TomR wrote:Ralph,ragiarn wrote:
Believe it or not there is a great deal of scientific research which has gone into answering your very question.
Based on what you've read, how much importance do you place on the 4:1 carb:protein ratio and how valuable do you think specially formulated sports drinks are?
Tom
From what I have read the research was done first and the sports drink followed from the the research. I think the important message is not what sports drink to use but rather that one should begin immediately post workout out with a combination of carbs and protein to replenish the used glycogen stores. Better still if you are doing a long workout (more than 1 hr) you should have some form carb in your water. Studies have shown that this will decrease fatigue and forestall the rise in cortisol levels and delay fatigue.
It is during the 2 hr window that the muscles are most receptive to amino acid and glucose and will replenish the glycogen more readily. Whether you use a sports drink or not get the carbs into your system.
It is important to note that amino acids also stimulate insulin production and Insulin is needed to facilitate amino acids entering the muscles. that is part of the rationale for adding some protein to the carbs. Apparently the research has determined the appropriate ratio to be 4:1 carb to protein.
A WASTE OF CALORIES
BY CHRIS CARMICHAEL (Lance Armstrong's long time coach)
One of the simplest ways an athlete can increase the amount of carbohydrate he can get into his body is to eat a variety of carbohydrate-rich foods.
Research has shown that eating foods that contain more than one kind of sugar helps get more energy to working muscles more quickly. Sugar, like other nutrients, has to be transported from your gut into your bloodstream, and your body uses different mechanisms to transport individual kinds of sugar. When you just eat one kind of sugar, like glucose, you can overwhelm its transport mechanism, which means the energy is essentially “waiting in line” to get into your bloodstream. Eating a combination of sugars is like opening up more doors into a football stadium: more people (sugar calories) stream in faster.
Asker Jeukendrup, a researcher from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, has found that particular combinations of sugar can maximize the amount of carbohydrate energy you can get into your body per minute. One gram per minute was the widely-accepted maximum rate for getting ingested carbohydrate into the body ,but with a 2:1 mixture of glucose (or maltodextrin) and fructose, Jeukendrup’s research has pushed this limit up to about 1.3-1.4 grams per minute. That means that instead of 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour (240 calories), athletes can now deliver 78-84 grams per hour (312-336 calories)
I would think that the more complete the protein, with regards to amino acid mix the better. Egg whites and milk protein are the most complete protein sources but there are other combinations available. In case you were wondering that evil table sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose in a 1:1 ratio. Starches are all glucose with no fructose. Milk sugar is glucose and galactose in a 1:1 ratio. The sugar found in fruit is sucrose ( the same sugar found in table sugar but packaged in fiber) with a glucose:fructose in a 1:1 ratio. Honey has a higher fructose content than table sugar.
So you can go to your sports supplement store or you can go to your local grocery store or farmer's market.
How much glycogen you need to restore will depend on the intensity and duration of your workout.
Just remember that not all the calories consumed during a workout are derived from glycogen. A large proportion is also derived from free fatty acids. The more fit you are the higher proportion of energy is derived from fat. OOps I think I just opened a topic of contention. Its not all about carbs.