Let’s begin with the underside line – power gels are merely higher than sweet that can assist you gasoline via your endurance adventures similar to marathons, century bike rides, extremely path runs, ironman triathlons, and different lengthy distance occasions. The profitable components cope with the nutrient content material, ease of consumption and digestion, dosage of power and electrolytes, and packaging. We’ll delve into these components as we analyze a typical power gel versus a number of the extra widespread sweet options: jelly bellies, snicker bars, and exhausting sweet.
Vitamin content material and digestion of power gels vs sweet
As we summarized in our power gel ingredient piece, the essential vitamins inside power gels are sugars – sometimes within the type of maltodextrin, glucose and fructose, electrolytes together with sodium and potassium, and optionally there may be additionally caffeine for that additional efficiency increase and amino acids for restoration. The sugars are supposed to be simply consumed, digested, and distributed via your physique.
Let’s see how the assorted sorts of sweet examine to the gels:
Jelly Stomach nutrient contents for endurance sport
Jelly Stomach candies’ three main components are “sugar, corn syrup, modified meals starch”. Sugar on vitamin labels sometimes refers to sucrose (a molecule which mixes glucose and fructose). Corn syrup additionally comprises glucose, maltose, and fructose. Modified meals starch is a carbohydrate however it sometimes performs the position as a thickening agent. In any case in a serving dimension of 40g, 28g are sugar they usually ship about 140 energy. This brings us to an identical ball park as an additional giant power gel in relation to amount.
Relating to Sodium, Jelly Stomach sweet comprises 15 mg per 40g serving dimension. This can be a bit low in comparison with 60 mg that’s contained in a typical 30g gel.
Jelly Stomach sweet additionally comprises about 1/fifth the Potassium that’s out there in a typical power gel.
General Jelly Stomach candies have excessive sufficient sugar content material however are missing in electrolytes and comprise no caffeine or amino acids.
Snicker bars nutrient contents for endurance sport
We chosen the Enjoyable Dimension Snickers bar for this comparability as this dimension would match properly in a runner’s pocket. The three main components of Snickers are Milk Chocolate (most of which is sugar/sucrose), peanuts, and corn syrup. So once more we’re getting an excellent hit of glucose and fructose combo. Whole sugars add as much as 9g per 17g bar. You’re additionally getting some power delivered to you in fats format from the peanuts. Since a serving of 17g is about half of what some power gels weigh – lets rely two enjoyable dimension bars for comparability with power gels. This serving will ship 160 energy (fairly good – however you’ll need to eat two of those bars).
You’ll get 80 mg of sodium from the 2 bars in order that’s fairly good, however you’ll not get any potassium to steadiness out your electrolytes. There may be additionally 2g of protein from the peanuts.
General Snickers (2 enjoyable dimension bars) exceed the energy of most power gels however a few of these energy will likely be delivered as fats and never out there for quick conversion into power. In addition they lack potassium.
Onerous sweet nutrient contents for endurance sport
You have to to suck on roughly 4 exhausting candies to get about 90 energy of power. Onerous sweet is mainly sugar that’s been melted with some citric acid and flavoring added in.
These candies sometimes don’t comprise any sodium or potassium.
General exhausting candies do ship sugar that may be readily transformed into power however require some work in your half to get that power out – both sucking or crushing.
Consumption & packaging comparability of power gels vs sweet
Vitality gels basically win out in ease of consumption and packaging. Relating to consumption, power gels are:
Relating to sweet, we’ve got some points:
- They require chewing, sucking, or crushing of the candies
- They comprise further components which can occupy your digestive system
- They could require quite a lot of water to swallow fully
Gels additionally win out in relation to packaging. For over 30 years, sports activities vitamin firms have been engineering power gel packets which can be sturdy sufficient to resist the transferring and shaking related to sports activities. They will face up to excessive and low temperatures. The opening mechanism has been patented by a number of gel makers.
Candies of any kind actually lack in relation to packaging. They could depart you with a gooey substance in your pocket, working pack or pouch. They require agile hand abilities or hand tooth coordination to get them opened. They could grow to be rock stable in chilly climate or soften into unmanageable mess in sizzling temperatures.
The ultimate verdict is that candies do have some superficial dietary similarities to power gels, nonetheless, these similarities usually are not sufficient for them to substitute for the optimized sugar and electrolyte mixtures that power gels present. While you add the opposite components similar to ease of consumption and digestion, together with packaging and dosage, power gels reign supreme.
