Sports Drink Sweeteners
Sports drinks must be sweetened to enhance their taste, there's no doubt about that. Studies have also shown that flavor drives your thirst mechanism, while water, without flavor actually shuts off your thirst mechanism. Again this shows why water is not a very good choice for hydration. Currently, there are several ways to sweeten a drink:
1. Artificial Sweeteners:
These include Nutrasweet(TM) (Aspartame), Splenda(TM) (Sucralose) and Sweet One(TM)/Sunette(TM) (Acesulfame K). At e load(TM), we don’t like artificial sweeteners, for several reasons:
i. They do not supply carbohydrate energy because they are not carbohydrates.
ii. Sucralose is not even absorbed into the body, and its presence in the gut in high concentrations may contribute to bloating, gas and diarrhea.
iii. The safety of both all of these products is still a concern in some circles.
2. Natural Sweeteners:
While there are many natural sweeteners, most commonly used in sports drinks are fructose (fruit sugar) and sucrose (cane/table sugar). Fructose has been mentioned several times, and its low glycemic index, along with its known potential to irritate the gastrointestinal tract, makes it a bad choice for a product designed to help athletes in the heat. These negative effects increase in direct proportion to the fructose concentration in the product.
Sucrose is the logical choice for e load(TM). It is natural, provides a good source of carbohydrate energy (sucrose has a GI of 64), and does not produce gut irritation. It is easily absorbed and pleasantly sweet, improving palatability. Some people are concerned about sucrose, and some companies take advantage of this concern by continuing to perpetuate the myth that a little table sugar is somehow going to lead us to our destruction! In truth, no one single carbohydrate should be the principle carbohydrate in our diets, and for some people, sucrose is the principal carbohydrate ingested on a daily basis. The medical staff at e load(TM) agree that this is not ideal for optimum health. However, some sucrose in our diets is perfectly fine, and as a palatable, non-nauseating sugar that offers rapid absorption and fueling, sucrose works very well, especially in the heat.
A final note is the stevia plant, which produces a natural, no calorie sweetener that is being used more and more in various foods/products on the market. Our problem is this: if it doesn’t have any calories, it is of no use during exercise i.e. it is analogous to any of the other non-caloric sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose or acesulfame K in this regard.
1. Artificial Sweeteners:
These include Nutrasweet(TM) (Aspartame), Splenda(TM) (Sucralose) and Sweet One(TM)/Sunette(TM) (Acesulfame K). At e load(TM), we don’t like artificial sweeteners, for several reasons:
i. They do not supply carbohydrate energy because they are not carbohydrates.
ii. Sucralose is not even absorbed into the body, and its presence in the gut in high concentrations may contribute to bloating, gas and diarrhea.
iii. The safety of both all of these products is still a concern in some circles.
2. Natural Sweeteners:
While there are many natural sweeteners, most commonly used in sports drinks are fructose (fruit sugar) and sucrose (cane/table sugar). Fructose has been mentioned several times, and its low glycemic index, along with its known potential to irritate the gastrointestinal tract, makes it a bad choice for a product designed to help athletes in the heat. These negative effects increase in direct proportion to the fructose concentration in the product.
Sucrose is the logical choice for e load(TM). It is natural, provides a good source of carbohydrate energy (sucrose has a GI of 64), and does not produce gut irritation. It is easily absorbed and pleasantly sweet, improving palatability. Some people are concerned about sucrose, and some companies take advantage of this concern by continuing to perpetuate the myth that a little table sugar is somehow going to lead us to our destruction! In truth, no one single carbohydrate should be the principle carbohydrate in our diets, and for some people, sucrose is the principal carbohydrate ingested on a daily basis. The medical staff at e load(TM) agree that this is not ideal for optimum health. However, some sucrose in our diets is perfectly fine, and as a palatable, non-nauseating sugar that offers rapid absorption and fueling, sucrose works very well, especially in the heat.
A final note is the stevia plant, which produces a natural, no calorie sweetener that is being used more and more in various foods/products on the market. Our problem is this: if it doesn’t have any calories, it is of no use during exercise i.e. it is analogous to any of the other non-caloric sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose or acesulfame K in this regard.
posted by MedionMan at 5:06 PM
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