Athletes will alter the way they fuel for sport by using real-time data to understand the impact of nutrition on performance.
Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are being used by elite athletes and fitness enthusiasts to better understand the impact of blood sugar on performance. A recent study on blood sugar shows diet and exercise must be considered together to improve performance and health, and that chronic high blood sugar negates the impact of exercise.
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Rethinking How To Fuel for Exercise
CGMs are exposing the weaknesses of fast-acting sugary sports nutrition products, which can send an athlete’s blood sugar soaring above, then crashing below, the ideal range.
An athlete training for a marathon or triathlon typically consumes between 100-200g of sugar during a multi-hour training session when following product usage recommendations from popular sports nutrition companies. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 24g of added sugar per day for adult women and 36g of added sugar per day for adult men, says a press release.
“We’ve always thought of energy as needing sugar rapidly, but that can actually disrupt your metabolism and your ability to burn fat,” says Dr. Cathy Yeckel, human metabolism researcher at Yale University. “What you actually want is little bits of energy over time to keep blood sugar stable.”
“The bottom line is that traditional sports fuels are not the most effective way to enhance performance and promote health,” says Dr. Jeff Volek, leading nutrition researcher and Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at Ohio State University. “A more optimal carbohydrate would provide a slower release and use of carbohydrate as fuel while simultaneously permitting increased breakdown and utilization of fat.”
CGMs Showcase The Relationship Between Blood Sugar Control and Peak Performance
- There are many advantages in keeping blood sugar stable and avoiding excess glucose in the body:
- Steady energy throughout the day
- Sustained exercise endurance
- Sharp focus and cognition
- Improved fat-burning ability and better body composition
- Better hunger control & reduced cravings
- Lowered risk for metabolic diseases
“It doesn’t matter the age, athlete or sport – regulating your blood sugar is critical for any athletic or health-conscious individual,” says Bob Seebohar, registered dietitian and former sports dietitian for the U.S. Olympic Team.
A Game-Changing Innovation in Sports Nutrition
The UCAN Company stands apart from traditional sports nutrition products with an extraordinary innovation in sports fueling with UCAN Edge, the first and only energy source designed to maintain stable blood sugar levels.
SuperStarch®, the unique underlying ingredient in UCAN’s products, was originally created to provide energy for a child with a rare condition that prohibits the body from producing its own blood sugar, resulting in frequent and dangerous episodes of hypoglycemia. Out of this need came a one-of-a-kind, slow-releasing complex carbohydrate that delivers steady, long-lasting energy without causing spikes and crashes in blood sugar.
“Despite the creation of a multi-billion-dollar sports nutrition market, there’s been little innovation with respect to formulation until SuperStarch.” says Dr. Volek. “SuperStarch represents a major advancement and is legitimately the most exciting development in sports nutrition this century,”
Elite and recreational athletes alike have been taking their performances to the next level by fueling with UCAN, including the 2nd fastest women marathoner in U.S. history Sara Hall, Olympic triathlete Katie Zaferes, CrossFit star Scott Panchik, 4x Olympian Meb Keflezighi, top American pro triathlete Tim O’Donnell, Olympic water polo player Maggie Steffens, and hundreds of pro and college teams.
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“I love that UCAN can provide fuel without spiking blood sugar & insulin,” says Sara Hall. “As a human biology major and someone always looking to optimize my nutrition for performance, I really appreciate, at a cellular level, how this product works.”
As the way we evaluate performance changes, the understanding of performance enhancement through nutrition will also evolve. UCAN is uniquely positioned as an innovator in sports nutrition with a patented, breakthrough ingredient that is trusted by elite athletes and scientifically proven to maintain blood sugar levels.
