Salted Caramel flavor of their chews to go along with a few recently introduced gel flavors. And, in a departure from everything they’ve done so far, there’s promise of an actual nutrition bar to come very soon…

Introduced earlier this year were Big Apple, Maple Bacon, Salted Caramel and Vanilla Spice, the last one beingthe amino acid infused Roctane formula. And of course the multi-serving packs in a couple of their more popular flavors.

If you’re stuck on the single serve packs but have a lingering guilty feeling about all that waste, rest easy knowing that GU will pay for Terracycle to recycle all that packaging for you. Just throw them in a box when you get home until there’s enough worth shipping, then head to their website to get a shipping label.

The bar, BTW, won’t be unveiled until the indoor show opens on Wednesday, so stay tuned for another nutrition roundup.

Justin’s natural nut buttes have expanded to include snack packs with gluten-free pretzel sticks and three different options for dipping: Maple Almond Butter, Classic Almond Butter and Chocolate Hazelnut Peanut Butter. We tried it, and they’re delicious, with just the right amount of salt on the pretzels.

Glukos started as a collaboration between Nike and Coca-Cola as a ready to drink product 13 years ago. When those giants canceled the program, Mark Jensen asked if he could take it over on his own. Now, they’re launching a complete line of glucose based gels, chews and tabs, plus a protein bar for recovery.

As the name suggests, it’s based solely on glucose. Their theory is that sucrose and fructose require extra processing by your body, which creates additional (and un-needed) stresses during exercise and slows down effectiveness. In addition to the RTD bottles, they now offer fully diluted gel packs that don’t require any additional water consumption, chews (which do add a bit of sucrose and tapioca solids to firm them up) and dissolvable tabs.

Their tabs come in a tube similar to Nuun, but are non-effervescent so you could stuff one in your cheeks or bottle without it fizzing up. All three come in orange, lemon-lime and tropical flavors. They, too, will have a bar debuting inside the show, this one for recovery.

If Glukos keeps it to the simplest of sugars, Naturally Fast makes it all even simpler by mixing only glucose, high sodium and potassium, and natural flavors.

They we’re making their own sports drinks for a while and just decided to start making it in bulk in an FDA-approved facility and sell it. It’s meant as a hydration and electrolyte replacement, add food to your program if you’re going out for a long ride.

Besides keeping it simple, which we like, they’re inexpensive, coming in as little as $0.65 per bottle if you get the largest 100 serving tub. And you can probably milk more than that out of it by mixing it a bit light.

It’s available in lemonade, black cherry lime, orange mango, lemon lime, raspberry lemonade, plus a mild flavor version of lemonade for those that like a lighter flavor but don’t want a diluted mix.

PhD Nutrition had the broadest collection of products, ranging from simple to concentrated carbohydrate drinks to super greens and more. The highlights they sampled are shown above, starting with Pharma-Greens, a collection of 20+ green, fruit and other healthy ingredients like green tea, ginkgo biloba & grape seed extract. That one’s meant as a first-thing-in-the-morning drink that they claim helps balance your pH and help your body absorb nutrients at breakfast.

If some of the other drink mixes focused on simple glucose, PhD’s Glyco-Durance uses a complex glucose called Cluster Dextrin, which they say has a very low osmality to flow through the stomach as quickly as possible so it can be absorbed into the bloodstream as pure energy. Add to that electrolytes and it’s ready for endurance efforts.

Their Ultra-Durance helps with harder, more intense efforts with CarnoSyn beta-alanine to buffer lactic acid burn, reduce soreness and speed up recovery. On the lighter side is Battery, their fluid and electrolyte replacement formula with low osmality to help speed fluid absorption.

Lastly, Infinit Nutrition has updated their packaging, switching all stock formulas to resealable bags instead of the plastic jugs. They’re a bit lighter and use less material, and they also help reduce production costs, which makes it easier for them to work the brand into traditional retail distribution.