Originally Posted by kf5nd
The energy gels make heavy use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which has been implicated as a villain in the development of obesity and diabetes in our society.
Any problem with a cyclist using it as an energy gel, when the cyclist is eating 250 Cal/hr of HFCS, but is probably burning 2x or 3x that number of Cal/hr on the bike? My thought (hope?) is that the substance will be burned off so fast it won't hang around long enough to do any damage.
I suppose one could always suck on honey. Also, HFCS is getting more expensive as cars compete with humans for corn (corn-based ethanol).
It seems that HFCS is being demonized as what is making people obese. It is probably more of a case of people not working off the food that they eat. HFCS is used in lots of processed foods for a sweetener. If it were honey used in processed foods the result would be no different than HFCS. If you eat too much processed food you are eating too much of what is used to sweeten it, whether it be HFCS, sucrose, beet sugar, barley sugar, etc.