An article from the NYT Health section…
June 23, 2010, 12:01 am
Phys Ed: Do Sport Bars and Gels Provide the Energy of Sports Drinks?
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
According to a study published this spring in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, people who exercise for more than about two hours at a time can benefit from sports drinks. Most of us know that, of course. The carbohydrates in the drinks provide immediate fuel, which allows our bodies to avoid dipping into its own energy stores, meaning that, theoretically, you can exercise longer or more intensively before running out of fuel. But few people, in practice, can or will drink enough calories during a long workout to benefit significantly, the study authors suggest. The volume of fluid needed is, to say the least, daunting. Achieving the ideal “carbohydrate-intake rates,” the authors write, requires toting and stomaching about a half gallon of a typical sports drink every hour. Good luck with that.
Instead, it seems to be common practice today, the researchers write, for many athletes to turn to more-concentrated and portable forms of carbohydrates, like sports bars and those frosting like little packets of sports gels that are ubiquitous at running and cycling races. But to date no one has comprehensively studied whether, in fact, these carbohydrate alternatives are as effective as liquid calories. Do carbohydrates from solid or semisolid sources reach the bloodstream and straining muscles as quickly as those from fluids? Are they burned as effectively? Do they, in the process of being digested, cause what scientists delicately refer to as “gastrointestinal distress”?
Read on here.
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