A new study performed at the University of Bath suggests that the type of sugar in your sports drink may have an impact on how it makes you feel. Using a group of club cyclists as subjects, they compared the effects of consuming a glucose-based drink to a sucrose-based drink and found that those who ingested sucrose reported feeling that exercise was easier and they experienced less gut discomfort. The main target of their research lies in the liver, where excess glycogen is stored for later use. Burning these stores will occur due to exercise in order to provide necessary energy, but if blood glucose levels are elevated the process will not occur. Their research suggests that ingesting either sucrose or fructose will prevent the reduction of glycogen in the liver, but sucrose alone was tolerated better by the cyclists and also seemed to provide faster energy via faster absorption. Sucrose is a disaccharide composed of a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule. This finding suggests that the combination of the two sugars found in sucrose may actually increase the rate of absorption when compared to glucose alone. Because the study used self reported data from such a small sample size the findings are subject to increased error. Hopefully, future studies will be done to further investigate this theory.
This is significant for anyone who utilizes sports drinks for an energy boost. Energy drink consumers should check the label to see which sugar is responsible for those carbohydrates. This is especially true for those who do feel discomfort after ingesting such a drink. The fix may be as easy as switching brands.
Sources
http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/early/2015/10/19/ajpendo.00376.2015
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/28/sugary-water-performance-sports-drinks-study-cyclists
After reading your post I did some digging into the main sugar (carbohydrate) ingredients in gatorade. I found that the main sugar that is represented in their energy products including the standard sports drink and more recently new energy gels to be sucrose! Previously I had thought that the main sugar had been glucose so I was kind of surprised but it fits with the research that was done by the scientists at University of Bath that you are discussing. So I was wondering why the sucrose molecule could be absorbed faster than a simple glucose molecule? We have been learning that the size of a molecule is a crucial aspect of its ability to pass the membrane and have down stream effects so its interesting to hear that a larger molecule can cross faster (unless it loses the fructose molecule before crossing then its a dumb question). Either way its a cool theory and it has caused me to check the labels of my sports drinks more now! Thanks for sharing Tom!
ReplyDeleteI think it would be interesting to see how sucrose energy drink work on lactose intolerance individual. Lactose is a disaccharide sugar derived from galactose and glucose that is found in milk, while sucrose is derived from glucose and fructose. If individual with no lactase enzyme to digest lactose will this effect homeostasis of blood glucose balance. Clinician advise lactose intolerance individual to not switch milk with sport drink after a hard workout, because dairy still has key nutrients for health and sport recovery.
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