Nut butters an outdoor staple

In the old days of sports nutrition, before athletic gels became a food for endurance athletes on the move, the original quick calorie boost came from peanut butter.

Spoon a dollop on your tongue and you’re into a couple hundred calories and a serving of carbs quicker than you can say Skippy.

Air Force Survival School instructors rank peanut butter as the No. 1 survival food to keep in a pack for emergency.

Peanut butter has fueled countless adventures, ranging from mountain climbs to cross-country ski races, spread on bread or crackers or spooned onto pita with apple slices or maybe just squeezed alone from a baggie to eat plain and pure, or alternating with bites of banana.

The salty sustenance gives a nutritional boost and serves psychologically as comfort food in times of athletic duress, be it on the face of Rainier or at the verge of a bonk in an endurance race.

Justin’s Nut Butter Squeeze Packs refine the old favorite. These 32-gram packages are made to be carried in a pocket while outdoors or on the go. You tear them open and squeeze out the contents to eat just like an athletic gel.

But unlike the formulations found in a common sports gel, Justin’s Nut Butter ( www.justinsnutbutter.com ), a small Boulder, Colo., company, foregoes sodium benzoate, histidine, ornithine alpha-ketaglutarate and other lab-engineered enhancers. The full ingredient list for Justin’s Classic Peanut Butter Squeeze Pack includes two items: dry-roasted peanuts and organic palm fruit oil.

This natural mix produces an energy boost with 190 calories, 7 grams of carbohydrates, and 7 grams of protein — similar to the nutritional specs seen in mass market athletic gels.

But the Squeeze Packs, which come in plain, honey and cinnamon flavors as well as an almond-butter-based variety, have much higher fat content. The Classic Peanut Butter has 17 grams of fat, which makes this mixture too heavy for many athletic scenarios where a CLIF Shot or PowerBar Gel do wonders.

Eat the nut butter squeezed straight from the package or apply it to bread, crackers or fruit to make a quick meal.

Both the peanut- and almond-butter varieties are tasty. During activity, however, the peanut-based product goes down much easier. The almond butter is too dry to eat without several slurps of water.

The burst-resistant packs sell for about $1 apiece at some grocery stores and Starbucks Coffee shops. They stay fresh for weeks in air-tight packages without refrigeration.