I agree that stuff is gut wrenching.
There seems to be some confusion of how carbs break down in the body and it reacts to you as an athlete, unfortunately do to tons of marketing.
I own a sports nutrition company, and I have my thesis in Carbohydrate Science and central nervous system fatigue in athletes, but I do not have a competitive product to any of the products mentioned so I am not trying to plug anything for my company.
First: Sucrose and HFCS are not even close in how they break down in the body
HFCS does destroy your liver cells and that is why it seems to cause some bad stomach aches or even worse.
The Gatorade mix is actually a great drink mix because your bodies are used to it, and it has a high oxidation level, which means that your body is getting glucose at a faster rate. This is a good thing, because your brain is actually burning glucose faster than you can digest it. The faster oxidation helps delay onset of muscle fatigue over any drinks containing maltodextrins.
Your long burning carbs should come in easily digested small meals, like bars, gels, mini ham sandwiches etc…
Now depending if you are an Ironman or sprint triathlete should also dictate how much protien you are taking in. Any endurance athlete in an event over 6 hours should have a “small” amount of protien that is well tolerated, other than that you don’t need protein.
I have to agree with most of you about Gatorade. I don’t think it would be good for any of you to have a different sponsor come in.
#1, Gatorade has cash and that benefits you
#2 It is pretty much available anywhere
#3 It’s well tolerated if it is watered down a bit.
Don’t buy into the maltodextrin crap marketing, it’s all BS.
Just make sure your hydrated, got easy to digest foods that you are used to and don’t try anything new on race day.
If you use your own brands or mixtures of them, make sure you have someone feeding you so you don’t get caught taking something your body doesn’t agree with.
JG
Hope that helps
And you would know this because…??? 
Anyway, I agree, but I’m not saying how I know.
I cannot stand Heed. Lemon-lime Gatorade or lemon-lime Clif - goood.
pardon my ignorance, but what is HFCS?
pardon my ignorance, but what is HFCS?
High fructose Corn Syrup
**Also, Gatorade endurance doesn’t have HFCS in it either. If that’s changed in the last few months, I apologize. **
I don’t know about a few months ago, but I am looking at the ingredients on a bottle right now.
It has: water, sucrose syrup, high fructose corn syrup (glucose-fructose syrup), citric acid, sodium citrate, natural and artificial flavors, monopotassium phosphate, salt, calcium lactate, yellow 6, glyerol, ester of wood rosin, magnesium oxide, brominated vegtable oil.
First: Sucrose and HFCS are not even close in how they break down in the body
HFCS does destroy your liver cells and that is why it seems to cause some bad stomach aches or even worse.
“Destroys your liver cells…”…? Care to prove that? In what quantity? Does quantity matter? Under what conditions? In humans, or lab animals?
Sucrose = 50% fructose/50% glucose. The bond is broken in the gut, before transfer to the blood.
HFCS = 55% fructose/45 glucose (in the most common formulation). No bond, and so is transferred separately across into the blood. Fructose and glucose each have their own dedicated channels.
So…how is that different? Same two simple sugars, both coming into the blood separately and with equal facility. How does the liver treat them differently? The liver doesn’t know how the fructose got there.
Don’t get me wrong – I think fructose is bad stuff and it can be stressful on the liver – but only in extreme situations (rats overfed fructose develop a cirrosis-like liver condition). The human liver has a surprisingly massive fructose metabolism capacity – which we are capable of pushing to its limits with two liter bottles of soft drinks.
But to claim that HFCS and sucrose are “not even close” is patently false, and is counter to to very well established science. It’s the kind of statement I hear from “nutritionists” and other diet experts and book-sellers, but not scientists who study metablism and, in particular, metabolic syndrome. It has been proved repeatedly that sucrose and HFCS in the diet have the same (bad) effect – high doses of fructose, which is problematic on many levels – high triglycerides and VLDL, for starters.
For general readers: A simple (yet clear and well-established) treatment: http://www.medbio.info/Horn/Time%201-2/carbohydrate_metabolism.htm
As for race-day fuel, a mix of glucose and fructose has been shown to absorb a higher rate of total calories across the gut, but it has never been shown to be ergogenic. More calories across the gut does not mean more glucose available to the muscles. Since most fructose is quickly converted (in the liver – its only point of metabolism, besides sperm cells, of all things) to triglycerides, I think it is reasonable to be suspect of the benefits of fructose in sports drinks. Gatorade has a lot of fructose. I prefer a pure glucose mix (or long-chains that are digested to glucose) for this reason.
So I’m riding in a group this morning here in Florida and hear Ironman WTC wants to get rid of Gatorade and bring in another drink. Wow the best drink (not to mention easiest to get) in the world on course no longer, it must be a money deal. Certainly not thinking of the athletes. Even to me being a newby it doesn’t make sense.
Definitely not the “easiest to get” for many people doing Kona who live outside the US. They don’t sell Endurance Formula here.
I’ve never even seen Gatorade Endurance Formula , although I have read up on it.
I have trained with Accelerade for 3 years and moved to Infinitt last year. I found Accelerade hard to digest and not good in 35-40C conditions.
I raced with Gatorade in Kona 05’ and had a reasonable race that is one of the few where I had zero nutritional problems. It was also quite a bit cooler than I usually race.
I love Gatorade and always have some in the fridge. I realize it has HFCS so try to limit it my consumption. I feel it has a close relationship and would be sorry to not see it at Kona ( if I get there ).
Some of Gatorade endurance has HFCS in it. Some doesn’t. I can’t remember which one does or doesn’t, but either the lemon lime concentrate (what is used at events) and the lemon-lime powder doesn’t (has maltodextrin). The other one does have HFCS. Not sure about the lemon-lime pre-mixed or the orange (only way to get the orange is pre-mixed).
**Also, Gatorade endurance doesn’t have HFCS in it either. If that’s changed in the last few months, I apologize. **
I don’t know about a few months ago, but I am looking at the ingredients on a bottle right now.
It has: water, sucrose syrup, high fructose corn syrup (glucose-fructose syrup), citric acid, sodium citrate, natural and artificial flavors, monopotassium phosphate, salt, calcium lactate, yellow 6, glyerol, ester of wood rosin, magnesium oxide, brominated vegtable oil.
Very informative and well explained post.
Thanks for that.
And to you Ashburn , thanks.
Hope you two get this sorted out so I can read the conclusion when I’m back in the office tomorrow.
I was reading from a bottle of pre-mixed orange. That is what was served on the bike at Silverman. Lemon-lime, powder I believe, was used on the run. I have seen the bottles around town, but not the endurance formula powder.
I don’t think I have experienced any of the evils of HFCS, but I can say that the 600mg sodium per bottle together with 3 enduralytes per bike aid station kept me going pretty well.
And to you Ashburn , thanks.
Hope you two get this sorted out so I can read the conclusion when I’m back in the office tomorrow.
I think we both agree that HFCS is bad stuff.
Endurance athletes can do better than to consume products containing high amounts of fructose molecules. A product like CarboPro is a better source of CHO during a race, IMO.
The PowerBar drink is good stuff. I really like it. I also like Accelerade, even though it makes me burp a lot.
The question was, do we think Gatorade is an appropriate sponsor and I think they are.
If you would like to start another post on the subject of Carbohydrates and athleteic performance I would be more than happy to add my comments.
The subject of health benefits is entirely different and deserves it’s own post as well. You cannot treat the general consumption of carbohydrates in the public and athletes as one in the same.
We have it at Publix… in Birmingham at least. I like th orange flavor.
But I use Infinit for racing. So I tote my drink of choice with me anyway!
And to you Ashburn , thanks.
Hope you two get this sorted out so I can read the conclusion when I’m back in the office tomorrow.
I think we both agree that HFCS is bad stuff.
Endurance athletes can do better than to consume products containing high amounts of fructose molecules. A product like CarboPro is a better source of CHO during a race, IMO.
From my elementary nutritional knowledge , ( PHD compared to the average man in the street 
) , HFCS , partially hydrogenated oils , msg , trans fats , yea they are all out there.
I really try to avoid these additives when shopping. Living outside of N.America , supermarkets here have a wide variety of products from Australia , Europe as well as regionally.
It’s the products from the states that usually have all the garbage in them. I don’t mean that as a jab at the US at all , it is merely from my experience.
Gartorade being a corporate sponsor though I think is fantastic for the sport.
Having a product for athletes without HFCS is definitely a step in the right direction as well.
Thanks for your detailed nutritional views though , greatly appreciated.