Glucose/fructose ratio in energy gels and drinks!

Carbohydrate composition in energy gels and drinks (2:1, 1:08 or 18:1)?

Carbohydrates are necessary for maintaining performance in endurance sports. The brain needs carbohydrates at all times, they serve as a direct source of energy in the muscles and are essential for burning fat ("fats burn in the flame of carbohydrates").

Carbohydrates are present in food and sports nutrition products in different forms. Glucose and fructose are monosaccharides, sucrose (table sugar) and isomaltulose are disaccharides made up of one molecule each of glucose and fructose, maltodextrin and starch are polysaccharides based on glucose.

The rule of thumb in sport is that one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight should be consumed per hour. An athlete weighing 70 kg therefore needs around 70 g of carbohydrates per hour.

This energy requirement naturally increases significantly for top athletes, with values of over 100 to 120 grams of carbohydrates per hour being common.

Nutritional research attempts to achieve a faster and higher absorption capacity through suitable combinations of the various carbohydrates. In this context, special mixing ratios of glucose to fructose are sometimes emphasized, which are between 2:1 and 1:0.8.

However, these ratios lead to problems for some athletes. If, as in the example above, you need 70 grams of carbohydrates per hour, this would be around 25 to 30 grams of fructose per hour, depending on the ratio. This amount can lead to bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhea in sensitive athletes under stress.

Studies show that when 25 grams of fructose are ingested, one third of the test subjects have incomplete fructose absorption (fructose malabsorption) and of this third, around one third experience symptoms such as flatulence and even diarrhea, i.e. around 10-15% of the test subjects (see also Wikipedia "Intestinal fructose intolerance"). And most of these studies do not relate to the critical area during endurance sports, where our stomach/intestinal tract has insufficient energy anyway.

In over 30 years, SQUEEZY has gathered a wealth of experience with amateur and elite athletes. No product is launched on the market until it has been extensively tested. Empirical evidence clearly shows that carbohydrate quantities of over 100 grams per hour can be consumed without fructose - without stomach problems!

However, carbohydrate intake is very individual in each case, just as our microbiome is unique to each person. We therefore recommend that all athletes with intolerances test different carbohydrate mixtures. It is not without reason that we now use 6 different carbohydrate mixtures in our gel formulations alone, many of which are also fructose-free!

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