Originally Posted by
noglider
Too much sugar, too early, can do bad things. If I'm heading out for a longish ride, I'll take two bottles. One has plain water, and the other has just a bit of fruit juice, mostly water, plus a bit of salt. The salt tastes bad but prevents bonking. Instead of fruit juice, I might put in a teaspoon of maple syrup. Yum. And when I mean a bit of juice, I mean a tiny bit.
When I'm tired and depleted, then I can have a soda. That's almost the only time I'll have one.
Too little sugar or carbs early on a ride can also put you in a hole you can't recover from if you're riding hard and long because you cannot absorb the amount of carbs that you can potentially burn up from your glycogen stores.