Complex Carbohydrates Vs Sugars
Nearly all sports drinks are carbohydrate based, but not all carbs are equal. Complex carbs allows you to perform better by delivering more energy to your muscles. Your body can uptake more energy when using complex carbs than simple sugars. The more energy you have the better you'll perform.
This is important to understand because the most popular drinks are loaded with sugar with little to no complex carbs.
Here’s how it works:
The carbs/energy in a sports drink are transported into your cellular system through osmosis. Osmosis is the way a fluid crosses a membrane. For the fluid to cross, it must be an equal or lower concentration than the fluid on the other side of the membrane.
What’s interesting is that the concentration of a fluid/osmolality is largely dependent on the number of particles in the fluid, and less dependent on the size of the particles. Complex carbs have a larger molecular structure than simple sugars, basically they have more glucose molecules stuck together. But remember, it’s the number of particles, not the size that matters most. What that means is that at the point of absorption (isotonic), a fluid with complex carbs can transport nearly twice as much energy into the cellular system compared to one with simple sugars.
We here at Hydro Power use a complex carb for our main source of carbs. Maltodextrin is a complex carbohydrate with an extremely large molecular structure. Where we set ourselves apart from other products is that we use way more complex carbs than the competitors. This allows you to receive more energy to delay that fatigue.