I need the calories from the gels, since I can't really eat food.

Gu chomps don't have sea salt in them. I'm not wild about them because they stick to my teeth, but I think I could deal with them.

Thanks to the miracle of the internet, I've researched the ingredients of some other products. Clif shots are out because they also have sea salt, but Power gels and Honeystinger don't.

Today I tried Power gels in two flavors -- vanilla and tangerine. Fortunately they've made changes to the product so now it's actually thinner than Gu. The vanilla was okay but very sweet. The tangerine tasted too much like chemicals. I'll probably try a couple of other flavors to see if there are any that are okay. The good thing is that it has tons of sodium -- 200 mg, which is twice the amount in Roctane.

I forgot to put the Honeystinger in my bike bag today so I will try it on my next ride. I bought the "gold" flavor, which I guess is just honey flavor.

The sea salt allergy is related to my shellfish allergy, I think. The worst reaction I've had was from Newman's Own pepperoni pizza. They use sea salt to cure the pepperoni so I think it was pretty concentrated. I broke out in hives.

I don't think I've had any reaction to the Gu, although I do tend to be congested after bike rides so that might be related to the sea salt. But I want to avoid even small amounts because I think repeated exposure to an allergen causes the reactions to get more severe over time.

I have an appointment with my allergist to talk to him about it.

The weird thing is that sea salt is commonly used in foods in order to reduce the sodium content. I don't understand why they would use it in Gu.