Editors of Fitness Magazine Reveal . . .
“A spoonful of sugar may help your health—and even your workout.
“An Ohio State University study of female rowers found that those who consumed dextrose (a naturally occurring sugar found in syrups and jellies) improved their rowing times nearly threefold [actually, shaved off three times as many seconds off their 2000 m, i.e., 15.2 sec vs 5.2 sec—TK], significantly more than those who ate ribose, a sugar often used in performance supplements. Why? `Dextrose requires minimal digestion and can be used by the muscles quickly as an energy source,’ says Fitness advisory board member Leslie J. Bonci, R.D., director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.”
This mysterious dextrose, “a naturally occurring sugar found in syrups and jellies”, is also found in common table sugar as well as in all starchy foods—after all dextrose is another name for the only naturally occurring form of glucose, i.e., blood sugar. . . . That is why “Dextrose requires minimal digestion and can be used by the muscles quickly as an energy source.” So don’t wonder how it got into a jelly jar or some syrup—it got there with a heap of table sugar (which is composed in equal parts of glucose and fructose).
Then, after revealing the benefits of dextrose, erh, glucose, the editors of Fitness Magazine proceed to warn against eating table sugar (which breaks down in stomach to glucose and fructose) as it makes one look old, causes inflammation, and suppresses the immune system—all very true.
Now, about that Ohio State University study: Why not compare performance of rowers on glucose vs rowers on a high fat snack, say composed according to the Paleo diet or Optimal diet? That would be interesting.
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Filed under: Sports Nutrition | 2 Comments
Tags: dextrose, Fitness Magazine, glucose, sugar
While I agree with everything you say, it would be difficult to compare a high-fat snack to a glucose snack on non-adatpted athletes. It usually takes a couple of weeks for most peoples’ physiology to adapt to a minimal-carbohydrate diet. And some people, in my experience, just don’t adapt particularly well.
But the point is well-taken. And I would like to see comparisons between athletes on a high-carb diet of any kind vs. athletes on a Paleo or Optimal diet. Mark Sisson, a former elite-level triathlete made the switch to a Paleo diet and significantly improved his health: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
And this guy basically eats zero-carbs, pretty much all meat, and runs marathons pretty successfully: http://blog.zeroinginonhealth.com/
But I’d be shocked if such a study was ever done. Everyone knows that low-carb diets are dangerous and faddish, and only the high–refined-carbohydrate diet that we’ve been eating for the past 50 years or so (rather than the diet we ate for a few million years prior, without diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or cavities) will lead us to the promised land of perfect health….
“But I’d be shocked if such a study was ever done. Everyone knows that low-carb diets are dangerous and faddish, and only the high–refined-carbohydrate diet that we’ve been eating for the past 50 years or so (rather than the diet we ate for a few million years prior, without diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or cavities) will lead us to the promised land of perfect health….”
Yes, for such a study to happen many more athletes’ powers of observation and common sense would have to triumph over brainwashing and mental inertia. How likely is that . . . .