Maltodextrin

[jgspin]

Anybody making their drinks with maltodextrin? At a meeting/conference at a bike shop I attended, the speaker recommended it as it is very inexpensive and you get more calories/carbs compared to gatorade or other off the shelf drinks.

[Idris Icabod]

Speaking as a chemist, isn't maltodextrin just a polymer of glucose? Not sure why it is better than glucose. Sounds kinda dodgy to me.

[Joachim]

It is great for during exercise. It will raise insulin levels (something you want during exercise) more effectively than glucose or sucrose, but there will be less of a "crash" afterwards. There is a lot of info out there on long-chain high GI maltodextrins out there vs short chain glucose sugars. However, be careful with just increasing the concentration to get more calories per sip, since you dont want to mess up the osmolality of your solution with as result stomach issues, fluids and electrolyte diversion from other parts of your body.

[jgspin]

There's information also from this website. However on the first page it says "Electronic distribution is expressly prohibited." So I don't know if pointing out the website constitutes electronic distribution.

Oops can't copy the website.. Google Arnie Baker and Maltodextrin Nutrition.

[John H.]

Great thing about maltodextrin is that you can control the concentration.
I actually like to make my own mix- 1 scoop EFS drink mix and half a scoop of maltodextrin.
This makes the flavor of the EFS drink weaker and gives me the calories I am looking for.

[Nelson99]

If you want to get even more cost effective you can use corn starch, which is primarily Maltodextrin and other long chain sugar polymers. Works well for me and is very cost effective.