I recently read Born to Run, which tells a story about the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico who runs tribe events that last 100+ miles. The author explores how it's possible for a group of tribesmen without any of the running advances that we have in the western world to have a group of people who are capable of such long distance running and without without injury. I'll be doing a full book review soon. One thing that really got my wheels turning was that the Tarahumara fuel themselves solely on a mixture consisting of chia seeds for these long runs. I've been interested in how I can incorporate chia seeds into my training. And with all this new found time on my hands I did some exploring and discovered this product...huma.
huma was created by two post military grad school students who had read the book Born to Run and were also intrigued by this chia seed mixture fueling long distance runners in the Copper Canyons of Mexico. They claim it to be completely natural, better for you and tasting great. I was pumped! I found the solution. However, they cost over $2 a pop! Not the best choice for me. So I continued on my exploration and discovered a homemade chia seed energy gel posted on No Meat Athlete. Here is the recipe. Funnily enough, I had all of the ingredients on hand so I decided to give it a shot!
Orange-Pineapple Chia Energy Gel
I won't be posting the recipe so if you're interested you should definitely look it up at its original source (see link above). However, I will show you the process as I experienced it.
First you mix the chia seeds with 3/8 cup of water (which turns out to be 3 ounces).
First you mix the chia seeds with 3/8 cup of water (which turns out to be 3 ounces).
The picture on the left shows the chia seeds immediately immersed and the one on the right is it congealing only after 2 minutes!
Next you peel the orange and place both orange and pineapple in the blender and blend smooth (the fruit mixture made enough extra that I could make two more batches of gels, so I froze the extra for later). Then mix the pureed fruit with the congealed chia seeds.
Mix in the remainder of the ingredients: brown rice syrup, electrolyte mix, and pectin and put in a sauce pan (I didn't have salt substitute for the electrolyte mix so I just used table salt, you could definitely taste the salt in the final product but I wouldn't say it was salty, just FYI).
The instructions say to cook on low-medium heat until a roaring simmer but, I had to put it on medium to get that kind of bubbling going on. Then place in a jar to keeping until use.
After cooling, it gets to be more of a gel consistency. It's weird that it turned a green color. Not the most appetizing looking, I admit, but I tasted it and it's surprisingly fruity and not too sweet, which is a huge plus for me since all store bought fuel is SO sweet! Can't wait to try it on a work out!