When additional nutrition and hydration are needed food should come first. However, sports drinks, bars and gels can be useful in supplementing an athletes meal plan immediately before, during, and after events. /Courtesy: Grand Traverse Nutrition

When additional nutrition and hydration are needed food should come first. However, sports drinks, bars and gels can be useful in supplementing an athletes meal plan immediately before, during, and after events. Sports foods may be especially helpful in cases where prolonged, high-intensity exercise limits eating opportunity, there is a high risk of intolerance and stomach (GI) upset, poor appetite around training and events, or food availability is limited.

If fluid needs are higher than carb needs: sports drinks with lower carb content or diluted sports drinks may be used. If carb needs are greater than fluid needs, sport drinks with higher carb content can be use or supplemented with sport gels/beans, or sport bars. As Coach Lisa recommended for Marc this week, he (and Lauren) should experiment with sports food and drinks to find quick energy sources that satisfy their taste preference and are well tolerated during training runs of 45 minutes or longer.

Sports drinksare designed to deliver a balanced amount of carb, fluid and electrolytes for rehydration and refueling before, during and after exercise. Used before exercise sports drinks may be part of the pre-exercise meal/snack or taken immediately before exercise to top up fluid and fuel status. Used during exercise sports drinks have a major role in promoting hydration and refueling during the exercise session. Used after exercise sports drinks can be part of post-exercise recovery snacks and meals to assist with glycogen replacement and rehydration.

There is a wide variety of ready to drink and powdered forms of sports drinks available in the stores, which vary according by flavor, carb, and electrolyte content as well as other ingredients. General agreement is, in order to provide fast delivery of fuel and fluid and to promote GI tolerance and drinkability, sports drinks should contain a range of 4-8% or 24-48 g/20 FL oz(4-8 g/100 ml) of carb and 140-400 mg/20 FL oz (23-69 mg/100mL) of sodium. A blend of carbs such as glucose and fructose and/or maltodextrin (multiple transportable carbs) helps increase absorption to allow for a better tolerated higher carb intake and increase muscle energy production from carb taken during exercise.

Sport gels provide a compact and portable, quickly digested source of carb which can easily be eaten just before or during exercise to help meet carb needs. Sport beans/chews are another source of carb in a chewy jelly bean/gummy form that is easily consumed and digested, which offer more flexibility with timing of intake as individual pieces can be eaten at frequent intervals. These products can also be used to supplement a high carb training diet or for carb loading as well as post-exercise carb recovery.

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Sports nutrition: Sports foods and beverages