Just In: 33Shake nutrition

33Shake is a sports nutrition brand that looks to be offering something a little different from the norm, using natural superfoods with the aim of boosting endurance, and we have some of their products in for review.

The 33Shake lineup is the creation of endurance athlete Warren Pole.

“After years of running ultramarathons and gagging on minging gels and bars, I cut the lot from my diet and saw an instant improvement in performance,” says Warren. “I then started looking for natural alternatives that would boost my endurance, improve fat-burning, strengthen my immune system against the demands of heavy training and racing, and help my recovery.

“Every time I met an elite endurance athlete through the day job – writing – I asked what they ate. Especially among the ultra community, superfoods kept cropping up. I tried following their lead and… disaster. The stuff cost a packet, tasted hideous, and ruined almost every meal I added it to leaving me hungry and no better off than I had been before.”

So Warren set about developing his own nutrition lineup with Canadian superfood expert Dan Lameire. The result was the 33Shake.

“It blew my performance out of the water, and gave my health a massive shot in the arm,” says Warren. “In the 18 months I’ve been taking it I have not been ill once despite an increased training and racing load on top of a lot more work, I’ve cut my asthma medication by 75% having been unable to cut it at all for 36 years, and I have smashed all my previous PBs.”

Of course, Warren is bound to say good things about his own product, so we have it in to test for ourselves. Be warned, though, that the 33Shake isn’t cheap; it’ll cost you from £5.99 per shake.

“By their very nature these are expensive to produce – 33 raw, natural ingredients, zero filler, no additives or preservatives, 100% handmade – so they are an elite product for forward-thinking athletes who understand their use,” says Warren. “ We have a lot of customers who simply use them very sparingly for support over seriously intense events rather than as a dietary mainstay.”

33Shake contains fats from sources including hemp seeds and flaxseeds, the idea being to optimise your fat-burning abilities, natural antioxidants to fight the free radicals created by intense exercise, natural alkalises for your immune system, and proteins including spirulina for recovery. The low-GI natural sugars are intended to offer stable energy without sugar spikes.

33Shake have recently launched the Chia Energy Gel too, chia being a plant from the mint family. Each gel provides a mix of carbs, proteins, Omega-3s and antioxidants, 90 calories per serving. Again, the idea here is that you get natural and low-GI sugars for sustainable performance without sugar spikes, along with a natural electrolyte blend to replace the electrolytes you lose as you sweat.

Unusually, the Chia Energy Gels are supplied in dry form. You add liquid and leave it for 10 minutes, and you need to consume the resulting gel within 24 hours. Why is it supplied dry? The idea is to save weight in long events.

Prices start at £1.79 per gel. All orders include free delivery and a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you’re interested, head to www.33shake.com and look out for reviews on road.cc soon.