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The role of sugar in an athlete's diet


Over the past few years, carbohydrates have endured an extreme amount of backlash. Labeled as unhealthy due to a link to obesity (and contributing to many other metabolic diseases and health issues), it's understandable why so many endurance athletes fear carbohydrates. With so much negative attention placed on this one macronutrient, it's easy to assume that carbohydrates are the enemy and will negatively affect body composition, health and performance.

To help clear up the confusion, endurance athletes have two different styles of eating:
-Sport nutrition
-Daily nutrition

Your daily diet provides the foundation to optimize health. This diet is rich in wholesome (real) foods, fiber, quality proteins, heart-healthy fats, and slow-digesting carbohydrates and contains a large amount of fruits and vegetables. Your daily diet is the vehicle to help you maintain a healthy (realistic) body weight, reduce the risk for disease/illness and optimize quality (and longevity of life). An optimal diet is made of many inter-related parts that constantly need adjusting based on your lifestyle, activity regime and health needs. To maximize your nutrition, your daily diet should be well-planned and personalized to your lifestyle and health needs. 

On the other hand, your sport nutrition diet focuses on optimizing performance. Certainly, you can't out-train a poorly planned diet. For your sport nutrition diet to work, you must have a solid foundation of daily nutrition to keep your body in good working order. To optimize performance, what you consume (food, drinks) before/during/after exercise can enhance the adaptive response to exercise.

Unfortunately, sport nutrition is a confusing topic because many strategies conflict with "healthy" daily nutrition advice given be experts in regards to optimizing health and body composition.

For example, on Sunday morning I consumed over 1000 calories worth of sugar. OK, so it wasn't straight-up sugar but the sport nutrition products I consumed over the course of 5 hours and 45 minutes of riding 103 miles (and over 12,000+ feet elevation) included different forms of carbohydrates - glucose, fructose and maltodextrin. I am a strong advocate of utilizing sport nutrition products during training sessions - all year long - as I feel it's a vital component to maximizing performance and keeping the body in good health. 

Because all carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars (which are then absorbed into the bloodstream), carbohydrates are a very important and readily available source of energy. It would be unwise (and potential unhealthy) to not take advantage of the many sport nutrition products available that are scientifically formulated (and easy-to-consume) to support the human body during endurance and/or intense physical activity. Certainly not all sport nutrition products are the same - product selection and application is critically important. 

Eating too many refined carbs in your daily diet - such as the sugars found in candy, soft drinks, refined grains and processed foods - does not optimize health. These foods are easy to access, easy to overconsume, taste delicious and aren't too filling - it's easy to eat more of them then needed. And truth be told, the nutrient poor options like candy and soda - supply empty calories with no nutritional value so they technically aren't necessary in the diet.
(I'm not against any foods and I don't believe in an off-limit food list.... even empty calorie foods can be enjoyed responsibly on occasion. I enjoyed 1/2 can of a coke during 6-gap :) 

For endurance athletes, attention should be placed on the daily diet and on sport nutrition. There's a role of sugar in an athlete's diet and it comes in the form of sport nutrition. 

Although sport nutrition advice may appear "unhealthy," implementing smart fueling practices before, during and after your intense and long workouts can maximize performance and health. While added sugar (not the foods containing natural sources of sugar like dairy, fruits, veggies) should be minimized in the daily diet of an athlete, special considerations and attention should be given to the sugar/carbohydrates, sodium and fluids that your body requires to support your training demands.

Sadly, many athletes tend to underfuel in training and overeat outside of workouts. This is not health promoting or performance enhancing. By understanding the difference between your daily diet needs and your sport nutrition needs, you can improve performance by staying more consistent with training, reduce the risk for injury/sickness and maintain a healthier relationship with food and your body.

For more information on this topic:

Nail your nutrition with these 3 simple tips (article)
Essential Sport Nutrition (book)
Making sense of sport nutrition advice (blog post)