[fshbbdssbbgdd]

There are multiple kinds of carbohydrate and the differences can matter.

Gatorade’s ingredients list shows sucrose (glucose+fructose) and dextrose (glucose).

Maltodextrin is isotonic in a 6x stronger solution than fructose and glucose. This means you need to drink meaningfully less water during a race to digest maltodextrin. So do we want all maltodextrin? Nope! Fructose can be absorbed by a separate pathway, which is less efficient, but increases your total intake of carbohydrates into the bloodstream.

So you’re probably not going to see Tour de France teams giving their riders Gatorade. You want more maltodextrin and less glucose.

[vgt]

Powdered sugar is 50/50 fructose and glucose, a close to perfect ratio for absorption. A dash of Gatorade powder for taste and you got yourself a drink that's inexpensive and gets you all the carbs you need.

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Tour de France teams don’t care about the cost savings from cheaper sugar, they do care about the time and weight effects of drinking more water to absorb the glucose.

[vgt]

I think that goes without saying. My advice is for the layman.

[hinkley]

I forgot about the Fructose pathway. Yeah that's been known for ages.

It turns out though that maltodextrin didn't exist in manufactured quantities until the mid 1970's, which was after Gatorade was a national brand. That they never changed their formula is disappointing but maybe not surprising (especially after Quaker Oats bought them in '83)

But none of the 'sports drinks' that Coca Cola and friends were pumping out in the 90's had maltodextrin in them to my knowledge. It was just more sucrose and glucose, so its star fell a bit more recently.

Do you know when the isotonic research was done? I don't have any recollection of that being even mentioned in the tests I talked about.

Also maltodextrins are made from wheat in Europe and a problem for celiacs.