Sugar water to fuel cycling
As a sports dietitian I am constantly on the look out for new ways that cyclists can fuel their rides without breaking the bank. Commercial sports nutrition drinks, bars and gels certainly have their place, but if you are riding 10 hours or more a week and fuelling appropriately that can quickly add up. $$$$$
Now one fuelling strategy I have been hearing a lot of coaches and riders recommending recently is sugar water.
Yes. Plain old sugar in water.
I've even had people tell me that sugar water is the ONLY thing I should ever recommend cyclists use on the bike!!!
Today I am going to be taking sugar water to the test to see if it really is the best fuelling strategy for cyclists and does it get the sports dietitian seal of approval.
I went out to buy some sugar and tried it out!
Does everyone tolerate sugar water?
One thing I want to point out, is that not every likes really sweet things or can tolerate drinking sugar water.
I know I certainly couldn't!
The original research showed that four out of 14 participants in the study - that's 29% - didn't tolerate drinking the sugar water. The paper didn't explain why - but I reckon the sweetness and fructose had a big part to play in it.
Plain old table sugar contains both sucrose and fructose. And some people just don't tolerate fructose well which means if they were to drink sugar water on the bike, it could lead to some very unwanted gut issues.
As a cycling sports dietitian would I recommend you fuel your ride with sugar water?
Sure. If you happen to like it, can tolerate it and have a very close relationship with your dentist to avoid getting caries... go ahead and use sugar water for your rides.
It is a basically rocket fuel that could certainly be used as an emergency fuelling strategy if you have literally nothing else in the house for a high intensity effort.
But only ever fuelling with rapidly absorbed carbs could compromise your ability to use fat as fuel, making you more dependent on fuelling and less efficient for longer distance rides.
Some times you want high carbs, sometimes you want lower carbs.
Smart fuelling adapted to your training.
Instead of using sugar water all the time, I would recommend you have a range of different foods, fluids, solids and liquids with varying amounts of carbohydrates, fats and proteins that you intentionally use to suit the intensity and purpose of the training session you are about to do.
Not high carb, not low carb but smart carbs to fuel your training. To learn more about how to use this approach with my cycling nutrition framework.
Gemma
Reference:
Gonzalez JT, Fuchs CJ, Smith FE, Thelwall PE, Taylor R, Stevenson EJ, Trenell MI, Cermak NM, van Loon LJ. (2015) Ingestion of glucose or sucrose prevents liver but not muscle glycogen depletion during prolonged endurance-type exercise in trained cyclists. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 309: E1032–E1039
Fuel your cycling with confidence
Do you want to know how best to fuel your training sessions? Are you keen to lose weight and optimise your performance?
The Cycling Nutrition Framework will fuel your cycling goals.