How BON works

Four ingredients. Four jobs.

The same absorption biology every good gel runs on, built from a label you can read. Names, numbers and trade-offs included.

01 · Raw honey

The fuel

Glucose and fructose, both already single, from one ingredient.

02 · Two doors

Where it gets in

Two transporters in the gut wall, one ceiling each.

03 · Salt + coconut water

What powers the door

Sodium rides in with the sugar. A pump keeps it cycling.

04 · Crushed chia

The gel

One gram nets honey’s own water so you can squeeze it.

01 · Raw honey

The bee did the first step.

Your gut wall only lets single sugars through, so every carbohydrate you eat is cut down to singles before it crosses: enzymes in your small intestine split maltodextrin’s glucose chains and table sugar’s glucose-fructose pairs. Honey arrives with that cut almost entirely made, because the bee’s enzyme, invertase, split nectar’s sucrose in the hive. One step fewer, not a faster fuel.

  1. 01Your gut wall takes sugar one unit at a time: glucose through a door called SGLT1, fructose through a door called GLUT5. Chains and pairs don’t fit until they’re cut. [1]
  2. 02Maltodextrin is a chain of glucose and table sugar is a glucose-fructose pair, so your gut cuts them first: amylase and maltase work the chain, sucrase splits the pair, and each cut uses a water molecule. [2]
  3. 03In the hive, bees add their own enzyme, invertase, and it makes the same cut to nectar’s sucrose while they fan off the water. What’s left is honey: free glucose and fructose, roughly 1 : 1.2, about 85% of its sugar already single. [5][6]
  4. 04Honey arrives as singles, so your gut has almost no cutting to do. Not a faster fuel: a honey gel and a dextrose gel performed the same in trials. One job for your gut instead of two, and gels made from free glucose and fructose arrive this way too. [3][4][7]
  5. 05We buy raw honey and heat the finished gel briefly so it’s shelf-safe. That reduces honey’s own enzyme activity, so we make no live-enzyme claim. The cut made in the hive is already done, and heat can’t undo it. [8]

20 g raw honey per 23 g pouch · about 38% fructose, 31% glucose, 17% water · glucose : fructose roughly 1 : 1.2 · heated briefly at fill for shelf safety

02 · Two doors

Two doors into your blood.

Glucose crosses into your gut wall through one transporter, SGLT1, and fructose through a second, GLUT5; both leave on the blood side through a third, GLUT2. The glucose door tops out around 60 g an hour, so on long days when intake runs past that, fuel carrying both sugars is what keeps the total moving. Every good dual-carb gel is built on this; honey comes with both sugars at roughly 1 : 1.2, from one ingredient.

  1. 01Glucose crosses through SGLT1, which carries two sodium with each sugar. It tops out around 60 grams an hour: take in glucose faster than that and the extra waits in your gut. [9][10]
  2. 02Fructose has its own door, GLUT5: a separate protein with its own limit and no sodium involved, so the total rises to about 90 grams an hour. That is why every good gel blends glucose with fructose. [9][13]
  3. 03Both sugars leave the cell on the blood side through a third door, GLUT2. Glucose goes on to your muscles; fructose detours through your liver and comes back out mostly as glucose and lactate, a little after the glucose. [10][12]
  4. 04Current engineered gels mix the two sugars near 1 : 0.8, glucose to fructose. Honey arrives at about 1 : 1.2, slightly fructose-heavy, the same two-door principle from one ingredient. [11][13]

SGLT1 + GLUT5 in, GLUT2 out · glucose : fructose roughly 1 : 1.2, from 20 g raw honey · 18 g carbohydrate per pouch (per label)

03 · Salt + coconut water

Two sodium for every glucose.

On a long day you are losing sodium and potassium in sweat while asking your gut to move sugar. The glucose door, SGLT1, carries two sodium across with every glucose, and water follows them in. Your gut supplies most of that sodium itself, so the salt here is not a key: it means the carbohydrate arrives with some of what the door uses, and it puts back part of what sweat takes. Coconut water adds potassium, sodium’s partner ion inside every cell.

  1. 01SGLT1, the glucose door, only turns with two sodium and one glucose aboard. Sodium is crowded in your gut fluid and scarce inside the cell, and its push through the door is what carries the glucose in. Most of that sodium is your gut’s own. [14][18]
  2. 02As sodium and glucose cross into your blood, water is drawn through after them. The water has to be there to follow: a concentrated gel on its own pulls water into the gut first, so take it with water, not instead of it. [15][16]
  3. 03A pump on the blood side burns energy to throw three sodium out and pull two potassium in, which keeps the cell low in sodium so the door keeps turning. Every cell in your body runs this same pump; sodium outside and potassium inside is the charge your nerves and muscles fire with. [17]
  4. 04Sweat takes a lot of sodium and some potassium: roughly half a gram to a gram and a half of sodium per litre, depending on the person. One pouch puts back 220 mg of sodium and some potassium: a top-up that arrives with the fuel, not a replacement. [19][20]

220 mg sodium per pouch (0.5 g pink Himalayan salt) · potassium from coconut water powder (see label)

04 · Crushed chia

Chia makes it a gel.

A chia seed’s coat is packed with mucilage, a soluble fiber that swells to about ten times its weight when it meets water. Crushed into honey, it swells in honey’s own water (honey is about 17 percent water) and gives it a body that holds together at rest and flows when squeezed. That is the whole job: one gram turns 20 grams of honey into a gel you can carry through a long race and take in one squeeze at pace. It is not fuel, and at this dose we don’t claim it changes how your gut absorbs the sugar.

  1. 01Honey on its own is a liquid, about 80% sugar and 17% water. It runs, it strings, and in a warm pocket it gets thinner still. [22]
  2. 02Chia’s seed coat is packed with mucilage, a long-chain soluble fiber. Wet it and the chains uncoil and tangle into a net that holds about ten times the seed’s weight in water. [21]
  3. 03Crushed, the fiber spreads through all 20 grams and swells in the honey’s own water; nothing is added. Now the honey holds together, with the salt and coconut water carried in the same gel. [22][23]
  4. 04That’s the endurance job: honey you can tear open and squeeze one-handed two hours in, as one ribbon. Fuel, sodium and potassium arrive together, in one dose. The best fuel is the fuel you keep taking.
  5. 05One gram changes the texture, not the timing: the studies where chia measurably flattened the blood-sugar rise used 7 to 25 grams a serving. Nothing in this dose would change how the sugar gets in, and we don’t claim it does. [24][25]

1 g crushed chia seed powder per 23 g pouch (about 4 percent of the gel) · about 0.3 g fiber, about 0.05 g mucilage

One gut. Four jobs.

That is the whole pouch.

Honey brings both sugars already cut, in the two forms your gut’s two doors take. The glucose door runs on sodium and brings water in with the sugar; a pump on the blood side keeps it cycling with potassium. Sweat takes both ions; the pouch adds some back. Chia holds it together as a gel you can squeeze on the run.

Honey

The fuel

Glucose and fructose, both rings, already cut.

Salt

The sodium

Two per glucose at the door; water follows.

Coconut water

The potassium

What the pump trades and sweat takes. Amount per label.

Chia

The gel

One gram, for texture.

Straight answers

What we don’t claim.

Same textbook biology as the best engineered gels. Four ingredients you can read. The lines below are the trade-offs, stated plainly.

Water

Take it with water.

A gel of free sugar is concentrated; the glucose door brings the water back in.

Speed

Not faster than maltodextrin.

Same performance in trials. One step fewer for your gut, not a race.

Heat

Raw honey in. Heated gel out.

Heated briefly at fill to be shelf-safe. Enzymes stop; the sugars stay cut.

Chia

Chia is texture.

At 1 g it makes a gel. It does not slow or spread the fuel, and we don’t claim it does.

Back to the pouch

FAQ

Short answers. The long ones are in the sources drawer below.

  • It is glucose and fructose, the two sugars every endurance fuel is built from, in the form the bee left them: already cut into singles, roughly 1 : 1.2, with about 17% water and a trace of sucrose. Sugar is the point of a fuel gel. The question is what form it arrives in and what rides with it.

  • The honey we buy is raw. To make the gel shelf-safe it is heated briefly at fill, so we don’t claim live enzymes in the pouch. The enzymes’ work, the cut, was finished in the hive, and heat can’t undo it. The sugars are unchanged.

  • One pouch is 18 g of carbohydrate, in the range of most gels. Research puts the gut’s ceiling near 60 g an hour from glucose alone and about 90 with glucose plus fructose; those are capacities, not targets. Many athletes take two to four pouches an hour on long days and train their gut to it. The pack says as needed, and that is what we mean.

  • No. Your gut supplies most of the sodium the glucose door uses on its own; sodium-free glucose drinks absorb fine. The salt here means the carbohydrate arrives with some of what the door uses, and it puts back part of what sweat takes.

  • Potassium is sodium’s partner inside every cell: the pump on the blood side of your gut cells trades three sodium out for two potassium in, and the same pump runs in every nerve and muscle. Sweat takes some potassium along with a lot of sodium, so coconut water powder puts some back. The amount per pouch is on the label.

  • It is fuel, not a stimulant. Caffeine is a separate decision; make it with coffee if you want it.

  • No. Honey.

SOURCES AND HEDGES25 NOTES

Every number on this page, where it comes from, and where it stops. Captions link here by number.

  1. 01

    Only single sugars cross. The carriers in the intestinal lining move one monosaccharide at a time: SGLT1 carries glucose (and galactose), GLUT5 carries fructose. Pairs and chains are not transported until they are cut. Wright, Loo and Hirayama, Physiological Reviews 2011

  2. 02

    Who does the cutting. Pancreatic amylase breaks starch and maltodextrin into short pieces in the small intestine; the enzymes on the gut wall itself, maltase-glucoamylase and sucrase-isomaltase, finish them to glucose, and sucrase-isomaltase splits table sugar into glucose and fructose. Each cut uses one water molecule. standard digestive physiology

  3. 03

    Maltodextrin is fast too. Glucose and maltodextrin are used at the same rate during exercise, and the cutting step is not what limits how much carbohydrate you can use per hour; the carriers are. Jeukendrup, Sports Medicine 2014

  4. 04

    Honey against dextrose in a trial. In a simulated 64 km cycling time trial a honey gel and a dextrose gel both beat placebo, with no difference between the two. Nothing on this page claims honey is faster. Earnest et al., Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2004

  5. 05

    What is in honey. Averages for American honeys: fructose about 38%, glucose about 31%, water about 17%, maltose about 7%, sucrose about 1%. About 85% of honey’s sugar is already single by weight; the rest is still cut by your own enzymes. White et al., USDA Technical Bulletin 1261, 1962; USDA FoodData Central

  6. 06

    The bee’s enzyme. Honey bees add invertase from their hypopharyngeal glands to nectar as they carry and store it; it cuts nectar’s sucrose into glucose and fructose while the colony fans the nectar down to about 17% water. Nectar is mostly sucrose, and its mix varies by flower. bee physiology, standard references

  7. 07

    Parity, not superiority. Several engineered gels list glucose and fructose directly and reach the gut wall the same way honey does. Honey gets there from one ingredient. As effort rises, blood shifts from the gut toward working muscle; we treat that as a reason to prefer fewer digestive steps, not as a measured performance difference. ter Steege and Kolkman, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2012

  8. 08

    What raw means here. The honey we buy is raw. The finished gel is heated briefly at fill under a process authority letter (2025) that classifies it as a shelf-stable acid food. Heating reduces honey’s own enzyme activity, so we make no live-enzyme claim. Hydrolysis is not reversed by heat: the sugars stay cut. process authority letter, Deibel Labs 2025

  9. 09

    What the 60 and 90 figures are. About 60 g/hour (glucose alone) and about 90 g/hour (glucose plus fructose) are peak rates at which the body burns swallowed carbohydrate in tracer studies; absorption at the gut wall is thought to be the limit. They are capacities, not targets. Jeukendrup, Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care 2010; Sports Medicine 2014

  10. 10

    The two doors. SGLT1 sits on the gut-facing side of the intestinal cell and moves glucose with two sodium ions per sugar; GLUT5 moves fructose with no sodium. Both sugars leave the cell on the blood side through a third transporter, GLUT2. Wright, Loo and Hirayama 2011

  11. 11

    Ratios. Current engineered blends target about 0.8 g fructose per 1 g glucose. Honey is about 1.2 fructose per 1 glucose, slightly fructose-heavy, inside the two-door idea rather than the engineered optimum. Some athletes tolerate fructose-heavy fuel less well at high hourly intakes. Rowlands et al., Sports Medicine 2015; O’Brien and Rowlands 2011

  12. 12

    Fructose’s route. Absorbed fructose travels first to the liver, which converts most of it to glucose and lactate before release into the blood, so it reaches working muscle a little after the glucose. Tappy and Lê, Physiological Reviews 2010; Gonzalez et al. 2017

  13. 13

    Every modern dual-carbohydrate gel uses both doors. BON is not claiming different biology; it gets both sugars from one ingredient. Gut tolerance to high intakes is individual and improves with practice: fuel in training the way you plan to fuel on race day. Pouch counts are in the FAQ; the pack says as needed.

  14. 14

    Two sodium per glucose. SGLT1 binds two sodium ions first, which raises its affinity for glucose, then carries all three across in one cycle. Wright, Loo and Hirayama 2011

  15. 15

    Water. In the original cell studies a couple of hundred water molecules (about 260) moved with each glucose through SGLT1; how tightly they are coupled is still debated. The amount of water that follows in a real gut depends on what is dissolved around it. Loo et al., PNAS 1996; later debate

  16. 16

    Oral rehydration. Pairing glucose with sodium so that water follows is the principle behind oral rehydration solutions. This gel is fuel, not a rehydration drink: take it with water. WHO oral rehydration guidance

  17. 17

    The pump. The Na+/K+-ATPase sits on the blood-facing membrane of every cell, gut cells included. It uses one ATP to move three sodium out and two potassium in, keeping sodium low and potassium high inside the cell. The potassium it uses comes from the blood side, not from the gut contents. Skou 1957 for the enzyme; Post and Jolly 1957 and Garrahan and Glynn 1967 for the 3 : 2 : 1 cycle

  18. 18

    Your gut supplies sodium of its own. The small intestine receives litres of sodium-rich secretions a day, so the fluid at the door is already close to blood in sodium, and sodium-free glucose drinks absorb glucose fine in studies. One pouch’s glucose rides through the door with about 1.6 g of sodium that is pumped straight back to the blood; the pouch brings about 0.22 g of it, the gut lends the rest. intestinal physiology, standard references

  19. 19

    Sweat. Sodium runs roughly 10 to 90 mmol/L between people (about 0.2 to 2 g per litre, about 1 g typical); potassium about 4 to 8 mmol/L (about 160 to 310 mg per litre). A sweat test is the only way to know yours. One pouch’s 220 mg of sodium is about the sodium in a cup of average sweat: a top-up. Baker, Sports Medicine 2017; Baker, Temperature 2019

  20. 20

    Why the diagram says sodium, not salt. Table salt is sodium chloride, and pink Himalayan salt is about 97 to 98% sodium chloride; its trace minerals do nothing at the door. The transporter uses the sodium ion; chloride crosses alongside and counts toward the water pull. The pouch’s 0.5 g of salt is about 197 mg of sodium. Potassium per pouch is the label value.

  21. 21

    Chia mucilage. A soluble polysaccharide built mainly from xylose, glucose and glucuronic acid, held in the outer cells of the seed coat. It swells on contact with water; whole seed takes up roughly 10 to 12 times its weight. Lin et al. 1994; Capitani et al., Journal of Food Engineering 2015; Timilsena et al., Carbohydrate Polymers 2016

  22. 22

    Honey’s water. Honey is about 17% water by weight; the Codex honey standard caps moisture at 20%. The only water in the pouch is honey’s, about 3.4 g in 20 g. Honey has no yield stress: nothing holds it in place until it is pushed, so it strings and drips. USDA FoodData Central; Codex Alimentarius

  23. 23

    How much chia. Chia seed is about 34% fiber by weight, so 1 g carries about 0.34 g; the seed is roughly 5 to 6% mucilage, so one pouch carries about 0.05 g. USDA FoodData Central

  24. 24

    Dose. Viscous soluble fibers slow stomach emptying and flatten the rise in blood glucose after a meal. Chia has shown this in people at 7 to 25 g per serving; whole and ground seed acted alike. One pouch has 1 g: 7 to 25 times less chia, and 2.5 to 9 times less per gram of carbohydrate. We don’t claim a change in how the sugar gets in at this dose. Vuksan et al. 2010; Ho et al. 2013; Vuksan et al. 2017

  25. 25

    Thickeners. Most gels use a thickener (pectin, xanthan, gellan or alginate); chia mucilage is a hydrocolloid from a seed doing the same job. None of them is fuel, and at the amounts used in gels the choice of thickener does not change how the sugars are absorbed.