The fact is, you have to look at the calorie count and that fact that maltodextrin is the main ingredient of just about every gel, powder and drink of any repute for athletic pursuits.

It sure beats plain sugar, as maltrodextrin sort of events out the availability to the body of energy -- maltodextrin takes longer to break down before it becomes available for use as energy.

Many good quality drinks have glucose/dextrose as an additional ingredient because it is made available by the body faster, so it becomes a sort of bridging energy source.

Plain sugar, which is the primary constituent of Gatorade, is the worst thing to have, because it spikes the insulin count, and you have to get another sugar fix almost straight away to counter the feeling of lost energy.

As far as Ensure being nutritious, you've already read accounts by several posters that it was on what they survived through bouts of cancer. If that's not nutritious, I don't know what is.