Challenge some common misconceptions and rethink the way you eat:

Trail mix

It’s amazing how many people happily snack away on a bag of trail mix thinking it’s a healthy treat. While there’s no denying that unsalted nuts can be a healthy pick-me-up to satisfy hunger pangs, many mixes throw in salts and sugars too.

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One small handful will be fine, but after the second or third mouthful, the calories will soon add up. According to nutritional content guides, a 150g serving of regular trail mix contains a surprising 693 calories and 44.1g of fat

Fat-free yogurt

Just because something is fat-free doesn’t make it healthy. A study conducted by Action on Sugar looked at the sugar content within certain foods and there was one that caught their attention. A 150g serving of Yeo Valley’s fat-free vanilla yoghurt contained a whopping five teaspoons of sugar.

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Pure orange juice

This breakfast favourite is made from fresh oranges, crammed with vitamin C… but it’s still bad for you. There’s a huge amount of sugar in there: a 250ml bottle typically contains
25g (six teaspoons) of sugar. It may be naturally occuring sugar but it’ll still give you a sugar spike then an energy crash that will affect you later in your ride.

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Pre-made salads

A grilled chicken Caesar salad on mixed greens may seem healthy, but once you chuck in the croutons, dollop on the dressing and grate the cheese it’s not so good for you after all. It’s bad riding food — you’ll be consuming more than 400 calories and over 20g of fat, which is bad for cholesterol. Swap the Caesar dressing for vinaigrette.

Dried fruit

It may look like fruit, but that’s about as far as the similarities go. While dried fruit contains fibre — which helps prevent heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and even some cancers — it also has a shed load of added sugar and sulphur to preserve it.

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Dried fruit is also extremely calorific; one cup of fresh apricot halves has roughly 74 calories. The same amount of dried apricot halves comes in at over 300 calories. If you’re really craving a fruity snack… eat fruit.