Glucose Drinks Question

spaceylou

This may have been answered somewhere else before but I couldn't find it....I was reading over some of the nutrition tips on the dub marathon website and they were stressing the usefulness of a glucose drink within 15mins of training and/or racing to not only aid rehydration but also kick-start recovery.

Now the drinking something makes perfect sense to me, especially seen as my tummy really does not like if I present it with food any sooner than an hour after exercise but I am on a budget and a lot of the sports drinks seem like crazy prices....so getting to my question:

What do I put in a homemade glucose drink....is fruit juice plus water okay? Do I need to add something else and how much should I ideally dilute the juice? Or is that a how long is a string kinda question?

Thanks in advance

Krusty_Clown

Here are a couple of fruit juice based recipes for you:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/healthy_eating/newsid_2132000/2132209.stm

Just click on the links on the right hand side:
[Isotonic] [Hypertonic] [Hypotonic]

If I'm doing less than 13 miles I'll just drink water and fruit juice beforehand (a good hour or two beforehand), and If I'm dehydrated, the same again afterwards, with a pinch of salt. If I'm doing 13m+ or a race, I'll usually mix a off-the-shelf sports drink like this one.

TFBubendorfer

I've read in one sports nutrition book that half water/half fruit juice (apple, orange, etc) makes a perfectly good sports drink. You can add a pinch of salt if you want to get closer to the usual sports drink formula, but the science behind salt in sports drink is wobbly to say the least.

I've tried it a couple of times and it's ok, though normally I prefer plain water. I certainly don't spend any money on sports drinks.

For recovery after a hard run I prefer chocolate milk, or I mix up a banana with some milk.

spaceylou

thanks guys....will try mixing some juice and water and experienment with the salt....don't think the choc milk or mashed banana would work for me though - tummy churning at the thought!! Hehe :eek:

Domer

Many isotonic drinks, even Lucozade Sport come in powder format which works out a lot cheaper then buying it by the bottle. I think Boots may stock the Locozade powder.

jeffontour

I use the following mix...

-about 70g of glucose powder
-sachet of salt from mcDonalds
-800 ml water
-200 ml of fruit squash

The sachet of salt doesn't have to be from McDonalds! It just makes the measuring easy as that's about the right amount for a litre of fluid. I've found this just as good as any commercial product but it has the following extra benefits.

-you can easily make the mix more dilute, add more water, for warmer days when you'll be drinking more or vice versa in colder conditions and maintain your carb intake

-you can add whatever flavour you like

-glucose powder can be had in most supermarkets for about 1.30 per 500g bag

I'd issue one warning however, be careful with the fruit juice. Too high a concentration will cause what can politely be described as stomach upsets!

asimonov

jeffontour wrote: »

I use the following mix...

-about 70g of glucose powder
-sachet of salt from mcDonalds
-800 ml water
-200 ml of fruit squash

The sachet of salt doesn't have to be from McDonalds! It just makes the measuring easy as that's about the right amount for a litre of fluid. I've found this just as good as any commercial product but it has the following extra benefits.

-you can easily make the mix more dilute, add more water, for warmer days when you'll be drinking more or vice versa in colder conditions and maintain your carb intake

-you can add whatever flavour you like

-glucose powder can be had in most supermarkets for about 1.30 per 500g bag

I'd issue one warning however, be careful with the fruit juice. Too high a concentration will cause what can politely be described as stomach upsets!

thanks jeffontour, when you say squash do you mean something like robinsons, a cordial or juice?

jeffontour

asimonov wrote: »

thanks jeffontour, when you say squash do you mean something like robinsons, a cordial or juice?

Yeah, something like Robinsons. It was when I started to mess with high fruit ones, I used lidls version of Ribena, that I started to experience the tummy turmoil.

This mix was suggested to me by one of the guys in the physiology lab in Trinity and he stressed the problems with increasing the fructose element of the mix(the squash or juice) in relation to tummy problems. I of course had to test the theory on the day of the IMRA WW relay but it was to be my last long run prior to a race so best to try it then!

jeffontour

Totally off topic, just broken the hundred post mark, only taken me four years! I post like I run, slowly

thebouldwhacker

jeffontour wrote: »

I use the following mix...

-about 70g of glucose powder
-sachet of salt from mcDonalds
-800 ml water
-200 ml of fruit squash

YOiNK....

I'll be using that:)

Thanks

Peckham

spaceylou wrote: »

I was reading over some of the nutrition tips on the dub marathon website and they were stressing the usefulness of a glucose drink within 15mins of training and/or racing to not only aid rehydration but also kick-start recovery.

Worth noting that Club Energise are one of the major sponsors of the marathon, so there's a vested interest in them saying this. Am by no means suggesting that this is the case, but just to put it in context!

If you read the "recommended" consumption of gels and isotonic drinks on the packets, they are far in excess of what is necessary for most people.

Domer wrote: »

Many isotonic drinks, even Lucozade Sport come in powder format which works out a lot cheaper then buying it by the bottle. I think Boots may stock the Locozade powder.

I buy this, but it's still a lot pricier than homemade options. Around 8 euro for maybe 10 litres worth.


Someone posted here before that Avonmore Super Milk with all its enhancements is the perfect post run recovery drink...and that there was even talk of it being launched under a premium brand to appeal to athletes

yop

I have read about the salt but would have thought it would have made you thirsty!!! Its to stop leg cramps is it?

spaceylou

I know that I started this whole thread so probably not the best person to answer questions in it but I think the idea of adding salt is to replace salts that you loose when sweating....not sure of the connection with cramps, although if someone wants to explain I am all ears!

jinka

Had a bottle of lucozade sport earlier. An hour later I felt weak and faint. Hypoglycemia I think its called. Sugar is a problem for me which makes eating before training a bloody nitemare!

lecheile

jeffontour wrote: »

I use the following mix...

-about 70g of glucose powder
-sachet of salt from mcDonalds
-800 ml water
-200 ml of fruit squash

The sachet of salt doesn't have to be from McDonalds! It just makes the measuring easy as that's about the right amount for a litre of fluid. I've found this just as good as any commercial product but it has the following extra benefits.

-you can easily make the mix more dilute, add more water, for warmer days when you'll be drinking more or vice versa in colder conditions and maintain your carb intake

-you can add whatever flavour you like

-glucose powder can be had in most supermarkets for about 1.30 per 500g bag

I'd issue one warning however, be careful with the fruit juice. Too high a concentration will cause what can politely be described as stomach upsets!

Jeff - I use a similar recipe from the same source but use a lot less than 200ml of squash - I know that most diluted drinks suggest a 4:1 ratio of water to juice, but the recommendation I got for this drink was that juice is required primarliy to flavour the drink and hence much less is needed. Too much juice may explain some of the after-effects.

lecheile

spaceylou wrote: »

I know that I started this whole thread so probably not the best person to answer questions in it but I think the idea of adding salt is to replace salts that you loose when sweating....not sure of the connection with cramps, although if someone wants to explain I am all ears!

Spaceylou - the primary function of the salt is to help boost the absorption of the carbs into your body, otherwise they just pass straight through.

jeffontour

lecheile wrote: »

Jeff - I use a similar recipe from the same source but use a lot less than 200ml of squash - I know that most diluted drinks suggest a 4:1 ratio of water to juice, but the recommendation I got for this drink was that juice is required primarliy to flavour the drink and hence much less is needed. Too much juice may explain some of the after-effects.

It was defo related to an excess of fruitiness lecheile!

I found I had the after-effects at that dilution only when I tried using a high fruit squash. The reason I was messing with the mix was I wanted to increase the fructose content of the drink.

This is the very non-exact explanation of why I was doing this.

My understanding is that carb uptake through glucose, like anything else, has an upper limit per hour(60 or 70 grams springs to mind but don't quote me!) however even when this channel is saturated it's possible to absorb additional carbs through fructose. The amount that can be absorbed through fructose is less I believe and there's also the issue of tummy problems if you overdo it on the fructose as I did.

There seems to be a move amongst some of the commercial products out there to shout about how they use this dual delivery approach. If I can get the same effect for myself and only have to test to failure once, for want of not being too graphical about it, then I'm quite happy with this!

I've started using this mix in conjunction with succeed caps on longer events and seem to be able to consume it happily for hours on end. Of course when entering a support point a muller rice or bag of crisps is infinitely better for the spirits than a capsule of salt and a bottle of fruity sweet water!

geld

Jeff,

How did you do on that mad run in Scotland??

jeffontour

geld wrote: »

How did you do on that mad run in Scotland??

Fine to a point then turned into a long walk home! Report is here if you are so inclined.

New baba settling in?