Bars, Gel or Sports Drink? What should you choose?

The clock reads 21:00 the night before a competition or a longer distance workout, and you are now looking down at all the equipment sprawled all over your bed at home. An important question always arises… How am I going to fit everything? Let’s go through the science of what is best – Sports drink, Bars, or Gels? If any of them is indeed the best? Perhaps there are just practical differences?

Researchers have, of course, examined this area and have answers to the question. In 2010, a research team was assembled to investigate how sports drinks, gels, and bars are absorbed and used as energy in the body and whether there are differences in absorption rates and stomach issues between solid and liquid food.

What is the difference between these 3 energy sources?

The quick answer is – WATER. In a somewhat humorous way, it can be described that a gel is a sports drink mixed with very little water, while a bar is a gel that has sat in the sun for a few hours and dried out. When we break down the products to their macronutrients, there is usually some form of carbohydrate source (oats, glucose syrup, fructose, dextrose), possibly a bit of amino acids/protein, and finally salts/minerals and water. In bars, we often find a bit of oil to give the bar its consistency. Admittedly, there are significant differences between various types of gels concerning osmolarity and content. But the osmosis is largely governed by the liquid content.

The advantage of gels and bars is simply that they are concentrated energy sources, which means the weight is lower (you’re not hauling any water). The advantage of sports drinks is that you also get water and salts that you lose during training and competition. Thus, sports drinks are the wisest choice from a performance standpoint, provided you can carry them in a good way. But let’s see what the researchers say when comparing these products with each other.

U Gel or U Bar?

If both of these energy sources are optimized in terms of composition, the difference in absorption and oxidation is very small. The gel is a little more viscous, and the bars have a slightly denser structure, which somewhat slows gastric emptying, partly due to the content of gel-fibers such as guar gum in the gel, as well as the slightly increased amount of fibers and fats in the bars.

However, recent research shows that gastric emptying is not the bottleneck in the system, something that was believed until 10-15 years ago. Older research focused more on molecular weight and speed through the stomach to optimize these steps. Nowadays, we know that factors like molecular weight are fairly irrelevant; it may even be the case that a higher molecular weight can be negative for us.

The true bottleneck comes further down in the intestine when the energy is to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Here, it has been shown that the ratio should be 1:0.5 or 1:0.8 between glucose molecules and fructose molecules to deliver maximum energy while being gentle on the stomach. All of our products fall within this carbohydrate ratio as we develop the products based on what the research shows.

U Sport or U Gel?

Here, researchers took 8 well-trained male cyclists and triathletes with a VO2max of 61ml/kg/min. The participants trained at least 3 sessions a week with a total weekly volume of at least 6 hours. They performed 3 identical tests where they cycled for 3 hours on a stationary bike and received 1.8 grams of carbohydrates every minute (1:0.5 glucose/fructose solution) via sports drink or gel. They also performed a test where they only received water. The order of the tests was random, but each participant performed one test per week. Their fluid intake during the tests was also identical.

The researchers found no difference in absorption or energy output between sports drinks and gels as long as fluid intake was identical. Whether you carry water in your bottle and consume energy via a gel or mix sports drink directly in the bottle thus plays a smaller role. What matters more are the practical aspects. For many runners, for example, it's more convenient to use U Gel during running and drink water at the stations than to lug around premixed sports drink.

The athletes who only drank water during cycling performed well too; they burned the same amount of energy across all trials but used more fatty acids as fuel since they did not consume carbohydrates. They perceived the effort as tougher and had a higher heart rate, which isn’t surprising. Cycling for 3 hours on only water is more challenging than cycling for 3 hours with energy, even at a lower intensity.

Let’s take a look at the different energy sources.

Summarized

This basically means that it is up to you to choose the form of energy according to your needs. The important thing is the composition of the products, and we take care of that. Then it’s up to you to use the energy in the most practical way possible for you.

Personally, we prefer U Sport as an energy source when the intensity is high and performance is the main goal. But with some U Gel for flavor variety and a bit of caffeine.