La Chute Road Runners “Molecular” Carbohydrates Jim Cunningham
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s an energy source for the Adirondack Canoe Classic, (aka The 90 Miler), some athletes would wire a Tupperware container to a thwart, and fill it with salted and boiled potatoes. During the three days of racing, this approach would provide a convenient and effective means of race nutrition. Ok! Sounds interesting! That was a while ago, and since then, sports drinks have emerged as a race fuel. As it turned out this initial experimentation with nutrition has now been validated. But not with directly potatoes! …But with another complex molecular
Spring, 2017
carbohydrate: starch, and the starch chosen is corn starch. Investigation has revealed possible problems with sugar based sports Everyone drinks as we have seen in another knows Meb, newsletter: and how does Mef fuel for his March 2016 Newsletter. marathons? He uses Glucose, sucrose, fructose, and UCAN, which maltodextrin; all simple sugars that, is corn starch based. How can any- when ingested and broken down by one “dis” Meb? the body, provide you an immediate source of energy. What is UCAN? The process also causes a sudden So what is the story behind using flood of insulin to the body by way of starch as fuel? the pancreas; as the sugars are digested this insulin level then takes a So, what is starch? Starch is a com- nosedive, at which point your muscles plex carbohydrate, whereas sugar is again crave energy. a simple carbohydrate. Starch is the storage source of energy, whereas The above is a bit pedantic. How about sugar is the direct energy source. some graphics?