The Carbohydrate Loading Myth
Marion Hauser, M.S.,R.D.
Nicole Baird Certified Holistic Health Care Practitioner

Pick up any sports journal, sports medicine text, or read any article on marathon nutrition or training and there it will be, most likely in big bold print "eat more carbs!" This is a prime example of The Carbohydrate Myth. Athletes are told as soon as they are able to run, to eat, drink, and think carbs! Carbs, Carbs, Carbs!

"Carbohydrates give you energy."

"Carbohydrates build muscles."

"Carbohydrates quench your thirst!"

Then the makers of various products even get famous athletes to sip down some of their sports drinks to show how well you can do if you drink carbs! Carbs do it all right! They will do you in if you succumb to the falsities of this highly propagated myth.

Carbohydrates are the starchy foods that include sugar, glucose, fructose, sucrose, corn syrup, honey, as well as foods such as breads, pasta, potatoes, rice, and fruit juice. Athletes are told that they must "carbohydrate-load" to replenish glycogen, otherwise they will "conk out" during the race!

Carbohydrates are basically sugars. You can equate this to candy if you like. Even white flour or refined wheat products are broken down very quickly in the body to sugar. Therefore the questions to ask are, how will athletes, such as football players, build muscles by eating a chocolate shake in the morning, or perhaps a peanut butter crunchy bar for lunch? Will a sugar-laced sports drink after the workout in the afternoon help improve stamina? Will going to the ice cream parlor after dinner to pig out because, "the coach told me to carbo-load," be of any benefit? What do people think? Continue >

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