Glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltodextrin—they all show up in various forms in many of the sports-nutrition products available to help you stay fueled during your sport and produce a solid performance. They’re digested quickly, and because of this feature, they can push back your time to fatigue, the point where your muscles simply run out of gas. Seems simple enough, eat simple carbs and you keep going.

But walk into any health food store and you’ll face an onslaught of products all with different variations of essentially the same carbs: glucose, fructose, maltodextrin, or a combination of all three. They all make the same promise, to refuel your energy stores quickly. So what’s the difference? Let’s break it down.

Glucose is the best known of the simple carb trio glucose, fructose, and little used galactose. It’s essentially energy in its simplest state. And because a glucose molecule is the simplest form of carbohydrate, it’s absorbed by the body faster than any other carb. As a result, it’s long been a staple in the athlete’s diet going back 25 years to the days when Karo syrup and water served as the high-tech sports drink of the day.

Fructose, like glucose, is another simple carbohydrate found naturally in sweet fruits. As it’s sweeter than glucose, it’s often used to improve the taste of sports drinks. NOTE: fructose is not to be confused with high-fructose corn syrup. Fructose, in its pure form found in fruits, is not a problem to digest. It’s the “high” in “high-fructose”, a super-concentrated form of fructose, that makes it difficult for the body to process.

Sucrose is slightly more complex than glucose or fructose; it’s a glucose and a fructose molecule bonded together. You know it as table sugar.

Maltodextrin is a chain of glucose molecules linked together to form a more complex carbohydrate. Because of the time it takes for enzymes in the stomach to break the larger unit down to smaller glucose molecules for absorption, maltodextrin will take somewhat longer to fully digest and absorb than a simple glucose or fructose molecule. The benefit is a more even-keeled absorption of more carbs into the blood stream, i.e. a less likely occurrence of a “sugar-rush.”

Quick Tip: Each person has their own taste and preferences when it comes to finding the sports nutrition product that works best for them. Some flavors that are fine for some are too sweet for others. Some people prefer sports drinks over bars and gels, etc. Try out a few different options until you find a product or combination of drinks, bars, and gels that you WILL consume on a regular basis before, during, and after your workout. The last thing you want to do is to stop taking in carbs due to taste or stomach upset.

In the past, athletes had to choose between products made with glucose/fructose or maltodextrin, and each side had its proponents. But today, thanks to recent research by Asker Jeukendrup, PhD, and his team at the University of Birmingham in Britain, we now know that a combination of glucose and fructose can boost the amount of carbs absorbed each hour to the point where the benefits of maltodextrin—that it can deliver more carbs per hour than glucose—start to become muddled.

This year, PowerBar launched its C2 Max products which take advantage of this more efficient carb delivery combo of glucose and fructose and also incorporates maltodextrin. The result is a product with the best of all worlds: fast refueling with glucose and fructose and steady energy release from maltodextrin and ultimately more carbs delivered ASAP to your hard-working muscles. As CTS helped develop PowerBar’s Beverage system, we’re glad to see the company taking advantage of the latest science to improve their product.

The Carb Line

The rate at which carbohydrate is absorbed into the bloodstream can help or hinder your performance. Basically, the higher the intensity of the work, the simpler you want those carbs to be. The reason is that digesting carbs requires blood, blood that your muscles need. Conversely, the less intense the exercise, the more complex foods you can eat.