Maltodextrin for sale

Email sent.

Ryan

So far 2 lbs are sold and 5 lbs pending payment.
Shipping via priority mail for 2 lbs was about $5.50 and for 5 lbs is $11.30
So lets say $10 shipped for 2 lbs, or $21.30 shipped for 5 lbs. (US only)

Will ship double bagged in gallon size ziplocks, in a priority mail flat rate box.
Paypal F&F or add 3% for fees, your choice.

Allen,

Thanks for making this product available in smaller quantities.

The USPS has two "priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Boxes" for $12.65

The dimension for those boxes are

"…
Sizes
Inside Dimensions Outside Dimensions
(1) 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" 11-1/4" x 8-3/4" x 6"
(2) 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8" 14" x 12" x 3 1/2"

…"

I wonder how many pounds of Maltodextrin can you fit on box #2. (Which has a slightly higher capacity). Trying to see if there is a way to reduce the cost of the shipping component on your generous offer.

Cheers,

Mario

Mario, I was able to fit 5 lbs of malto in box #2 which costs me 11.30 to ship when I do it online. This is 2 gallon size ziplocks full, each with 2.5 lbs of Malto.

It was a tight fit, so I don't think any more would work in this size box. I'm open to doing a larger box if that's what you want though. Thanks,
Allen

Check box volumes.

There are Small flat-rate cube-like boxes that ship for about $7.
The Medium flat-rate is about $12.

Often a PO doesn't carry all of the sizes, but USPS will ship them to your door for free. Order them online.

(A long time ago I shipped a 44# chunk of tungsten for $7. Now they have a weight limit.)

Thanks Allen,

If 5 lbs is the optimum / maximum that fits on a medium flat fee box, I'll take 5 lbs. Actually I think 5 lbs is plenty to experiment with this stuff. I have been very happy with perpetuem but the cost is adding up as my outings are getting more frequent and longer so I'm looking for alternatives.

I just sent you paypal payment with my shipping information.

Thanks,

Mario

Mario, thanks and I will get it packaged up and ready to ship out on monday. I believe the postal service is closed for the holiday weekend, but I will have it ready for them to pickup on monday.

For anyone else who may be interested, it looks like I will out hiking most of next week so if you don't hear from me be patient and I will answer all emails when I return. I will likely leave on sunday or monday, not sure which at this point.
Allen

Thanks again Allen. Got mine today in fine shape. My wife sees me with a big bag of white powder and asks "What's up Scarface?"

Mario – yours went out this afternoon. My plans changed so I'm in town for now if anyone else needs some…thanks!

Thanks Allen,

I received your shipment today. Thanks for the extra you threw in there. I can attest this maltodextrin dissolves pretty easily.

For those on the fence, trying to minimize cost, you can probably push up to 8 lbs on the USPS medium flat fee box bringing the cost (including shipping) down to $3.4 / lb which is much cheaper than perpetuem's $10+/lb you can get in local stores.

Cheers, and thanks again.

Mario

Edit: Added Picture of open box showing 6 Lbs of Malto plus "available space"

What do you use that stuff for?

Bob,
[It's a slow burning complex carbohydrate calorie source. – Wrong! It has a high GI]. It's a "cross-over" from cycling where simplicity and long term acceptance is crucial for all-day, multi-day, high effort rides

Fastpackers appreciate it for those same characteristics. If you don't have the spit and the time to gag down another bar, drinking your meals is a nice way to go.

If you have the time to make coffee, and "cook" dinner, it's probably not something you're interested in.

Mario, I guess you're right, I could have squeezed a bit more in there in smaller bags…sorry about that!

BTW i noticed you are right across the bay from me…if you are ever in El Cerrito and want to come by to get some more w/o paying for postage let me know. I still have over 30 lbs of it!

No worries Allen, if I mentioned it was just to encourage others to optimize their order size. My understanding is that the post office has two medium size flat boxes, and although they have the same price one has a little bigger volume, so I think you used the larger box in my case.

This will be a test run for me so I'm happy with what I got. But again if it works out, in the future, I may take you up in your offer and just pick it up from you (I do go on a semi-regular basis to the East Bay)

Thanks again.

Mario

"It's a slow burning complex carbohydrate calorie source"

Anyone who needs or wants to go for more slowly metabolized carbohydrates would be well-advised to do their own research on the properties of maltodextrin. AFAIK, it would not be counted among the slower burners.

Cheers,

Bill S.

Thanks Bill.
I edited my post above.

"The Good: Though maltodextrin is technically a complex carbohydrate because of it's sugar content, it's high glycemic index means it goes through the digestive system super fast. There are 2 instances where this is a good thing. 1) After a hard workout, maltodextrin will quickly get energy and protein (if accompanied) to your muscles. That's why the Results and Recovery drink has some in there along with Dextrose (a sugar that maltodextrin mimics). 2) During a long workout (aka marathons), maltodextrin's quick absorption by the body and low osmolality (It doesn't absorb much water) make it a good candidate to give energy while not dehydrating you.

The Bad: Outside of the aforementioned time-frames, maltodextrin is just as bad, sometimes worse, as having sugar. Easily absorbed carbs like maltodextrin and sugar get into your bloodstream fast. If there is nothing for all that blood sugar to do (i.e. repair muscle-tissue, give energy), it will get stored as fat. Contrast that with real complex carbs from whole grains, which are broken down and absorbed slowly, and maltodextrin looks more and more like sugar."

Edit: Source of above quote: http://fitnessfortravel.com/is-maltodextrin-bad-for-you/

"maltodextrin looks more and more like sugar"

Pretty much, but that's what's in most of the bars etc that the malto's displacing. (Fruit roll-ups or non-whole grain bread or potatoes or white rice etc aren't so different either.) Not necessarily a bad thing when backpacking, especially not in moderation and combined with other foods.

Cheers,

Bill S.

P.S. Thanks for the update, Greg, and for all the useful info about your experiences, sourcing, etc.

"Low Glycemic Index" (associated in broad terms with fats, proteins, some complex carbohydrates) simply means "difficult to digest" – measured relative to glucose, one of the easiest foods to digest with an index of 100. This is a good thing when sitting on your couch, because your body doesn't need an immediate blood sugar spike, unless you're trying to understand the plot of "Inception". Here, it's an advantage (and much healthier) to digest the food slowly, and release energy slowly.

Under continuous exercise, while your body is actively burning energy, it's quite appropriate, and perfectly healthy, to consume small continuous amounts of high-GI foods – since "high GI" means precisely "easy and quick to digest". There's no benefit here to "slow release" – that just means your body is expending unnecessary energy and effort on digesting the food. Under continuous exercise, the ideal solution might be to bypass your digestive system altogether and hang a glucose drip directly into your bloodstream!

(Disclaimer – I haven't found or read any of the original research for maltodextrin below; most of this is gleaned from promotional blurbs, no idea how strong the evidence is for any of the explanations.)

Maltodextrin is unusual. As mentioned, it's technically a complex carbohydrate – it is polymer chains of glucose (glucose and dextrose are synonymous). However, it apparently has a HIGHER Glycemic Index than glucose. This is strange, since the digestion process would first require the body to break down the maltodextrin polymer into glucose monomers, requiring time and energy input. The explanation seems to be that maltodextrin polymers are absorbed faster than an equivalent number of individual glucose monomers, and that after absorption the polymer bonds are easily broken.

The reason for the rapid absorption of maltodextrin relates to osmolarity — which means the concentration of solute molecules/ions in a water solution. In order to deliver 10 glucose molecules to the digestive system, you could eat 10 glucose monomers or a single maltodextrin polymer with chain length of 10. Since osmolarity is determined by the number of intact molecules/ions in solution, regardless of size, the maltodextrin solution would have lower osmolarity – one tenth the osmolarity of the glucose solution. It's not intuitively clear to a non-chemist why the number of molecules matters, regardless of size, but that's the way it is.

Solutions of high osmolarity tend to draw in water. In your stomach, a high-osmolarity glucose solution with draw in more water than a low-osmolarity maltodextrin solution. This is proposed as the explanation for the empirical observation that maltodextrin is absorbed faster and more easily than glucose, and that large amounts of glucose (or other simple sugars) can cause stomach upset in athletes.

It's also subjectively important that maltodextrin does not taste sweet, so you can eat a lot of high-GI carbohydrate without a constant sickly-sweet taste. It's super-sticky though – as I learned from trying to repackage Power Bars; or just see what happens to maltodextrin powder if it gets even slightly damp.

I still have lots of Maltodextrin if anyone is interested.