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Popular Powerbar products discontinued in Canada

Powerbar's decision and history of company: Despite the companies American home, it was founded by a Canadian marathon runner Brian Maxwell and his wife Jennifer Biddulph

Earlier this year, Powerbar, a trusted sports nutrition company, announced it would be not be distributing their gel and gel blast products anymore in Canada. The news of the company’s decision is disappointing, as for many Canadian athletes these products were a staple in their training and race day nutrition.

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History of Powerbar

Powerbar Inc., is an American maker of nutritional energy products. Its headquarters are located in Glendale, California. However, despite the companies American home, it was founded by a Canadian marathon runner Brian Maxwell and his wife Jennifer Biddulph. Following a disappointing race, when Brian dropped out at kilometre 34 due to excess fatigue, also know as ‘the wall.’ He and his wife, a nutritionist, developed the idea of producing a snack bar that provided the simple and complex carbohydrates needed to ‘POWER ON.’

The wall, is known by experts and seasoned endurance athletes, as the point in a race where you have no more glycogen stores or carbohydrates readily available to produce energy. When this occurs the body turns to a more ineffective way of producing energy by breaking down muscle tissue. This leads to feeling of ‘blowing up.’ Its effect on your body is not fun, and Brain wanted to create a line of sport nutrition products to avoid that.

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He and his company did just that. In 1986 they launched the company using 55,000 dollars in cash. By the year 2000 the company was bought by Nestle for 375 million dollars. Then in 2014, Post Holdings reached an agreement with Nestle to purchase Powerbar.

As the saying goes ‘all go things must come to an end.’ Fortunately, there are numerous other sport nutrition products out in your local bike or run store to choose from and experiment with.