All Natural Alternatives to Gels

Audio Transcript

Sinead: Hi everyone, and welcome to this 84th episode of extra kick brought to you by Runners Connect.

Today, we have a great question on some all-natural alternatives to your conventional joules and mid race fuel from Susan Mosteller.

Susan says, “I need some ideas for energy boosters during long runs and races, something that I can carry and take with me on the go.

I’m afraid to try gels and goos and would prefer something all-natural anyway.

Are there any whole food options that would not upset my stomach?”

Sinead: This is a great question and I think more and more runners are starting to explore the all-natural alternatives to gels.

I think it’s important to first and foremost keep in mind that everyone’s body is different. Real food might help, some excel and others not so much.

Others might prefer some more traditional engineered sports nutrition products. It’s good to experiment and see what works for you, but I want to talk about a few of the all-natural alternatives for Susan and anyone else interested in those.

First of all, real foods can be just as effective as any sort of sports nutrition product if your stomach can tolerate them. Again, this is where there is some trial and error required.

You have to experiment, obviously not on race day, but during practice, you can see what works for you. I think it’s important to also note how much to eat on a run.

If you were running, say, less than an hour and 15 minutes, you wouldn’t need any fuel. It’s about 90 minutes where you become really glycogen depleted. Under an hour and 15 minutes, no fuel is really required.

An hour and 15 to three hours, say you’re doing a medium to long run, that’s where you would want to incorporate 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour.

After that, if you’re doing more than three hours, you would want to do about 30 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, so this would be more for a marathon and actual race. If you’re running more than three hours it’s usually on race day.

That would be about 30 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and this is very individual but on average, this seems to be what works for most runners.

Now that we have those doses of carbohydrate in mind, the doses required for certain durations of runs, let’s talk about some real food options.

When you’re considering foods to take with you on the run, you want to look for foods that are rich and easily digestible carbohydrates.

These are foods that contain very little fat or fiber, just very simple carbs, and that will make them a lot more easier to digest, and reduce your risk for any sort of GI issues.

Two of the most popular foods are bananas and raisins, and these tend to work well for many endurance athletes. They’ve been proven as effective as your gels and your jelly beans.

This is not just anecdotal; it has been researched and it’s come out that bananas and raisins are very similar to gels and sports drink.

One banana or a quarter cup of raisins, both provide about 30 grams of carbohydrate. That falls in the lower end of our 32 to 60 gram per hour range.

You’ll probably be thinking, “How do I eat while I’m running?” Bananas tend to mashup pretty easily. You can mash them up them up, put them in a Ziploc and then eat them that way.

They’re very similar to gels, and have a very similar consistency. You can do the same thing with raisins, just mash them up and put them in a Ziploc, or if you prefer, you can just eat them in increments.

Raisins are obviously not very hard to eat and go down pretty easily with some water.

A few more options are dates; dates are fantastic for carbohydrate. [inaudible 00:06:01] dates have 35 grams of carbohydrates, so again what you want to do here is mash them up, put them in a Ziploc and take those on the go.

Or you can, if you’re in a long run, and you want to stop for a little break, you can eat one of those and keep on tracking after that. Dates are another really good one.

Applesauce squeeze packets are another good one, and these obviously go down very easy.

They are very similar to gels and they also come in a packet that is pretty convenient to take on the go.

One pack of applesauce has about 20 to 25 grams of carbohydrates, so that again puts it right at that lower range of the 30 to 60 grams you want every hour.

Another one that’s going to sound a little strange is salted boiled potatoes, or sweet potatoes. Again, what you want to do here is mash them up, put them in a Ziploc and take them on the go.

One small potato or a half of a large potato has 30 grams of carbohydrate, and when you mash them up, they go down easy, especially when you take them with water.

It can be a very easy way to get those carbohydrates that you need on the go. Salted boiled potatoes or sweet potatoes contain sodium in there as well, so they’re pretty perfect to take on the go.

Another option you can try out is little fiber; dry cereal, and this one is great to take on the go as well.

You’ll get your good dose of carbohydrates in there, but you want to make sure that you keep it very low fiber so as to avoid any GI issues.

That’s another good option. You can keep that in a Ziploc and just pop some cereal in your mouth here and there.

You can also try white bread with honey or jam, one slice with two teaspoons of either honey or jam, as approximately 45 grams of carbohydrates.

That’s smirk dub in the middle of that 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate you want, every hour if you’re running over an hour and 15 minutes.

It’s not as easy to take on the go as applesauce or banana, but you can take that during your long runs when taking a break.

Eat some of your bread with honey and then keep on going after that.

A couple more I’ll talk about are pretzels. Pretzels have a lot of carbohydrate in them, and 25 mini pretzels have approximately 30 grams, so you’re right there at that lower range.

Again, these aren’t something you can squeeze out of a Ziploc, or maybe you could. Might not be too advertising, but you could do that if you wanted.

You can also just take a pretzel here and there in increments just as you would with raisins. Or if you’re on a long run and you want to take a little bit of a breather, you can stop and have some pretzels and then keep on going after that.

One more thing I’m going to talk about is not exactly an all-natural alternative, but it is something that people like to use instead of gel and that is Swedish fish, or you can also do gummy bears and gummy worms.

Swedish fish have about 30 grams of carbohydrate per about 12 pieces, and they’ve got a good dose of sodium and obviously sugar in there.

It’s a good way to get some glucose that your body can turn to glycogen pretty quickly, so another good one there, obviously not on all-natural but it’s a good one to try if you aren’t too keen on gels and you want something that’s going to be quick to take. That will give you that dose of energy really quickly.

When you experiment for these in training, I would advise keeping a log, and just marking down after your run: how you felt, how your energy levels were, and if you had any GI issues.

Make sure you note all of these so you can determine which of these is right for you, and which of them to incorporate on race day.

A really good way to keep track of that is just write it down after your run. Make sure you are noting how you felt, if your energy levels were where they should have been and if you didn’t have any sort of GI issues.

Some of these can work great for some people and can be disastrous for others, so a good way to determine what works for you is to practice in training.

Susan, thank you so much for your question today and I really enjoyed it.

If you have a question that you would like answered by one of our coaches, you can submit it at runnersconnect.net/daily.

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Thank you so much for joining me today, and I hope you have a fantastic day till next time.