December 18, 2023, edited by Francesco Rigodanza
I wrote an article about sugar, about a lot of sugar (and for those who are unfamiliar with this concept, I recommend a quick review here).
The key point was to show how research, and consequently competitive performance, in endurance events lasting more than two and a half hours, has pushed the limits of sports nutrition to about 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour, revolutionizing nutrition, training, and the marketing of gels and bars. Some, with more enthusiasm, have even gone higher.
In this subsequent article, I explain what 90 grams per hour means, how to get there, how not to vomit it all, or, worse, how to make this caloric intake sustainable, especially from an economic point of view.
How much is 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour?
It's a lot, meaning trying to digest a generous serving of pasta per hour (Pasta = 72% carbohydrates). Difficult at rest, let alone in the middle of a race, even a long one, where you are almost always running at high intensity.
Here is the first point: managing to ingest so many carbohydrates.
Because, if we are used to using a gel (about 20g ) every two hours, the goal is not to find the best possible product on the market, the goal is to find a way to consume five of them every hour.
So the first piece of advice is quite intuitive: EAT FOOD WITH A LOT OF CARBOHYDRATES.
The goal of swallowing a serving of energy is already challenging, it becomes much more complex if you try to do it with foods like peanuts (21% carbohydrates), chips (52%) or speck (0.5 %). No one denies how good these 3 foods are, and indeed precisely for this they are easily found at race aid stations, but if to reach these quantities of sugar one is forced to ingest 20 kilos of cold cuts per hour, you end up with a somewhat heavy race and a bankrupt organization. In short, it wouldn't work. Or rather, it wouldn't work if the goal is sports performance.
Nothing to say about food and wine races, on the contrary, all my support as well as participation.
So make room for carbohydrate-rich foods that you like. You must like them, and a lot. You must like them so much even when, due to fatigue, your stomach shrinks to the size of San Marino on a map. If someone likes candies (80% carbohydrates), which is common, stuffing yourself with them, if someone really likes gels from a certain brand (80%) that's the way to go, if you are crazy about raisins (always 80%) go for it, if you are a big fan of breadcrumbs (68%) write to me privately that I will come to see a race aid station.
And among the simplest things from a practical and ingestion point of view, one of the most common solutions is to dissolve sugar, maltodextrins, honey or other substances directly in the water bottle and consume everything in liquid form. Easy preparation, easy assimilation. And it is the option that in recent years cyclists and trail runners use the most. No more solid foods in races. Only full water bottles.
Because at the same athletic level, the one who eats 80 grams/hour of gummy bear candies will perform better than the one who eats the best product with the best available ingredients, but after one per hour they feel like vomiting.
And since few of us grew up with the habit of eating so much during exertion, even with the best-tasting food, it will take some time to get used to all this abundance of sugar to digest. It takes some training. Getting used to it. But it is better to learn how to do it during the week before finding yourself running in a race towards the toilet.
Now that you have reached eating 60-90 grams of carbohydrates per hour and feeling good (and there are still very few who actually do it), ONLY now is it worth racking your brain on how to optimize it. ONLY now can you think about the chemical composition of carbohydrates, ratios, and other details.
ONLY now. Otherwise, start again from the beginning of this article.
Why ONLY now?
Recalling the concepts from the article a few weeks ago, the human body can absorb about 60 g/h of glucose, 50 g/h of fructose. And glucose and fructose are the building blocks that make up most of the complex carbohydrates we ingest. So the easiest ones to digest.
The marginal gain now is based on the direct use of these two molecules and the optimization of their ratio. Three paths are possible. They are all available on the market or easily homemade.
Glucose/Fructose 2:1 (60g glucose, 30g fructose out of 90 g), it maximizes the use of glucose, which is the one most familiar to our body and covers the rest with fructose (which will therefore be half of the first).
Glucose/Fructose 1:0.8 (50 g glucose, 40g fructose out of 90 g), it uses the ratio of maximum absorption of the intestinal walls, leaving a greater margin of error for both maximums.
Sucrose (45g glucose, 45g fructose out of 90 g), it is not an optimized ratio, it is the ratio of glucose and fructose in a very common table sugar molecule. This last case may not have the charm of scientific research but it is the simplest and most practical approach. And everything that is simple and practical is easily integrated into your habits.
Conclusion:
- 90 g of carbohydrates per hour is a considerable amount of carbohydrates to ingest and digest, so it should be done with the most suitable foods from a subjective point of view
- It should be a priority to manage to assimilate that quantity before optimizing how
- Table sugar is a very valid option for simplicity, practicality, and glucose/fructose ratio, to supplement during a race.
For further reading:
“New Horizons in Carbohydrate Research and Application for Endurance Athletes”, Sports Medicine, 2022, T. Podlogar et al., https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-022-01757-1”
“Contemporary Nutrition Strategies to Optimize Performance in Distance Runners and Race Walkers, International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2019, AE Jeukendrup, https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/29/2/article-p117.xml?ref=blog.supersapiens.com”
“Relationship of Carbohydrate Intake during a Single-Stage One-Day Ultra-Trail Race with Fatigue Outcomes and Gastrointestinal Problems: A Systematic Review, nt. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, Aitor Viribay et al., https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115737”