Episode 177 - Nerd Clusters vs Maurten Gels – What’s Better for Fuelling Triathlon?

Nerd Clusters vs Maurten Gels – What’s Better for Fuelling Triathlon?

Today, we're diving headfirst into the sweet and sticky world of fueling strategies with a showdown you didn't know you needed – Nerd Clusters versus Maurten Gels. Which one will emerge victorious as your ultimate race ally? Whether you're a seasoned triathlete or just dipping your toes in the endurance waters, my take on this may get you looking at candy in an entirely different way.

You might wonder how I ended up comparing candy to scientifically formulated sports nutrition. Well, it all started with a wild Instagram reel of a doctor fueling their Ironman entirely with Nerd Clusters. As you'd expect, this sparked a heated debate in our Triathlon Nutrition Academy Power Hour, and voilà – here we are, dedicating an entire episode post to dissecting this quirky yet fascinating question.

Tune in to find out who is crowned the winner!

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Episode Transcription

Episode 177: Nerd Clusters vs Maurten Gels – What’s Better for Fuelling Triathlon?

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

Taryn: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I'm your host, Taryn. I'm an advanced sports dietitian from Brisbane, Australia, and I've been working with triathlon for almost two decades, which makes me feel very old actually. And today we are breaking it down with the topic that you needed to put in your ear holes today.

Whether you should have nerd clusters. Or Maurten gels for your fueling. So can you really swap a handful of nerd clusters and still smash your training in racing? Today, we're going to dive into the ultimate endurance fueling showdown. Sports nutrition versus candy aisle convenience.

Let's do it. [00:01:00] So if you've ever wondered whether you need expensive sports nutrition products or something like Nerd Clusters can do the job just as well, you're in the right place. We're going to break down the carbohydrate content, the sodium levels, gut comfort, practicality, and all the things to understand.

Real world performance of these two fueling options. So you can make the best choice for your training and racing. Now there is a bit of a backstory about how this episode came about. So please bear with me because there is method to the madness as always. It is something that my TNA or triathlon nutrition Academy athletes shared with me in power hour a couple of weeks back.

Actually, there was a real on Instagram of a doctor using entirely nerd clusters to fuel Ironman training and racing. And they're like, what on earth, what do you think, Taryn? Of course it sparked [00:02:00] some robust discussion and we really dived into all the, the factors and the components that go into nerd clusters.

It was so much fun actually. 

And I thought I would do just a little bit of a real remix, but I've decided to dedicate an entire podcast episode to this topic because I think it's really valuable. I think it's something that we need to discuss and be open around that. So. That is where this episode came from.

I hope you enjoy it, but we really need to understand, I guess, Carbohydrate, its role in endurance performance and the science behind why we do what we do and why fueling properly actually matters. Because it's not just, you know, random social media content that you can absorb that you should follow blindly without having some understanding around what goes into our decision making as well educated triathletes.

So here are my insights from a triathlon dietitian, Nerd [00:03:00] Clusters vs Maurten Gels.

So I guess we need to start with what actually are nerd clusters. I had never heard of them. Now that probably doesn't surprise you as a dietitian, but I am not averse with the candy aisle or the lolly aisle in the supermarket. I know the major things, but I did not know nerd clusters existed until it was brought to my attention.

And so I did buy them actually bought a small packet to try them on the weekend and they sat on my desk and I got stuck in meetings for multiple hours and I ended up eating them all. Instead of using them to record this podcast episode. So this morning I went out and bought a packet and all I could find was the big one.

So they're open now and will need to be eaten, but it took me right back to childhood. I haven't eaten nerds since I was a kid and they are quite delicious and nerd clusters are pretty damn good as well. They've got nerds around like a gummy center. So nerds. [00:04:00] on their own would be impossible to have while you're on the bike while you're running.

Can you imagine trying to shake the box into your hand and then try and get them into your mouth or up on your tongue? That would be impossible. But the gummy clusters are actually like, all right, they are quite, uh, like neat and tidy. They don't break off into bits and things like that, but I guess they're a popular candy choice, particularly in the U.S. and they are available in Australia. They are very high in simple sugars. so the first three ingredients are corn syrup, which because they're American, I'm assuming that's high fructose corn syrup, sugar and dextrose. And then the rest of it is I don't know, stuff basically, artificial colors, artificial flavors, chemicals.

They are quite cheap and easily available. So the big bag in Australia cost me 6. 20 and the smaller one was something like 4. 50. They taste delicious and [00:05:00] obviously they're a bit of a fun factor to shake up your training nutrition as well.

And it could be an interesting addition to your plan if you were that way inclined. Now, our Maurten gels, I've got the caffeinated one here on my desk. It is slightly different nutritionally compared to the normal gel. So I'm going to compare Nerd Clusters to the normal Maurten Gel 100, not the caffeine version because some of the nutritional components differ.

But I guess this guy has been scientifically formulated for endurance sport. It is. Commercialized sports nutrition products. It is designed for a purpose whereas nerd clusters are designed for not endurance sports exercise. So the thing about Maurten is it has the hydrogel technology.

It is what Maurten is famous for. And if you're not sure exactly what that is, I did do a podcast episode way back episode 47 with Andy King, all about hydrogel technology and whether or not it is advantageous for [00:06:00] endurance performance. So go back and take a listen to that. If you haven't already, that was an.

Awesome conversation. He was a co author on a paper testing independently, Maurten gels or the Hydrogel technology specifically, whether that actually improved endurance performance or not. So well worth that. Listen, if you haven't dived back into the archives, episode 47. I'll link it in the show notes so you can jump straight to it after you've finished this episode.

So one Maurten gel is a 40 gram serving and it contains 25 grams of carbohydrate. Now it is formulated in the magical two is to one glucose to fructose ratio, which is, said to be optimal. I don't think it has to be that specifically because it just depends on what your fueling strategy is, but it was designed I guess for gut comfort to Help people tolerate higher levels of fueling easily.

it was originally designed for the two hour marathon world record attempt many years ago, [00:07:00] probably 10 years ago now, and then it became commercially available for everyone. And now it's available on Ironman branded courses around the world. It is the most expensive gel on the market, so it's really easy to compare something that's quite expensive to something that's quite cheap.

But I guess the method behind the madness of people using something like Nerd Clusters for fueling is that it is far cheaper than trying to do your entire fueling strategy on a very expensive gel. The cost When you're doing it for multiple hours, say on a six hour ride, and you'd have a couple of gels an hour, that's a very expensive ride.

And if you've got quite a lot of weeks like that, and then don't forget, you've got your race, the cost is going to build up and accumulate very quickly when we are using quite an expensive product. So I understand why you'd be looking for more cheaper alternatives. Um, but nutritionally let's break down the nerd clusters versus the Maurten [00:08:00] gels.

Let me get all nerdy and sports dietitian on you so that we can actually do some analysis on what is the difference and what is the similarities and some of the pros and cons to both. When we're comparing things we want to match the grams or the ounces so that they are the same and we're comparing like for like.

So I've calculated my comparison on 40 grams of nerd clusters because a Maurten gel 100 is 40 grams. so per 40 gram serving nerd clusters have about 34 grams of carbs compared to the Maurten gel, which has 25 grams of carbs. So nerd clusters are definitely up there with a higher amount of carbohydrate per gram or per ounce.

The carbohydrate type for the nerd clusters is still glucose and fructose. I don't know exactly what ratio it's in. I have the skills to figure it out and my TNA athletes have the skills to figure it out.

But I would probably suggest that the average [00:09:00] triathlete wouldn't have no idea how to figure out the glucose to fructose ratio in a product like this, whereas the Maurten gels, they have glucose and fructose, but in the ratio two is to one. So for every two grams of glucose, there is one gram of fructose.

And that said to be. optimal for fueling when we're fueling above 60 grams an hour, but there's way more in that that I'm not going to dive into right now. That's just a very simplified global version of an answer, but there's way more nuances and specifics. The sodium of nerd clusters, because that is something we need to look at when we are doing endurance exercise.

So per 40 grams of nerd clusters, you've got 63. 6 milligrams of sodium compared to the Maurten gel 100. It has 85 milligrams of sodium per gel. so slightly more, we're not talking big differences here though. They're small. nuances in the numbers. [00:10:00] If you look at this gel 100 with caffeine though, it only has 55 milligrams of sodium.

So that's actually less than the NERD clusters per 40 gram serving. Now cost is probably where this fueling strategy came about. I'm going to give you a cost breakdown in Australia and America, because I know we have listeners all over the world. So Australia first, the big bag, the five ounce, 141 gram bag of nerd clusters cost me $6.50, so if we're breaking this down into 40 gram serves, it was a $1.76 per serve.

Compared to buying a Maurten gel here in Australia, they're about 5. So very expensive for an individual gel. There's obviously cheaper ways to get it slightly. If you buy big bulk packs and things like that. I don't know if they ever go on sale, maybe. but that was the cost for one gel. Now because nerds are from the [00:11:00] U S they are way cheaper to buy in the U S than they are in Australia, because I'm fairly sure the air mile cost to get them here is quite high, but I had a look on the Walmart website and you can get a same size bag, the five ounce bag. From Walmart,

so much cheaper. So in us dollars, they are 79 cents per 40 gram serving compared to a Maurten gel in the US they are 3.75 per gel in us dollars. So huge, big cost difference there. And if you're relying on a lot of it. Like I said before, that cost is going to add up now, a couple of other factors that we want to consider when it comes to having nerd clusters or any other candy really is depends how purist you are with your nutrition, because nerds have got a shit load.

technical term, a shit load of artificial colors and flavors. And you need to be really comfortable having that amount of stuff in your body. If you're going to have [00:12:00] a crap load of these as your fueling strategy, a lot of candy products will look like that on their nutrition information. Panel like their ingredient list.

There is definitely a trend for candy or lollies to be moving away from that, though, I don't know if you've noticed, but like we have natural confectionery company here in Australia, they've been around for a long time and they don't use artificial colors and flavors. They use natural colors and flavors from things like beetroot, et cetera.

So. Candy is definitely moving that way, but I don't think you can get really bright, fluorescent colors like Nerds from a natural food source. So they're very much artificially colored and some people don't tolerate that. Uh, and it's not something I would ever give to kids either is that amount of artificial coloring and all of those numbers on the packet.

So that is one thing to consider with those. , and then I guess the Maurten gel has the option of caffeine, which you're not going to get from nerd clusters, but you can definitely get it from [00:13:00] other ways if you are that way inclined. So let's go through a little bit of a pros and cons list that I put together so that there is, I guess, some thought process around this fueling strategy.

We're not just blindly following something we've seen on social media. So for nerd clusters, some of the pros could be that it tastes great. And for people that don't like gels, they could be a good addition to a plan. They are very much cheaper to commercial sports nutrition or particularly Maurten, but there are other cheaper sports nutrition products on the market, or you can also make your own.

They are quite readily available. I don't know about other places in the world, but they were just in the supermarket here in Australia. They would definitely be available in the supermarket in the US and Walmart and probably gas stations and things like that as well. Some of the cons around this strategy is that they would be really difficult to carry.

Just logistically, where are you going to put all these things? Like they're tiny, you bento box with them, [00:14:00] but if it rains, like I did. Test them out. I went deep. I put one in a cup of water to see what happened. And yet the color just leached everywhere. So they would make an absolute mess if they did get wet or if you're dripping sweat into your bento box.

So the, just the logistics of carrying them and particularly a lot of them are going to be quite challenging. , They are also quite hard to chew, and I can't imagine doing a long course event with a lot of them because of the chew factor. I feel like your jaw would get quite sore. Even if you kept them on your person and they were warm and softer, you are still doing a fair bit of chewing to get them down.

They are quite sour, and even just thinking about it, I have saliva. spurting into my mouth and underneath my jawline is getting that like sour sensation, just thinking about it. They are also very sweet. And so if you've got a long course [00:15:00] event and you're relying heavily on them as your fueling strategy.

you may get flavor fatigue and just over having so much sweet. I'm not a hundred percent sure how much glucose and fructose is in them. I could figure it out, but it's something to consider as you're going to have to do that sleuthing to really dial in your fueling strategy because you shouldn't just blindly have all of this stuff at 100 grams an hour and have no idea how you're breaking that down.

The Maurten gels. So some of the Pros with these is that I guess they're designed specifically for sport. They are precise dosing. So we're not having to get kitchen scales out to weigh our servings of nerds and put them into little individual baggies and things like that. You've got a very portable, easy, convenient, 25 gram hit of carbohydrate in a gel packet that should be easy to open and keep on your bike or on your person, wherever you're going to store it. And they're not too heavy. So really much more practical in terms [00:16:00] of fueling during training in a race, they may have less GI upset because of their hydrogel technology. It encapsulates that carbohydrate to help the digestive process in a very simplified way of describing that technology, but you know, they're portable, they're clean, and they're a nice little hit. They have also quite a neutral taste. Most of you have probably tasted them at some point or another, but they're very kind of mild neutral.

They're not very sweet, which is where gels are moving is, is knocking out all that really sweet. Flavor that is in gel products, and that can help with flavor fatigue, particularly for the more longer course athletes that are doing maybe more sweet fueling negatives though, are they are bloody expensive.

That cost, if you consider all of your training sessions, your big peak weeks and things that cost is going to add up significantly. If you are leaning on them quite heavily. And I guess another [00:17:00] con is their texture for some athletes is quite off putting.

They have a very. interesting, slippery, hydrogel kind of texture. I liken them to the term snot rockets and people like, Oh yeah, that makes sense. But if, if you haven't tried them, you will now understand what that texture is like. Some people don't mind it. And I know other people just absolutely hate it.

Can't do it. Can't swallow it. So that is definitely a con. If you can't get your sports nutrition to go from your mouth further down your gastrointestinal tract, where it's actually going to be useful in terms of gut comfort. I guess what, what is easier on the gut and it would come down to the individual and it would definitely be personal preference Maurten's hydro gel technology to create that, you know, gel like structure.

designed to help to reduce the GI issues that can be common with high carb fueling, nerd clusters are very much just pure [00:18:00] sugar, and they're going to digest and absorb quite rapidly and cause a massive spike in your blood sugar levels, which if you have any insulin resistance or, you know, one or type two diabetes, or that's something that you are.

If you're not interested in, then I'd probably steer you away from nerd clusters, to be honest, because there are much healthier ways to get carbohydrate in than, than doing that to your body. but if you do have quite a large portion in a short space of time, they are more likely to cause gut upset compared to something like a Maurten gel.

But individual tolerance as always is what matters and you know, for some triathletes, that might be totally fine and they've got iron guts and it's not problematic whatsoever while others are really going to struggle with doing that. And that's just understanding you and what you're like,

what one should you choose for your race or training? And I think for shorter sessions, you could probably get away with doing some fueling with nerd clusters if you wanted to. Yep. [00:19:00] Yep. The dietician said that. This is recorded, Oh no, but they might work if you've got it paired with hydration and some other things that you need for your unique, you know, hydration status, sodium status, all those types of things.

It could be okay for longer course though. So thinking 70. 3 140. 6 at full distance racing. I think a structured sports nutrition strategy is going to be a much better bet than winging it with some nerd clusters and just hoping for the best. It doesn't have to be Maurten. I'm not saying you need to go use Maurten gels over anything else.

There are much cheaper products on the market and there are plenty of ways to skin a cat, so to speak. You can make your own sports nutrition products if cost is a hindrance for you.

Your personal preference and tolerance should a hundred percent come into play. It's something you want to try in training first to do on race day. If that's what you choose, it's not something you want to dabble with in your [00:20:00] race for the first time because the golden rule of racing is remember. Never try anything new on race day

while nerd clusters are what we're talking about today as a DIY alternative to sports nutrition products. This would go for any type of candy or lolly, right? It doesn't have to be nerd clusters. Like think jelly beans, jelly snakes, gummy bears, whatever. It's all about the same. It is all different types of rapidly absorbed carbohydrates or sugar.

Sometimes there's artificial colours and flavours and things like that, but you need to think about the same thought processes that we've gone through today with nerd clusters with the other type of candy that could be an option. The world is really your oyster when you walk down that candy aisle in the supermarket.

And there are plenty of straight sugar alternatives that you could put into your plan if that's what you wanted to do. And if you are a savoury person and this chat about nerd clusters is just making you feel sick to your stomach, then don't stress. There are plenty of [00:21:00] savoury options that you can use for your fueling.

In fact, I've written an entire recipe book. On homemade sports nutrition products called the fuel your adventure book that you can grab at dietitianapproved.com/recipes. If you scroll down, you'll find it there, but inside are lots of energy bars, energy gels, and even some savoury options to help you fuel without having to blow the budget on commercial sports nutrition products.

There's even two recipes for homemade sports drink in that book. So if you do want to grab it, I'll link it in the show notes as well, but that can be a handy arsenal to save some money and also have the added benefit of some nutrients when it comes to your fueling.

Okay. So what is the takeaway of this madness and some action steps for you moving forwards? Cause I'm very much a practitioner. I love to get practical while nerd clusters are fun. They're definitely more budget friendly. They're not a complete fueling source. And if you are serious about your endurance training and racing, then I'd 

[00:22:00] probably suggest you don't rely so heavily on them to do all the things because they aren't complete. They don't have any hydration. They don't have the right amounts of fuel. They don't have the right amount of sodium, depending on what your needs are. And so you really need to understand what your targets are that you're trying to dial in and then we can use products to fit that and hey, maybe there's some nerd clusters sprinkled throughout for a different taste reset or a bit of fun or whatever it is that we're trying to do, but I probably wouldn't suggest you do an entire Ironman or nerd clusters.

But if you do, hey, let me know how that goes. I would definitely try it in training if it's something that you want to do and see if it works for you. Make sure you've got all of your levers covered though. So fueling, sodium, hydration, caffeine, if you are going to use nerd clusters, you are probably going to have to add some stuff to that rather than rely solely on that.

And. Importantly, think about the [00:23:00] ease of use in your race, like where on earth are you going to put these things and how are you going to carry them and how are you going to open packets? Like all that needs to come into consideration. There is no point having this perfectly formulated plan for when you're sitting on the wind trainer at home and you've got everything on a table next to you, you need to translate that training nutrition into racing nutrition.

And a big part of that is the logistics of where it's going to go and how you're going to carry it.

As always, never try anything new on race day, try it in training first, tweak and finesse so that you have all of the levers dialed in and it's very well rehearsed before you actually go and do the big dance. Now, I can't believe this episode is gone for as long as it has. I really thought it would be over quite quickly, but it turns out I have a lot to say about nerd clusters versus gels.

Please let me know in the Dietitian Approved Crew Facebook group what you think, have you ever tried nerd clusters while you're exercising, or you just love them [00:24:00] outside of training? Come and join the chat because when we talked about it in our Triathlon Nutrition Academy Power Hours, people had a lot to say about nerd clusters.

And hey, if you need help with a solid fueling plan, Make sure you check out my triathlon nutrition kickstart course. It is a great stepping stone into the TNA program and can help you tick off some big things like fueling and recovery while you wait till doors open next. So head to dietitianapproved.com/kickstart to check that out. All right. Thank you for joining me for this madness of an episode. I've had a lot of fun recording it. I will see you next week for some more science-backed guidance.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!