yeah, when you compare "excessive sugar consumption" to an "occasional beer," of course sugar is worse!
You need sugar to survive. Those 30 ATP that come from one molecule of glucose during oxidative phosphorylation is what keeps your legs pedaling, heart pumping, etc.
If you live a sedentary lifestyle, all that sugar just spikes insulin and eventually gets stored as fat. The worst of it happens when you eat sugar (or carbs) at night.
I don't think that there is a swap for alcohol, drugs, etc., it just leads you to rely on something else. If you're dependent on something and need to swap for anything, you're swapping for your freedom, that's the real trade, no?
What's the difference between unprocessed sugar and processed sugar?
From everything I’ve ever heard or read, When you are working out, there is no difference.
The short answer is that processed sugar is produced by humans and not naturally occurring in foods. Many studies have shown that it does not get broken down at the molecular level without messing up the body's homeostasis. Natural sugars do not disrupt our systems in the same way, thus they are "healthier."
Completely not true. Take two identical athletes, fuel one with fruits and the other with m&ms - you will have a different performance outcome (*over time.)
M&Ms is a ton of fat so, not a great example.
Sucrose = Fructose & Glucose.
It’s an educated assessment, based on the hundreds of peer reviewed articles on the negative effects of processed sugar. Show me one high level athlete (over 30) who fuels him or herself solely with candy and I’ll show many who don’t (Except @Steve Vai, but he’s a an anomaly.) 😆
No serious athlete fuels themselves off of candy, that's a quick hit and then a fade. They've conditioned their bodies to rely primarily on glycogen (from carbs) or fat. If you're a long-distance athlete, conditioning your body to burn fat will fuel you for longer.
Short term, yes. Ultimately it is not good for the body. I’m sure these athletes reduce and/or eliminate processed sugar when not competing. Maybe I’m wrong?
True. I’m talking about long term health. Everyone else is talking about getting more KOMs.
Every elite cyclist and runner out there during a race is doing their best to push in as many carbs as possible. It's been such a huge deal lately where cyclists and runners are taking in over 100g of carbs an hour now.
Long term, you're correct. The thing with sugar is that is more of a volume thing than source thing. Excessive sugar is really what is making people obese, because carbs and sugar are in just about all processed foods. If you pound 4 Twix bars or a pint of ice cream and then continue sitting in front of the computer or on the couch for the next 3-4 hours, where do you think its going to go? Unless your daily routine involves 2 hours of rigorous exercise, you're glycogen reserves are already topped off and its going to be stored as fat.
The ultra-endurance guys try to go keto leading up to their events so that they can fuel off of fat during. A gram of fat releases more joules of energy than a gram of sugar. Most marathon runners are just drinking, they have no time to eat when they're running a 5min. mile pace. I don't know what most pro cyclists are doing these days, I've had little interest in that in the post-Lance era.
Ultra-Endurance isn't highly glycolytic. They're going below their aerobic threshold for the most part.
