Carbohydrates and Endurance Exercise: A Narrative Review of a Food First Approach

Carbohydrate (CHO) supplements such as bars, gels, drinks and powders have become ubiquitous as effective evidence-based CHO sources that improve endurance exercise performance. However, athletes are increasingly turning to more cost-effective 'food-first' approaches for CHO ingestion to i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nutrients 2023-03, Vol.15 (6), p.1367
Main Authors: Naderi, Alireza, Gobbi, Nathan, Ali, Ajmol, Berjisian, Erfan, Hamidvand, Amin, Forbes, Scott C, Koozehchian, Majid S, Karayigit, Raci, Saunders, Bryan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Athletes
Bananas
Beans
Beverages
Bicycling
Carbohydrates
cycling
Dietary Carbohydrates
Discomfort
Endurance
endurance athletes
Endurance sports
Exercise
exercise performance
Food
Food consumption
Food sources
Gels
Glucose
Health aspects
Hexoses
Honey
Humans
Ingestion
Insulin
Lentils
Meals
Metabolism
Palatability
Physical Endurance
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Potatoes
Raisins
Review
Rice
running
sport foods
Sports nutrition
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Carbohydrate (CHO) supplements such as bars, gels, drinks and powders have become ubiquitous as effective evidence-based CHO sources that improve endurance exercise performance. However, athletes are increasingly turning to more cost-effective 'food-first' approaches for CHO ingestion to improve exercise performance. Mixed CHO foods including cooked lentils, oats, honey, raisins, rice, and potatoes are all effective pre-exercise CHO food sources. Caution is advised when selecting some of these foods as a primary CHO source, as some athletes may be prone to gastrointestinal discomfort-especially regarding those foods where the quantities required for recommended CHO intake may be voluminous (e.g., potatoes). Palatability may be another barrier to the ingestion of some of these CHO-rich foods. Although most of these CHO-rich foods appear effective for exercise performance or recovery when consumed pre- and post-exercise, not all are viable to ingest during exercise due to difficulties in the quantities required, transport, and/or gastrointestinal discomfort. Raisins, bananas and honey may be particularly useful CHO foods for consumption during exercise, as they are easily transportable. Athletes should trial CHO food sources before, during and/or following training before implementation during competition.
ISSN:2072-6643
2072-6643
DOI:10.3390/nu15061367