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Old 12-20-20, 08:45 AM
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Cyclist0100
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Home-Made/DIY Gel & Cycling Food

I'm curious to know if anyone makes their own gels and/or cycling food in general. When I started to take my on-the-bike nutrition more seriously and realized how freaking expensive gels and energy bars are, I started making my own. There didn't appear to be any magic ingredients in the products sold at my LBS (i.e. Gu, SiS), so I did some research, looked at some DIY recipes and came up with the following:

Gels: Brown rice syrup and agave syrup at a ratio of 2:1 provides a really good base recipe for a simple cycling gel. One serving at 2:1 (3 tbsp.) yields 53g of carbs, 50 mg of sodium, 1g of protein, and is a total of 210 calories. If we adjust serving size to 2 tbsp. (equivalent to 1 Gu original gel) we get ~35g of carbs, ~33mg of sodium, 0.66g of protein and ~139 calories. By comparison, the nutrition from 1 Gu original gel is: 22g of carbs, 60mg of sodium, 0g of protein and 100 calories.

To that brown rice syrup / agave syrup base you can add flavors/ingredients to taste. I usually add some cocoa powder for flavor (only 10 calories per tbsp.) as well as some ground ginger and cinnamon (a little goes a long way, especially with the cinnamon). The ground ginger and cinnamon definitely add flavor, but they are are known to treat inflammation (added bonus IMO since a lot of my back pain is related to inflammation). Lately I've also been adding some banana for potassium, but this will shorten the life of the gel. Without the banana the base recipe will last for weeks and requires no refrigeration. I also like using 1-2 tbsp. of sunflower lecithin, which helps the ingredients combine evenly and acts as a mild preservative. You could also use soy-based lecithin.

Energy Balls: As for solid food, it's still a work in progress. However, I'm experimenting with the following: brown rice syrup and agave syrup at the same 2:1 ratio combined with ground flax seeds, puréed dates, peanut butter, walnuts, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ground ginger and sunflower lecithin. I'm still tweaking the ratios, but using 1 serving of each ingredient and then portioning the recipe at ~100 calories per "enegy ball" yields a carb to fat ratio of 2:1. Not horrible, but I'd like to get the carbs to fat ratio to 3:1 or 4:1, as the fat will slow digestion and the absorption of carbs.

Anecdotally, I feel just as good on the bike (if not better) eating my home made gels and energy balls, and at a fraction of the cost compared to the Gu and SiS products.

Adding nutrition to hydration?: With regard to my hydration, I do add electrolytes and sugar via Gatorade powder, so that's adding some carbs and keeping my sodium levels from getting depleted. However, getting more nutrition into my water bottle seems like an opportunity that should be taken advantage of.

Any suggestions, recipes, links to research studies, anecdotal info, etc. is welcome. Thanks in advance for the feedback!
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