Nutrition News
Do Sport Bars and Gels Provide the Energy of Sports Drinks?
There’s new evidence suggesting that sports bars and gels are metabolized as quickly and efficiently as sports drinks. It’s common knowledge that using carbohydrate-containing sports drinks during extended exercise can improve one’s endurance capacity and delay the onset of fatigue. Today, these products come in many different forms, and endurance athletes have a choice between sports drinks, energy bars, and carbohydrate gels to enhance their endurance capacity. Until recently, however, there was no scientific evidence demonstrating whether the delivery of carbohydrates from sports bars and gels was comparable to sports drinks. Now, two recent studies published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine Sports, suggest they are. In the studies, eight athletes cycled at moderate intensity for three hours while receiving the various treatments. In the first study, the cyclists received water, a sports drink (2:1 glucose:fructose), or sports bars. In the second study, sports gels were used in place of sports bars, which contained comparable amounts of carbohydrates. Blood sugar levels and various other metabolic indicators were measured and analyzed. Both studies had similar findings: Carbohydrates from the sports bar and gel were metabolized to the same extent as those from the sports drink. Whether comparable results would be found with sports products having different glucose, fructose, or maltodextrin ratios is unknown.
