Adventure Food: Why Fresh Salsa Is Awesome

When I was a fledgling adventurer - meaning a kid on a bike looking for dirt mounds to jump - granola wasn't yet associated with a lifestyle. I know you know what I'm talking about. Example: "That chick with the hairy armpits is a little too granola for me."

Granola was still a perfectly acceptable snack to have on a hike no too long ago. So was a bag of GORP, "good ol' raisins and peanuts."

Just a couple of weeks ago I was having lunch with a friend who makes an annual rim-to-rim-to-rim power hike of the Grand Canyon.  I asked him what he packs for snacks.  Bad question.  He had a whole dissertation prepared about all the different types of energy drinks and energy bars on the market, "I've tried them all." And he proved it with his commentary on each one.

Today, if you're serious about fitness and maximizing your energy intake you'd better be packing over-priced, over-marketed, over-consumed energy juice drinks and energy bars. The days of a Rocky Balboa-style glass of raw eggs are over.

What the energy drink and energy bar industries won't do is step inside my house, where fresh salsa remains the ultimate end-of-the-day energy re-boost camp treat. Check it out:

• Tomato: loads of Vitamins; no fat, no cholesterol
• Onion: again, good stuff here
• Cilantro: no fat; no cholesterol; Vitamins A, C, E and K; Thiamin and Zinc
• Jalepeño: the life giving spice; loads of Vitamin C
• Lime juice: okay, sugar

It's the chips that'll go straight to your heart. But you have to have them, lest you choose to partake a la Rocky Balboa.