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Review
. 2023 Mar 11;15(6):1367.
doi: 10.3390/nu15061367.

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

Alireza Naderi  1 , Nathan Gobbi  2 , Ajmol Ali  3 , Erfan Berjisian  4 , Amin Hamidvand  5 , Scott C Forbes  6 , Majid S Koozehchian  7 , Raci Karayigit  8 , Bryan Saunders  2   9
Affiliations
Review

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

Alireza Naderi et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: carbohydrates; cycling; endurance athletes; exercise performance; running; sport foods.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of food-first options for pre- and post-exercise carbohydrate (CHO) provision for a 70 kg individual. Pre-exercise options can be from various CHO food sources with varying glycaemic index (GI), while post-exercise CHO provision can be high-GI.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Amount (in g) of food sources that are required to achieve 30 g of carbohydrate (CHO). CHO dense foods such as honey, raisins and oats require far less total food than rice, bananas, pasta, potatoes or lentils to achieve 30 g of CHO.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Examples of supplementation-only, food-only, and a combination of the two to provide 90 g·h−1 of carbohydrate (CHO) during exercise. Athletes can choose to replace some, or all, of their supplemental CHO with food choices. Panel (A): Bananas. Panel (B): Honey.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Some pros and cons of a food-first approach to carbohydrate supplementation for endurance exercise.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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