I’m curious of people’s opinions about sports drinks during and after exercise.
I’m trying to cut back simple sugars and especially HFCS, but recently noticed that most sports drinks have HFCS as their #2 ingredient. Vitamin Water, on the other hand, does not use it.
Any thoughts?
I agree, after doing a lot of reading I have tried to cut back on HFCS as well.
Does Gatorade have it? I thought they just used a combination of fructose and sucrose. However, that said, “if the furnace is hot enough, it will burn anything” right?
I mean, you want the sugar for the carbohydrates, I never understood “sugar-free” energy drinks, what’s the point. That said, choosing drinks with better sugars as opposed to HFCS is probably the best idea.
I love Vitamin Water but don’t think it makes for a good sports drink. Hammer products don’t use any HFCS
I was under the impression that vitamin water is pretty much koolaid. I like the spring water / fruit combination. Volvic used to make orange and lime. I’ve been drinking overpriced hint water lately.
HFCS is bad, bad, bad, I try to stay away from it whenever possible. It is cheap and you will have to pay more to avoid it but worth it.
while I admit that it can’t be that good for you, the HFCS entry on wikipedia has no concrete evidence that it’s any worse than most other sugars.
Gatorade out of the bottle has HFCS as an ingredient. The powdered stuff does not. Gatorade, either out of the bottle or made from powder, has a combo of sucrose and fructose as their carbohydrate (energy) source.
As an aside, Other drinks (Hammer’s HEED being an example) uses Maltodextrin as a carbohydrate source which is considered a “complex” carbohydrate as opposed to the “simple” carbohydrates/sugars in Gatorade. The belief is that the complex carbohydrates in HEED break down slower and give a more consistent supply of carbohydrates to your body over time. I’m not sure I buy this…I checked the foremost source of all knowledge (wikipedia:)) and they state that Maltodextrin is easily digestible and as rapidly absorbed as glucose, a simple sugar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltodextrin
Hammer nutrition also states that mixing complex carbohydrates with simple carbohydrates (e.g. HEED with Gatorade) will give you stomach problems…I’ve never had this problem (I’ve used HEED with Gu gels before).
There was some good stuff in this thread that I started a while back:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=309419;search_string=HFCS;#309419
.
Hammer nutrition also states that mixing complex carbohydrates with simple carbohydrates (e.g. HEED with Gatorade) will give you stomach problems…I’ve never had this problem (I’ve used HEED with Gu gels before).
That doesn’t sound right to me either. Not only have I never had a problem either (hammer gel + gatorade), but I thought I read in Skiba’s book that the different mix of carbs actually helps you take in more - as a result of using the different transport mechanisms.
Train your body to do more with less. I’m good for 3 hour rides with just water + banana + a little salty sports drink. Gatorade powder doesn’t use HFCS, as well as most of the “designer” drinks.
Stay wholesome. Prepare a bowl of fruits so you can chow down after the workout. Add some avocado (yum) and little chunks of parmesan cheese (for the salty taste), and you’re good to go. Wash it down with water.
Vitamin water? LOL. That’s as far from wholesome as you can get.
-I tried vitamin water once. it tasted gross and i didn’t finish the bottle. drink it if you like it, not for me.
-powdered gatorade is a good thing to keep around. you can find it around here, although it seems to only be in around 25%of the grocery stores.
-1/3 OJ, 2/3 h2o is a great recovery drink. Chocolate milk is too. not at the same time, of course.
-if you want any accelerade powder mix, we’ve got a lot of it here that we’re not gonna use, you’re welcome to it. that said, the reason we’re not going to use it is because it’s wierd and chalky. but i guess some people like it. no hfcs. lots of whey protein, though.
-charles
GU use Maltodextrin just like Hammer gel and HEED.
According to Noakes, adding a small amount of Fructose increases Gastric empting rate which seems in line with Skiba’s book like you mentioned, I haven’t read Skiba’s book though. I feel exercise intensity has a lot to do with it too.
To me it’s hard to judge Hammer’s intentions on their website, there is a lot of good information and when you call them they will tell you anything you want, but their literature/testing supports their products just like Gatorade’s testing supports their products. Who is right seems to be individual and sometimes a matter of opinion.
jaretj
No, the second ingredient in VW is “crystaline fructose” … which ain’t much better …
I’m a big fan of VW and drink one each morning as part of breakfast (along with a Clif Bar and a Power Bar Harvest). But I’ve forgone using it as an energy drink because it doesn’t have enough potassium/sodium in it. While certain flavors have more vitamins than others, none of them is a really good electrolyte mixture. And after a long session they become very sweet.
I’m using GU2O now (got a bunch as part of the Team Gu “sponsorship” and it is working well for me).
I guess I’m old fashioned but I just like water in my water. The more tasteless the better. If you are concerned about vitamins eat a Flinstones every day and drink what you want.
As far as HFCS being bad, why is everyone guzzling Coke at IM races.
You are both correct: Gu has BOTH maltodextrin and fructose in it. Since Gu lists the maltodextrin and water before the fructose, I assume that the majority of the carbs is coming from the maltodextrin.
I mentioned Gu in my post as anecdotal evidence that you can mix simple and complex carbs together and not have your stomach explode as Hammer would like you to believe (and thus buy their hammer gel which has no fructose to eat with HEED!)
I agree that Hammer has alot of info on their site, but who knows just how biased toward their products it might be. What is interesting is that one of Infinit’s basic tenets is to have BOTH maltodextrin and simple sugars because of the whole increased absorption idea (Noakes and the Skiba book…I haven’t read them either). I find it funny that it is COMPLETELY OPPOSITE of what the hammer website tells you .
I guess it’s all about find the data that fits your argument…just like I’m now skeptical of the info on the hammer website, I also have to be skeptical about the info on the infinit website…I guess whatever works for you is the one to go with. (I’m trying infinit now after trying perpeteum!)
I never said anything about VW. I’ve never heard of crystaline fructose, I’ll have to look that one up.
I’ve used GU2O with good results too.
jaretj
This is a soda company started by triathletes in Connecticut - they use no HFCS!!
As far as I can tell, VW is just sugar water with a few vitamins in it. If you want that, get Kool-aid and put some kids vitamin drops in it.
“HFCS is bad, bad, bad”
What makes it worse than any other sugar when used as an energy source while exercising?