Not yet, I’ll try to take one on the next batch. Probably need to rig up a tripod - don’t want to be fooling around with the phone while handling boiling syrup!
Here you go. DIY Gel prep - YouTube
Riveting youtube content 
. Boiled over, but managed not to drop my phone in the boiling gel 
. The end product is pretty much ideal consistency for me with that length of boil.
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Shared this video on the Unbound 2023 group. 
Pretty curious about how “hydrogel” even works? Is it just because it’s thick? I don’t think the pH is relevant to how it reduces GI distress as the hydrogel products are pH neutral. Also the pH of gastric acid varies case by case right? So is the formation of the hydrogel really sensitive to pH or not?
Alright thanks for the explanation. Any way to replicate this? What testing would I need to do?
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Alright here’s the ingredients of the hydrogel and their function:
Sodium Alginate forms the primary gel network and responds to pH changes
Calcium Carbonate provides calcium ions for crosslinking and acts as a buffer, helping to maintain the gel’s structure in acidic environments and promoting its degradation in the intestine
Gluconic Acid adjusts the pH and forms
soluble calcium gluconate for
controlled calcium release
Here is the procedure to make the hydrogel, remember all figures are ballpark estimates and need experimentation done to find optimal amounts.
Prepare carb solution: 40g of water soluble carbohydrates with 20-25g of water and mix till consistent.
After it’s mixed add in 0.6-1.2g of sodium alginate.
When thats completely mixed add enough gluconic acid so the gel has a pH of around 6 as Maurten’s gel is pH neutral. I would use pH test strips or a pH meter.
Now add your calcium carbonate till the hydrogel forms
Experiment and give feedback if you do
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I think you may be able to make a pH sensitive hydrogel with just pectin and sodium alginate and maybe just pectin but I am looking into it
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Yeah ofc too much about the sodium bicarb vs the pH sensitive hydrogels carb gels. I think you may be able to just use pectin and sodium alginate. I think the sodium alginate with the calcium carbonate and the gluconic acid to release calcium ions from the calcium carbonate initiating crosslinking than the gluconic acid turns into a salt. Issue is I can’t find gluconic acid aka d-gluconic acid anywhere asides china and china has really expensive shipping. If anyone from the Bay area wants to put in some money for funding ingredients in bulk I’d be down.
those studies were bad and made by SIS to paint maurten in a bad light.
got the ingredients down. using dif ingredients than maurten but not gonna tell yall. its cheaper and works the same as maurten and its very easy to buy the ingredients.
Why would you post “I figured it out but I’m not going to share”?
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Secret for now but it’s sodium alginate and a crosslinking agent that doesn’t require a acid to be water soluble. If anyone can provide a good source of gluconic acid that would be appreciated.
I have a good source. But it’s a secret.
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Mine is better, and more secret.
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Lol I’m just messing with you guys
Probably gonna be something like sodium alginate and calcium carbonate. Another methodology could be just not using the gluconic acid and allowing the hydrogel to form in the stomach acid where the calcium carbonate is broken down and made soluble therefore forming the hydrogel. Interesting tech would love to do some testing myself but more people trying it out the better.
I’m actually not super confident about the hydrogel-intestine interaction. Does the hydrogel have to break down in mildy alkaline environments like the intestine which has a pH of 7.5-8.5? If so than would enriching the hydrogel with some pH neutral food dye than putting it into a water/bicarb solution and observing whether or not the hydrogel breaks down? I don’t think I fully understand the intestine.
You guys should read this it gives away the recipe
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2019/fo/c9fo01617a
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Hehe, no problem mate. I do believe you might be looking for the marginalst of maginal gains here. And I would definitely not source obscure ingredients from China without testing them. I think all this time and money could be better spend on just training the gut. Just do long rides on 100+ g/h of regular malto/fructo mixes should get you most of the way.
According to your article:
No negative GI symptoms was observed for either of the test drink or the control despite their high content of digestible CHO.
However, I do appreciate your endeavor to unlock the Maurten-formula. And who knows, maybe next year we are all adding sodium algonate and calcium carbonate to our mixes.
I think that study looked at gi distress below 65% of vo2 max. Below 65% of vo2 max GI distress is much more unlikely but above it it’s much much more likely (because of blood leaving the intestine or something idk). The main goal with the hydrogels is to keep the carbs encapsulated and safe from the acids and stop them from sloshing around and causing a disturbance but also they have a a faster gastric emptying time meaning you can use them quicker (I think there is isotope tracer data to back this up)
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This is a great find. One thing — they make all of the ingredient amounts crystal clear in Table 1, except for the sodium alginate and the pectin. They say “total polysaccharide concentration was 0.2% (in the dissolved drink) and the ratio of alginate to pectin was 60 : 40.” Elsewhere in the paper they just refer to it as “0.2 wt%”.
Can someone explain to me the math, because doing what I would think is correct — multiplying their 201g of water by the 0.2% concentration (201*0.002) — comes out to an absurdly low number of 0.4g of total polysaccharide, and the 60:40 split would then mean .24g of alginate and .16g of pectin. Can that be correct?
I also can’t seem to work backwards on their “14 wt%” of carb content in order to confirm how they’re running the math. In the test drink, they are using 201g of water and 31.7g of carb. 14% of 201g is 28.14g, which doesn’t match. Doing the math the other way, 31.7/201 results in 15.7%.
On the control drink, they’re using the same 31.7g of carb, but the water content is 224. 31.7/224 = 14.15%, but why would that match the weight but the test drink wouldn’t?
Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.