News & Press

June 2013

Scientific Review on Sucrose and Sports Performance

Which energy drinks and snacks should I choose? What form of carbohydrate should it contain? These are questions frequently asked by amateur and professional athletes alike. A new review due to be published shortly shows that the humble sugar cube could help sporting performance and shouldn’t be discounted, and it may well have advantages over single carbohydrate sources for athletes involved in prolonged endurance sports.

Due for publication in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, Dr Gareth Wallis from the University of Birmingham led the review that looked at 72 scientific articles to determine whether there is a specific role for sucrose (sugar) in sports and exercise performance.

Discussing his research, Wallis says:

'We were interested in whether consuming sucrose, more commonly known as table sugar, exerts any specific advantages or disadvantages for sport and exercise performance as compared to other forms of carbohydrate. Our review of the scientific evidence suggests sucrose is an effective form of carbohydrate for endurance athletes to take during and after exercise in order to optimize their performance and recovery.'

The review found a number of reasons why athletes may wish to consider using sucrose as a source of fuel for their training and competitions. These include:

Being Nature’s Multiple Transportable Carbohydrate

• Sucrose is a natural molecule that is a combination of one unit of glucose and one of fructose. Combinations of these sugars, in particular where the ratio is similar to that in sucrose (1:1), have been shown to confer benefits to carbohydrate delivery during exercise. Multiple transportable carbohydrates can enhance prolonged endurance exercise performance over glucose-alone and these benefits are primarily due to greater total carbohydrate absorption.

Providing Gastro-intestinal Comfort

• Gastric distress is reported by some athletes as a limiting and detrimental factor when fuelling. Research suggests improved gastro-intestinal comfort could explain some of the performance benefits seen with multiple transportable carbohydrates, like sucrose, during endurance sessions.

Increasing Glycogen Recovery

• Sucrose has been reported to produce similar increases in liver and muscle glycogen during short-term (4-6h) recovery from exhaustive exercise as those observed with glucose.

The review concludes that sucrose should be regarded as one of a variety of options available to athletes to help them achieve their specific carbohydrate goals. So including sucrose-containing products into fuelling regimes for prolonged endurance sports is something all athletes and coaches may wish to consider.

Editorial Notes:

The full review is available free of charge here. (This version is currently in its accepted & peer reviewed form, but has not been proofed, copyedited or formatted by the publisher)

Examples of sucrose containing products include:

Clif Shot Blocks Energy Chews, Energy Gels, Carbohydrate & Electrolyte Drink and Builders Bar. USN: Vooma Energy, Cyto Power HP and Spike. Gatorade: G Series Pro 01 Prime, 02 Perform and 03 Recover. PowerBar Powergel shots, Lucozade Sport Body Fuel Jelly Beans, Mule Bar, Mule Bar Refuel, CNP ProRecover, IsoStar Recover & Hydrate, Precision Engineering/GNC IsoEnergy, Jelly Belly Sports Beans, Jelly Babies, Kinder Snack Bars, Jelly Tots and Fruit Pastilles.

Sucrose also naturally occurs in a wide range of fruits and vegetables such as; mangoes, bananas, sweetcorn and carrots

Financial support for the conduct of this review was provided and is clearly declared in the papers ‘declaration of funding and conflict of interests’ statement.