Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Be careful what you wish for...

Back in an earlier posting, I'd mentioned that you don't want to feel too fresh going into race, because you peak early. Well - I'm three days out, and I still feel sluggish. Some of the workouts have been brilliant, but overall I still feel tired, so it's pretty good. I just want to keep remembering Mark Allen, who started out the Nice triathlon feeling bad, but then rallied for a come from behind victory.

Speaking of coming from behind, that's how work went today. I think someone's bugged my office so they know when I'm planning vacation. Of course, today of all days I had about four/five hours of work dropped on me at the last minute. It's all done, but I still have other work that needs to be finished...

Anyway - it's probably time to start sending out emails to my friends who want to know I'm doing on Saturday. One possible wrinkle -- one computer model has remnants of a tropical storm going through OKC Saturday/Sunday.

2 comments:

Kathy said...

This is response I received from Hammer Nutrition :

Hi Kathy,
The source of the Natural Grain Dextrins ingredient is a proprietary blend called Energy Smart. This is not a formulation we create, and we believe the grain source to be rice, although the composition and components are private information, even to us. The label gluten-free, in reference to our products, indicates the products do not contain gluten. It was an important consideration in developing our products because of the population sensitive to gluten. Here is a quote from one of our FAQ sections:
"Your grain reference is to the proprietary sweetening agent, Energy Smart™, which is gluten free. All ingredient manufacturers are required to inform us if gluten content is present so that we may warn athletes who have gluten sensitivity. All Hammer Nutrition products are gluten free. We have no known gluten substances in any of our products. To date, Hammer have received NO report of any Hammer Nutrition product inducing or being implicated by an accompanying gluten-sensitivity reaction."
According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the considered "safe" level of gluten a product's content must not exceed was 500 ppm (or 0.05%). Dextrins, such as those in our product, contain less than 200 ppm (0.02%), and the Gel could contain even less. I hope this information has been helpful, and please let me know if you have any other questions.

Best,
Randy

Randy Bain
Client Advisor,
Hammer Nutrition
www.hammernutrition.com
800-336-1977 ext. 2232

Iron Celiac said...

Thanks for looking into this.

I kind of put food into three categories now -- Green = fine, no doubts. Yellow = some uncertainty about gluten content. Red = "I know it has gluten." Like a stoplight. You know how some people stop at yellow lights? When it comes to food and gluten, that's me.

I find there's plenty of "Green" food without going into the "Yellow." Not exceeding 500 ppm (or even 200ppm) reminds me of "Mostly harmless" and doesn't sound "free" of gluten at all to me. It also doesn't strike me as a good argument now that studies are showing some internal reaction/damage with far smaller gluten doses. Everyone needs to decide for themselves, so for now I'll stick to my zero tolerance policy and stop at this yellow light.