Dear Monique,
I am thinking of eliminating sugar from my diet, but can’t find anything to replace my energy drink or gel with, have you come across any products that fit the bill?
Soured on Sweets

Dear Soured,
There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the best types of carbohydrates that should be consumed during exercise with some sports nutrition products promoted as containing “complex carbohydrates” versus the “simple carbohydrates,” often also referred to as sugars. But classifying a carbohydrate as simple or complex really doesn’t provide the complete picture regarding a carbohydrate source. There are also distinct differences regarding the type of carbohydrate sources you should include in your daily diet versus what you should consume while training.

Classifying Carbohydrates
Carbohydrate can vary widely in their structure, sweetness, and effecton our health.
Simple carbohydrates, which are often called “sugars,” consist of oneor two molecules, while complex carbohydrate are composed of several tothousands of molecules.Monosaccharides are one molecule carbohydrates and include glucose,fructose (found in fruit), and galactose and are the easiest to digest.Glucose is the carbohydrate utilized by the cells in your body, and theother monosaccharides can be converted to glucose.We actually obtain most of the monosaccarides in our diet from the breakdownof disaccharides, which are two carbohydrate molecules. An exception wouldbe fructose which in found in fresh fruits, but also in a variety of processedfoods as high-fructose corn syrup.Disaccharides include table sugar or sucrose (glucose + fructose),lactose the sugar found in milk (glucose + galactose), and maltose (glucose+ glucose). These “simple” carbohydrates are also relatively easy to digest.Complex carbohydrate that contain three to ten carbohydrate moleculesare oligosaccharides and include many manufactured carbohydrates such asmaltodextrins (found in some sports drinks) and corn syrup (found in processedfoods).Oligosaccharides also include carbohydrates like rafinnose andstachyose that are found in nutrient rich foods such as legumes. Othercomplex carbohydrates or polysaccharides are composed of over ten and oftenhundreds of glucose molecules joined together, and include amylose andamylopectin. Most of the carbohydrates found in the plant world are inthe form of polysaccharides, but not all complex carbohydrates are unprocessed,whole food sources. Glucose polymers, which are made commercially fromstarch and are also technically complex carbohydrates, can be found ina number of sports drinks and carbohydrate gels.Indigestible carbohydrates are commonly referred to as fiberand include cellulose, hemicellulose, gums, and pectins, and are very importantfor gastrointestinal tract health and disease prevention.So you can see that there are many types of carbohydrates. As an enduranceathlete, you can include a variety of carbohydrate sources in your dailydiet, and at various times. For your health and fuel recovery you can emphasizecarbohydrate sources from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, skim milk products,and incorporate a variety of these foods in your diet for the differentnutrients they provide.Athletes also have a wide variety of sports drinks, gels, bars, andrecovery drinks to choose from, all containing different carbohydrate sources,from monosaccahrides, disaccharides, and polysaccahrides such as maltodextrinor glucose polymers.
 Daily Diet Carbohydrates
Of course you want to emphasize whole foods and nutritious carbohydratessuch as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables in your daily training diet. Skim dairy products and soymilk also add carbohydrate to your diet. Incorporatingthese foods into meals and snacks help you meet two of the most importantpurposes of your training diet. These carbohydrate sources effectivelyreplenish muscle glycogen stores between training sessions and also providea variety of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that contribute tokeeping your body healthy and immune system strong. Of course, when youeat real foods in the hours before training, you also have to consideryour tolerances to specific food choices. Easily digested carbohydratesalso make good recovery foods immediately after training.
 For many of us sugar is contained in foods that we view as treats, andit is currently estimated that Americans consume over 60 pounds of sugaryearly. Depending on your food choices, sugar in your diet is either addedsugar, which is simply sugar added to food, or naturally occurring sugars.The key to smart sugar consumption in your daily diet is to downplay thenonnutritive added sugars and incorporate food sources of natural sugars.Natural sugar sources include the fructose found in fruits and lactosefound in milk, foods that provide a nice variety of vitamins and minerals.Added sugars are low in nutritional value and particularly prevalentin processed foods is high fructose corn syrup, which is sweeter than fructose.So how much sugar in your daily diet is too much? It depends who you ask.The World Health Organization recommends that no more than 10-percent ofyour daily total calories comes from sugar, considerably less than theNational Academy of Science recommendation of 25-percent of total caloricintake. As an endurance athlete, you can often consume a substantial numberof calories to meet your training energy needs, so 10-percent from sugarleaves rooms for treats. If your daily energy intake is at 3,000 calories,then 300 calories from sugar should not crowd out plenty of healthful foodsfrom your diet.When trying to minimize the added sugar in your daily diet keep in mindthat the Nutrition Facts label does not distinguish between added sugarsand natural sugars in foods, as only the “total sugars” are listed. Checkthe ingredient list of foods to look for added sugars which can includeterms such as cane syrup, corn syrup, brown rice syrup, high fructose cornsyrup, maltodexrin, and sucrose.
 Training Diet Carbohydrates
In contrast to your daily diet, the carbohydrates you consume duringtraining must be , palatable during exercise, easy to digest, and welltolerated, with performance being your primary consideration. These carbohydratesmust effectively provide fuel for your exercising muscles and maintainblood glucose levels as your training continues to deplete your liver andmuscle glycogen stores during longer or high intensity training sessions. Food and drinks also taste differently when you are exercising, so it isbest to determine what product tastes best to you when you are exercising.Carbohydrates commonly seen on labels of sports drinks include fructose,glucose, maltodextrin, glucose polymers, and other assorted carbohydrates.Technically fructose is a simple sugar and a glucose polymer is a complexcarbohydrate, so is one a sugar and the other not? Clearly you won’t beconsuming a bowl of granola during training, you probably won’t eat anapple during interval training on your bike, pull a muffin out of yourback pocket during the season’s A race, or chomp on an ear of corn duringtraining. What you need for top performance is a sport drink containinga carbohydrate that will quickly empty from your stomach and be easilyabsorbed through your small intestine.Keeping the carbohydrate concentration of a sports drink at 6 to 8 percentensures that a drink can easily empty from your stomach. Having a sportsdrink that has two different carbohydrate sources, such as both glucoseand fructose also maximizes the potential of the drink to be absorbed throughthe small intestine. The sodium in sports drinks also facilitates absorptionof fluid across the small intestine. Obviously water provides no carbohydratesor electrolytes, while carbohydrate free drinks only provide fluid (andmaybe electrolytes)- offering no performance benefit when fuel stores runlow.Of course in our daily diet, the hormone insulin is secreted in responseto our blood glucose levels. In fact when you are not exercising, a smallamount of insulin is constantly being secreted even when blood glucoselevels are in the normal range, so that there is a steady flow of glucoseinto your brain cells and muscles. In your daily diet, food, particularlycarbohydrate intake will trigger a specific output of insulin, with somefoods resulting in a higher insulin output than others. During exercise,insulin release is blunted and it is important to maintain blood glucoselevels during training and competition.Your most important consideration for carbohydrate consumption duringexercise, is to find a sports drink that you tolerate, like, and can drinksteadily to offset fluid and fuel depletion. Gels, which are much moreconcentrated in carbohydrate also raise blood glucose levels and must beconsumed with water to prevent any gastrointestinal discomfort during exercise.You should also keep in mind that once you have reached a certain levelof dehydration, fluids and gels take longer to empty from your stomach,so drink steadily from the start. <br><i>Monique</i>