I thought I would start a discussion on the nutrient (or anti-nutrient)… Sugar.
It is both enemy and friend, and I think most would agree it can be a tricky little fucker to tame.
Having searched around the site (and the competitors’ as well) there isn’t a ton of advice on the subject, so I thought we could get into it a little bit here. Hopefully the vets will contribute some, and teach some of us rooks a thing or two on mastering this beast.
So, I’ll start…
Excluding pre, during & post-workout nutrition (where we now know sugar is our friend) what might be a realistic goal for total sugar consumption in a day?.. ideally, it would be 0 grams, but 10G (two packets) in your coffee here, and some more in that apple after lunch… it can add up unless we’re diligent about it.
I personally cheat sometimes in the morning since I can’t shake the Frosted Mini Wheats… but if I am strict the rest of the day, I don’t see a problem spiking my insulin a little upon waking up, especially if I do some morning cardio soon afterwards.
All complex carbs are converted to glucose by the time of reaching the bloodstream.
The “evil” then of glucose is not in the amount consumed per day, unless that it simply more carbs than one ought to have that day, but rather in if it comes in spikes inappropriately large for the situation.
So no, it’s not the case that zero intake is an ideal.
As for fructose, it should be more limited than glucose but taking in for example 10 or 15 grams at a time is no problem. Even 25 could be perfectly fine depending on the situation.
Consider sucrose to be half glucose and half fructose, because it is, once broken down.
Thanks for stopping by Mr. Roberts…
You mentioned that Fructose should be limited to 15-25G at a time, depending on the situation.
How about Sucrose?.. since it abounds in the processed foods that surround us everyday.
At about twice that, if the situation makes that amount of rapid intake reasonable.
So for example, while it’s not the optimal post-workout or post-hard-work nutrition, if you happened to take in 25-50 g of sucrose at such a time, because it was what was available to you, it wouldn’t be excessive.
On the other hand, 50 g at a shot of sucrose isn’t the best when having been inactive and planning to be inactive after having consumed it. It’s not a disaster, but cumulatively, doing that sort of thing frequently will work to disadvantage I believe.
My take is simple: Too much sugar is bad. People who burn a lot of calories training can get away with much higher intake than sedentary people. It tastes yummy. If you get sugar by eating something like fruit, and least you’ll get some vitamins and fiber and stuff along with the glucose/fructose.
I’ve seen some (food pyramid-like) recommendations to keep refined sugars to under 40-50g a day.
Something I have been wondering about for a while is, if one eats a large amount of simple carbs immediately (10-20 min) before an intense cardio session will the spike be drastically less if not happen at all? I try to keep my carbs low because large spikes in blood sugars cause acne. However, a few times I have eaten very high carb meals before hikes that have lasted a 2-3 hours with no side effects. Sure, I felt like crap for the first few miles but, at least I got no acne.