One of the most popular posts I have ever written is “A Real Conversation About Unreal Food,” which I wrote in August of 2012.  The post discusses a British Medical Journal article written by Timothy Noakes (of Waterlogged fame), and continues to bring traffic around to Salty Running, having received its latest comment just a couple days ago.  The BMJ article is heavily critical of certain sport science institutions that are funded by companies that make sports drinks, gels and other consumable items (hey, kind of like how USATF takes money from Nike!), and the responses of named scientists are definitely worth a read in addition to the article itself.

But my piece wasn’t as much reporting on the article as it was using the article to support a suspicion that had been growing within me for some time, which is that real, whole food and pure water are the best possible fuel for athletes 100% of the time.

I continue to believe that is true, but now that I have another marathon under my belt – a marathon during which I bonked, no less – I feel like I’ve learned a thing or two about sport fuel alternatives.  I’m not knocking the gel-lovers out there; if you like it and it works, good for you!  But there are lots of options available for those of us who don’t want to swallow things like “glycerol ester of wood rosin” or “yellow #6” during our next race. Read more >>