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It is fairly easy to mix up your own gel, and this allows you to tweak the ingredients to your liking. You can have specific flavors, different concentrations, unusual ingredients like Choline, etc., which is not possible with a commercial gel. If you're intending to use a flask instead of packets, then the DIY approach is well worth considering, but I've found it tough to recreate the commercial packaging at home. [http://theplantedrunner.com/copycat-gu-gels/ The Planted Runner uses a modified FoodSaver bag] and includes a recipe. This is probably a much better approach than trying Ziploc bags.
=Gel Ingredients=
Here is an overview of the major ingredients in gels (see [[The Science of Energy Gels| The Science of Energy Gels]]for more details). It's worth noting the controversy over Spring Energy Gels not containing the claimed ingredients, with the provided energy only about a third of what was claimed. Hopefully this is an outlier, but it's hard to be sure what's actually in these products.
* [[Maltodextrin| Maltodextrin]]is the most easily digested form of carbohydrate, 36% faster than glucose, making it ideal in a gel. More importantly, [[Maltodextrin]] requires far less water to be isotonic than glucose or [[Fructose]]. [[Maltodextrin]] has little or no flavor, even at high concentrations.
* Glucose is easily digested, but requires 6 times as much water as [[Maltodextrin]] to be isotonic. Glucose is about three quarters as sweet as sugar (sucrose).
''<br/>Ingredients: Complex carbohydrates, Dextrose, Sucrose, Water, Amino Acid Blend (L-Glutamine, Leucine, Iso-Leucine, Valine), Salt, Potassium Chloride, Calcium (as calcium complex), Magnesium (as magnesium glycine amino acid chelate), natural flavors, citric acid, sorbic acid and sodium benzoate (to preserve freshness)''
=Maurten Hydrogel Gel 100=
Maurten claims that their hydrogel formula causes less digestive distress and is more easily absorbed than without the hydrogel. There's one study that backs this up, and another that didn't find any difference. My concern is that this gel is simple sugars, glucose, and fructose, which are harder to absorb than maltodextrin. So , this seems to be an overly expensive, complex solution given that maltodextrin is cheaper and easier. On the other hand, if you struggle with digestive issues from maltodextrin based gels, this might be worth a try. (Personally, I found the jelly texture of the Maurten quite off putting, and it's the only gel I've ever thrown away without finishing. The idea is that the jelly doesn't need to be mixed with saliva, but swallowed as a lump where it passes through the stomach to be absorbed more slowly further down the digestive tract.)
''<br/>Ingredients: Water, glucose, fructose, calcium carbonate, gluconic acid, sodium alginate''
=TORQ Gels=
=Other 'energy gels'=
While these products look rather like energy gels, they don't meet my criteria for inclusion but are worth mentioning.
==Spring Energy Gel(Controversial) ==This gel claims it is mixture of real foods, with higher energy density than a carbohydrate gel. It provides 250 calories 's gained a lot of attention in just 52gthe ultrarunning community, way more than a carbohydrate gel canbut concerns have been raised that the actual ingredients don't match the claims. Of the 250 caloriesAs of May 2024, 170 are from fatSpring issued an apology, but only after the running community paid for a third party analysis of the nutrition in Spring Energy gels and it has some fiber and proteinfound a wild difference. ItJason Koops's not what you want for high intensity races; I'd say anything up third party analysis that showed only 139 calories per 100g, working out to 5 hours/marathon distance you probably want to stick to a carbohydrate gelabout 72 calories per packet, with no fat. But (Google "Jason Koops Spring Energy Reddit" for longer, slower events (or trainingmore information.), I think this gel is a great option.
==PocketFuel==
Unlike energy gels, [http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=PocketFuel&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3APocketFuel PocketFuel]is a peanut butter like paste in an energy gel like packet. They are similar a little larger than most other gels (about 1.8oz/52g) but have far more calories (~280) due to their higher fat content. Be careful of the nutrition label, which quotes values for a 32 gram serving, even though the packet contains 52g. The label says each packet contains "about 2" servings, but is actually 1.6 servings. I've added a table below of the nutrition from an entire packet. I would not generally recommend PocketFuel for runs shorter than about 40 miles, but for longer races they make a convenient form of food. As you can see from the table below, there is a mix of fat and carbohydrate that I think is excellent for ultrarunning. I'm also really happy to see 5 g of fiber, something you might really, really appreciate the day after an ultramarathon! It's a shame there's not a little more salt, but that's my only quibble with the nutrition. Note that for some flavors the ingredients tend to settle and it's worth squishing the packet before your you run to mix things up.
[[File:Gels-Pocket-Fuel.JPG|none|thumb|500px|Pocket Fuel (with a Gu as a size reference)]]
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