I am working on my nutrition plan from now to IMAZ and after. Basically I am eliminating simple sugar and other things.
I was looking at the labels and is rice syrup the same thing as corn syrup? I didn’t know if rice syrup was a simple sugar. I can’t for the life of me remember what food item rice syrup was on.
Clif shot uses rice syrup, I think.
My limited understanding is that corn syrup is a simple sugar - quick release energy (baaaaad) and rice syrup is a complex sugar - longer burning(better). I was wondering this morning what the difference is between corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup is. Anybody know?
When in doubt, wikipedia:
My limited understanding is that corn syrup is a simple sugar - quick release energy (baaaaad) and rice syrup is a complex sugar - longer burning(better).
No such thing as “long burning” versus “short burning.” While there might be “long time to absorb” and “short time to absorb” stuff, it’s all the same molecule by the time it’s available for burning. Some sugars digest more quickly than others. A mix of glucose and fructose (edit: not sucrose, which I typed earlier) has shown some promise as being digested more quickly than either one alone. “Corn syrup” = “high fructose corn syrup” = table sugar = approx. half fructose/half glucose. The gut breaks these sweeteners into separate glucose and fructose molecules pretty much instantly. Then it’s a matter of getting them into the blood stream, through the liver, etc.
Besides, why in the heck would we want to ingest something that takes a long time to be available to use in our muscles? I’ve never understood this old saw about how “slow burning” is a good thing. It’s the opposite of what we want.
The whole point of race fueling is to get fuel to our muscles as fast as possible. It takes a certain amount of energy to cover the race distance. The idea is to produce and use up that energy as fast as possible (within each athlete’s fitness limits, of course). Faster race time = faster rate of energy usage.
rice syrup is maltodextrin (long chain/complex carbo) where as corn is fructrose (simple sugar). All the gels seem to be rice (except for Stinger, which is honey)
While against the commonly held “wisdom” no one has really done a scientific study to say that fructrose is so much worse than long chain. See all those people who use coke before and during (and even after) events. The biggest rap against fructrose is that it is used to make junk food taste great, so you will eat more than you need. In other words, Twinkies are bad for you cause of the chemicals and the amount of sugar you consume, not because of the type of sugar.
Gatorade is made with fructrose.
No such thing as “long burning” versus “short burning.” While there might be “long time to absorb” and “short time to absorb” stuff, it’s all the same molecule by the time it’s available for burning. Some sugars digest more quickly than others. A mix of glucose and sucrose has shown some promise as being digested more quickly than either one alone. “Corn syrup” = “high fructose corn syrup” = table sugar = approx. half sucrose/half glucose. The gut breaks these sweeteners into separate glucose and fructose molecules pretty much instantly. Then it’s a matter of getting them into the blood stream, through the liver, etc.
Besides, why in the heck would we want to ingest something that takes a long time to be available to use in our muscles? I’ve never understood this old saw about how “slow burning” is a good thing. It’s the opposite of what we want.
The whole point of race fueling is to get fuel to our muscles as fast as possible. It takes a certain amount of energy to cover the race distance. The idea is to produce and use up that energy as fast as possible (within each athlete’s fitness limits, of course). Faster race time = faster rate of energy usage.
Can I get an AMEN from the congregation? I have spoken to the best nutritionists in sport today and they all say the same thing, your body does not care between short or long chain.
Fructose has a reputation for irritating your stomach lining and giving you a gut ache. It is a very inexpensive sweetener and that is why it is used by some of the larger companies.