Forums >Health and Nutrition>Sugar
When sugar is outlawed then only outlaws will have sugar.
My step mom once tried to outlaw sugar in our house. All the kids rebelled.
It was a sugar cane mutiny.
For a long race, I use Succeed products (Clip2 + S! Caps) instead of Gatorade. Gatorade will give me stomach issues if I drink enough of it. If I get a skull-busting headache (always seems to happen around hour 6), then I pop a caffeine-laden gel and chase it with water. It's all about what works or doesn't. Because I don't drink soda on a regular basis, it makes me sick regardless of the circumstance. Now, if I were putting up the kind of mileage/hours that TeaOlive and SteveRay do, 3000+ and 4000+ miles in 2012 respectively, I am sure that it would be a different story.
I believe the original question, though, was geared towards the lower mileage runner. "Is it wise for a runner to give up sugar?" Well, it depends on the runner. If you are 10 or more lbs overweight and are typically running for an hour or less, then try eliminating soda from your diet. Soda is one of the biggest barriers to weight loss, and at a low level of running it is completely unnecessary. Sports drinks like Gatorade are unnecessary as well, being more a convenience than a necessity. If you are running 10 hours or more a week, then you have to worry about finer details, like the amount of citric acid in Gatorade making you sick, because of the quantity that you would have to drink. In that case it is important to consume carbohydrates in concentrated form to make sure that glycogen stores are always topped off.
It's that middle one that I have a problem with. Power Aid / Gatorade both make me more thirsty. MTA: They also give me a stomach ache for a short while if drunk during a race. Full sugar Coke doesn't.
It's that middle one that I have a problem with.
Power Aid / Gatorade both make me more thirsty.
MTA: They also give me a stomach ache for a short while
if drunk during a race. Full sugar Coke doesn't.
Joggaholic
I am peeved by my kid's school teaching her the blanket statement that "sugar is bad".
Good Bad & The Monkey
My step mom once tried to outlaw sugar in our house. All the kids rebelled. It was a sugar cane mutiny.
The only thing that can stop a bad kid with sugar is a good kid with sugar.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Old , Ugly and slow
Sugar is my only vice.
I never drink sugar.
I almost never eat chips,fries or satly snacks.
I don't eat fast foods.
I don't eat eggs and don't eat meat daily.
I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.
But you will have to pry sweets out of my cold dead hands.
first race sept 1977 last race sept 2007
2019 goals 1000 miles , 190 pounds , deadlift 400 touch my toes
When it comes to girls, what is the ratio of sugar to spice? And is 'everything nice' part of the equation?
When it comes to boys, what about snips, snails, and dog tails?
And WTF is a snip?
A Saucy Wench
When it comes to girls, what is the ratio of sugar to spice? And is 'everything nice' part of the equation? When it comes to boys, what about snips, snails, and dog tails? And WTF is a snip?
I always thought of it as little tufts of hair and lint
I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets
"When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7
If you are running 10 hours or more a week, then you have to worry about finer details, like the amount of citric acid in Gatorade making you sick, because of the quantity that you would have to drink. In that case it is important to consume carbohydrates in concentrated form to make sure that glycogen stores are always topped off.
Gonna have to disagree on this one. I mean, you CAN do it this way... and depending on the length of a specific run, carb supplementation can be beneficial or in some cases required (like if I'm doing a 30 mile training run for an ultra). But I don't think it is "10 hours a week" and I don't think you should think about it as always being "topped off". Trying to stay topped off may imply taking in more calories during a run than your body is ready to deal with sometimes. It's kind of like hydration.
Anyway, I think the 10 hour a week runner can still manage this through water and eating sensibly after runs. And maybe... maybe... during a couple runs. You don't have to drink gatorade. Lots of ways to deal with hydration+calories+electrolytes. Mooshing this all together makes things fuzzy and perhaps causes us to overdo things we don't need to do.
Then again, it also makes things a lot easier and makes my head hurt less (disclaimer: I drink gatorade and heed and perpetuem sometimes). But the point is, there's a lot of "need" going around that we've been programmed to believe by Gatorade (the company) that just ain't so.
sugnim
Thanks, Seilerts. I definitely do not put in the same mileage as some runners on the forum. I'm around 25 mpw, am 5-10 lbs above where I'd like to be, and I can count on my fingers the number of sodas I drink in a year. I do however have a cup of gatorade after long runs and usually some sort of sweet each day. The rest of my diet is almost entirely home made, often home grown veggies, fruits, lean meats, and (never homegrown) grains, beans, and yogurt.
It's interesting to read others' use/non-use of sugar and the type & amount of running that they do. Thanks for sharing, everyone.
old woman w/hobby
skygazer: "coke is about twice the calories (sugar) content. And I think there's a reason they only put that much mount of sugar in gatorade. You actually can get even more thirty drinking coke because your body needs water to process the simple carbs, which is a rather fast process (I've tried coke in a run. The bottle of coke I drank didn't help with thirst. It might even have contributed to my thirst dehydration later in the run)".
Ah, for the most part I was responding to this statement.
steph
FWIW, I think Gatorade could have a much better product, but then they would have to admit that what they have been selling for 40 years is inferior, and they run the "New Coke" flop risk. Recipes for Oral Rehydration Solution are widely available and may give a better result. Gatorade is just like Microsoft: just because it is widely available doesn't mean it is the best but for a lot of people, it works well enough. I do agree that during a long race/workout, the amount and form of caloric intake is highly individual, and for most people it is impossible to maintain glycogen levels if you are working at marathon pace or faster. Consuming concentrated carbs can cause a LOT of GI distress in that case. My prior comment about concentrated carbs and glycogen is solely addressed at general nutrition, where for someone that runs a lot, it would be very difficult to stay at a high level on a daily diet of sports drinks and salads.
Let me make myself perfectly clear: there are many ways to solve the problems of rehydration and glycogen replenishment without Gatorade.
I've thought for a while that mixing a cup of Polycose in a water bottle and drinking it after a long run helped me recover from the long run. At least that is my subjective impression. Essentially it seems to me that I'm just replenishing the carbohydrates that I've burned.
So, I got this "great idea." Why not mix the Polycose in the water in the hand held (700 ml) that I always carry for long runs or marathons. That way every time I take a sip of water I am also getting some carbohydrates. If taking stuff like Gu or e-Gels, etc. are of benefit because of the carbohydrate content, then it would seem that a more continuous supply of carbohydrates would be even more beneficial. Anyway, I did this in my last marathon and do so in all my long runs. It is hard for me to self-evaluate the benefit if any, but my subjective impression is that it helps. My legs don't feel as sore afterwards as they used to. I also don't know what if any benefit accrues during the run itself. A clinical trial would be interesting.
not bad for mile 25
Huh, I always heard it as frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails. Either a snip is a frog, or it's been Bowdlerized.
Sometimes it is slugs. I learned it as snips, though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Are_Little_Boys_Made_Of%3F
Faster Than Your Couch!
Reading through the thread, I noticed that there are a lot of misconceptions about sugar/glycogen/need for water/ need for gatorade/benefit of ingredients/... in it.
Just to clarify a few things:
- The sugar content in Gatorade is chosen to optimize absorption in the stomach and to minimize GI issues from taking in too many carbohydrates (in the form of a simple sugar). It cannot make up for calories burned through exercise, nor is it intended to do so.
- The citiric acid can boost performance if taken in in relevant quantities, typically more than what is found in Gatorade or coke.
Citric acid can also reduce nausea (e.g. in endurance sports).
- The phosphorus in coke is not damaging to your body, but coke contains phosphorous acid, which, if consumed in large quantities, might cause stomach issues and harm the beneficial bacteria in the intestines. Phosphorus is actually needed for bone strength, and calcium and phosphorus have to be eaten (or are absorbed by the body to maintain concentration) at a certain ratio.
- sugar, consumed during or immediately after exercise, is processed directly in the cells, and not stored as glycogen. You'd have to eat high amounts of sugar for it to be stored and not processed directly, which would probably lead to nausea.
- Sugar processed during exercise does not use insulin, but glucose transport proteins, so consuming sugary foods and drinks during exercise will not lead to or promote insulin resistance, nor will it raise insulin levels and thus cause hypoglycaemia, or a "hungry" feeling, later.
- The amount of water that is used for sugar to be processed is far less that what is in sodas or Gatorade (in relation to their sugar and sodium content). Therefore, these drinks will deliver water and prevent or treat dehydration, and won't lead to dehydration. Same for the sodium content (and/or the combination of both), it is way too little to cause dehydration. The salt actually replaces some of the sodium loss through sweating (and even Gatorade, consumed at less than 6 cups/hour, which is a lot, cannot replace the sodium loss of 0.5 to 1.2 g/hour completely - that's why in ultramarathon and similar endurance events, additional supplements are needed to crank up sodium intake to 0.5 to 1.0g/hour, which is needed for exercise exceeding a few hours). However, for exercise less than an hour in heat, or much longer in cooler conditions, no sodium replacement is needed, the sodium balance can be maintained through eating regular or salty food, and drinking plain water.
- The liver can only process about the equivalent of 240-350 calories per hour during exercise (running) for most people. Eating/drinking significantly more than that for an extended period of time may lead to GI issues and nausea. In long endurance events, eating serves to balance the use of stored glycogen, the use of food (sugar) directly, and processing food, while a caloric deficit of up to 1,200 calories (up to 2,500 in some athletes) does not hinder optimum performance (this is valid for ultra events of 12-24 hours, not marathons or shorter races). Caloric deficit of more than 4,500 calories (in 24 hours) usually leads to exhaustion, and performance is significantly decreased. That's why ultra runners have to figure out carefully how much and what to eat during events to maintain performance.
Just my 2 cents, compiled from reading through a lot of scientific literature about nutrition and exercise (especially for ultra running).
Run for fun.