Did you know that a simple glass of sugar water allows your body to regain lost energy ? This is something our grandmothers already knew in the past. In fact, if water and sugar are mixed, they can “revitalize” a tired body, but why is this? Attentive because we explain below, what happens to your body if you drink water with sugar.
What happens to your body if you drink sugar water
Many people who feel tired or if they have undergone a hard training session turn to energy drinks, characterized among other things by having a high content of caffeine but also glucose or sugar. Drinks that in the long run provide not only energy to our body but also calories and an excess of sugar that is not healthy for our blood.
We know that excess sugar is bad for the human body . And it is that many of the foods that we eat daily have sugar or their glucose level and we are not referring to those that are sweet. Also fruits, sliced bread, dressings and sauces, fruit juices and even tomatoes fried contain sugar so all this translates into an “excess” that if you think about it is too much for our body to support.
But then what should I drink when I feel tired or when I leave the gym? A simple glass of sugar water seems to be the healthiest and most recommended solution.
Remember that nutritionists recommend that only 10% of everything we eat daily is sugar , so having one of those energy drinks could make us exceed (too much) that percentage. For this reason, from the University of Bath , in England, what were the effects on the body of a cyclist of this type of energy drink and a simple sugar water. The result, as you will expect, specified that, given the absorption and decomposition of the elements in the body, the sugar water was better, more effective and healthy .
The result of the study showed that carbohydrate stores were maintained in the same way after consuming both liquids. The secret that made the difference was in the type of sugar that each drink uses. Energy drinks contain glucose or a mixture of fructose and glucose . On the other hand, the sugar that we use on a daily basis contains sucrose . Although both sweeten, the body assimilates each component differently.
The amount of sugar per glass of water
Thanks to sucrose, sugar water could better help our body to recover, in addition to serving so that the glycogen levels in the liver are optimal, in addition to staying longer regardless of the intensity of the sport or activity that we are doing.
In this way, drinking a simple glass of water with sugar will not only help us to recover lost energy but it will also keep us active for much longer. To do this, all you have to do is add 8 grams of sugar for every 100 ml of water . And doing the calculation, it seems that if you want to have energy for two and a half hours you must take 90 grams of sugar and its corresponding amount of water. With this you will be able to stay hydrated and fill the body with energy.
How does sugar work in our body?
To understand how our body is filled with energy thanks to sugar water, we must know how sucrose acts when it enters our body. What it does exactly is break down into molecules that regulate the use and expenditure of glycogenic carbohydrates . These are what the body stores in the muscles and in the liver. In addition, they help to maintain a good level of glucose in the blood.
On the other hand, the glucose and fructose that we find in energy drinks are assimilated in a worse way by our body. They have a delayed effect on glycogens and last less. In this way, there is poor management of resources by the body, something that will be key if, for example, we are making a hard physical effort or perhaps we are running a marathon.
