Originally Posted by DRLski
Actually it's more of my stupidity than Gatorade Deceiving me however today I looked at the label of a gatorade bottle, I don't know if I've just never looked at one before or chose to ignore it but while looking at the ingredients I saw....HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!!!! How can this be? I mind as well be drinking soda. I use this stuff religiously while training and now I'm thinking it's been hurting my weight loss progress. BAH!! I also use the powder, and it seems to be better...they use dextrose instead of HFCS, why couldn't they use dextrose in the bottles as well?? I actually thought the powder used Maltodextrin but was wrong on that as well? I guess I don't know what to say, I always assumed that Gatorade, with the exception of how much sugar they have in it was somewhat healthy...but it's just as healthy as soda!!! How could they have done this and advertise that Gatorade is for athletes?
It doesn't matter. It all gets converted to glucose. If your not losing weight, perhaps you shouldn't drink so much of it. Unless you're riding more than a couple hours, you only need water anyway. BTW, I often drink regular cola during 200+ Km rides. It's a good cheap source of calories at a convenience store. Eat something salty with it and you get plenty of electrolytes. You don't really need special food to ride a bike.
Maltodextrine is a weak complex carbohydrate that gets quickly converted to glucose. It allows manufacturers to control the sweetness while still providing the target calorie level. Gatorade doesn't use maltodextrine probably for two reasons. First, it's harder to dissolve into cold water than other surgars, and second because gatorade is intended to be a fairly sweet beverage.