We hear a lot of sugar hate.
People discover "cane sugar" on our product labels and are rarely shy about telling us just how terrible that is! Yet we choose to use sugar in some of our high-carb Freak Shake Endurance products despite the reputational hazards.
We know that in our collective nutritional consciousness, sugar is about as polarizing as politics these days. And so we invite the reader to indulge us in a moment of unity, curiousity, and maybe even empathy as we address the question...
Why Sugar?
Two simple answers:
#1 Sugar works - fast.
#2 Sugar tastes amazing.
TRUTH
Simple sugar is digested and absorbed quickly into the blood. Too much, too fast can lead to a "sugar crash" as your body releases insulin to move those energy resources into your cells.
BUT...
Fast is good when fueling endurance exercise & recovery. Glycogen reserves are the most readily available source of energy that muscle cells have access to. We can store enough glycogen in our muscles and liver to power about 60 minutes of moderate to intense exercise. And then we bonk if we don't replenish those resources to sustain longer workouts or fuel our recovery adequately.
So getting simple sugars into the bloodstream quickly means they can get to work quickly.
Consuming carbohydrates as Cane Sugar (Sucrose) can enhance post-exercise recovery which is especially beneficial for athletes needing rapid recovery between bouts of exercise. Good old-fashioned sugar can optimize depleted glycogen energy replacement rates and minimize gastrointestinal distress. In the gut, sugar is disassembled into glucose and fructose which get absorbed into the blood. When ingested together as sugar, these two molecules utilize different intestinal transport pathways, increasing the body’s total capacity for carbohydrate absorption and faster glycogen replenishment. [1-4]
The American College of Sports Medicine, recommends consuming carbohydrates for up to 6 hours starting immediately post workout (within 30 minutes). Their guidance translates to 3.0-4.5g / kg body weight to be ingested over 6 hours post workout [5]. For a 165 lb athlete, that equates to roughly 40-55g of carbs per hour for rapid recovery. That’s why we recommend our Freak Shake Recovery drink mix with 33g of delicious carbohydrates to help immediately jumpstart your recovery period after a depleting workout. Our drink mix helps rapidly jumpstart glycogen repletion as well as other beneficial recovery processes until you can bridge to a meal or snack with “slower” complex carbs to finish the job!
TRUTH
Sugar is yummy. That's what makes it hard to moderate or avoid as part of a healthy diet. Heavily sweetened foods are craveable! While sugar is energy dense, it's nutrient-light.
BUT...
Something sweet and delicious is also a powerful reward mechanism. Reinforcing a tough workout with deliciousness creates a powerful positive feedback loop, generates motivation and lifts mood. A reward ritual validates the insane work you do, but it also creates real mojo each time you gear up for another hard effort and that’s where small daily rewards translate to real performance.
"Freak'n Delicious" is core to our Freak Shake Endurance belief system and our effecitiveness!
Byron Fergerson, M.D. & David Stuart, Ph.D. are scientific advisors to Freak Shake and regularly share their expertise on nutrition and the physiology of human performance.
References:
- Glucose Plus Fructose Ingestion for Post-Exercise Recovery-Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts?. Gonzalez JT, Fuchs CJ, Betts JA, van Loon LJ. Nutrients. 2017;9(4):E344. doi:10.3390/nu9040344.
- Fructose and Galactose Enhance Postexercise Human Liver Glycogen Synthesis. Décombaz J, Jentjens R, Ith M, et al. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2011;43(10):1964-71. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e318218ca5a.
- Dietary Sugars, Exercise and Hepatic Carbohydrate Metabolism. Gonzalez JT, Betts JA. The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 2019;78(2):246-256. doi:10.1017/S0029665118002604.
- Fructose Co-Ingestion to Increase Carbohydrate Availability in Athletes. Fuchs CJ, Gonzalez JT, van Loon LJC. The Journal of Physiology. 2019;597(14):3549-3560. doi:10.1113/JP277116.
- American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Rodriguez NR, Di Marco NM, Langley S. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2009;41(3):709-31. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e31890eb86.