The energy gel market is very specific because it concerns only athletes, and not necessarily athletes in every sport. They are particularly useful for endurance or high-intensity sports. An energy gel is sugar packaged in a small tube that provides a fairly immediate energy boost during intense activity. It is not consumed for pleasure as a snack like a cereal bar. So, what is the best energy gel for sport?
What is an energy gel?
An energy gel, or carbohydrate gel, which is the official term, is a concentrate of different carbohydrates packaged in a small, easily transportable tube or sachet. It generally consists of a blend of several sugars with different glycemic indexes, providing athletes with the glycogen stores they need to maintain or increase their effort and avoid muscle problems.
The glycemic index (or GI), which has become very popular in recent years, is a classification criterion from 1 to 100 for foods containing carbohydrates, based on their effects on blood sugar levels (that is, the level of glucose in the blood) during the 2 hours following ingestion.
Certain sugars, such as glucose or rice syrup, have a very high glycemic index (GI 100) and provide a very rapid energy release for an immediate but short-lived effect. This is the famous sudden boost of energy.
Others with a lower GI, such as agave syrup (GI 15), provide a slower energy release that lasts longer.
That is why Mulebar gels combine rice syrup with agave syrup and fruit concentrate to provide 2 types of energy.
When should you consume an energy gel for sport?
Food enables the human body to build glycogen stores to provide energy for the muscles. The more intense the physical activity, the more the body uses these stores and burns calories. That is why it is strongly recommended to consume specific products, such as energy gels, during training or competition.
The human body does not respond well to extremes—the infamous sudden loss of energy or hunger pangs—which is why moderate, regular intake is preferable during exercise. For example, one sip every 15 minutes during a marathon, or one gel per hour, is a good frequency. If the pace is very intense, you will need to take more. Remember to always drink a little water immediately afterward to remove the sweet taste from your mouth and aid digestion.
You should never wait until you feel tired, let alone until your legs feel like cotton, before recharging your batteries. It is too late! Taking in too much sugar when the body is lacking energy can even trigger reactive hypoglycemia—also known as the “yo-yo” effect—and cause you to fail to finish your race.
Reactive hypoglycemia generally occurs after an excessive intake of sugar, which causes a sudden rise in blood glucose. In response to this hyperglycemia, the body releases a large amount of insulin (a hypoglycemic hormone that enables glucose to be stored in cells), causing blood sugar levels to drop, sometimes too sharply.
Many “beginner” runners experience this problem and very often fail to finish their race. For safety, out of fear of running out of energy, and especially because of inadequate preparation during training in the months leading up to a race, they consume too many gels or too much energy drink—sometimes both together. On the other hand, some well-known brands offer 8 gels in their marathon pack, in addition to powders to mix into a drink. Madness from a sporting perspective, but highly profitable commercially!
Which sports are concerned?
There are certainly sports where consuming an energy gel makes perfect sense. These are generally endurance sports such as cycling, running, and triathlon, which combines the two, where it is not possible to chew a solid product such as an energy bar. More and more team-sport players also consume them at halftime, as do tennis players.
How long does it take to feel the effect of a sports energy gel?
While an energy bar takes around twenty minutes before it begins to be digested and therefore enters the bloodstream, a very fluid energy gel or energy purée enters the bloodstream within 5 minutes of ingestion. These are much more competition-oriented products because they provide a fairly immediate boost before a challenge such as cycling up a mountain pass or every 10 km during a marathon.
What is the best energy gel for sport?
The Mulebar brand, created in 2008, offers a range of 5 energy gels, 4 of which are vegan (the salted caramel contains traces of milk), that have revolutionized a market dominated by pharmaceutical laboratories offering products that are certainly effective (that's not the most difficult part), but not always natural and, above all, completely lacking in flavor.
Mulebar's DNA is to offer 100% natural products made with premium ingredients, featuring a liquid texture that is easy to consume during exercise and highly original flavors.
Many athletic customers tell us that a Mulebar bar, purée, or gel is a real source of comfort during exercise, a reward throughout the course. Enjoying yourself is the most important thing in sport because when the body gives out, it's the mind that takes over to get you through to the end.
Discover our 5 original recipes and how to use them?
As with energy bars and energy purées, Mulebar was a pioneer in the gel market, creating original recipes.
Our energy base is a blend of brown rice syrup with a very high glycemic index for an immediate energy boost and agave syrup with a very low glycemic index for a much slower release, which is essential in endurance sports such as marathon running or trail running.
The low number of ingredients in our recipes and the absence of preservatives, colorants, and other artificial flavorings make our gels easy to digest, even for people with the most sensitive stomachs. Naturally, they're 100% natural!
Here are our 5 energy concentrates in tubes and how to use them:
This is the gel to take at the start of a race. Its cherry juice concentrate provides valuable antioxidants at the beginning of an event to help prevent cramps.
This is also a gel to take at the start of the race. Its concentrated apple juice also provides beneficial antioxidants early in the event to help prevent cramps.
Gel recommended primarily for the middle of the race, though it depends on personal taste.
Gel recommended primarily for the middle and end of races. Its 50 mg of natural caffeine from guarana give you a good kick when your legs start to feel heavy!
Gel recommended primarily for the end of races and nighttime events. Its 100 mg of natural caffeine from coffee and guarana make it the most caffeinated gel on the market. “This stuff could wake the dead,” a professional cyclist who relied on it once told me. Ultra-effective, but not for the faint-hearted—it’s strong coffee!
A unique energy gel on the market!
When my business partner Denis Gargaud-Chanut and I bought the Mulebar brand in 2015, we wanted to innovate in the gel market, dominated by pharmaceutical laboratories and losing momentum because it no longer met new expectations for practicality and naturalness.
The first observation was the pollution caused by the use of non-resealable single-use plastic tubes, from which a little ultra-sticky product always leaks even after consumption. Far too many people then prefer to throw them on the ground rather than soil their gloves, pockets, or bags. And that’s not even mentioning the small plastic tabs that must be snapped off on sachet or “topette” models, which almost systematically end up on the ground because they are so small.
The second was athletes’ demand for products that were smaller, less sweet, less sticky to consume, and made with more natural ingredients to avoid the stomach aches so common during races.
We have therefore found several solutions to meet each of its expectations:
- Tubes equipped with a truly resealable cap that prevents the gel from leaking once opened and, above all, allows it to be consumed in several portions given the excess sugar mentioned just above.
- Reusable tubes: a world first! Long before recycling became fashionable, thanks to the invention of our range of gel eco-refills.
- Rounded ends so our tubes do not puncture delicate technical fabrics that cost a fortune. Those who have experienced this already will appreciate it!
- A smooth texture that is easy to swallow during exercise when your mouth is very dry, without needing to drink too much to wash it down.
- Easy to dilute so you can make a drink from it. Powders eventually dry out and always leave a highly acidic, undissolved deposit at the bottom of the bottle. Our gels can therefore also be used like syrup. Two in one!
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Himalayan pink salt because it is the salt richest in trace minerals in the world. This helps compensate for the loss of mineral salts through sweating.
Mulebar gels among the cheapest on the market
If you want to save money, choose our gel eco-refills. One 444 g bottle contains the equivalent of 12 x 37 g tubes. It costs €20, or €1.66 per gel (before discount codes), whereas a single tube costs €2.60. That is a 36% saving, as well as much less plastic.
Eco-refills let you reuse gel tubes once they have been used and rinsed with hot water. Otherwise, many of our customers prefer to use the small reusable silicone flasks. We have two sizes: the small 60 ml flask, which holds 2 gels, and the 150 ml soft flask, which holds 7.
Where is Mulebar energy gel made?
Mulebar gels are still made in England. When I bought the brand in 2015, after having distributed it in France for six years, I looked for a French service provider. Unfortunately, none was able to fill our highly specific tube; it requires a special machine that is difficult to amortize with our volumes. We therefore preferred to preserve our real difference, our competitive advantage, rather than give in to the siren call of “Made in France,” which would nevertheless have suited us well since Brexit. The English factory is only 600 km from Paris, while quite a few brands sold in France come from much farther away by ship or plane. A possibility is being studied for production in France, which would avoid all the complications related to Brexit.
Against preservatives!
When you choose a food, I recommend checking the ingredient list. If there are terms you don't recognize, don't wait to ask your pharmacist—run away!
Some brands add vitamins to their natural ingredients, even though those vitamins are already present in these foods. It is an interesting marketing argument that appeals to some nutritionists who look only at labels. Generally, these vitamins need to be taken as a course over several weeks to have a beneficial effect on our bodies; taking them occasionally in a gel weighing a few dozen grams will not change anything.
If none of this has convinced you, I invite you to visit the forums, social media, or the Mulebar website, where you will see just how highly our gels are appreciated.
If you don't need energy gels for your sport, try our energy fruit purées, our energy bars and protein bars, or our powdered drinks to dilute (sports drink and hydration drink).
