Pop Tarts Are Go!

Energy bars are great for sponsored climbers and journos, but what if you have to buy your own mountain food? What's on the supermarket shelves that'll keep you rolling along on a budget?

We bought a load of stuff then tested it for effectiveness, taste, portability - does it crumble or spill - and finally, we froze it solid to test for cold weather performance. Ouch...

First Principles

Your body is a blazing furnace, ahem. To keep it burning steadily there are three types of basic food, oh, okay four.

Sugar is a bit like newspaper, load it on and it'll burn bright for a short period of time. If you go for Mars bars, you'll need to keep trickle feeding them

Simple Carbohydrates stuff like brown bread, rice, bagels - a bit like logs, medium burn, take a while to get going.

Protein a bit like firelighters, you need small quantities to burn the carbohydrates. Mixed with carbohydrate in post-exercise snacks speeds up the processing of the carbo's.

Fat For long, slow intensity exercise this is mainly what your body will be burning, but it's coming from fat reserves. As an on the hoof snack, you should aim for no more than 10 per-cent fat content. It's hard to digest and just lies in your gut like a lead weight.

The Right Balance even though you're burning mainly fat at mountain walking and mountaineering speeds, you still need to refuel your glycogen supplies and keep getting the carbos in because without glycogen in the muscles, fat processing slows right down.

High Five Energy Bar - £1.00

Per 100g: 297 cal / 66.1% carbohydrate (40.4% sugar) / 1.9 % fat / 3.6 % protein / 4.8g fibre

Made from mix of dried fruit and maltodextrin and slow entry carbohydrate. Pretty typical for an energy bar. Suitable for veggies.

Taste Wild Berry flavour. Not bad and okay at altitude, but you wouldn't buy a Mars bar if it tasted like this. A little sweet and sickly.

Portability Good, not as rubbery as a Power Bar, but won't crumble. Guess it uses the vegetable glycerine as a binder.

In the cold? Rock solid I'm afraid. Clif bars are a better bet in sub-zero conditions and have more interesting flavours too.

Verdict mix of fast and slow entry carbohydrate and low fat is near ideal. For post exercise, more protein would be good, but High 5 do make a delicious recovery bar too. But not exactly cheap and freezes too easily.

Kelloggs Nutrigrain (Cherry) £1.64 for 8

Per 100g: 360 cal (130 per bar) / 69 % carbohydrate / (31.1 % sugar, 33 % starch) / 8 % fat / 4 % protein / 3 g fibre

Wheat and whole-grain oat outer with a fruit-based filling.

Taste A bit on the sweet side, but the real problem is the dryness which makes them hard to get down without water. Various flavours available, chocolate has higher fat content

Portability A bit too soft and crumble, they get crushed easily unless you're very careful

In the cold The filling freezes and the whole thing gets a little brittle, you can still eat them though

Verdict Looks good on paper, but dryness and crumbly tendencies make them a bit of a pain. Fat content is borderline

Kelloggs Nutrigrain Twists (£1.60 for 6)

Per 100g: 360 cal (130 per bar) / 69 % carbohydrate (34 % sugar, 31 % starch) / 8 % fat / 3.5 % protein / 2 g fibre

Like the standard Nurtigrain but with added solidified yoghurt in a twisted plait sort of thing.

Taste Again a bit sickly, though the yoghurt component makes them marginally more interesting if sickier.

Portability As above, too easy to crush

In the cold Actually taste better cold as the outer loses some of its crumbliness

Verdict The yoghurt doesn't do much in nutritional terms so it's pretty much the same as a standard issue Nutrigrain but pricier

Mars Bar 31 pennies

Per 100g: 450 cal (293 per bar) / 68.3 % carbohydrate / 17.6 % fat / 4.4 % protein

Contains tasty bran flakes coated in carob with dried prune filling (er, not)

Taste yum, sickly sweet chocolate, nougat and caramel. We all know what they taste like

Portability Good unless warm in which case the bar melts, crushes and assumes a gel-like texture

In the cold Rock solid demeanour means goodbye teeth

Verdict Too much sugar (virtually all the carbohydrate) and fat means you should save this for the evening. A good way of toting calories though and, debatably, tasty

Sun-Maid California Raisins (Dried Fruit)

Per 100g: 304 cal / 71.4 % carbohydrate (all sugar) / 0.7 % fat / 3.0 % protein / 5.8 g fibre

Chosen as token dried fruit, which is obtainable virtually everywhere. Drying saves weight over standard fruit. Mixing with nuts to make a trail mix concoction will up the proportion of fat and protein considerably.

Taste Like raisins. Dried apricots taste like dried apricots etc.

Portability Good, keep in bag or stick a load in your pocket and snack

In the cold Small sweet, cold, chewy bullets

Verdict Nature's own sugar source. All that fructose makes these a good drip-feeding method, but a little too much sugar. Once you've started, keep chowing.

Rice Pudding 35 pennies

Per 100g: 91 cal / 16 % carbohydrate (9 % sugar) / 1.6 % fat / 3.2 % protein / 0.2 g fibre

Widely available in cans everywhere, it's basically milk, rice and sugar in that order.

Portability Terrifying in its wild state, needs to be confined either to a can (heavy) or plastic container.

In the cold Freezes pretty much solid and becomes inedible until thawed

Verdict Basically a fine thing, but the high liquid component means that it's heavy for the energy bang. One can will provide around 400 calories, but weighs 425 grammes. Fits in bicycle bottle cages, but remember the can opener.

Asda Double Chocolate Muffin Bar

Per 100g: 424 cal / 61 % carbohydrate / 18 % fat / 4.6 % protein / 2 g fibre

Terrifying mix of wheat flower, sugar, oil chocolate chips - this is a muffin masquerading as a breakfast bar.

Taste Mmmm... like I said, a choc chip muffin masquerading as a bar

Portability Good, much less delicate than the Nutrigrain, probably because all that fat acts as a binder.

In the cold Quite good, chewy rather than brittle.

Verdict Asda also make a Banana and Nut bar (19 % fat) and a Cranberry version (13 % fat). They all taste pretty damn good, being moister and more portable than a Nutrigrain, but there's too much fat in all of them despite the palatibility. Sorry... Good for replenishing fat reserves though.

Kelloggs Chocomallow Pop Tarts (priceless)

Per 100g: 400 cal / 67 % carbohydrate (31 % sugar 36 % starch) / 12 % fat / 6 % protein / 3 g fibre

Inimitable health food from Kelloggs pastry base with terrifying chocomallow topping and enough additives to fuel a body building gym for a week.

Taste Can be eaten hot or cold. Sickly sweet but not unconvincing with a cheeky little kick at your taste buds

Portability Main problem is the toaster... No, really, it's the fact that they come in a foil sachet containing two. Once you've eaten one, it's hard to store the other without crumble syndrome taking over.

In the cold Crispier but still immensely edible

Verdict You have to be kidding. Actually they're better than you might think. A tad high in fat and too much sugar for sure, but less fat than the choc' chip muffin bar. Seems to upset people if you eat them on the hill.

Asda Tiger Select Cuts With Salmon and Prawn

Per 100g: 'Balance of proteins / Natural oils / Fat and carbohydrates'

A dark horse, but hopefully not literally, contains 'meat' meat and derivatives and fish derivatives plus various sugars in a handy can. Mmmmm...

Taste Cats seems to like it, though it's an acquired one for humans. Don't inhale.

Portability Excellent if heavy, don't forget your can opener.

In the cold Freezes to solid consistency. Not recommended for extreme condition use.

Verdict Too much protein and fat for snack use, also requires a spoon for easy eating as the tin is small. Natural oils are claimed to make for a 'glossy coat' so may improve your waterproof's performance.

Asda Fig Rolls

Per 100g: 372 cal / 68 % carbohydrate / 9 % fat / 4.8 % protein

'Fig paste' wrapped in pastry means these are dried fruit plus added carbohydrates. Dead cheap

Taste You either like them or you don't, continuous eating becomes a little wearisome and that's without the flatulence jokes

Portability Varies between brands. Have a tendency to escape and crumble once the packet is opened. Old and decomposed ones often lurk at the bottom of rucksacks. Plastic trayed versions less compact but better.

In the cold Froze solid with tooth numbing results. Not recommended for extreme weather

Verdict Traditionally effective, but borderline fat content and poor cold weather performance let them down.

Asda Apple and Blackberry Fruit Rolls

Per 100g: 322 cal / 71 % carbohydrate / 6 % fat / 2.7 % protein

Similar to fig rolls but with apple and blackberry in place of the fig paste. There's an awful lot of sugar in that filling, but the pastry should contain some slower burn carbos.

Taste Good but a bit on the sweet side.

Portability As for the fig rolls

In the cold Much better than the figgy equivalent. For some reason remained edible while the fig paste froze solid. Perhaps the syrup in the fruit bit freezes less readily than fig paste.

Verdict Decent low fat, cheap and tasty but rather a lot of sugar. A definite option if you're not overkeen on fig rolls or fancy a change.

The Banana

Per 100g: 88 cal / 20.4 % carbohydrate / 76 % fluid / 0 % fat / 1.2 % protein / 2.7 g fibre

Top fruit with splendid variable characteristics - as they ripen, the starch is converted into sugar, so you can choose between fast and slow burn bananas. The riper the fruit, the more sugar it contains.

Taste Banana-like

Portability Comes pre-wrapped in yellow packaging but bruises easily so needs care. Can be be nasty if packaging splits.

In the cold Below 8 degrees C, bananas start to decay from the inside going black and squishy, in extreme cold, they take on an ice cream-like texture. Yum.

Verdict Superb balance of carbohydrate and fat (none) plus they contain Potassium. The riper the banana, the more sugar so select your fruit carefully depending on what you're looking for. If weight is a consideration, dried bananas are much lighter, but still excellent. Carry skins home, they take decades to decay.

Jam Sarnie (with brown bread, no butter)

Taste Like a jam sandwich. Can be dry if bread isn't fresh and moist

Portability Needs some care to avoid rampant crumb syndrome

In the cold No problem

Verdict The combination of sugar in the jam for short-term refuelling and slower burn complex carbohydrates in the brown bread make for a near ideal mountain snack, a banana sandwich would be even better.

The OUTDOORSmagic Snack Attack Verdict

The more we process our food, the worse it seems to get. It's kind of ironic the lengths that energy bar manufacturers have had to go to to match what's available naturally. Most of the refined foods we looked at have too much fat or too much sugar or both. The refined sugar in stuff like Muffin Bars and chocolate will simply play havoc with your blood sugar.

Cereal bars and flapjacks are often on the right track, but most use too much fat to bind the ingredients together. The Nutrigrain-type bars look good on paper, but are too hard to get down for us as well as having a borderline fat content.

For sustained performance, we'd recommend a combination of bananas and dried fruit with jam sarnies for lunch. Protein and sheer calorie replacement you can look after with an evening meal or by liquid means down the pub.

If you're a cat then the Tiger Choice Cuts would be a good option for your carnivore's digestive system.

We leave you with this question: when is someone going to develop an energy bar that tastes like a Pop Tart, has the nutritional advantages of a banana and sells for the price of a jam sarnie? Oh and doesn't freeze up in cold weather...