quote:<HR>Originally posted by Ice Cream:
I disagree with what Ariann says: "If dairy is causing a lot of gas, you are probably lactose intolerant, along with the majority of the world's adult population." The population that is relevant to you is not the one with such high lactose intolerance, derived from an ancestry and practices that do not include cow's milk. If you lived or your heritage is from one of those countries, then yes, but most likely, no. CC readers grew up in middle class american households.
<HR>

First of all, that's quite an assumption. I wasn't aware we were all western Europeans and WASPs who grew up middle class. About 70% of the adult population of my particular ethnic group in the U.S. is lactose intolerant (and mostly middle class, thank you very much). Second of all, not all middle class American households consume liquid milk. My family ate cheese (which often doesn't contain lactose), but didn't drink milk. Third, I know several WASPs and others of Northern European ancestry, who grew up in heavy milk-drinking families, who are genuinely lactose intolerant in serious ways. I don't personally know many American middle-class adults who drink milk on a regular basis who are not runners, which means they've had many years to lose their ability to digest it, whatever their cultural and biological ancestry is. (As your link says, 12% of WHITE Americans are lactose intolerant, that's a whole lot of people you're discounting!) If upping the dairy is what's bothering Stephanie, then that's probably the culprit. As you say, there are easy ways to find out and we both offered easy solutions if that's the problem.

I do agree that recovery drinks are probably unnecessary under the hour mark. As I rarely run over an hour, I never have to invent a post-run snack, I just make sure to eat my next regular meal soon afterwards.

Most GI gas is caused by swallowing air during eating/drinking, and carbohydrates such as grains, potatoes and sugar (but not honey and fruit).

My husband eats power bars and protein bars on occassion and he always gets gas from them. We've always just assumed it was the whey that was in them. Why we believe that is because protein powders, which have whey as their prime ingredient, most definitely give him gas. So, you might want to look at the list of ingredients on your particular power bars and see if that could be a possibility. In terms of recovery snacks: peanut butter and banana, or honey, on a slice of whole wheat bread; hard boiled egg and a piece of fruit; cottage cheese and fruit; yogurt and fruit; small bowl of cereal; small fruit smoothie; small baggie of trail mix with nuts, dried fruit, cereal; kashi granola bars are easy; cheese and crackers with a glass of OJ, etc...

the powerbar proteinplus reduced sugar bar contains maltitol which is a sugar alcohol and might cause gas.

I actually had a gas problems with another energy bar that contained a sugar alcohol (forget which it was but it might actually have been this one). I got these gas cramps in the middle of my runs and it took me awhile to make the connection.

Way too much has been made of "recovery" foods. Unless you are in the habit of running more than once per day, they are entirely unnecessary. They may make you think you are recovering "better" but such is not the case.

About the only thing that can be claimed for these "recovery" formulae is that they will speed recovery by a few hours in highly trained athletes that undergo rigorous training sessions.

In a typical recreational runner that has just completed a daily run, eating anything is simply an unnecessary snack and eating the various bars and sports drinks is eating an unnecessary junk food snack. In a recreational runner, there is not much to recover from, and what little recovery is necessary would be far better accomplished from the nutritional content of a regular balanced meals rather than junkie snacks.

I am sure the "recovery" food producers would like you to believe you will become some sort of super runner if you eat their junk but it is still junk. Their "selling" job is based on the premise that you will never recover unless you eat their food. Not true! The recovery food will have zero effect on athlete performance unless you plan to engage in additional athletic activity within a few hours.

------------------
gotta run...