I know that HFCS is pretty bad for you and I try to avoid it as much as possible. But what do you actually get nutrionally from consuming it? I mean we all know how good Coke tastes and feels during an IM marathon and sometimes I will have some at the end of a very long bike. Does this make sense? What is giving you the boost when you drink Coke? Is it just the caffeine or can your body use the HFCS in someway even if it isn’t ideal?
It’s just sugars. About 50-50 glucose/fructose, I believe, but definitely something your body can use as fuel. People often debate which sugars/carbohydrates are best for you body during an endurance event, and many people think the simple sugars are not good for the long haul, but I’ve always taken coke during my ironmans and it seems to work. Not sure if the boost is from caffeine or sugar, but I’ll take it any way I can get it.
I think HFCS is “bad” only because it’s in so many processed foods. Too much sugar for most people.
Look at a Power Bar wrapper and you will see it is the first ingredient. I know we now have several other options but for many years Power Bar was the bar of choice and sure had lots of users (and still does).
Aloha,
Larry
The main reason HFCS is labled as bad is that is allow massive abouts of sugers and therefore calories to be packed into prety much anything.
The average person these days consumes way too many sugers and partakes in hardly any erercise to burn off all these extra ‘empty’ calories. This is one of many factors that are leading to increasing levels of diabeties and obesity in the US.
HFCS is basically just a unatural way of packing calories, which is good if your about to bonk and need a quick untake of sugars.
The Devil’s Candy!
Perfect, then my Mountain Dew Code Red and Red Gatorade combination at the end of a long ride stays in my training diet.
Two reasons it’s in a lot of stuff is it tastes sweeter at the same concentration as sucrose and it’s made from corn and heavily subsidized in the US.
Izzie soda has none. it’s just fruit juice and soda.