What the Gel (review)

Which gel is the best? Personally I find it hard to fuel during my long runs / races. For a bit I used bars from the supermarket, but those were a bit cumbersome and hard to eat. I was aware of gels from videos and blogs etc. But when I tried one cant remember which brand, it honestly tasted like pee! I was like I cant even finish this one let alone take one every 30mins! But as time progressed I knew I had to find a gel I liked in order to get those high density cals.

So what I did was go round my local sports shops and get one of each gel they have (plus some other interesting products), try each one in the field, and see what I can eat without feeling like its time to take some foul medication!

Below are the ones I’ve tried, I’ve given a brief description, how it feels in the mouth, cost/g, flavour selection. This is purely a test of what is the most enjoyable to eat on a run, it is far too subjective to try to quantify which one (if any) performed best in terms of actual nutrition. For me having a gel that out performs another but tastes like drain cleaner is useless because I will not eat it!

Honey Stinger organic energy gel

Honey Stinger are a more natural variation of the gel idea. They base it on honey which has plenty of natural sugar, antioxidants, and a nice consistency. Each gel is 100 cals. The flavours are a little limited, and mostly fruity. The mouth feel is very nice in my opinion. It feels substantial, goes down nicely, and is not overly sweet. The gel washes down well with water, which you will need to drink extra with this gel as its quite concentrated. Great if you like sweet gels, and lean to the natural side.

Veloforte

Veloforte was a brand I hadn’t heard of until now, I found it in my local cycling shop. They call them ‘nectars’ instead of gels. The main ingredient is unrefined brown rice syrup. 90 cals. The consistency and mouth feel are very similar to cough syrup I thought! I think its a sort of love it or hate it feeling. Its not my cup of tea. They make 3 flavours, and they’ve gone for unique combos! Date, lemon, and ginger; beetroot, and lemon; and maple, coffee, and guarana. The flavours are very zingy and add to the cough syrup vibe for me.

In the same shop I got some of their cake bars to try, and found them extremely good!

Science In Sport Go Isotonic Gels

Science In Sport Go Isotonic gels are probably the ones we’re all familiar with seeing, at least in Europe. They are full on tec lab creations, based on maltodextrin as the gel bit with sweetener, flavours, electrolytes, and caffeine added. These ones in particular are quite big for gels, they are 60ml (about twice the size of others). 80 cals. The reason for this is they are very dilute, and do not need much extra water to be effective. The mouth feel is silky smooth with a mile flavour and low sweetness. I absolutely love these gels! Not too sickly after 4 or 5 of them, lots of flavours, and readily available almost anywhere. A win!

Gü Energy gel

Gu is another classic brand of gel, more popular in North America I think. They win hands down when it comes to flavour selection, salted watermelon anyone?… Me neither… Gu gels are maltodextrin based with fructose sugar, amino acids, and sometimes caffeine. 100 cals. The mouth feel for me is a bit too sweet and sickly. It feels like a heavy syrup, and I find the taste too strong. Theres no way I could take more than 1 of these.

Conclusion

So which gel is the best then? Well the answer isn’t as clean cut as that! For me Science In Sport Go Isotonic gels are the best in terms of mouth feel and easy of eating, which I’m happy to take the hit of having lower calorie density than Gu for example.

I hope you enjoyed reading! Hope you found it useful! Please like, comment, and subscribe!

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube