Home Made Gu (Read 2126 times)

K..... I brought this up in another thread and said I would post a recipe. I'm not a believer in strict measuring so a little experimentation to suit your taste may be necessary. This first one is from the same basic ingredients of your standard GU 2/3rds part Maltodextrin. Just less than 1/3rd part Frutose / Dextrose......I don't know how much it matters......(Corn syrup, Maple Syrup, White Sugar, Honey....what ever trips your trigger.) A little soy protien powder. I don't recommend whey ! (unless your going to use it all up right away) A pinch of salt Liquid......Could be water, gator aide, fruit juice. (dosen't require much, add to desired consistancy. The Maltodextrin and granular sugar dissolve best in a warm liquid. Maltodextrin will probably have to be ordered off the internet. Probably keeps for a couple of days. This ones All Natural 6 tablespoons Honey 1 teaspoon Molassas (knocks down the sweetness of the honey) 6 teaspoon Soy Protien A Pinch of salt Water or gator aid Makes one 5 serving flask The simplist, quickest, cheapest. Honey Peanut Butter I haven't figured out a good way of carrying this though. I've used all of these. Quite frankly, if you buy the bulk sizes of commercial gel your probably not saving any money and theirs taste better.......not that those taste good. Anyone try anything else........I start my long runs with the honey and PB. If I could figure out a way to haul it and consume it on a run I'd like to try. (watering it down to put it in a flask didn't work to well)

K..... I Anyone try anything else........I start my long runs with the honey and PB. If I could figure out a way to haul it and consume it on a run I'd like to try. (watering it down to put it in a flask didn't work to well)

why not add a little oatmeal or powdered milk and make peanut butter balls? You have to wrap them in waxed paper, but that's classic hiking fare. I personally can't imagine choking down peanut butter on the run, and I'd think that all that fat would make it hard to digest while running. I eat some peanut butter toast before i run sometimes, if i have more than an hour before the actual run starts (which i very often do). But I eat mostly gummis and drink water on the run. I don't like the gooey-ness of GU and i don't like sticky drinks that drip down my chin. Sometimes I use cherry shot bloks instead, but that's because I want the caffeine.

Thanks for posting those recipes, I have been looking for some. I love the Carb Booms, but I am looking for some natural alternatives. Someone I know suggested using dates (mashing them into a paste) as a base for a "gu". They are very very sweet. I think I would prefer honey though.

This is Charles Corfield's recipe (3rd at the Leadville 100, 2007). He's British and a scientist, so units are grams, sorry :-) Order a 7lb container of malto-dextrin from: http://www.bulknutrition.com/ You can buy cheapo whey protein at Vitamin Cottage I make up batches which will fill 6 camping squeeze tubes (REI has them): 625g Maltodextrin 125g Whey protein 2.5g NaCl 0.5g KCl 2 Rolaids (for Ca + Mg) crushed 1.2 pints hot water Vitamins, ginseng, squashed newts, lightly killed frogs, or other favorite additives... Either use a stick blender or a kitchen mixer to turn the ingredients into a syrup. Add your own flavoring -- condensed soups, powdered soups, Tang sugar-free fake fruit flavors. I put 12oz of syrup into a jug, add flavoring, and then fill two tubes; repeating this until all my tubes are filled up. I use rice protein because whey and soy tear me up after 10-12 hours of running. I also use more sodium and potassium and substitute magnesium chelate and calcium chelate instead of Rolaids because it's less of a motivator of the digestive tract, if you know what I mean. - Chris

Another recipe I dug up, from my friend Tressa. This is a bar, not a gel, though they are very delicious. Tressa Bars Ingredients: 1 cup Peanut Butter (or other nut butter) 1 cup Honey or Agave 1 cup Dry Milk Powder or Rice Protein (or soy, whey, etc) 1 cup Rice Crispies / Puffed brown rice Coconut flakes Directions: Mix it all together, minus the coconut. Press out into a flat pan. Cover with coconut. Freeze, then cut into squares. Keep frozen until ready to use.

Anything with Honey and Peanut Butter is delicious !

geez. I think I'll keep paying Hammer and Carb Boom. This is not in ANY WAY a judgment on how you folks spend your time. The recipes are cool, and I get the whole "I want to know what's in what I eat". This is why I prepare 95% of what I eat when I'm not traveling. It's just that I don't have enough hours in a day to make my own gu (ewww). I'm spending all my time making baby carrots and brown rice for lunch.

I like the Starburst gummy snacks with the liquid-filled centers. Yum. The lemon Power Bar gummies with the liquid centers, however, taste like Lemon Pledge. Not that I've actually tasted Lemon Pledge--they taste like the smell of it, I guess.

Perhaps if you are successful you can market your creation. Slo-hand Home made Gu?