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Muscle cramps and jelly beans: when a sugar is not sugar

It’s amazing how many very good athletes don’t consider pre-race nutrition one of their strategies for winning or at least doing well, injury-free, in an event.

I was talking to a runner a few days ago before a race and his strategy was to load up on jelly beans 20 minutes before lining up for a half marathon. . . unfortunately it took me more than 20 minutes to show him why it wasn’t a good idea.

Fatigue is certainly an important factor to consider if you suffer from exercise-induced muscle cramps. The main source of fuel for muscle is carbohydrates, and one of the most basic forms of carbohydrates is sugars.

However, when we say ‘sugars’, people think of sugar cane sugar as a candy bar or jelly beans. But the truth is that there are certain builder sugars for your body and you have to learn to tell them apart.

There is a family of sugars called monosaccharides, polysaccharides, and oligosaccharides and these are the building sugars you want, not cane sugar, fructose, sucralose, syrup, or any of those types of things.

A good source of carbohydrates from fruit, in particular, is important for providing muscles with important natural sugars (monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides) that help with glucose storage and delivery to muscles.

And these monosaccharides and polysaccharides help you recover and repair your muscle faster after a major exercise or event. Your muscle basically works like an engine that needs good quality gasoline to run well and those saccharides are like gasoline for your muscles.

Therefore, it is very important to have those saccharides, carbohydrates, and electrolytes in those muscle areas so that you can perform more efficiently and avoid cramping.

It is also very important to have a saccharide carbohydrate meal within 30 minutes of your performance. We have consistently found athletes who do that, even if it’s just eating some fresh fruit within 30 minutes, recover faster than athletes who don’t.

To start any nutritional program, the first place to start is to increase your intake of fruits and vegetables. Most people do not get the recommended intake of 9 to 12 servings of fruits and vegetables per day and for athletes and people who train regularly this means 12 servings.

One serving equals one small banana, one medium-sized apple, 1 cup raw salad greens (about the size of your hand), ¾ cup fruit or vegetable juice (6 oz), ½ cup cooked salad greens the size of your fist or a baseball and ¼ cup of nuts.

Simply meeting the daily fruit and vegetable intake recommendations will go a long way toward better health. . . and that extends to physical performance and reduces the overall risk of cramps.

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